Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 29:3
And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.
3. I will camp against thee round about ] see Isa 29:1. LXX. carries the parallel still further by reading “I will encamp like David,” a reading which would be plausible if “against which” could be fairly supplied in Isa 29:1. “Round about” is the same word as “like a ball” in Isa 22:18.
with a mount ] R.V. with a fort; perhaps lines of circumvallation. For forts, read siege-works, as R.V. Comp. Eze 4:1-3.
4 explains the “moaning and bemoaning” of Isa 29:2. The verse reads: And thou shalt be laid low, speaking from ( beneath) the earth, and thy speech shall come humbly from the dust; and thy voice shall be like ( that of) a ghost ( coming) from the earth, and thy speech shall squeak from the dust. The allusions in the latter half of the verse are explained under ch. Isa 8:19. The figures signify the utter abasement and exhaustion of the “joyous city.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And I will camp against thee – That is, I will cause an army to pitch their tents there for a siege. God regards the armies which he would employ as under his control, and speaks of them as if he would do it himself (see the note at Isa 10:5).
Round about – ( kadur). As in a circle; that is, he would encompass or encircle the city. The word used here dur in Isa 22:18, means a ball, but here it evidently means a circle; and the sense is, that the army of the besiegers would encompass the city. A similar form of expression occurs in regard to Jerusalem in Luk 19:43 : For the days shall come upon thee, than thine enemies shall cast a trench ( charaka – a rampart, a mound) about thee soi against thee), and compass thee round perikuklosousi se, encircle thee). So also Luk 21:20. The Septuagint renders this, I will encompass thee as David did; evidently reading it as if it were kadud; and Lowth observes that two manuscripts thus read it, and he himself adopts it. But the authority for correcting the Hebrew text in this way is not sufficient, nor is it necessary. The idea in the present reading is a clear one, and evidently means that the armies of Sennacherib would encompass the city.
With a mount – A rampart; a fortification. Or, rather, perhaps, the word mutsab means a post, a military station, from yatsab, to place, to station. The word in this form occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures, but the word matsab occurs in 1Sa 13:23; 1Sa 14:1, 1Sa 14:4; 2Sa 23:14, in the sense of a military post, or garrison.
I will rise forts – That is, ramparts, such as were usually thrown up against a besieged city, meaning that it should be subjected to the regular process of a siege. The Septuagint reads, Purgou; Towers; and so also two manuscripts by changing the Hebrew letter (d) into the Hebrew letter (r). But there is no necessity for altering the Hebrew text. Lowth prefers the reading of the Septuagint.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 3. And I will camp against thee round about – “And I will encamp against thee like David”] For caddur, some kind of military engine, kedavid, like David, is the reading of the Septuagint, two MSS. of Kennicott’s, if not two more: but though Bishop Lowth adopts this reading, I think it harsh and unnecessary.
Forts – “Towers”] For metsuroth, read metsudoth: so the Septuagint and five MSS. of Dr. Kennicott’s, one of them ancient, and four of De Rossi’s.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
By those enemies whom I will assist and enable to destroy thee. This was fulfilled either,
1. By Sennacherib, as some learned men think. But what is here affirmed of these enemies is expressly denied concerning Sennacherib, Isa 37:3. Or rather,
2. By the Chaldeans, 2Ki 25:1, &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. IJehovah, actingthrough the Assyrian, c., His instruments (Isa10:5).
mountan artificialmound formed to out-top high walls (Isa37:33) else a station, namely, of warriors, for the siege.
round aboutnot fullyrealized under Sennacherib, but in the Roman siege (Luk 19:43;Luk 21:20).
fortssiege-towers (De20:20).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And I will camp against thee round about,…. Or as a “ball” or “globe” o; a camp all around; the Lord is said to do that which the enemy should do, because it was by his will, and according to his order, and which he would succeed and prosper, and therefore the prophecy of it is the more terrible; and it might be concluded that it would certainly be fulfilled, as it was; see Lu 19:43:
and will lay siege against thee with a mount: raised up for soldiers to get up upon, and cast their arrows into the city from, and scale the walls; Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it a wooden tower. This cannot be understood of Sennacherib’s siege, for he was not suffered to raise a bank against the city, nor shoot an arrow into it, Isa 37:33 but well agrees with the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, as related by Josephus p:
and I will raise forts against thee; from whence to batter the city; the Romans had their battering rams.
o “quasi pila”, Piscator; “instar globi”, Gataker. p Joseph. de Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 7. sect. 1. & c. 12. sect. 1, 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
3. And I will camp against thee round about. By the word כדור ( kāddūr) (257) he alludes to the roundness of a ball; and the expression corresponds to one commonly used, (“ Je l’environneray,”) “I shall surround it.” Thus he shews that all means of escape will be cut off.
And will lay siege against thee. This alludes to another method of invading the city; for either attacks are made at various points, or there is a regular siege. He confirms the doctrine of the former verse, and shews that this war will be carried on under God’s direction, and that the Assyrians, though they are hurried on by their passions and by the lust of power, will undertake nothing but by the command of God. He reckoned it to be of great importance to carry full conviction to the minds of the Jews, that all the evils which befell them were sent by God, that they might thus be led to enter into an examination of their crimes. As this doctrine is often found in the Scriptures, it ought to be the more carefully impressed on our minds; for it is not without good reason that it is so frequently repeated and inculcated by the Holy Spirit.
