I will be your enemy, surrounding Jerusalem and attacking its walls. I will build siege towers and destroy it.
Parallel translations
- WEB I will encamp against you all around you, and will lay siege against you with posted troops. I will raise siege works against you.
- KJV And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.
- BSB I will camp in a circle around you; I will besiege you with towers and set up siege works against you.
- NKJV I will encamp against you all around, I will lay siege against you with a mound, And I will raise siegeworks against you.
- NASB I will camp against you encircling you, And I will set up siegeworks against you, And I will raise up battle towers against you.
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
God will personally encamp against Jerusalem and lay siege with troops and siege works.
Overview
The Lord pictures Himself as the besieger surrounding the city with armies and ramparts. Judgment comes not merely from human enemies but from God using them as His instrument. This underscores that Jerusalem's true adversary in judgment is the holy God she has offended.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Luke 19:43–44For the days will come on you, when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side,
- Ezek 21:22In his right hand was the lot for Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, to build forts.
- 2 Kgs 24:11–12Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city while his servants were besieging it,
- 2 Kgs 25:1–4In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it around it.
- 2 Kgs 19:32“Therefore Yahweh says concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there. He will not come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.
- Matt 22:7When the king heard that, he was angry, and sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
- 2 Kgs 18:17The king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army to Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem. When they had come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller’s field.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 29:3 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.