Isaiah Chapter 29 verse 1 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerses 1-4. - A WARNING TO JERUSALEM. Expostulation is followed by threats. The prophet is aware that all his preaching to the authorities in Jerusalem (Isaiah 28:14-22) will be of no avail, and that their adoption of measures directly antagonistic to the commands of God will bring on the very evil which they are seeking to avert, and cause Jerusalem to be actually besieged by her enemies. In the present passage he distinctly announces the siege, and declares that it will commence within a year. Verse 1. - Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! "Ariel' is clearly a mystic name for Jerusalem, parallel to "Sheshach" as a name for Babylon (Jeremiah 25:26) and "'Ir-ha-heres" as a name for Heliopolis (Isaiah 19:18). It is generally explained as equivalent to Art-El, "lion of God;" but Delitzsch suggests the meaning of "hearth of God," or "altar of God," a signification which "Ariel" seems to have in Ezekiel 43:15, 16. But there is no evidence that "Ariel" was ever employed in this sense before the time of Ezekiel. Etymologically, "Ariel" can only mean "lion of God," and the name would in this sense be sufficiently descriptive of the Jewish capital, which had always hitherto been a sort of champion of Jehovah - a warrior fighting his battles with a lion's courage and fierceness. Dwelt; literally, pitched his tent - an expression recalling the old tent-life of the Hebrews (comp. 1 Kings 12:16). And ye year to year; rather, a year to a year; i.e. the coming year to the present one. The intention is to date the commencement of the siege. It will fall within the year next ensuing. Let them kill sacrifices. The best modern authorities translate, "Let the feasts run their round" (Kay, Cheyne, Delitzsch); i.e. let there be one more round of the annual festival-times, and then let the enemy march in and commence the siege.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English ReadersXXIX.(1) Woe to Ariel, to Ariel.--The name belongs to the same group of poetic synonyms as Rahab (Psalm 87:4; Psalm 89:10) and the Valley of Vision (Psalm 22:1). It may have been coined by Isaiah himself. It may have been part of the secret language of the prophetic schools, as Sheshach stood for Babel (Jer ), Rahab for Egypt (Isaiah 51:9), and in the language of later Rabbis, Edom, and in that of the Apocalypse, Babel, for Rome (Revelation 17:5). Modern language has, it will be remembered, like names of praise and scorn for England and France, though these (John Bull, the British Lion, Crapaud, and the Gallic Cock) scarcely rise to the level of poetry. "Ariel" has been variously interpreted as "the lion of God," or "the hearth of God." The first meaning has in its favour the use of the same word for men of special heroism in 2Samuel 23:20 (" lion-like men," as in the margin, "lions of God"), and perhaps in Isaiah 33:7 (see Note). The "lion" was, it may be noted, the traditional symbol of Judah (Revelation 5:5). In the words that follow, "the city where David dwelt," the prophet interprets the mystic name for the benefit of his readers. The verb for "dwelt" conveys the sense of "encamping." David had dwelt securely in the rock-fortress of Zion. . . .