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Isaiah 29 · a question people ask

Is the chapter against the city, or for it?

In the text

It says both, one after the other, and doesn't say how they fit together. First the city is besieged: "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), and "You will be brought down" (29:4). Then, with But, the chapter turns to her foes: "But the multitude of your foes will be like fine dust" (29:5), and "The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night" (29:7). In Hebrew distress in "I will distress Ariel" (29:2) and in "who distress her" (29:7) is the same verb, tsuq: the chapter uses it first with I and then of the nations. It names no nation and no king, and gives no date, and these notes name none.

From Favor's study of Isaiah 29

Isaiah 29: Woe to Ariel

Isaiah 29 uses David's verb for the siege: "the city where David encamped" (29:1), then "I will encamp against you" (29:3). No one could read the sealed book (29:11-12), and "In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book" (29:18). And Jesus gave 29:13's words to the Pharisees and scribes: "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you" (Matthew 15:7).

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