Isaiah 29:3
in Isaiah 29I will camp in a circle around you; I will besiege you with towers and set up siege works against you.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And I will encamp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with posted troops, and I will raise siege works against thee.
KJV
And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.
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This verse in Isaiah 29
Commentary
8 notes on this verse655. And I will encircle. Here he threatens destruction by the Romans. And concerning this, he sets out four things. First, the siege: and I will encircle you like a sphere, that is, round about: your enemies shall cast a trench about you (Luke 19:43); …
This site's exposition
I will camp in a circle around you
on Isaiah 29:3-4
The LORD takes the besieger's part: "I will camp in a circle around you". The city will "speak from the ground", the whisper of a medium calling up the dead. Gill and Delitzsch note that Jerusalem is brought to the kind of voice her law forbade in a medium.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Chapter 19, verse 1, and following) Woe to Ariel, Ariel the city that David besieged. Year after year is added, the appointed feasts have come to an end. I will besiege Ariel, and she will be sad and mournful; she will be like an Ariel to me. I will encircle you like a sphere, and I will throw up a mound against you, and I will set up siege works against you.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
) encamp against thee round about. It was the enemy's army that encamped against it; but God says that he will do it, for they are his hand, he does it by them. God had often and long, by a host of angels, encamped for them round about them for their protection and deliverance; but now he was turned to be their enemy and fought against them.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
And I will camp against thee round about,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
And I will camp against thee - That is, I will cause an army to pitch their tents there for a siege. God regards the armies which he would employ as under his control, and speaks of them as if he would do it himself (see the note at Isa 10:5). Round about - (כדוּר kadûr). As in a circle; that is, he would encompass or encircle the city.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
I--Jehovah, acting through the Assyrian, &c., His instruments (Isa 10:5). mount--an artificial mound formed to out-top high walls (Isa 37:33); else a station, namely, of warriors, for the siege. round about--not fully realized under Sennacherib, but in the Roman siege (Lu 19:43;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
And I will camp against thee round about “And I will encamp against thee like David” - For כדור caddur, some kind of military engine, כדוד kedavid, like David, is the reading of the Septuagint, two MSS. of Kennicott’s, if not two more: but though Bishop Lowth adopts this reading, I think it harsh and unnecessary. Forts “Towers” - For מצרת metsuroth, read מצדות metsudoth: so the Septuagint and five MSS. of Dr. Kennicott’s, one of them ancient, and four of De Rossi’s.
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְחָנִ֥יתִי | vechaniti | and I will encamp | H2583 → | |
| כַדּ֖וּר | khadur | like <the> circle | H1754 → | |
| עָלָ֑יִךְ | ʾalayikh | on you | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| וְצַרְתִּ֤י | vetzarti | and I will lay siege | H6696 → | |
| עָלַ֙יִךְ֙ | ʾalayikh | on you | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| מֻצָּ֔ב | mutzav | siege-works | H4674 → | |
| וַהֲקִֽימֹתִ֥י | vahakimoti | and I will raise | H6965 → | 628 times |
| עָלַ֖יִךְ | ʾalayikh | on you | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| מְצֻרֹֽת׃ | metzurot | fortifications | H4694 → |
וְחָנִ֥יתִיand I will encamp
vechanitiH2583 →
כַדּ֖וּרlike <the> circle
khadurH1754 →
עָלָ֑יִךְon you
ʾalayikhH5921 →5755 times
וְצַרְתִּ֤יand I will lay siege
vetzartiH6696 →
עָלַ֙יִךְ֙on you
ʾalayikhH5921 →5755 times
מֻצָּ֔בsiege-works
mutzavH4674 →
וַהֲקִֽימֹתִ֥יand I will raise
vahakimotiH6965 →628 times
עָלַ֖יִךְon you
ʾalayikhH5921 →5755 times
מְצֻרֹֽת׃fortifications
metzurotH4694 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Ezekiel 21:22In his right hand appears the portent for Jerusalem, where he is to set up battering rams, to call for the slaughter, to lift a battle cry, to direct the battering rams against the…
it leads to
- Ezekiel 4:2
Then lay siege against it: Construct a siege wall, build a ramp to it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams around it on all sides.
- Ezekiel 26:9
He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and tear down your towers with his axes.
- Ezekiel 4:2
Through
Matthew 22:7The king was enraged, and he sent his troops to destroy those murderers and burn their city.
it leads to
- Luke 19:27
And these enemies of mine who were unwilling for me to rule over them, bring them here and slay them in front of me.’”
- 1 Peter 4:17–18
For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God?
- Luke 21:24
They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations. And Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
- Joel 2:25
I will repay you for the years eaten by locusts—the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust—My great army that I sent against you.
- Luke 19:27
Through
2 Kings 19:32So this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria: ‘He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow into it. He will not come before it with a shield or…
it leads to
- 2 Samuel 20:15
And Joab’s troops came and besieged Sheba in Abel-beth-maacah and built a siege ramp against the outer rampart of the city. As all the troops with Joab were battering the wall to topple it,
- Isaiah 8:7–10
the Lord will surely bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates—the king of Assyria and all his pomp. It will overflow its channels and overrun its banks.
- 2 Samuel 20:15
Where this verse is studied
About Isaiah
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.