Isaiah 29:2

2 but then I will bring trouble to Ari'el. There will be mourning and moaning, as she becomes truly an ari'el for me.

Isaiah 29:2 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 29:2

Yet I will distress Ariel
Or "straiten" it, by causing it to be besieged; and this he would do, notwithstanding their yearly sacrifices, and their observance of their solemn feasts, and other ceremonies of the law, in which they placed their confidence, and neglected weightier matters: and there shall be heaviness and sorrow;
on account of the siege; by reason of the devastations of the enemy without, made on all the cities and towns in Judea round about; and because of the famine and bloodshed in the city: and it shall be unto me as Ariel;
the whole city shall be as the altar; as that was covered with the blood and carcasses of slain beasts, so this with the blood and carcasses of men; and so the Targum,

``and I will distress the city where the altar is, and it shall be desolate and empty; and it shall be surrounded before me with the blood of the slain, as the altar is surrounded with the blood of the holy sacrifices on a solemn feast day all around;''

so Jarchi and Kimchi.

Isaiah 29:2 In-Context

1 Woe to Ari'el [fireplace on God's altar, lion of God] - Ari'el, the city where David encamped! Celebrate the feasts for a few more years,

2 but then I will bring trouble to Ari'el. There will be mourning and moaning, as she becomes truly an ari'el for me.

3 I will encamp all around you, besiege you with towers and mount siege-works against you.

4 Prostrate, you will speak from the ground; your words will be stifled by the dust; your voice will sound like a ghost in the ground, your words like squeaks in the dust.

5 But your many foes will become like fine powder, the horde of tyrants like blowing chaff, and it will happen very suddenly.