the Fifth Week after Easter
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King James Version
Isaiah 29:1
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Woe to Ari'el [fireplace on God's altar, lion of God] — Ari'el, the city where David encamped! Celebrate the feasts for a few more years,
Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city of David's encampment! Add ye year to year; let the feasts come round.
God says, "Look at Ariel, the city where David camped. Keep on having your festivals, year after year.
Ho Ari'el, Ari'el, the city where David encamped! add you year to year; let the feasts come round:
Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add ye year to year, let the feasts come round!
Ho Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! add ye year to year; let the feasts come round:
Ho! Ariel, Ariel, the town against which David made war; put year to year, let the feasts come round:
Wo vnto thee O Ariel Ariel, thou citie that Dauid dwelt in: Go on from yere to yere, and let the lambes be slayne.
Ah altar, altar of the citie that Dauid dwelt in: adde yere vnto yere: let them kil lambs.
WOE to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! Add year to year; let them keep festivals.
Alas for the city of Ariel, which David besieged. Gather ye fruits year by year; eat ye, for ye shall eat with Moab.
Ho Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! add ye year to year; let the feasts come round:
Woe to you, O Ariel, Ariel, the city where David camped! Year upon year let your festivals recur.
Woe (judgment is coming) to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David [once] camped! Add yet another year; let the feasts run their course [but only one year more].
Ho Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! add you year to year; let the feasts come round:
The Lord said: Jerusalem, city of David, the place of my altar, you are in for trouble! Celebrate your festivals year after year.
Alas for Ariel, Ariel, The city against which, David encamped, - Add ye a year to a year. Let the festivals, come round;
God's altar, Jerusalem itself, is doomed! The city where David camped is doomed! Let another year or two come and go, with its feasts and festivals,
Woe to Ariel, to Ariel the citie where Dauid dwelt: adde yee yeere to yeere; let them kill sacrifices.
Doom, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David set camp! Let the years add up, let the festivals run their cycles, But I'm not letting up on Jerusalem. The moaning and groaning will continue. Jerusalem to me is an Ariel. Like David, I'll set up camp against you. I'll set siege, build towers, bring in siege engines, build siege ramps. Driven into the ground, you'll speak, you'll mumble words from the dirt— Your voice from the ground, like the muttering of a ghost. Your speech will whisper from the dust.
Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David settled! Add year to year and let your cycle of festivals go on.
How terrible it will be for you, Jerusalem, the city where David camped. Your festivals have continued year after year.
Ariel is as good as dead— Ariel, the town David besieged! Keep observing your annual rituals, celebrate your festivals on schedule.
Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David settled! Add year to year and let your cycle of festivals go on.
Woe, Ariel, Ariel the city where David once camped! Add year to year, keep your feasts on schedule.
"Woe to Ariel, [fn] to Ariel, the city where David dwelt!Add year to year;Let feasts come around.
"What sorrow awaits Ariel, the City of David. Year after year you celebrate your feasts.
Ah! Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year, let festivals recur.
Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David camped. Add year on year; let feasts run their circle.
Wo vnto the o Ariel Ariel, thou cite that Dauid wane. Take yet some yeares, and let some feastes yet passe ouer:
Ho Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! add year to year; let the feasts come round:
Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city [where] David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices.
Woe to Ariel, to Ariel the city which David took: year is added to year. the solemnities are at an end.
Ho Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round.
It is bad for Ariel, Ariel the city where David once set up his tents! Add year to year. Keep your special suppers at the right times.
Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the festivals run their round.
Woe to Ariel, Ariel, the city where David camped! Continue year after year; let the festivals recur.
Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round.
Wo! Ariel, Ariel, the citee which Dauid ouercam; yeer is addid to yeer, solempnytees ben passyd.
Wo [to] Ariel, Ariel, The city of the encampment of David! Add year to year, let festivals go round.
Woe, O Ariel, Ariel the city where David once camped! Add year to year, observe your feasts on schedule.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
am 3292, bc 712
woe: etc. or, O Ariel, that is, the lion of God, Isaiah 31:9, Ezekiel 43:15, Ezekiel 43:16
the city: or, of the city, 2 Samuel 5:9
add: Isaiah 1:11-15, Jeremiah 7:21, Hosea 5:6, Hosea 8:13, Hosea 9:4, Amos 4:4, Amos 4:5, Hebrews 10:1
kill: Heb. cut off the heads, Isaiah 66:3, Micah 6:6, Micah 6:7
Reciprocal: Isaiah 8:8 - he shall pass Jeremiah 46:13 - Nebuchadrezzar Matthew 21:46 - they sought Luke 19:43 - cast
Cross-References
And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed; for all the goods of his master were in his hand: and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor.