(257) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3) I will encamp against thee . . .The words describe the strategy of an Eastern siege, as we see it in the Assyrian sculpturesthe mound raised against the walls of the city, the battering-ram placed upon the mound, and brought to bear upon the walls. (See Jer. 33:4; Eze. 4:2.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘And I will encamp against you in a circle (literally ‘like a circular object’ surrounding the city),
And will lay siege against you with a fort,
And I will raise siegeworks against you.
And you will be brought down,
And you will speak from the ground,
And your speech will be low out of the dust,
And your voice will be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground,
And your speech will whisper (chirp), out of the dust.’
There is a direct contrast between David encamping in the city in Isa 29:1 with God encamping against it here. The tables have been turned.
Some however translate Isa 29:1 as ‘against which David encamped’, a possible translation, and see this as indicating parallel action (Hebrew prepositions are not always as clear as we would like). David had once encamped against it when it was a pagan city, and now God was doing the same for the same reason. The basic idea is the same.
Yahweh (initially through the king of Assyria) intends to lay siege to Jerusalem, this false mountain of God, raising siegeworks against it and humbling it. It will be brought so low that its voice will, as it were, seem to come out of the ground, from the very dust. They will be utterly humbled. And they will be in such a state that their prayers will be like the whispered words of a medium, like the chirp of an enchanter who seeks to the dead. (For the idea of prayer seen as such chirping/whispering in distress see Isa 26:16). Again there is a mixing of the contrast between the idea of God with ‘the gods’, especially underworld gods, as the people’s prayers to God seem almost similar to appeals made to these ‘gods’.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 29:3-4. And I will camp, &c. This second article explains the former. The prophet had said that Jerusalem should be straitened and distressed; which he here expresses plainly, Isa 29:3 declaring that the consequence of this siege should be, a reduction of the proud and self-confident inhabitants to that state of humility, that, like the Pythonesses, or those who had familiar spirits, they should, with a low and whispering voice, (a certain demonstration of the anxiety of their minds) mournfully express their sensations, or answer their enemies in supplication and humility. See ch. Isa 2:6. Though the prophet in this place may refer to different sieges of Jerusalem, yet it appears that the more immediate reference is to its last and terrible siege by the Romans; and by referring to Josephus’s account of that siege, the reader will find a variety of particulars which will throw great light on this prophesy.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Here are the same, or similar denunciations, as have been before noticed. God’s judgments for men’s rebellion. And what makes the whole most awful, is, that those judgments and punishments remain unsanctified. The people did indeed, when the Lord’s afflictions were upon them, call upon the Lord; but it was in form only, not in heart. Lip service, not soul affection, constituted the whole of their religion. Reader! look narrowly over your own heart, under this particular: rottenness begins there. Eze 33:30-32 ; Jer 12:2 ; Mat 15:8 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 29:3 And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.
Ver. 3. And I will camp against thee round about. ] I will bring the woe of war upon thee – a woe that no words, how wide soever, can possibly express. See this accomplished. 2Ki 25:4
And will lay siege.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
And I will camp
Here, as often in prophecy, and especially in Isaiah, the near and far horizons blend. The near view is of Sennacherib’s invasion and the destruction of the Assyrian host by the angel of the Lord (Isaiah 36, 37.); the far view is that of the final gathering of the Gentile hosts against Jerusalem at the end of the great tribulation Psa 2:5; Rev 7:14 when a still greater deliverance will be wrought. (See “Times of the Gentiles,”; Luk 21:24; Rev 16:14. The same remark applies also to Isa 28:14-18 where there is a near reference to the Egyptian alliance (“we have made a covenant,” etc.), while the reference to the stone Isa 29:16 carries the meaning forward to the end-time, and the covenant of unbelieving Israel with the Beast. Dan 9:27.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
2Ki 18:17, 2Ki 19:32, 2Ki 24:11, 2Ki 24:12, 2Ki 25:1-4, Eze 21:22, Mat 22:7, Luk 19:43, Luk 19:44
Reciprocal: Jer 5:15 – I will Jer 52:4 – pitched
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 29:3-4. And I will camp against thee, &c. That is, by those enemies whom I will assist and enable to take and destroy thee. The prophet may here refer to different sieges of Jerusalem, that of Sennacherib, that of the Chaldeans, or even to that of the Romans. Thou shalt be brought down thy speech shall be low Thou, who now speakest so loftily, shalt be humbled, and in a submissive manner, and with a low voice, shalt beg the favour of thine enemies. As of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground That the souls of the dead uttered a feeble, stridulous sound, very different from the natural human voice, was a popular notion among the heathen, as well as among the Jews. This appears from several passages of their poets, Homer, Virgil, Horace. The pretenders to the art of necromancy, who were chiefly women, had an art of speaking with a reigned voice, so as to deceive those who applied to them, by making them believe that it was the voice of the ghost. They had a way of uttering sounds, as if they were formed, not by the organs of speech, but deep in the chest, or in the belly, and were thence called , ventriloqui. They could make the voice seem to come from beneath the ground, from a distant part, in another direction, and not from themselves, the better to impose upon those who consulted them. From these arts of the necromancers, the popular notion seems to have arisen that the ghosts voice was a weak, stridulous, almost an inarticulate sort of sound, very different from the speech of the living. Bishop Lowth.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Yahweh would bring Jerusalem under siege. David had camped there (Isa 29:1), but God would camp there too. This probably refers to His use of Sennacherib and the Assyrians for this purpose in 701 B.C., though other armies also besieged Jerusalem (cf. Dan 1:1).