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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Isaiah 29 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/isaiah/29.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/isaiah/29.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/isaiah/29-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Ellicott</a> > <a href="../isaiah/">Isaiah</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../isaiah/28.htm" title="Isaiah 28">◄</a> Isaiah 29 <a href="../isaiah/30.htm" title="Isaiah 30">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</div><div class="chap"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-1.htm">Isaiah 29:1</a></div><div class="verse">Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city <i>where</i> David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices.</div>XXIX.</span><p>(1) <span class= "bld">Woe to Ariel, to Ariel.</span>—The name belongs to the same group of poetic synonyms as Rahab (<a href="/psalms/87-4.htm" title="I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there.">Psalm 87:4</a>; <a href="/psalms/89-10.htm" title="You have broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; you have scattered your enemies with your strong arm.">Psalm 89:10</a>) and the Valley of Vision (<a href="/psalms/22-1.htm" title="My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?">Psalm 22:1</a>). It may have been coined by Isaiah himself. It may have been part of the secret language of the prophetic schools, as Sheshach stood for Babel (Jer ), Rahab for Egypt (<a href="/isaiah/51-9.htm" title="Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Are you not it that has cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?">Isaiah 51:9</a>), and in the language of later Rabbis, Edom, and in that of the Apocalypse, Babel, for Rome (<a href="/revelation/17-5.htm" title="And on her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.">Revelation 17:5</a>). Modern language has, it will be remembered, like names of praise and scorn for England and France, though these (John Bull, the British Lion, Crapaud, and the Gallic Cock) scarcely rise to the level of poetry. “Ariel” has been variously interpreted as “the lion of God,” or “the hearth of God.” The first meaning has in its favour the use of the same word for men of special heroism in <a href="/2_samuel/23-20.htm" title="And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man, of Kabzeel, who had done many acts, he slew two lion like men of Moab: he went down also and slew a lion in the middle of a pit in time of snow:">2Samuel 23:20</a> (“ lion-like men,” as in the margin, “lions of God”), and perhaps in <a href="/isaiah/33-7.htm" title="Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.">Isaiah 33:7</a> (see Note). The “lion” was, it may be noted, the traditional symbol of Judah (<a href="/revelation/5-5.htm" title="And one of the elders said to me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.">Revelation 5:5</a>). In the words that follow, “the city where David dwelt,” the prophet interprets the mystic name for the benefit of his readers. The verb for “dwelt” conveys the sense of “encamping.” David had dwelt securely in the rock-fortress of Zion.<p><span class= "bld">Add ye year to year.</span>—The word implies the solemn keeping of the New Year festival. The people might keep that festival and offer many sacrifices, but this would not avail to ward off the tribulation which they deserved, and at which the prophet had hinted in the last verse of the preceding chapter.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-2.htm">Isaiah 29:2</a></div><div class="verse">Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">And it shall be unto me as Ariel.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">But she </span>(the city) <span class= "ital">shall be unto me as Ariel. </span>That name would not falsify itself. In the midst of all her “heaviness and sorrow,” Jerusalem should still be as “the lion of God,” or, taking the other meaning, as the “altar-hearth” of God. (Comp. <a href="/ezekiel/43-15.htm" title="So the altar shall be four cubits; and from the altar and upward shall be four horns.">Ezekiel 43:15</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-3.htm">Isaiah 29:3</a></div><div class="verse">And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">I will encamp against thee . . .</span>—The words describe the strategy of an Eastern siege, as we see it in the Assyrian sculptures—the mound raised against the walls of the city, the battering-ram placed upon the mound, and brought to bear upon the walls. (See <a href="/jeremiah/33-4.htm" title="For thus said the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the mounts, and by the sword;">Jeremiah 33:4</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/4-2.htm" title="And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.">Ezekiel 4:2</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-4.htm">Isaiah 29:4</a></div><div class="verse">And thou shalt be brought down, <i>and</i> shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Shalt speak out of the ground.</span>—The words paint the panic of the besieged, the words pointing probably to Sennacherib’s invasion. They spoke in whispers, like the voice of the spectres which men heard in the secret chambers of the soothsayers. The war-cry of the brave was changed into the feeble tones of those that “peep and mutter.” (See Note on <a href="/isaiah/8-19.htm" title="And when they shall say to you, Seek to them that have familiar spirits, and to wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek to their God? for the living to the dead?">Isaiah 8:19</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-5.htm">Isaiah 29:5</a></div><div class="verse">Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones <i>shall be</i> as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Moreover the multitude . . