Yeshayah 29:3

3 And I will besiege thee all around, and will lay siege against thee with towers, and I will raise metzurot (siegeworks) against thee.

Yeshayah 29:3 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 29:3

And I will camp against thee round about
Or as a "ball" or "globe" ^F15; a camp all around; the Lord is said to do that which the enemy should do, because it was by his will, and according to his order, and which he would succeed and prosper, and therefore the prophecy of it is the more terrible; and it might be concluded that it would certainly be fulfilled, as it was; see ( Luke 19:43 ) ( 21:20 ) : and will lay siege against thee with a mount:
raised up for soldiers to get up upon, and cast their arrows into the city from, and scale the walls; Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it a wooden tower. This cannot be understood of Sennacherib's siege, for he was not suffered to raise a bank against the city, nor shoot an arrow into it, ( Isaiah 37:33 ) but well agrees with the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, as related by Josephus {p}: and I will raise forts against thee;
from whence to batter the city; the Romans had their battering rams.

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 (rwdk) "quasi pila", Piscator; "instar globi", Gataker.
F16 Joseph. de Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 7. sect. 1. & c. 12. sect. 1, 2.

Yeshayah 29:3 In-Context

1 9 Hoy (woe, doom) to Ariel [i.e., Yerushalayim], to Ariel, the city where Dovid dwelt! Add ye shanah to shanah; let chaggim (feasts) cycle around.

2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow; and it shall be unto me as ariel (altar hearth) [see Ezekiel 43:15]).

3 And I will besiege thee all around, and will lay siege against thee with towers, and I will raise metzurot (siegeworks) against thee.

4 And thou shalt be brought low, and shalt speak me’eretz (out of the ground), and thy speech shall whisper out of the aphar, and thy voice shall be, like an ov (medium’s that has a familiar spirit), out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the aphar.

5 Moreover the multitude of thy foes shall be like fine dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as motz (chaff) that in passing bloweth away; indeed, it shall be at an instant suddenly.