And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
And he said unto them, Know ye Laban the son of Nahor? And they said, We know him.
And he said, Lo, it is yet high day, neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together: water ye the sheep, and go and feed them.
And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.
And it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him; and he went in unto her.
And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel.
And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them;
Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east were gathered together, and went over, and pitched in the valley of Jezreel.
And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
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 where David dwelt;''
and so it is called in Ezekiel 43:15 it signifies "the lion of God"; and the reason why it is so called, the Jews say i, is, because the fire lay upon it in the form of a lion; but rather the reason is, because it devoured the sacrifices that were laid upon it, as a lion does its prey; though others of them interpret it of the temple, which they say was built like a lion, narrow behind and broad before k; but it seems better to understand it of the city of Jerusalem, in which David encamped, as the word l signifies; or "encamped against", as some; which he besieged, and took from the Jebusites, and fortified, and dwelt in; and which may be so called from its strength and fortifications, natural and artificial, and from its being the chief city of Judah, called a lion, Genesis 49:9 whose standard had a lion on it, and from whence came the Messiah, the Lion of the tribe of Judah; or rather from its cruelty in shedding the blood of the prophets, and was, as the Lord says, as a lion unto him that cried against him,
Jeremiah 12:8 and so the words may be considered as of one calling to Jerusalem, and lamenting over it, as Christ did, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets", c. Matthew 23:37 and the mention of David's name, and of his dwelling in it, is not only to point out what city is meant, and the greatness and glory of it but to show that this would not secure it from ruin and destruction m:
add ye year to year; which some understand of two precise years, at the end of which Jerusalem should be besieged by the army of Sennacherib; but that is not here meant. Cocceius thinks that large measure of time is meant, that one year is the length of time from David's dwelling in Jerusalem to the Babylonish captivity; and the other year from the time of Zerubbabel and Nehemiah to the destruction by the Romans, which is more likely; but rather the sense is, go on from year to year in your security and vain confidence; or keep your yearly feasts, and offer your yearly sacrifices; as follows:
let them kill sacrifices; the daily and yearly sacrifices; let the people bring them, and the priests offer them, for the time is coming when an end will be put to them; "the feasts shall be cut off": so the words may be rendered; the festivals shall cease, and be no more observed; and so the Targum,
"the festivities shall cease;''
or, feasts being put for lambs, so in Psalms 118:27 as Ben Melech observes, the sense is, their heads should be cut off n.
i Yoma apud Jarchi in loc. k T. Bab. Middot, fol. 37. 1. l חנה "castrametatus est", Vatablus, Junius Tremellius "castra habuit", Piscator. m The words are rendered by Noldius, "woe to Ariel, to Ariel: to the city in which David encamped"; and he observes, that some supply the copulative "and; woe to Ariel, and to the city", c. So making them distinct, which seems best to agree with the accents, and may respect the destruction both of their ecclesiastic and civil state; the temple being designed by "Ariel", and "Jerusalem" by the city. See Concord. Ebr. Part. p. 183. No. 842. n חגים ינקפו "agni excervicabuntur", Montanus; "excidentur", Vatablus; "jugulentur", Munster.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
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. But still, it is not quiet clear why the city is here called “Ariel.” The margin reads, ‘O Ariel, that is, the lion of God.’ The word (אריאל 'ărı̂y'ēl) is compounded of two words, and is usually supposed to be made up of ארי 'ărı̂y, “a lion,” and אל 'ēl, God; and if this interpretation is correct, it is equivalent to a strong, mighty, fierce lion - where the word ‘God’ is used to denote greatness in the same way as the lofty cedars of Lebanon are called cedars of God; that is, lofty cedars. The “lion” is an emblem of strength, and a strong lion is an emblem of a mighty warrior or hero. 2 Samuel 23:20 : ‘He slew two “lion-like” אריאל 'ărı̂y'êl men of Moab’ 1 Chronicles 11:22. This use of the word to denote a hero is common in Arabic (see Bachart, “Hieroz.,” i. 3. 1).