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">But. </span>The words interpret those of <a href="/isaiah/30-28.htm" title="And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the middle of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.">Isaiah 30:28</a>. The tribulation should be great, but it should last but for a while. As in <a href="/isaiah/25-5.htm" title="You shall bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.">Isaiah 25:5</a>, the “strangers”—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> the “enemies,” and the “terrible ones”—should be brought low. A sudden catastrophe, pointing, probably, to the destruction of Sennacherib’s army, should bring them low. They, too, should pass under the “threshing instrument” of God’s judgments, and be as chaff before the wind.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-6.htm">Isaiah 29:6</a></div><div class="verse">Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">Thou shalt be visited . . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">She </span>(<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>Jerusalem). The words may be figurative, but they may also be literal. Some terrific storm, acting as an “angel of the Lord” (<a href="/isaiah/37-36.htm" title="Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.">Isaiah 37:36</a>; <a href="/psalms/104-4.htm" title="Who makes his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:">Psalm 104:4</a>), should burst at once upon Jerusalem and the hosts that were encamped against her, bringing to her safety, but to them destruction. As in the next verse, the “multitude of all nations” of the great host of Assyria should be as “a dream, a vision of the night.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-7.htm">Isaiah 29:7</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">Against her and her munition.</span>—The word is a rare one, but probably stands here for the new fortifications by which Uzziah and Hezekiah had defended Jerusalem.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-8.htm">Isaiah 29:8</a></div><div class="verse">It shall even be as when an hungry <i>man</i> dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, <i>he is</i> faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">It shall even be as when an hungry man . . .</span> <span class= "bld">eateth.</span>—The foes of Jerusalem were greedy of their prey, eager to devour; they thought it was already theirs. The rude awakening found them still empty. The lion of Judah was not to be devoured even by the strong bull of Assyria.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-9.htm">Isaiah 29:9</a></div><div class="verse">Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">Stay yourselves . . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">Astonish yourselves. </span>We can perhaps best understand the words by picturing to ourselves the prophet as preaching or reciting the previous prediction to his disciples and to the people. They are staggered, startled, incredulous, and he bursts into words of vehement reproof. The form of the verb implies that their astonished unbelief was self-caused. The change from the second person to the third implies that the prophet paused for a moment in his address to describe their state as an observer. Outwardly, they were as men too drunk to understand, but their drunkenness was not that of the “wine<span class= "ital">” </span>or the “strong drink” of the fermented palm-juice, in which, as in <a href="/isaiah/28-7.htm" title="But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.">Isaiah 28:7</a>, the prophet implies that they habitually indulged. Now their drunkenness was of another type.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-10.htm">Isaiah 29:10</a></div><div class="verse">For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">The Lord hath poured out upon you . . .</span>—The prophet sees in the stupor and panic of the chief of the people what we call a judicial blindness, the retribution of those who had wilfully closed their eyes against the light. (Comp. <a href="/romans/11-8.htm" title="(According as it is written, God has given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) to this day.">Romans 11:8</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Your rulers.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">your heads, </span>the word being in apposition with the <span class= "ital">seers. </span>The word is emphasised with a keen irony, precisely because they did <span class= "ital">not </span>see. They were as those who sleep, and are “covered,” their mantle wrapped round their head, as when men settle themselves to sleep.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-11.htm">Isaiah 29:11</a></div><div class="verse">And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which <i>men</i> deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it <i>is</i> sealed:</div>(11) <span class= "bld">The vision of all . . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">the whole vision, i.e., </span>the entire substance of Isaiah’s teaching. The words perhaps imply that this had been committed to writing, but that to the unbelievers they were as “the roll of a sealed book.” The same imagery meets us in <a href="/revelation/5-2.htm" title="And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?">Revelation 5:2</a>. The wise of this world treated its dark sayings as seals, which forbade their making any attempt to study it. The poorer unlearned class could plead a more genuine and less guilty ignorance, but the effect was the same with both.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-13.htm">Isaiah 29:13</a></div><div class="verse">Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near <i>me</i> with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:</div>(13) <span class= "bld">Wherefore the Lord said . . .