Isaiah 29:3

3 I will set up war camps all around you. I will blockade you with towers. I will put up mounds of dirt around you.

Isaiah 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.

---

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.

Isaiah 29:3 In-Context

1 How horrible it will be for you Ariel, Ariel, the city where David camped. Let year after year go by. Let your annual festivals go on.

2 I will torment Ariel, and the city will be filled with people grieving and mourning. The city will become like Ariel.

3 I will set up war camps all around you. I will blockade you with towers. I will put up mounds of dirt around you.

4 When you have fallen, you will speak as you lie on the ground. Your words will be muffled by the dust. Your voice will come out of the ground like that of a ghost. Your words will be whispered from the dust.

5 Your many enemies will be like fine dust. Your many foes will be like husks blown by the wind. All of this will happen suddenly, unexpectedly.