Isaiah 29:1-9 - James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary

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JERUSALEM’S IMPENDING HUMILIATION AND DELIVERANCE

‘Woe to Ariel,’ etc.

Isaiah 29:1-9

I. The prophet sets forth in Isaiah 29:1-2 the theme of his discourse.—For he announces to Ariel, i.e. to the city of God, Jerusalem, that he will cause her after a time great distress, notwithstanding that she is Ariel, i.e. lion of God; that she however, in this distress will prove herself to be Ariel, i.e. the hearth of God. This thought is further developed in what follows. The Lord causes Jerusalem to be told that He will besiege and afflict her greatly (Isaiah 29:3), so that she, bowed low in the dust, will let her voice sound faintly as the spirit of one dead (Isaiah 29:4).

II. But the comforting promise is immediately annexed, that the enemies of Jerusalem will suddenly become as fine dust or as flying chaff (Isaiah 29:5).—For Jehovah will come against them as with thunder, and tempest, and devouring fire (Isaiah 29:6). The whole force, therefore, of the enemies that fight against Ariel, i.e. here the mount of God, will pass away as a vision of a dream in the night (Isaiah 29:7); these enemies will be in the condition of one who in a dream thinks that he has eaten and drunk, and only on awaking perceives that he has been dreaming (Isaiah 29:8).

Related Commentaries of Isaiah 29:1

Isaiah 29:1-9

1 Woea to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices.

2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel.

3 And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.

4 And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisperb out of the dust.

5 Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.

6 Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.

7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.

8 It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.

9 Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.