Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices.
Parallel translations
- WEB Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts come around;
- BSB Woe to you, O Ariel, the city of Ariel where David camped! Year upon year let your festivals recur.
- 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 4:4–5Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years:
- 2 Sam 5:9So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward.
- Mic 6:6–7Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
- Hos 5:6They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them.
- Hos 8:13They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; but the LORD accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.
- Isa 66:3He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.
- Hos 9:4They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD.
- Ezek 43:15–16So the altar shall be four cubits; and from the altar and upward shall be four horns.
- Isa 31:9And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.
- Heb 10:1For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
- Jer 7:21Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
- Isa 22:12–13And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
- Isa 1:11–15To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
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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.