Глава 29

1–12. The fate awaiting Jerusalem. 13–24. The secret council of people and the secret decision of God. Isaiah 29:1–12. A sad future awaits Jerusalem - it will be subjected to all the horrors of a siege. However, the city will not be taken by enemies; these latter will quickly disappear. But the inhabitants of Jerusalem indifferently listen to these speeches of the prophet about the fate awaiting them: due to their spiritual blindness, they are not even able to understand the words of the prophet. Isa.29:1. Woe to Ariel, Ariel, the city in which David lived! add year to year; let them slaughter the victims. Isa.29:2. But I will afflict Ariel, and there will be weeping and mourning; and he will remain with Me like Ariel. This contains the theme of the prophet's speech. “Ariel”, i.e. the city of God, or Jerusalem, despite the fact that it is Ariel, i.e. the lion of God, will undergo great oppression, but will still be preserved as Ariel, i.e. as the hearth of God. Thus, here we find the same word in three meanings: firstly, the prophet uses the name Ariel in the sense of “city of God” (in Hebrew, ar city and el God, the particle i is connecting), secondly (in the 2nd verse in the first half), the name Ariel means “lion of God,” i.e. a strong city that will be put in an extremely difficult situation; thirdly (the last word of verse 2), Ariel means “the hearth or altar of God.” And the meaning of the last expression of verse 2 is that, despite all the misfortunes, Jerusalem will still retain its dominant position among the Jewish cities, as a real altar of God. "Add year to year". These words must contain a definite indication of the time remaining before the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem, because otherwise they would be completely useless in the sense of a threat; the inhabitants of Jerusalem might have believed that it would be a long time before they saw their enemies! It would be more correct to translate this passage as follows: “to the expiring year you can add only one more whole year; you will celebrate only one more annual circle of holidays (before the siege).” 33 Isa.29:3. I will camp around you and surround you with watchful guards and build fortifications against you. Isa.29:4. And you will be humiliated, you will speak from the ground, and your speech will be muffled from under the dust, and your voice will be like the voice of a ventriloquist, and your speech will whisper from under the dust. Jerusalem will be so pressed by enemies that its inhabitants will be almost unable to speak! Unless they will make some kind of whisper, like a person pressed to the ground, or as, according to the Jews, the dead spoken by magicians (cf. Is. 8:19). Isa.29:5. The multitude of your enemies will be like fine dust, and a horde of fierce ones will be like flying chaff; and this will happen suddenly, in an instant. Isa.29:6. The Lord of hosts will visit you with thunder and an earthquake, and a strong voice, a storm and a whirlwind, and the flame of an all-consuming fire. Isa.29:7. And like a dream, like a dream at night, there will be a multitude of all the nations fighting against Ariel, and all those who came out against him and his fortifications and oppressed him. Isa.29:8. And like a hungry man dreams that he is eating, but he awakens, and his soul is empty; and as a thirsty man dreams that he is drinking, but he awakens, and behold he languishes, and his soul thirsts: the same will happen to the multitude of all the nations who fight against Mount Zion. But the Jewish enemies will not have to triumph for long: they will quickly, in an instant, be carried away from the walls of the city, like fine dust or tares blown by the wind - the Lord will visit you. The prophet turns to Jerusalem with the promise of a gracious visit or salvation of God (cf. Is. 24:22), which will consist in the fact that the Lord will bring down His wrath on the enemies of Jerusalem. 34 "Ariel" - in 7th century. - probably means the holy city, as “the hearth or altar of God.” The picture of the disappointment of the Assyrians, who considered Jerusalem already theirs, is drawn by the prophet extremely vividly... First, he says that the very attack of the Assyrians on Jerusalem will leave in the Jews the impression of a terrible dream (Art. 7), and then he points out that many peoples who were part of the Assyrian army will sadly see that all their hopes of profiting from the riches of Jerusalem were in vain. Isa.29:9. Be amazed and marvel: they blinded others, and they themselves were blinded; they are drunk, but not from wine; they are staggering, but not from strong drink; Isa.29:10. For the Lord has brought upon you a spirit of slumber, and has closed your eyes, O prophets, and covered your heads, O seers. Isa.29:11. And every prophecy is to you like words in a sealed book, which is given to one who knows how to read the book and they say: “Read it”; and he answers: “I can’t, because it’s sealed.” Isa.29:12. And they hand the book to someone who does not know how to read, and say: “read it”; and he answers: “I can’t read.” Here the prophet depicts the impression that his words should have had on the unreceptive Jewish people. The Jews do not count on God's help, but on the help of Egypt. Therefore, they are not happy, but only puzzled by his speech. They are like blind people who became so not without divine permission, and they treat the prophecy of Isaiah as people who must penetrate the contents of a sealed scroll, or like an illiterate person who is asked to read something. “Be