Isaiah 29: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

God announces a siege against Ariel, the city where David camped, and says the city will be brought so low that its voice comes as a whisper out of the dust. Then the crowd of nations fighting against her is said to vanish suddenly, like a dream that leaves a hungry man still empty when he wakes. The middle of the chapter describes prophets and seers under a deep sleep, a sealed scroll no one can read, and worship that is only rules taught by men, so the wisdom of the wise will fail. It closes with a coming day when the deaf hear, the poor rejoice, the cruel and the mockers are gone, and Jacob is no longer ashamed.

Claim by Claim

1. 29:1
   • A woe is pronounced against Ariel.
   • Ariel is a city where David encamped.
   • A command is given to add year to year.
   • The festivals are to come round in their cycle.
2. 29:2
   • The LORD says he will bring distress on Ariel.
   • There will be mourning and lamentation.
   • Ariel will become to the LORD like an altar hearth.
3. 29:3
   • The LORD says he will encamp against her in a circle.
   • The LORD says he will besiege her with a siege post.
   • The LORD says he will raise siege works against her.
4. 29:4
   • She will be brought low.
   • She will speak from the ground.
   • Her speech will be low out of the dust.
   • Her voice will be like that of a ghost coming from the ground.
   • Her speech will whisper out of the dust.
5. 29:5
   • The multitude of her strangers will be like fine dust.
   • The multitude of the ruthless ones will be like chaff that blows past.
   • It will happen suddenly, in an instant.
6. 29:6
   • She will be visited by the LORD of hosts.
   • The visitation comes with thunder.
   • The visitation comes with earthquake.
   • The visitation comes with a great noise.
   • The visitation comes with whirlwind and tempest.
   • The visitation comes with the flame of a devouring fire.
7. 29:7
   • The multitude of all the nations that make war against Ariel will be like a dream, a vision of the night.
   • This includes all who fight against her and against her stronghold.
   • This includes those who bring distress on her.
8. 29:8
   • A hungry man dreams that he is eating.
   • The hungry man wakes and his appetite is empty.
   • A thirsty man dreams that he is drinking.
   • The thirsty man wakes faint, and his throat still craves.
   • So it will be for the multitude of all the nations that make war against Mount Zion.
9. 29:9
   • A command is given to stop still and be astonished.
   • A command is given to blind oneself and be blind (rendered in the King James as crying out).
   • Those spoken of are drunk, but not with wine.
   • Those spoken of stagger, but not with strong drink.
   • It is ambiguous whether the drunkenness and staggering are stated as fact or commanded.
10. 29:10
    • The LORD has poured out on them a spirit of deep sleep.
    • The LORD has shut their eyes, which are the prophets.
    • The LORD has covered their heads, who are the seers.
11. 29:11
    • The whole vision has become to them like the words of a sealed scroll.
    • The scroll is handed to someone who can read.
    • The one handing it says, Read this, please.
    • The reader says he cannot read it.
    • The reader says the reason is that the scroll is sealed.
12. 29:12
    • The scroll is handed to someone who cannot read.
    • The one handing it says, Read this, please.
    • That person says he does not know how to read.
13. 29:13
    • The Lord spoke.
    • The Lord said this people draws near to him with its mouth.
    • The Lord said this people honors him with its lips.
    • The Lord said their heart is far from him.
    • The Lord said their fear of him is a commandment of men, learned by rote.
14. 29:14
    • Therefore the LORD says he will again deal wondrously with this people.
    • The dealing is described as wonder upon wonder.
    • The wisdom of their wise men will perish.
    • The understanding of their discerning men will be hidden.
15. 29:15
    • A woe is pronounced against those who go deep to hide their plan from the LORD.
    • Their deeds are done in darkness.
    • They say, Who sees us?
    • They say, Who knows us?
16. 29:16
    • Their perversity is rebuked, that the potter should be reckoned as the clay.
    • It is asked whether the thing made says of its maker, He did not make me.
    • It is asked whether the thing formed says of the one who formed it, He has no understanding.
17. 29:17
    • It is asked whether it is not yet a very little while.
    • Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field.
    • The fruitful field will be reckoned as a forest.
18. 29:18
    • In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll.
    • The eyes of the blind will see out of gloom and darkness.
19. 29:19
    • The humble will increase their joy in the LORD.
    • The poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20. 29:20
    • The ruthless one has come to an end.
    • The scorner is finished.
    • All who are intent on iniquity are cut off.
21. 29:21
    • They make a man an offender by a word.
    • They lay a snare for the one who reproves in the gate.
    • They turn aside the righteous with an empty claim.
22. 29:22
    • Therefore the LORD speaks concerning the house of Jacob.
    • The LORD redeemed Abraham.
    • Jacob will not now be ashamed.
    • Jacob's face will not now grow pale.
23. 29:23
    • He will see his children in his midst.
    • His children are the work of the LORD's hands.
    • They will sanctify the LORD's name.
    • They will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob.
    • They will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24. 29:24
    • Those who err in spirit will come to understanding.
    • Those who murmur will learn instruction.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

29:1

Ariel 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.

29:2

The 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.

29:3

This 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.

29:4

Ancient 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.

29:5

Chaff 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.

29:6

"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.

29:7

"Munition" in the King James means a city's walls and defenses.

29:8

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

29:9

The 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.

29:10

A 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.

29:11

Books 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.

29:12

Reading 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.

29:13

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

29:16

The 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.

29:17

Lebanon 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.

29:19

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

29:20

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

29:21

Legal 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.

29:22

"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.

29:23

To "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.

29:24

The King James word "doctrine" simply means teaching.