Isaiahchapter 29
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Speaks with:Isaiah 8×3Isaiah 28×3Isaiah 30×2Isaiah 51×2Isaiah 19×2Isaiah 29×2
Summary
Chapter summary
Ariel, "the city where David encamped," receives a double word: Jehovah himself lays siege until Jerusalem whispers from the dust, then in an instant scatters the multitude of her foes like chaff, leaving the attacking nations a hungry man's dream. The people are drunken but not with wine; all vision has become a sealed book handed to learned and unlearned alike. Because this people honors God with lips while the heart is far removed (the verse Jesus applies to the Pharisees in Matthew 15:8-9), Jehovah will do a marvelous work, and the wisdom of the wise shall perish, quoted in 1 Corinthians 1:19. Woe lands on counsel-hiders who invert potter and clay. Then reversal: Lebanon becomes a fruitful field, the deaf hear the words of the book, the blind see, the meek rejoice, the terrible one comes to nought, and Jacob's erring children reach understanding.
Context
Prophecy · Isaiah — Isaiah overview
- A. 1–8 Ariel Besieged: a Dream of Eating That Fades at Waking
- B. 9–16 A Sealed Book, and Lips That Draw Near While Hearts Stay Far
- C. 17–24 The Deaf Shall Hear and Lebanon Turn to a Fruitful Field
The outline
A.Ariel Besieged: a Dream of Eating That Fades at Wakingvv. 1 to 8
Read vv. 1 to 8 →B.A Sealed Book, and Lips That Draw Near While Hearts Stay Farvv. 9 to 16
Read vv. 9 to 16 →C.The Deaf Shall Hear and Lebanon Turn to a Fruitful Fieldvv. 17 to 24
Read vv. 17 to 24 →
The world behind this chapter
Isaiah 29The history
Ariel is a pun with a blade in it. The word can mean lion of God, and it is also the term used for the hearth of the great altar — the burning top of the altar where the fire never went out. Isaiah calls Jerusalem Ariel, the city where sacrifices burn, and then says he will make her Ariel: a place of burning.
The siege is described in engineering terms. God says he will camp against her all around, lay siege with a mound, and raise siege works. That is Assyrian practice exactly: a ramp of packed earth and rubble built up against the weakest stretch of wall so battering rams could be pushed to the top. One of those ramps still survives at Lachish, the Judean city Assyria took in 701 BC, and the assault on it is carved in detail on the palace reliefs from Nineveh.
The voice from the ground is a medium's voice. Isaiah says the city will speak low out of the dust, and her speech will whisper like one who consults a spirit — the thin, muttering sound a practitioner produced. Then, suddenly, the besieging armies become a dream: a hungry man dreams he is eating and wakes empty. Which is what happened outside those walls.
The scroll scene turns on how documents worked. A sealed roll could only be opened by an authorized party, and reading at all was a specialized skill. Isaiah gives the vision to a literate man, who says he cannot read it because it is sealed, and to an unlettered man, who says he cannot read. Between the two, nobody hears it — which is the point.
Then the verdict on their worship: this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men learned by rote. Followed by the potter's shop — shall the thing made say of its maker, he did not make me?
What it meant to them
To hearers whose religion had become a routine performed correctly, God says he will do a marvelous work among them, and the wisdom of their wise men will perish. The professionals will be the last to understand.
And the promise at the end goes to the people the professionals ignored. The deaf hear the words of the book, the blind see out of gloom, the meek increase their joy, and the poor rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
Sources cited
- The Lachish reliefs from Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh (British Museum)
- Walton, Matthews & Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Isaiah 29. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.