Isaiah 29 Bible study: Woe to Ariel

"Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts come around" (29:1) (tap Woe). It is the second of the six woes that open words in chapters 28-33; the first was "Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim" (Isaiah 28:1). The chapter goes on: "then I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation" (29:2), and "I will encamp against you all around you, and will lay siege against you with posted troops. I will raise siege works against you" (29:3). Here is what almost everyone misses: in Hebrew encamped in 29:1 and encamp in 29:3 are the same verb, chanah (tap encamped). The verb the chapter uses of David is the verb of the siege. "You will be brought down, and will speak out of the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust" (29:4).

Isaiah 29:13→leads toMatthew 15:7-9

The Lord says in Isaiah, "Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught" (Isaiah 29:13). In Matthew, "Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem" (Matthew 15:1) and asked, "Why do your disciples disobey the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat bread" (Matthew 15:2). In his answer Jesus said, "You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying" (Matthew 15:7), and gave its words: "These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me" (Matthew 15:8), "And they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrine rules made by men" (Matthew 15:9). Jesus names Isaiah, and says Isaiah prophesied of those he was answering, the Pharisees and scribes who had come to him (Matthew 15:1). Mark tells the same answer (Mark 7:6-7). The WEB words Isaiah and Matthew differently: they have removed their heart far from me and their heart is far from me, a commandment of men which has been taught and teaching as doctrine rules made by men. These notes say only what Jesus said, and to whom, and apply the words to no one today.

סֵפֶרsefersay SAY-fer

Strong's: "properly, writing (the art or a document); by implication, a book". Brown-Driver-Briggs: "missive, document, writing, book". "All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed" (29:11). Isaiah has the word twelve times, and six of them are in this chapter: five in 29:11-12 and one in 29:18. The word comes back in the promise after them, "In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book" (29:18). Isaiah's next use of the word is "inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever" (Isaiah 30:8).