Isaiah 29:3

3 I will be like an army that is camped against you on all sides. I will surround you with towers in order to attack you. I will build my ramps all around you and set up my ladders.

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.

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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.

Isaiah 29:3 In-Context

1 Jerusalem, how terrible it will be for you! Ariel, you are the city where David settled. The years will come and go. Keep on celebrating your regular feasts.

2 The LORD says, "Ariel, I will surround you. Jerusalem, I will get ready to attack you. Your people will sob. They will sing songs of sadness. I will make you like the front of an altar that is covered with blood.

3 I will be like an army that is camped against you on all sides. I will surround you with towers in order to attack you. I will build my ramps all around you and set up my ladders.

4 You will be brought down to the grave. You will speak from deep down inside the ground. Your words will be barely heard out of the dust. Your voice will sound like the voice of a ghost coming from under the ground. Your words will sound like a whisper out of the dust."

5 Jerusalem, all of your enemies will become like fine dust. Their terrifying armies will become like straw that the wind blows away. All of a sudden, in an instant,