Isaiah 29:3

29:1-8 Ariel may signify the altar of burnt-offerings. Let Jerusalem know that outward religious services will not make men free from judgements. Hypocrites never can please God, nor make their peace with him. God had often and long, by a host of angels, encamped round about Jerusalem for protection and deliverance; but now he fought against it. Proud looks and proud language shall be brought down by humbling providences. The destruction of Jerusalem's enemies is foretold. The army of Sennacherib went as a dream; and thus the multitudes, that through successive ages fight against God's altar and worship, shall fall. Speedily will sinners awake from their soothing dreams in the pains of hell.

And I will camp against thee round about,.... Or as a "ball" or "globe" (o); a camp all around; the Lord is said to do that which the enemy should do, because it was by his will, and according to his order, and which he would succeed and prosper, and therefore the prophecy of it is the more terrible; and it might be concluded that it would certainly be fulfilled, as it was; see Luke 19:43 , and will lay siege against thee with a mount: raised up for soldiers to get up upon, and cast their arrows into the city from, and scale the walls; Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it a wooden tower. This cannot be understood of Sennacherib's siege, for he was not suffered to raise a bank against the city, nor shoot an arrow into it, Isaiah 37:33 but well agrees with the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, as related by Josephus (p): and I will raise forts against thee; from whence to batter the city; the Romans had their battering rams. (o) "quasi pila", Piscator; "instar globi", Gataker. (p) Joseph. de Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 7. sect. 1. & c. 12. sect. 1, 2.

Isaiah 29:3-4 . And I will camp against thee, &c. — That is, by those enemies whom I will assist and enable to take and destroy thee. The prophet may here refer to different sieges of Jerusalem, that of Sennacherib, that of the Chaldeans, or even to that of the Romans. Thou shalt be brought down — thy speech shall be low — Thou, who now speakest so loftily, shalt be humbled, and in a submissive manner, and with a low voice, shalt beg the favour of thine enemies. As of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground — “That the souls of the dead uttered a feeble, stridulous sound, very different from the natural human voice, was a popular notion among the heathen, as well as among the Jews. This appears from several passages of their poets, Homer, Virgil, Horace. The pretenders to the art of necromancy, who were chiefly women, had an art of speaking with a reigned voice, so as to deceive those who applied to them, by making them believe that it was the voice of the ghost. They had a way of uttering sounds, as if they were formed, not by the organs of speech, but deep in the chest, or in the belly, and were thence called εγγαστριμυθοι , ventriloqui. They could make the voice seem to come from beneath the ground, from a distant part, in another direction, and not from themselves, the better to impose upon those who consulted them.

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.

3. 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; 21:20). forts—siege-towers (De 20:20).

3 . I will camp against thee round about ] see Isaiah 29:1 . LXX. carries the parallel still further by reading “I will encamp … like David ,” a reading which would be plausible if “against which” could be fairly supplied in Isaiah 29:1 . “Round about” is the same word as “like a ball” in Isaiah 22:18 . with a mount ] R.V. with a fort ; perhaps lines of circumvallation. For forts , read siege-works , as R.V. Comp. Ezekiel 4:1-3 . 4 explains the “moaning and bemoaning” of Isaiah 29:2 . The verse reads: And thou shalt be laid low, speaking from ( beneath ) the earth, and thy speech shall come humbly from the dust; and thy voice shall be like ( that of ) a ghost ( coming ) from the earth, and thy speech shall squeak from the dust . The allusions in the latter half of the verse are explained under ch. Isaiah 8:19 . The figures signify the utter abasement and exhaustion of the “joyous city.”

Verse 3. - I will camp against thee round about ; i.e. "I will bring armed men against thee who shall encamp around the entire circuit of thy walls." There was small chance of forcing an entrance into Jerusalem on any side except the north; but, order to distress and harass her, an enemy with numerous forces would dispose them all round the walls, thus preventing all ingress or egress (see Luke 19:43 ). And... lay siege against thee with a mount ; or, with a mound . Artificial mounds were raised up against the walls of cities by the Assyrians, as a foundation from which to work their battering rams with greater advantage against the upper and weaker portion of the defenses (see 'Ancient Monarchies,' vol. 2. p. 80). And... raise forts against thee. "Forts" were usually movable, and accompanied the battering-ram for its better protection. Archers in the forts cleared the walls of their defenders, while the ram was employed in making a breach (see Layard, 'Monuments of Nineveh,' Second Series, p. 21). Isaiah 29:3

(3) I will encamp against thee . . . —The words describe the strategy of an Eastern siege, as we see it in the Assyrian sculptures—the mound raised against the walls of the city, the battering-ram placed upon the mound, and brought to bear upon the walls. (See Jeremiah 33:4 ; Ezekiel 4:2 .)

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 Isaiah 10:5 ). Round about - (כדוּר kadûr). As in a circle; that is, he would encompass or encircle the city. The word used here דור dûr in Isaiah 22:18, means a ball, but here it evidently means a circle; and the sense is, that the army of the besiegers would encompass the city. A similar form of expression occurs in regard to Jerusalem in Luke 19:43 : 'For the days shall come upon thee, than thine enemies shall cast a trench (χάρακα charaka - "a rampart," a "mound") about thee σοί soi "against thee"), and "compass thee round" περικυκλώτονσί σε perikuklōsousi se, "encircle thee").' So also Luke 21:20. The Septuagint renders this, 'I will encompass thee as David did;' evidently reading it as if it were כדוּד kadûd; and Lowth observes that two manuscripts thus read it, and he himself adopts it. But the authority for correcting the Hebrew text in this way is not sufficient, nor is it necessary. The idea in the present reading is a clear one, and evidently means that the armies of Sennacherib would encompass the city. With a mount - A rampart; a fortification.

Or, rather, perhaps, the word מצב mutsâb means a post, a military station, from יצב yâtsab, "to place, to station." The word in this form occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures, but the word מצב matsâb occurs in 1 Samuel 13:23; 1 Samuel 14:1, 1 Samuel 14:4; 2 Samuel 23:14, in the sense of a military post, or garrison. I will rise forts - That is, ramparts, such as were usually thrown up against a besieged city, meaning that it should be subjected to the regular process of a siege. The Septuagint reads, Πύργου Purgou; 'Towers;' and so also two manuscripts by changing the Hebrew letter ד (d) into the Hebrew letter ר (r). But there is no necessity for altering the Hebrew text. Lowth prefers the reading of the Septuagint.