</span>—We pass from the effect to the cause. The blind stupor was the outcome of a long hypocrisy. Lip-homage and an estranged heart had been the notes of the religious life of Israel, and they could bear no other fruit.<p><span class= "bld">Their fear toward me . . .</span>—The words point to what we may call an anticipated Pharisaism. Side by side with the great commandments of the Law and with the incisive teaching of the prophets there was growing up even then a traditional system of ethics and religion, based upon wrong principles, ending in a dishonest casuistry and a formal devotion. Commentaries even then were darkening counsel by words without knowledge, as they did in the Mishna and the Gemara of the later days of Judaism (<a href="/matthew/15-3.htm" title="But he answered and said to them, Why do you also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?">Matthew 15:3</a>; <a href="/mark/7-6.htm" title="He answered and said to them, Well has Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.">Mark 7:6</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-14.htm">Isaiah 29:14</a></div><div class="verse">Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, <i>even</i> a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise <i>men</i> shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent <i>men</i> shall be hid.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">I will proceed to do a marvellous work . . .</span>—The sure doom of hypocrisy would come upon the hypocrites: not loving the light, they would lose the light they had, and be left to their self-chosen blindness. Here, again, history was to repeat itself, and the words of Isaiah were to be fulfilled in an age and in a manner that lay beyond the horizon of his thoughts.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-15.htm">Isaiah 29:15</a></div><div class="verse">Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?</div>(15) <span class= "bld">Woe unto them . . .</span>—The words sound like an echo of <a href="/isaiah/5-8.htm" title="Woe to them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the middle of the earth!">Isaiah 5:8</a>; <a href="/isaiah/5-11.htm" title="Woe to them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!">Isaiah 5:11</a>; <a href="/isaiah/5-18.htm" title="Woe to them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:">Isaiah 5:18</a>, and show that Isaiah had not lost the power of adding to that catalogue of woes. The sins of which he speaks here may have been either the dark sensualities which lay beneath the surface of religion, or, more probably, their clandestine intrigues with this or that foreign power—Egypt, Ethiopia, Babylon—against the Assyrian invader, instead of trusting in the Lord of hosts.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-16.htm">Isaiah 29:16</a></div><div class="verse">Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?</div>(16) <span class= "bld">Surely your turning of things upside down.</span>—The words are better taken as exclamatory, <span class= "ital">O your perversity! </span>Isaiah was indignant at that habit of always taking things at their wrong end, and looking on them from the wrong side.<p><span class= "bld">Shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay . . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">Shall the potter be counted as the clay? </span>The Authorised version is scarcely intelligible. Taken as a question, the words bring out the character of the perversity, the upside-downness, of which the prophet speaks. The men whom he condemns were inverting the relations of the Creator and the creature, the potter and the clay, acting practically as atheists, denying that there was a Divine order of which they formed a part.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-17.htm">Isaiah 29:17</a></div><div class="verse"><i>Is</i> it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?</div>(17) <span class= "bld">Is it not yet a very little while . . .?</span>—The image of the potter does not suggest to Isaiah the thought of an arbitrary sovereignty, but of a love which will in the long run fulfil itself. He paints as not far off the restoration at once of the face of nature and of the life of man. Lebanon, that had been stripped of its cedars by the Assyrian invader (<a href="/isaiah/10-34.htm" title="And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.">Isaiah 10:34</a>), so as to be as the wilderness of <a href="/isaiah/22-15.htm" title="Thus said the Lord GOD of hosts, Go, get you to this treasurer, even to Shebna, which is over the house, and say,">Isaiah 22:15</a>, should regain its glory, and once more be as Carmel, or “the fruitful field,” while the fields that had rejoiced in the rich growth of herbage and shrubs should attain the greatness of the forests of Lebanon as they had been. (See <a href="/isaiah/32-15.htm" title="Until the spirit be poured on us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.">Isaiah 32:15</a>, where “the wilderness” answers to the “Lebanon” of this verse.) The thought and the language would seem to have been among Isaiah’s favourite utterances.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-18.htm">Isaiah 29:18</a></div><div class="verse">And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.</div>(18) I<span class= "bld">n that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book.</span>—The open vision of the future is contrasted with the self-chosen ignorance of <a href="/isaiah/29-11.htm" title="And the vision of all is become to you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray you: and he said, I cannot; for it is sealed:">Isaiah 29:11</a>. The “book” (the Hebrew has, however, no definite article) is, perhaps, the prophet’s own message, or the book of the law of the Lord, which will then be understood in all its spiritual fulness. The doom of the “closed eyes” of <a href="/isaiah/6-10.htm" title="Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.">Isaiah 6:10</a> shall then be in force no more.