Commentari biblici

ISAIAH CHAPTER 29.

The temple and city of Jerusalem destroyed, Isaiah 29:1-6. Her enemies unsatiable, Isaiah 29:7,8; their senselessness, Isaiah 29:9-12, and deep hypocrisy, Isaiah 29:13-17. The scorner and oppressor being cut off, the rest shall be converted, Isaiah 29:18-24.

Woe to Ariel! this word signifies a strong lion, or the lion of God; and is used concerning lion-like men, as it is rendered, 1 Chronicles 11:22; and of God’s altar, as it is rendered, Ezekiel 43:15,16, which seems to be thus called, because it devoured and consumed the sacrifices put upon it, as greedily and as irresistibly as the lion doth his prey. If the altar be here meant, it is put synecdochically for the temple, and the words may be rendered, Woe to Ariel, to Ariel of or in the city! or, and the city; for that conjunction is sometimes understood, as Isaiah 22:6 Habakkuk 3:11. And so the threatening is denounced both against the temple and against Jerusalem. But he seems rather to understand it of Jerusalem, as may be gathered,

1. From the next words, which seem to be added by way of apposition, to explain what he meant by that obscure and ambiguous term,

Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, even to the city!

2. From the following verses, which plainly declare that this Ariel is the place which God threatens that he would distress and fill with heaviness, Isaiah 29:2; and lay siege against her, Isaiah 29:3; and that the nations should fight against her, Isaiah 29:7; all which expressions agree much better to Jerusalem than to the altar. And this city might be called Ariel, or the strong lion, either,

3. For its eminent strength in regard of its situation and fortifications, by reason whereof it was thought almost impregnable, both by themselves and others, Lamentations 4:12. Or,

4. For its lionlike fierceness and cruelty, for which she is called the bloody city, Ezekiel 7:23 22:2, and, in effect, Isaiah 1:15 59:3 Jeremiah 19:4; and for which her princes are called lions, Ezekiel 19:2 Zephaniah 3:3. Or,

5. In respect of the altar of God, which was erected in and confined to that city, and in which the strength and glory of that city did chiefly consist.

The city where David dwelt; the royal city, and seat of David and his posterity; which is here mentioned as the ground of their confidence; and withal, it is implied that their relation to David, and their supposed interest in the promises made to him and to his seed, should not secure them from the destruction here threatened.

Add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices; go on in killing sacrifices from time to time, one year after another, whereby you think to appease me, and to secure yourselves; but all shall be in vain.

Yet, notwithstanding all your sacrifices,

I will distress Ariel, by bringing and strengthening her enemies against her.

It shall be unto me as Ariel: the sense is either,

1. I will treat her like a strong and fierce lion, which, the people among whom it is endeavour by nets, or pits, and all other ways, to take and to destroy; or,

2. I will make Ariel the city like Ariel the altar, filling it with sacrifices, even with men, whom I will slay in my anger; which act of God’s is called his sacrifice, Ezekiel 39:17,19.

By those enemies whom I will assist and enable to destroy thee. This was fulfilled either,

1. By Sennacherib, as some learned men think. But what is here affirmed of these enemies is expressly denied concerning Sennacherib, Isaiah 37:3. Or rather,

2. By the Chaldeans, 2 Kings 25:1, &c.

Thy speech shall be low out of the dust; thou who now speakest so loftily and scornfully against the Lord’s prophets and others, shalt be humbled and confounded, and afraid and ashamed to speak aloud, and shalt in a submissive manner, and with a low voice, beg the favour of thine enemies.

Thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground; who, that they might possess the people with a kind of reverence and horror, used to speak and deliver their answers with a low voice, either out of their bellies, or from some dark cave under the ground.

Of thy strangers; either,

1. Of the strangers that encamp and fight against thee. Or,

2. Of the Egyptians, and other strangers, whom thou hast hired to assist thee, as indeed they did, when the Chaldeans came against them. This exposition seems to agree best, as with the phrase, thy strangers, so with the scope of the place, and with the whole context, especially the foregoing verses; which plainly shows that this is not a promise to Jerusalem, but a threatening against it.

Like small dust; quickly blown away with the least wind, by comparing this with the following clause.

Of the terrible ones; of thy great commanders and stoutest soldiers.

It shall be; this dissipation and destruction of thy strangers and terrible ones shall come to pass.

Thou, O Ariel or Jerusalem, of or to whom this whole context manifestly speaks, shalt be visited with dreadful judgments, which are frequently expressed in the prophets by these and such-like metaphors.

Wherein it shall be so is explained in the next verse.

His soul is empty; his appetite or desire (as the soul is taken, Psalm 41:4 78:18, and elsewhere) is unsatisfied. Or, his stomach or body (as the soul is used, Psalm 16:10) is empty.

So shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against Mount Zion; no less unsatisfied and unsatiable shall the enemies of the Jews be, with all the cruelties which they have committed against you; and they shall be always thirsting after more of your blood, as if they had never tasted any of it.