Isaiah 29

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¹Woe to you, O Ariel, the city of Ariel where David camped! Year upon year let your festivals recur. ✦ ²And I will constrain Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation; she will be like an altar hearth before Me. ✦ ³I will camp in a circle around you; I will besiege you with towers and set up siege works against you. ✦ ⁴You will be brought low, you will speak from the ground, and out of the dust your words will be muffled. Your voice will be like a spirit from the ground; your speech will whisper out of the dust. ✦ ⁵But your many foes will be like fine dust, the multitude of the ruthless like blowing chaff. Then suddenly, in an instant, ✦ ⁶you will be visited by the LORD of Hosts with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, with windstorm and tempest and consuming flame of fire. ✦ ⁷All the many nations going out to battle against Ariel—even all who war against her, laying siege and attacking her—will be like a dream, like a vision in the night, ✦ ⁸as when a hungry man dreams he is eating, then awakens still hungry; as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking, then awakens faint and parched. So will it be for all the many nations who go to battle against Mount Zion. ✦ ⁹Stop and be astonished; blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not from strong drink. ✦ ¹⁰For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut your eyes, O prophets; He has covered your heads, O seers. ✦ ¹¹And the entire vision will be to you like the words sealed in a scroll. If it is handed to someone to read, he will say, “I cannot, because it is sealed.” ✦ ¹²Or if the scroll is handed to one unable to read, he will say, “I cannot read.” ✦ ¹³Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men. ✦ ¹⁴Therefore I will again confound these people with wonder upon wonder. The wisdom of the wise will vanish, and the intelligence of the intelligent will be hidden.” ✦ ¹⁵Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?” ✦ ¹⁶You have turned things upside down, as if the potter were regarded as clay. Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pottery say of the potter, “He has no understanding”? ✦ ¹⁷In a very short time, will not Lebanon become an orchard, and the orchard seem like a forest? ✦ ¹⁸On that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of the deep darkness the eyes of the blind will see. ✦ ¹⁹The humble will increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. ✦ ²⁰For the ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who look for evil will be cut down— ✦ ²¹those who indict a man with a word, who ensnare the mediator at the gate, and who with false charges deprive the innocent of justice. ✦ ²²Therefore the LORD who redeemed Abraham says of the house of Jacob: “No longer will Jacob be ashamed and no more will his face grow pale. ✦ ²³For when he sees his children around him, the work of My hands, they will honor My name, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and they will stand in awe of the God of Israel. ✦ ²⁴Then the wayward in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will accept instruction.” ✦

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Where this chapter connects

Isa 28 ·8 Isa 29 ·8 Isa 51 ·6 Isa 41 ·6 Isa 49 ·5 Isa 5 ·5 Isa 30 ·5 Isa 10 ·5

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 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.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Seminary

★ Start hereCommentaryThe Book of Isaiah (NICOT)John N. Oswalt · Paid · evangelical
The standard evangelical commentary on Isaiah — thorough and devotionally warm.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Isaiah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Isaiah 29YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Isaiah 29David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on IsaiahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Isaiah 29Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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