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-19.htm">Isaiah 29:19</a></div><div class="verse">The meek also shall increase <i>their</i> joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord.</span>—A new element enters into the ideal restoration of the future. Men had been weary of the name of the Holy One of Israel (<a href="/isaiah/30-11.htm" title="Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.">Isaiah 30:11</a>). In that better time it should be the source of joy and peace for the poor and the lowly, on whom Isaiah looked with all the yearnings of a prophet’s sympathy.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-20.htm">Isaiah 29:20</a></div><div class="verse">For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off:</div>(20) <span class= "bld">The terrible one.</span>—The word stands, as in <a href="/isaiah/29-5.htm" title="Moreover the multitude of your strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passes away: yes, it shall be at an instant suddenly.">Isaiah 29:5</a>, for the Assyrian invader; the “scorner,” for the prophet’s enemies who derided his message, and sought, “watching for iniquity,” to find an accusation against him.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-21.htm">Isaiah 29:21</a></div><div class="verse">That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">That make a man an offender for a word . . .</span>—The words indicate that Isaiah had been accused, as Jeremiah was afterwards (<a href="/jeremiah/37-13.htm" title="And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he took Jeremiah the prophet, saying, You fall away to the Chaldeans.">Jeremiah 37:13</a>), of being unpatriotic, because he had rebuked the sins of Israel and its rulers. Another interpretation gives, “that make men sinners in word,” <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>suborn false witnesses against him. The former seems preferable, but the general drift of the passage is the same. The “snare” was laid for the “righteous man,” precisely because he “reproved in the gate:” <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>preached in the open air in the places of public concourse, even in the presence of the rulers and judges as they sat there.<p><span class= "bld">Turn aside the just.</span>—The phrase is used in <a href="/exodus/23-6.htm" title="You shall not wrest the judgment of your poor in his cause.">Exodus 23:6</a>; <a href="/amos/5-12.htm" title="For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.">Amos 5:12</a>; <a href="/malachi/3-5.htm" title="And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, said the LORD of hosts.">Malachi 3:5</a>, for the deliberate perversion of justice.<p><span class= "bld">A thing of nought.</span>—The Hebrew word is once more the <span class= "ital">tohu </span>(“without form”) of <a href="/genesis/1-1.htm" title="In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.">Genesis 1:1</a>. The accusations brought against the prophet were, as we say, incoherent, absolutely <span class= "ital">chaotic </span>in their falsehood.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-22.htm">Isaiah 29:22</a></div><div class="verse">Therefore thus saith the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">Thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham.</span>—The words gain in vividness if we think of them as referring to the Jewish tradition that Abraham had been accused by his kinsmen before Nimrod for not worshipping the host of heaven. That history was for the prophet the assurance that Jehovah would not abandon him to his accusers.<p><span class= "bld">Jacob shall not now be ashamed . . .</span>—The patriarch appears, as Rachel does in <a href="/jeremiah/31-15.htm" title="Thus said the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.">Jeremiah 31:15</a>, as if watching over the fortunes of his descendants with varying emotions. Those emotions had been of shame and terror; now there was the dawning of a brighter day.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-23.htm">Isaiah 29:23</a></div><div class="verse">But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">The work of mine hands.</span>—Possibly the direct object of the verb “seeth,” the word “his children” being an interpretative insertion, to explain the change from the singular to the plural. The joy of the patriarch as he watched his people centred in the fact that they repented, and once more worshipped God as the Holy and the Dread, entering at last into that true fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom (<a href="/proverbs/1-7.htm" title="The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.">Proverbs 1:7</a>; <a href="/job/28-28.htm" title="And to man he said, Behold, the fear of the LORD, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.">Job 28:28</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/29-24.htm">Isaiah 29:24</a></div><div class="verse">They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">They that murmured shall learn doctrine.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">instruction. </span>The word is prominent in the sapiential books of Israel, and is therefore adapted to describe the process of growth and education that followed on conversion. The word, too, “murmured” is noticeable, as occurring only in <a href="/deuteronomy/1-27.htm" title="And you murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, he has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.">Deuteronomy 1:27</a>; <a href="/psalms/106-25.htm" title="But murmured in their tents, and listened not to the voice of the LORD.">Psalm 106:25</a>, of which its use here may be an echo.<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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