Isaiah 29:1-14

Woe to David’s City

1 Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David settled! Add year to year and let your cycle of festivals go on.
2 Yet I will besiege Ariel; she will mourn and lament, she will be to me like an altar hearth.[a]
3 I will encamp against you on all sides; I will encircle you with towers and set up my siege works against you.
4 Brought low, you will speak from the ground; your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth; out of the dust your speech will whisper.
5 But your many enemies will become like fine dust, the ruthless hordes like blown chaff. Suddenly, in an instant,
6 the LORD Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.
7 Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel, that attack her and her fortress and besiege her, will be as it is with a dream, with a vision in the night—
8 as when a hungry person dreams of eating, but awakens hungry still; as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking, but awakens faint and thirsty still. So will it be with the hordes of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion.
9 Be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from beer.
10 The LORD has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered your heads (the seers).
11 For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.”
12 Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”
13 The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.[b]
14 Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”

Isaiah 29:1-14 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 29

This chapter contains a prophecy concerning the destruction of the temple and city of Jerusalem by the Romans; the character and condition of the people of the Jews, previous to it; the calling of the Gentiles, by the preaching of the Gospel; the ruin of antichrist, and the conversion of the Jews, in the latter day. The siege and destruction of Jerusalem are described in Isa 29:1-6 the disappointment of their enemies, notwithstanding their taking and destroying it, Isa 29:7,8 the stupidity, judicial blindness, and hardness of the Jews, which brought on their ruin, are predicted, Isa 29:9,10 the ignorance of their learned, as well as of their unlearned men, with respect to the Scripture, and the prophecies of it, Isa 29:11,12 their hypocrisy and formality in worship, Isa 29:13 a blast upon all their wisdom and prudence, who thought to be wiser than the Lord, and too many for him, whose folly and atheism are exposed, Isa 29:14-16, and a great change both in Judea and the Gentile world, by the removal of the Gospel from the one to the other, Isa 29:17 the effects of which are, deaf sinners hear the word, dark minds are enlightened, and joy increased among the meek and poor, Isa 29:18,19 the fall of the Jews, or else of antichrist, is foretold, Isa 29:20,21 and the chapter is closed with a promise and prophecy of the conversion of the seed of Abraham and Jacob, Isa 29:22-24.

Cross References 46

  • 1. Isaiah 22:12-13; S Isaiah 28:1
  • 2. ver 2,7; 2 Samuel 5:9
  • 3. S 2 Samuel 5:7
  • 4. S Isaiah 1:14
  • 5. S ver 1
  • 6. S Isaiah 3:26; Lamentations 2:5
  • 7. Ezekiel 43:15
  • 8. Luke 19:43-44
  • 9. S 2 Kings 25:1
  • 10. Isaiah 8:19
  • 11. Isaiah 47:1; Isaiah 52:2
  • 12. S Leviticus 19:31
  • 13. Isaiah 26:16
  • 14. S Deuteronomy 9:21; Psalms 78:39; Psalms 103:15; S Isaiah 2:22; Isaiah 37:27; Isaiah 40:6; Isaiah 51:12
  • 15. S Isaiah 13:11
  • 16. S Isaiah 17:13
  • 17. S Psalms 55:15; S Isaiah 17:14; 1 Thessalonians 5:3
  • 18. S Isaiah 26:21; Zechariah 14:1-5
  • 19. S Exodus 19:16
  • 20. Matthew 24:7; Mark 13:8; Luke 21:11; S Revelation 6:12; Revelation 11:19
  • 21. S Psalms 50:3; S Psalms 55:8; S Isaiah 28:15
  • 22. S Leviticus 10:2; Psalms 83:13-15
  • 23. Micah 4:11-12; Zechariah 12:9
  • 24. S ver 1
  • 25. S Job 20:8
  • 26. S Psalms 73:20
  • 27. ver 5,7; Isaiah 41:11,15; Jeremiah 30:16; Zechariah 12:3
  • 28. Isaiah 17:12-14; Isaiah 54:17
  • 29. ver 14; Jeremiah 4:9; Habakkuk 1:5
  • 30. S Isaiah 6:10
  • 31. Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 63:6; Jeremiah 13:13; Jeremiah 25:27
  • 32. S Leviticus 10:9; Isaiah 28:1; Isaiah 51:21-22
  • 33. S Psalms 60:3; S Isaiah 3:12
  • 34. S Judges 4:21; John 1:5
  • 35. Psalms 69:23; S Isaiah 6:9-10; Isaiah 44:18; Romans 11:8*; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11
  • 36. Micah 3:6
  • 37. S 1 Samuel 9:9
  • 38. S Isaiah 28:7
  • 39. S Isaiah 8:16; Daniel 8:26; Daniel 12:9; Matthew 13:11; Revelation 5:1-2
  • 40. Jeremiah 14:11; Haggai 1:2; Haggai 2:14
  • 41. S Psalms 50:16
  • 42. S Psalms 119:70; Isaiah 58:2; Jeremiah 12:2; Ezekiel 33:31
  • 43. Matthew 15:8-9*; Mark 7:6-7*; Colossians 2:22
  • 44. S Job 10:16; Habakkuk 1:5
  • 45. S Job 5:13; Jeremiah 8:9; Jeremiah 49:7
  • 46. Isaiah 6:9-10; 1 Corinthians 1:19*

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. The Hebrew for "altar hearth" sounds like the Hebrew for "Ariel."
  • [b]. Hebrew; Septuagint "They worship me in vain;" / "their teachings are merely human rules"
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