The Siege of Jerusalem

29 Ah, Ariel, Ariel,
    the city (A)where David encamped!
Add year to year;
    let the feasts run their round.
Yet I will distress Ariel,
    and there shall be moaning and lamentation,
    and she shall be to me like an Ariel.[a]
(B)And I will encamp against you all around,
    and will besiege you (C)with towers
    and I will raise siegeworks against you.
(D)And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak,
    and from the dust your speech will be bowed down;
your voice shall come from the ground like (E)the voice of a ghost,
    and from the dust your speech shall whisper.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 29:2 Ariel could mean lion of God, or hero (2 Samuel 23:20), or altar hearth (Ezekiel 43:15–16)

A Message about Jerusalem

29 “What sorrow awaits Ariel,[a] the City of David.
    Year after year you celebrate your feasts.
Yet I will bring disaster upon you,
    and there will be much weeping and sorrow.
For Jerusalem will become what her name Ariel means—
    an altar covered with blood.
I will be your enemy,
    surrounding Jerusalem and attacking its walls.
I will build siege towers
    and destroy it.
Then deep from the earth you will speak;
    from low in the dust your words will come.
Your voice will whisper from the ground
    like a ghost conjured up from the grave.

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Footnotes

  1. 29:1 Ariel sounds like a Hebrew term that means “hearth” or “altar.”