Isaiah 29

Trouble is coming to you, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David camped! Go on adding year to year; let your feasts come around in their turn, and let the sacrifices be killed.

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

NoteAriel is a code name for Jerusalem used only here. In Hebrew it can be heard two ways ("lion of God" and "altar hearth," the fire-bed on top of an altar where offerings are burned) and verse 2 plays on the second sense. "The city where David camped" recalls David's capture of the town, which he then made his capital. "Adding year to year" means letting the yearly round of religious festivals, with their animal sacrifices, roll on as usual.

2Yet I will press hard on Ariel. There will be grief and weeping, and she will become to me like the hearth of an altar.

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

NoteThe hearth of an altar was the flat top where the fire burned and the offerings were consumed. The line turns the city's own name against it: the place that burns sacrifices becomes a place of burning.

3I will camp all around you. I will surround you with siege towers and build up earthworks against you.

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

NoteThis is standard ancient siege practice: an army ringed a walled city, built towers to shoot down over the walls, and piled a ramp of packed earth against the wall so troops could climb it.

4You will be brought down low. You will speak from the ground, and your words will be muffled, coming out of the dust. Your voice will sound like a ghost speaking from the ground, and your speech will be a whisper out of the dust.

4And 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 whisper out of the dust.

NoteAncient people pictured the dead as lying underground and speaking in thin, muffled whispers. Specialists were consulted to call such voices up; the King James calls such a person "one that hath a familiar spirit." The proud city's voice will sound like that, faint, coming out of the dirt.

5But the crowd of foreigners against you will become like fine dust, and the crowd of cruel men like chaff blown away. It will happen suddenly, in a single moment.

5Moreover 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.

NoteChaff is the light husk separated from grain. Farmers tossed threshed grain into the air on a windy hilltop so the worthless husks blew away, the standard image for something weightless and easily scattered. The Hebrew word rendered "foreigners" is one letter away from a word meaning "arrogant ones," and translators divide over which was meant.

6The LORD of Armies will come to you with thunder, with an earthquake and a great roar, with windstorm and violent storm and a flame of burning fire.

6Thou 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.

Note"The LORD of Armies" (King James: "LORD of hosts") is a fixed title; the armies or hosts are the heavenly forces at God's command. Where LORD appears in capitals it stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, which Jewish readers did not say aloud.

7And the crowd of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all who attack her and her defenses and press her hard, will be like a dream, like something seen at night.

7And 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.

8It will be like a hungry man who dreams he is eating, but wakes up and is still empty. Or like a thirsty man who dreams he is drinking, but wakes up weak and still craving water. That is how it will be for all the many nations that fight against Mount Zion.

8It 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.

NoteMount Zion was originally the fortified hill David captured; the name came to stand for the temple hill and then for Jerusalem as a whole.

9Stop and stare in shock. Blind yourselves and be blind. They are drunk, but not from wine; they stagger, but not from strong drink.

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

NoteThe Hebrew verbs here are ambiguous and translators split: they can be read as "stop and be astonished" or as "blind yourselves and be blind." Either way the state described is a stunned, unseeing one. "Strong drink" translates a word for fermented drink that is not grape wine, barley beer, or drink made from dates.

10For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut your eyes, you prophets, and covered your heads, you seers.

10For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.

NoteA seer is an older word for a prophet: literally one who sees, since a prophet's message often came as a vision. Covering the head was a gesture of mourning, and of being shut off from seeing.

11The whole vision has become to you like the words of a scroll that is sealed shut. People hand it to someone who can read and say, "Please read this," and he says, "I can't. It is sealed."

11And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:

NoteBooks at this period were scrolls. An important document was rolled, tied, and sealed with a lump of clay stamped by the owner's signet; breaking that seal without authority was a serious act, so a sealed scroll could not simply be opened and read out.

12Then the scroll is handed to someone who cannot read, and they say, "Please read this," and he says, "I don't know how to read."

12And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.

NoteReading was a specialist skill. Most people could not do it, so a written text normally had to be read aloud to them by a trained scribe.

13So the Lord said: These people come near me with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but they have taken their hearts far away from me. Their respect for me is only a rule they were taught by men.

13Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

Note"Their respect for me" translates a word usually rendered "fear", not fright, but the reverence owed to God and expressed in worship.

14So I will go on doing astonishing things among these people, one astonishing thing after another. The wisdom of their wise men will be lost, and the understanding of their clever men will be hidden away.

14Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

15Trouble is coming to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in the dark and say, "Who sees us? Who knows what we are doing?"

15Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?

16You turn everything upside down! Should the potter be thought of as no better than the clay? Can the thing that was made say about the one who made it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say about the potter, "He does not know what he is doing"?

16Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

NoteThe potter's wheel was a familiar sight, and clay on the wheel was the stock image for something entirely at the disposal of the one shaping it. The Hebrew verb translated "made" and "formed" here is the ordinary word for a potter at work.

17Is it not just a little while longer until Lebanon is turned into rich farmland, and the rich farmland is counted as a forest?

17Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?

NoteLebanon meant the mountain range to the north, famous throughout the ancient world for its dense cedar forests. The Hebrew word behind "rich farmland" is karmel, which is also the name of Mount Carmel, a wooded ridge, the line trades on the double sense. The picture is one of complete reversal: wild forest becomes orchard, and orchard is reckoned mere scrub forest.

18On that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of the gloom and the darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

18And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.

19The humble will grow in their joy in the LORD, and the poor among people will be glad in the Holy One of Israel.

19The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

Note"The Holy One of Israel" is Isaiah's characteristic title for God. "Holy" means set apart, belonging to a different order from ordinary things.

20For the cruel man will be brought to nothing, the mocker will be finished, and everyone who watches for a chance to do wrong will be cut off.

20For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off:

Note"Cut off" is a standard Hebrew idiom for being removed altogether: killed, or expelled from the community.

21These are the people who make a man guilty over a word, who set a trap for the one who speaks up for what is right in court at the city gate, and who cheat the innocent out of justice with claims that are worth nothing.

21That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.

NoteLegal cases were heard in the open space just inside the city gate, where the town's elders sat; that was the courtroom. The person trapped is the one who gives honest testimony or challenges a false charge there, and the accusers catch him out on a single word.

22So this is what the LORD says, the one who rescued Abraham, about the family of Jacob: Jacob will not be ashamed any more, and his face will not turn pale any more.

22Therefore thus saith the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.

Note"Redeemed" is a term from family and property law: to redeem was to buy a relative out of slavery or debt, or buy back land the family had lost. Applied to Abraham it means God bought him out and brought him away, traditionally connected with his leaving Ur. "The family of Jacob" means the whole nation descended from Jacob, who was also called Israel.

23For when he sees his children around him, the work of my hands, they will treat my name as holy. They will honor the Holy One of Jacob as holy, and they will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

23But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.

NoteTo "treat as holy" (King James "sanctify") is to set something apart and handle it as God's rather than as ordinary; applied to a name, it means honoring it and refusing to use it lightly.

24Those whose thinking went wrong will come to understand, and those who complained will accept being taught.

24They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.