Isaiah 29:5

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹Woe to you, O Ariel, Ariel, the city where David camped! Year upon year let your festivals recur. ²And I will constrain Ariel, and there will be mourning and sorrow; she will be like an altar hearth before me. ³I will camp in a circle around you; I will besiege you with towers and set up siege works against you. ⁴You will be brought low, you will speak from the ground, and out of the dust your words will be muffled. Your voice will be like a spirit from the ground; your speech will whisper out of the dust. ⁵But your many foes will be like fine dust, the multitude of the ruthless like blowing chaff. Then suddenly, in an instant,⁶you will be visited by the LORD of Hosts with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, with windstorm and tempest and flame of consuming fire. ⁷All the many nations going out to battle against Ariel-even all who war against her, laying siege and attacking her-will be like a dream, like a vision in the night, ⁸as when a hungry man dreams he is eating, then wakes and is still hungry. And like a thirsty man dreams he is drinking, then awakens faint and parched, so it will be for all the many nations who go to battle against Mount Zion.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the multitude: Isaiah 10:16-19, Isaiah 25:5, Isaiah 31:3, Isaiah 31:8, Isaiah 37:36

as chaff: Isaiah 17:13, Job 21:18, Psalms 1:4, Psalms 35:5

at an: Isaiah 30:13, Psalms 46:5, Psalms 46:6, Psalms 76:5, Psalms 76:6, 1 Thessalonians 5:3

Reciprocal: 2 Chronicles 32:21 - the leaders Psalms 48:4 - General Isaiah 29:20 - the terrible Isaiah 33:11 - conceive Isaiah 37:7 - I will Jeremiah 15:21 - the terrible

Cross-References

Genesis 24:24
She replied, "I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son that Milcah bore to Nahor."

Genesis 24:29
Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, and he rushed out to the man at the spring.

Genesis 31:53
May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us." So Jacob swore by the One feared by his father Isaac.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Moreover, the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust,.... Or "of those that fan thee" q, as the Vulgate Latin Version; and so the Targum,

"of those that scatter thee;''

or of thine enemies, as others; meaning the Romans, who were a strange people to them, who got the dominion over them, and scattered them abroad in the world: and the simile of "small dust", to which they are compared, is not used to express the weakness of them, but the greatness of their number, which was not to be counted, any more than the dust of the earth; see Numbers 23:10:

and the multitude of the terrible ones [shall be] as chaff that passeth away; designing the same numerous army of the Romans as before, who were terrible to the Jews: nor does this metaphor signify any imbecility in them, and much less the ruin of them, but their swiftness in executing the judgments of God upon his people, who moved as quick as chaff, or any such light thing, before a mighty wind:

yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly; either the numerous army should be suddenly before Jerusalem, or the destruction of that city should be as it were in a moment; and though the siege of it lasted long, yet the last sack and ruin of it was suddenly, and in so short a time, that it might be said to be in an instant, in a moment, as it were. The Jewish writers interpret this of the sudden destruction of Sennacherib's army by the angel, 2 Kings 19:35 but the next words show that the destruction of Jerusalem is meant.

q זריך "ventilantium te", V. L. "dispergentium te", Vatablus, so Targum; "hostium tuorum", Pagninus, Cocceius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Moreover - These verses Isaiah 29:5, Isaiah 29:7-8 contain a beautiful description of the destruction of the army of Sennacherib. Though they had laid the plan of a regular siege; though the city, in itself, would not be able to hold out against them, and all was alarm and conscious imbecility within; yet in an instant the siege would be raised, and the advancing hosts of the Assyrians would all be gone.

The multitude of thy strangers - The multitude of the strangers that shall besiege thee; called ‘thy strangers,’ because they besieged, or oppressed thee. The word ‘strangers’ here, as elsewhere, means “foreigners” (see the note at Isaiah 1:7; compare Isaiah 2:6; Isaiah 5:17; Isaiah 14:1; Isaiah 25:2, Isaiah 25:5; Isaiah 29:5; Isaiah 60:10).

Shall be like small dust - Light, fine dust that is easily dissipated by the wind.

Of the terrible ones - Of the invading, besieging army, that is so much the object of dread.

As chaff that passeth away - (see the note at Isaiah 17:13). This image of chaff driven before the wind, to denote the sudden and entire discomfiture of enemies, is common in the Scriptures (see Job 21:18; Psalms 1:4; Psalms 35:5; Hosea 13:13).

Yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly - The forces of Sennacherib were destroyed in a single night by the angel of the Lord (Isaiah 37:36; the note at Isaiah 10:12, Isaiah 10:28-34, note), and the siege of Jerusalem was of course immediately raised.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 29:5. The multitude of thy strangers - "The multitude of the proud"] For זריך zarayich, thy strangers, read זדים zedim, the proud, according to the Septuagint; parallel to and synonymous with עריצים aritsim, the terrible, in the next line: the ר resh was at first ד daleth in a MS. Isaiah 25:2.

The fifth, sixth, and seventh verses contain an admirable description of the destruction of Sennacherib's army, with a beautiful variety of the most expressive and sublime images: perhaps more adapted to show the greatness, the suddenness, and horror of the event, than the means and manner by which it was effected. Compare Isaiah 30:30-33.