Woe to Jerusalem
29
📚Woe to Ariel, to Arielthe city where David lived!
Add year to year;
let the feasts 📖 come around.
2 📚Yet I will distress Ariel 📖,
and there will be heaviness
and sorrow,
and it will be like an Ariel
to me.
29:2 The word Ariel is also similar to the Hebrew word for hearth or stove or fire-pit. The fire of God’s anger would burn there. See Isa 31:9. The “I” of verses 2 and 3 is of course God, not Isaiah.⚜
3 📚And I will camp against
you all around,
and will lay siege against
you with a mound,
and I will raise siege works
against you.
29:3 The surrounding of Jerusalem by enemies is here said to be God’s work.⚜
4 📚And you will be brought down,
and will speak
from the ground,
and your speech will be low
out of the dust,
and your voice shall be like
a medium's voice,
out of the ground,
and your speech will whisper
from the dust.
29:4 Jerusalem will be weakened and humbled to the dust.⚜
5 📚Moreover your many enemies
will become like small dust,
and the horde of ruthless ones
will become like chaff
that passes away;
yes, it will happen suddenly,
in an instant.
6 📚You will be visited 📖 by 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 hordes of all the nations
that fight against Ariel,
all that fight against her
and her fortress and distress her,
will be like a dream of a night vision.
8 📚It will be as when a hungry
man dreams, and,
see, he eats;
but he wakes up,
and he is empty.
Or as when a thirsty man dreams,
and, see, he drinks;
but he wakes up,
and, see, he is faint,
and he still wants water.
Thus will it be with the hordes
of all the nations that fight
against Mount Zion.
29:5-8 The enemies that come against Jerusalem are many (v 5), of “all the nations” (vs 7,8). These words indicate that the picture in these verses was not fulfilled at the Assyrian invasion in 701 BC, or in the Babylonian invasion more than a century later. The language suggests the events foretold in Zech 12:2-9; 14:2-5, which, it appears from the context, will take place at the end of this age. There, too, we read of “all nations” coming against Jerusalem, of its distress and humbling, and of the Lord’s sudden appearance to fight against these enemies. Compare also v 2 with Zech 12:6.⚜
9 📚Stay and be astonished!
Blind yourselves and be blind!
They are drunk,
but not with wine;
they stagger,
but not from strong drink.
10 📚For the LORD has poured out
on you the spirit of
deep sleep,
and has closed your eyes,
the prophets;
and covered your heads,
the seers.
11 📚And the whole vision has become to you like the words of a sealed book which men deliver to one who can read, saying, “Please read this”; and he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed”. 12 📚And the book is delivered to one who cannot read, saying, “Please read this”; and he says, “I cannot read”.
29:9-12 God now speaks to the people of Jerusalem. Verses 9,10 indicate their spiritual stupor and blindness. God Himself had brought about this condition as a punishment for their unbelief, unfaithfulness and wickedness (see Isa 6:9-10). So they could not understand the prophecies God gave through Isaiah – vs 11,12.⚜
13 📚Therefore the Lord said,
“Since this people draw near me
with their mouth,
and honour me
with their lips,
but have removed their heart
far from me,
and their fear toward me is merely
rules taught by men;
29:13 The Lord Jesus referred to this verse in Matt 15:8-9 while denouncing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. They were typical of many people in every age. There are many people in the world who wish to be considered religious and God-honoring, but whose spiritual condition often denies all that their lips say (Isa 58:1-2; Jer 12:1-2; Ezek 33:3-32).⚜
14 📚Therefore, see,
once more I will do a marvellous
work among this people,
a marvellous work
and a wonder 📖;
for the wisdom of their wise men
will perish 📖,
and the understanding of their intelligent
men will be hidden”.
15 📚Woe to those who seek to hide 📖
their counsel deeply
from the LORD,
and whose works are in the dark,
and who say,
“Who sees us?
And who knows us?”
16 📚Surely you have turned things
upside down,
regarding the potter
as the clay.
For shall the thing made say of him
who made it,
“He did not make me”.
Or shall the thing formed say of him
who formed it,
29:16 Here are three errors in the thinking of sinful and perverse men – thinking God is like themselves (see Ps 50:21), denying there is a God at all in spite of evidence everywhere of the work of His hands (see Ps 14:1), or accusing God of poor or ignorant workmanship when it comes to the human race – not considering that the evil state men are in is a result of their own doing. God pronounces “woe” to all such people.⚜
“He had no understanding?”
Promises among the warnings
17 📚Is it not just a very little time
before Lebanon is to be turned
into a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field regarded
like a forest?
18 📚And in that day 📖 the deaf
will hear the words of the book,
and the eyes of the blind 📖
will see out of obscurity,
and out of darkness.
19 📚The meek also will increase
their joy in the LORD,
and the poor among men will rejoice
in the Holy One of Israel.
20 📚For the terrible one will be
brought to nothing,
and the scornful
one will be finished,
and all who look to do evil
will be cut off;
21 📚Those who, by a word,
cause a man to be regarded as
an offender,
and lay a snare for him
who rebukes in the gate 📖,
and turn aside the upright
for no proper reason.
29:19-21 Indicates a complete reversal of conditions prevailing in Isaiah’s day (and, alas, in ours). The humble and the poor will be exalted; cruelty, scorn, evil, and injustice will vanish (Isa 11:1-5; 26:5-6).⚜
22 📚Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed 📖 Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob,
“Jacob will not now
be ashamed,
nor will his face now
become pale.
23 📚But when he sees his children
in his midst,
the work of my hands,
they will regard my name as holy,
and regard as holy the Holy
One of Jacob,
and fear the God of Israel;
24 📚And those who err in spirit
will come to understanding,
and those who complain
will learn doctrine”.
29:17-24 Here are other wonders (v 14) God will perform. Verse 17 suggests a great change will occur. See Isa 2:12-17. Compare Isa 32:15. The change in Lebanon is symbolical of the change in conditions among men. They will occur in “a short time” – short in God’s eyes (Heb 10:37; 2 Pet 3:8), not necessarily in man’s.⚜