Woe to you, O Ariel, the city of Ariel where David camped! Year upon year let your festivals recur.
Parallel translations
- WEB Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts come around;
- KJV Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices.
- NKJV “Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! Add year to year; Let feasts come around.
- NASB Woe, Ariel, Ariel the city where David once camped! Add year to year, keep your feasts on schedule.
- NLT “What sorrow awaits Ariel, the City of David. Year after year you celebrate your feasts.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Woe to Ariel (Jerusalem), the city of David, settled in empty ritual as judgment nears.
Overview
Isaiah pronounces woe on 'Ariel,' a name for Jerusalem meaning 'altar hearth' or 'lion of God.' The city goes through its annual feasts while remaining spiritually complacent. The warning exposes the danger of religious routine devoid of true devotion to God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Amos 4:4–5“Go to Bethel and transgress; rebel even more at Gilgal! Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days.
- 2 Sam 5:9So David took up residence in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built it up all the way around, from the supporting terraces inward.
- Mic 6:6–7With what shall I come before the LORD when I bow before the God on high? Should I come to Him with burnt offerings, with year-old calves?
- Hos 5:6They go with their flocks and herds to seek the LORD, but they do not find Him; He has withdrawn Himself from them.
- Hos 8:13Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me, and though they eat the meat, the LORD does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt.
- Isa 66:3Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who slays a man; whoever sacrifices a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever presents a grain offering is like one who offers pig’s blood; whoever offers frankincense is like one who blesses an idol. Indeed, they have chosen their own ways and delighted in their abominations.
- Hos 9:4They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, and their sacrifices will not please Him, but will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat will be defiled. For their bread will be for themselves; it will not enter the house of the LORD.
- Ezek 43:15–16The altar hearth shall be four cubits high, and four horns shall project upward from the hearth.
- Isa 31:9Their rock will pass away for fear, and their princes will panic at the sight of the battle standard,” declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, whose furnace is in Jerusalem.
- Heb 10:1For the law is only a shadow of the good things to come, not the realities themselves. It can never, by the same sacrifices offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
- Jer 7:21This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves!
- Isa 22:12–13On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.
- Isa 1:11–15“What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the LORD. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 29:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.