Isaiah 29:1

Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city [where] David dwelt,.... Many Jewish writers by "Ariel" understand the altar of burnt offerings; and so the Targum, "woe, altar, altar, which was built in the city

Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices. This chapter opens the series of prophecies as to the invasion of Judea under Sennacherib, and its deliverance.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 29. The temple and city of Jerusalem destroyed, . Her enemies unsatiable, ,8; their senselessness, , and deep hypocrisy, . The scorner and oppressor being cut off, the rest shall be converted, . 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, ; and of God’ s altar, as it is rendered, ,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 . 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, ; and lay siege against her, ; and that the nations should fight against her, ; all which expressions agree much better to Jerusalem than to the altar. And this city might be called Ariel, or the strong lion, either, 1. For its eminent strength in regard of its situation and fortifications, by reason whereof it was thought almost impregnable, both by themselves and others, . Or, 2. For its lionlike fierceness and cruelty, for which she is called the bloody city, 22:2, and, in effect, 59:3 ; and for which her princes are called lions, . Or, 3. 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.

Isaiah 29:1 Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city [where] David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices.Ver. 1. Woe to Ariel, to Ariel,] i.e., To the brazen altar, called here Ariel, or God’ s lion, because it seemed as a lion to devour the sacrifices daily burnt upon it. Here it is put for the whole temple, which, together with the city wherein it stood, is threatened with destruction. The city where David dwelt.] Both Mount Moriah, whereon stood the temple, and Mount Zion, whereon stood the palace. Both Church and State are menaced with judgments, temporal in the eight first verses, and spiritual in the eight next. The rest of the chapter is no less consolatory than this is comminatory. Add ye year to year,] i.e., Feed yourselves on with these vain hopes, that years shall run on always in the same manner. See 2 Peter 2:4 Ezekiel 12:22. Let them kill sacrifices.] And thereby think, but falsely and foolishly, to demerit God to themselves, as that emperor did, who, marching against his enemy, sacrificed, and then said, Non sic Deos coluimus ut ille nos vinceret, We have not so served God that he should serve us no better than to give our enemies the better of us. See Isaiah 58:3 Jeremiah 7:21 Hosea 9:1. Metonymiae adiuncta synecdochica. Antonin., Philosop.

XXIX. (1) Woe to Ariel, to Ariel.—The name belongs to the same group of poetic synonyms as Rahab (Psalms 87:4; Psalms 89:10) and the Valley of Vision (Psalms 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 (Jeremiah 25:26), 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 2 Samuel 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. Add ye year to year.—The word implies the solemn keeping of the New Year festival. The people might keep that festival and offer many sacrifices, but this would not avail to ward off the tribulation which they deserved, and at which the prophet had hinted in the last verse of the preceding chapter.

CHAPTER XXIX Distress of Ariel, or Jerusalem, on Sennacherib's invasion, with manifest allusion, however, to the still greater distress which it suffered from the Romans, 1-4. Disappointment and fall of Sennacherib described in terms, like the event, the most awful and terrible, 5-8. Stupidity and hypocrisy of the Jews, 9-16. Rejection of the Jews, and calling of the Gentiles, 17. The chapter concludes by a recurrence to the favourite topics of the prophet, viz., the great extension of the Messiah's kingdom in the latter days, and the future restoration of Israel, 18-24. The subject of this and the four following chapters is the invasion of Sennacherib; the great distress of the Jews while it continued; their sudden and unexpected deliverance by God's immediate interposition in their favour; the subsequent prosperous state of the kingdom under Hezekiah; interspersed with severe reproofs, and threats of punishment, for their hypocrisy, stupidity, infidelity, their want of trust in God, and their vain reliance on the assistance of Egypt; and with promises of better times, both immediately to succeed, and to be expected in the future age. The whole making, not one continued discourse, but rather a collection of different discourses upon the same subject; which is treated with great elegance and variety. Though the matter is various, and the transitions sudden, yet the prophet seldom goes far from his subject. It is properly enough divided by the chapters in the common translation. - L. NOTES ON CHAP. XXIX Verse 1. Ariel] That Jerusalem is here called by this name is very certain: but the reason of this name, and the meaning of it as applied to Jerusalem, is very obscure and doubtful. Some, with the Chaldee, suppose it to be taken from the hearth of the great altar of burnt-offerings, which Ezekiel plainly calls by the same name, and that Jerusalem is here considered as the seat of the fire of God, אור אל ur el which should issue from thence to consume his enemies: compare Isaiah 31:9. Some, according to the common derivation of the word, ארי אל ari el, the lion of God, or the strong lion, suppose it to signify the strength of the place, by which it was enabled to resist and overcome all its enemies. Τινεςδεφασιτηνπολινοὑτωςειρησθαι·επει, διαΘεου, λεοντοςδικηνεσπαραττετουςανταιροντας Procop. in loc. There are other explanations of this name given: but none that seems to be perfectly satisfactory. - Lowth. From Ezekiel 43:15, we learn that Ari-el was the name of the altar of burnt-offerings, put here for the city itself in which that altar was. In the second verse it is said, I will distress Ari-el, and it shall be unto me as Ari-el. The first Ari-el here seems to mean Jerusalem, which should be distressed by the Assyrians: the second Ari-el seems to mean the altar of burnt-offerings.

ch. Isaiah 29:1-14. The announcement of Jehovah’s wonderful purpose regarding Jerusalem, and its reception on the part of the peopleUnder the second “Woe” (Isaiah 29:1) are grouped two oracles, which may have been originally independent; or they may be intimately connected, the second describing the effect of the first on the minds of Isaiah’s hearers. i. Isaiah 29:1-8. The impending humiliation and deliverance of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, apostrophised by the mystic name of “Ariel,” is at present gay and careless and secure, the festal calendar follows its accustomed course, and this state of things may endure for a short time longer (1). But already in vision the prophet sees her beset by hosts of enemies, and reduced to the lowest depths of despair (2–4) when suddenly the Lord Himself, arrayed in the terrors of earthquake and tempest, appears in judgment (6), and in a moment the scene is changed. In the very hour of their triumph, the enemies of Zion are disappointed of their expectation, and vanish like a vision of the night (7, 8). ii. Isaiah 29:9-14. A rebuke of the spiritual blindness and unbelief, and the hollow formal religion prevalent amongst all classes of the people. (1) Isaiah 29:9-12. Jehovah has visited the leaders of the people with judicial blindness (9 f.); the consequence is that neither among the cultured nor the unlettered can the word of the Lord find entrance (11 f.). (2) Isaiah 29:13-14. Because the popular religion has degenerated into a mechanical routine of traditional observances (13) it is necessary for Jehovah to adopt startling measures, transcending all human calculation and insight (14).

Wo - (compare the note at Isaiah 18:1). To Ariel - There can be no doubt that Jerusalem is here intended. The declaration that it was the city where David dwelt, as well as the entire scope of the prophecy, proves this.

THE SECOND WOE.As the preceding chapter began with “the garlanded summit of Samaria,” so this opens with Ariel.1.