Isaiah 29:7

And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision. HER MUNITION - her fortress....

7._As a dream of a night-vision. _This verse also I interpret differently from others; for they think that the Prophet intended to bring consolation to the godly. There is undoubtedly great plausibility in this view, and it contains an excellent doctrine, namely, that the enemies of the Church resemble “dreamers” in this respect, that the Lord disappoints their hopes, even when they think that they have almost gained their object. (263) But this interpretation does not appear to me to agree well with the text. Sometimes it happens that, when a sentence is beautiful, it attracts us to it, and causes us to steal away from the true meaning, so that we do not adhere closely to the context, or spend much time in investigating the author’s meaning. Let us therefore inquire if this be the true meaning of the Prophet. Since he afterwards proceeds again to utter threatenings, I have no doubt that...

1-8 Ariel may signify the altar of burnt-offerings. Let Jerusalem know that outward religious services will not make men free from judgements. Hypocrites never can please God, nor make their peace with him. God had often and long, by a host of angels, encamped round about Jerusalem for protection and deliverance; but now he fought against it. Proud looks and proud language shall be brought down by humbling providences. The destruction of Jerusalem's enemies is foretold. The army of Sennacherib went as a dream; and thus the multitudes, that through successive ages fight against God's altar and worship, shall fall. Speedily will sinners awake from their soothing dreams in the pains of hell....

Verse Isaiah 29:7. _AS A DREAM_] This is the beginning of the comparison, which is pursued and applied in the next verse. Sennacherib and his mighty army are not compared to a dream because of their sudden disappearance; but the disappointment of their eager hopes is compared to what happens to a hungry and thirsty man, when he awakes from a dream in which fancy had presented to him meat and drink in abundance, and finds it nothing but a vain illusion. The comparison is elegant and beautiful in the highest degree, well wrought up, and perfectly suited to the end proposed. The image is extremely natural, but not obvious: it appeals to our inward feelings, not to our outward senses; and is applied to an event in its concomitant circumstances exactly similar, but in its nature totally different. See _De S. Poes. Hebr_. Praelect. xii. For beauty and ingenuity it may fairly come in compet...

AND THE MULTITUDE OF ALL THE NATIONS - The Assyrians, and their allied hosts. AND HER MUNITION - Her fortresses, castles, places of strength 2 Samuel 5:7; Ecclesiastes 9:14; Ezekiel 19:9. SHALL BE AS A DREAM OF A NIGHT VISION - In a dream we seem to see the objects of which we think as really as when awake, and hence, they are called visions, and visions of the night Genesis 46:2; Job 4:13;...

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 29:1 A WARNING TO JERUSALEM. Expostulation is followed by threats. The prophet is aware that all his preaching to the authorities in Jerusalem (Isaiah 28:14) will be of no avail, and that their adoption of measures directly antagonistic to the commands of God will bring on the very evil which they are seeking to avert, and cause Jerusalem to be actually besieged by her enemies. In the present passage he distinctly announces the siege, and declares that it will commence within a year. ISAIAH 29:1 WOE TO ARIEL, TO ARIEL, THE CITY WHERE DAVID DWELT! "Ariel' is clearly a myst

AND THE MULTITUDE OF ALL THE NATIONS THAT FIGHT AGAINST ARIEL,.... The Roman army, which consisted of men of all nations, that fought against Jerusalem; the city in which was the altar, as the Targum paraphrases it: EVEN ALL THAT FIGHT AGAINST HER, AND HER MUNITION, AND THAT DISTRESS HER; that besieged it, and endeavoured to demolish its walls, towns, and fortifications, as they did: SHALL BE AS A DREAM OF A NIGHT VISION: meaning either that the Roman empire should quickly fall, and pass away, and come to nothing, like a dream in the night, as it soon began to decay after the destruction of Jerusalem, and also the Pagan religion in it; or that the Roman army would be disappointed at the taking of the city, expecting to find much riches, and a great spoil, and should not; and so be like a man that dreams, and fancies he is in the possession of what he craves, but, when he awakes, finds...

CHAPTER 29 The Second Woe Against Ariel and the Third Woe 1. _The fall of Ariel (Jerusalem) predicted (Isaiah 29:1)_ 2. _Their enemies dealt with by Jehovah (Isaiah 29:5)_ 3. _The people's condition: Blinded and religious formalists (Isaiah 29:9)_ 4. _The third woe (Isaiah 29:15)_ 5. _In that Day: joy and blessing for the meek and iniquity punished (Isaiah 29:17) _ Ariel means “the lion of God.” It is one of the names of Jerusalem. A great siege of Jerusalem is predicted. Neither Sennacherib's invasion nor the sie

ISAIAH 29. THE DOOM OF ARIEL. Possibly Isaiah 29:7 f., with most of Isaiah 29:5, is an insertion to turn a prophecy of judgment into one of mercy. Isaiah 29:1 is then a prophecy of ruin to Jerusalem, visited meaning visited in judgment (Isaiah 24:18). Isaiah 29:16 also seems to be late. Woe is pronounced in Isaiah 29:15 on the promoters of the Egyptian alliance, who sought to conceal their plans from God, and we should expect the prophecy to continue with a prediction of pu

ARIEL. Here it is plainly Jerusalem....