Isaiah 29:1-9

JERUSALEM’S IMPENDING HUMILIATION AND DELIVERANCE

‘Woe to Ariel,’ etc.

Isaiah 29:1

I. The prophet sets forth in Isaiah 29:1 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).