If this be the sense in which it is used here, then it is applied to Jerusalem under the image of a hero, and particularly as the place which was distinguished under David as the capital of a kingdom that was so celebrated for its triumphs in war. The word ‘Ariel’ is, however, used in another sense in the Scriptures, to denote an “altar” Ezekiel 43:15-16, where in the Hebrew the word is “Ariel.” This name is given to the altar, Bachart supposes (“Hieroz.,” i. 3. 1), because the altar of burnt-offering “devours” as it were the sacrifices as a lion devours its prey. Gesenius, however, has suggested another reason why the word is given to the altar, since he says that the word ארי 'ărı̂y is the same as one used in Arabic to denote a fire-hearth, and that the altar was so called because it was the place of perpetual burnt-offering. The name “Ariel,” is, doubtless, given in Ezekiel to an altar; and it may be given here to Jerusalem because it was the place of the altar, or of the public worship of God. The Chaldee renders it, ‘Wo to the altar, the altar which was constructed in the city where David dwelt.’ It seems to me that this view better suits the connection, and particularly Isaiah 29:2 (see Note), than to suppose that the name is given to Jerusalem because it was like a lion. If this be the true interpretation, then it is so called because Jerusalem was the place of the burnt-offering, or of the public worship of God; the place where the fire, as on a hearth, continually burned on the altar.
The city where David dwelt - David took the hill of Zion from the Jebusites, and made it the capital of his kingdom 2 Samuel 5:6-9. Lowth renders this, ‘The city which David besieged.’ So the Septuagint: Ἐπολέμησε Epolemēse; and so the Vulgate, Expugnavit. The word חנה chânâh properly means “to encamp, to pitch one’s tent” Genesis 26:17, “to station oneself.” It is also used in the sense of encamping “against” anyone, that is, to make war upon or to attack (see Isaiah 29:3, and Psalms 27:3; 2 Samuel 12:28); and Jerome and others have supposed that it has this meaning here in accordance with the interpretation of the Septuagint and the Vulgate. But the more correct idea is probably that in our translation, that David pitched his tent there; that is, that he made it his dwelling-place.
Add ye year to year - That is, ‘go on year after year, suffer one year to glide on after another in the course which you are pursuing.’ This seems to be used ironically, and to denote that they were going on one year after another in the observance of the feasts; walking the round of external ceremonies as if the fact that David had dwelt there, and that that was the place of the great altar of worship, constituted perfect security. One of the sins charged on them in this chapter was “formality” and “heartlessness” in their devotions Isaiah 29:13, and this seems to be referred to here.
Let them kill sacrifices - Margin, ‘Cut off the heads.’ The word here rendered ‘kill’ (נקף nâqaph) may mean to smite; to hew; to cut down Isaiah 10:34; Job 19:26. But it has also another signification which better accords with this place. It denotes to make a circle, to revolve; to go round a place Joshua 6:3, Joshua 6:11; to surround 1 Kings 7:24; 2 Kings 6:14; Psalms 17:9; Psalms 22:17; Psalms 88:18. The word rendered ‘sacrifices’ (חגים chagiym) may mean a sacrifice Exodus 23:18; Psalms 118:27; Malachi 2:3, but it more commonly and properly denotes feasts or festivals Exodus 10:9; Exodus 12:14; Leviticus 23:39; Deuteronomy 16:10, Deuteronomy 16:16; 1 Kings 8:2, 1 Kings 8:65; 2 Chronicles 7:8-9; Nehemiah 8:14; Hosea 2:11, Hosea 2:13. Here the sense is, ‘let the festivals go round;’ that is, let them revolve as it were in a perpetual, unmeaning circle, until the judgments due to such heartless service shall come upon you. The whole address is evidently ironical, and designed to denote that all their service was an unvarying repetition of heartless forms.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
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 Isaiah 29:1. 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. Τινες δε φασι την πολιν οὑτως ειρησθαι· επει, δια Θεου, λεοντος δικην εσπαραττε τους ανταιροντας 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. But why is it said, "Ari-el shall be unto me as Ari-el?" As the altar of burnt-offerings was surrounded daily by the victims which were offered: so the walls of Jerusalem shall be surrounded by the dead bodies of those who had rebelled against the Lord, and who should be victims to his justice. The translation of Bishop Lowth appears to embrace both meanings: "I will bring distress upon Ari-el; and it shall be to me as the hearth of the great altar."
Add ye year to year — Ironically. Go on year after year, keep your solemn feasts; yet know, that God will punish you for your hypocritical worship, consisting of mere form destitute of true piety. Probably delivered at the time of some great feast, when they were thus employed.