amazed and marvel,” that is, you can marvel at my speeches as much as you like, find them strange, but in any case, I am obliged to tell them to you and you will not hear any other speeches! “They blinded” is more correct, in accordance with the previous words, and this expression should be conveyed in the imperative mood, exactly like this: “blind yourself and remain in your blindness!” "They are drunk." The Prophet could only describe the undertakings of Jewish politicians as the actions of completely drunk people. “The Lord has brought upon you a spirit of sleep.” The prophet here portrays the bitterness and stubbornness of the Jews, who did not want to listen to Isaiah, as God’s punishment for their previous behavior, for their disbelief in previous revelations. "Prophets..., seers". Here Isaiah probably means people who, on the basis of the special prophetic ability that they attributed to themselves, acted as interpreters of the rather difficult to understand sayings of Isaiah or another real prophet and, perhaps, enjoyed in this case some authority among the Jews. But these prophets and seers often made mistakes in their interpretations - they did not understand the true meaning of Isaiah’s words. The people probably turned to them for clarification, for example, about the prophecy about Ariel, but in this case they turned out to be not up to the task! Isa.29:13. And the Lord said: since this people draws near to Me with their lips, and honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me, and their reverence for Me is the study of the commandments of men; Isa.29:14. then, behold, I will deal with this people in an extraordinary way, wonderfully and wondrously, so that the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and their understanding will cease to exist among those who have understanding. Jewish politicians and other Jews, who did not want to listen to the prophet of God, still outwardly continued to consider themselves worshipers of the Lord. The prophet now denounces the falsity of such worship of God and at the same time proclaims that the Lord will disgrace their own wisdom, of which they were proud. He Himself, with His almighty power, will defeat the proud Assyrians and exalt Judah. And subsequently the Lord will, by His grace, exalt the humiliated, and rapists and liars will be destroyed. As a result of this, the descendants of Jacob, in the distant future, will bow to the Almighty in everything. The Jews, obviously, wanted to follow their own paths at all costs in their lives and especially in politics, although outwardly they maintained contact with the church of the Most High through external worship. The punishment for this will be that the Lord will continue (I will act in an extraordinary way), as He did before, to put to shame their cunning plans. He will act wonderfully and marvelously towards the Jewish people, that is, completely unexpectedly for them, he will send them punishment and salvation. It is very likely that this contains a prediction about the liberation of Jerusalem from the Assyrian siege under King Hezekiah. Isa.29:15. Woe to those who think to hide themselves in the depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their deeds in darkness and say: “Who will see us? and who will recognize us? Isa.29:16. What recklessness! Can a potter be considered like clay? Will the product say about the one who made it: “He did not make me”? and will the work say about its artist: “He does not understand”? Like Ahaz (Is. 7:1), Hezekiah tried to conduct politics on his own, not following the instructions of the prophet Isaiah and at the same time hiding his plans from him. He did not want to directly and openly oppose the prophet, since he respected the prophet as the messenger of God. But by this he showed his lack of understanding of the great significance of the prophetic ministry. He thought to deceive the prophet - as if, in wisdom, he was superior to him! In fact, he and his politicians could be compared to clay, while the real potter was the prophet of God. Pointing out the absurdity of the political plans of the ministers of King Hezekiah, who recognized it as possible not to obey God, the prophet compares them with a pot, which refuses to recognize the culprit of its existence in the master who made it, and with a work of art, which does not want to recognize the intelligence of the artist who made it. Isa.29:17. A little more, very little, and won't Lebanon turn into a garden, and won't the garden be revered like a forest? Isa.29:18. And on that day the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of darkness and gloom. Isa.29:19. And the afflicted will rejoice in the Lord more and more, and the poor people will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel, Isa.29:20. because the offender will no longer be, and the blasphemer will disappear, and all the champions of unrighteousness will be destroyed, Isa.29:21. who entangle a person in words, and lay snares at the gate for those who demand judgment, and push away those who are upright. The Lord Himself reforms His people, now so unreceptive to Divine revelations. The Prophet depicts this future change under symbolic images of the change taking place in nature and in the lives of people. At the same time, Jewish politicians proud of their wisdom will perish. It is obvious, however, that the prophet’s gaze from the near future is directed here to the most distant times - to the days of messianic salvation. “Will Lebanon turn into a garden?” The Lord can turn the impenetrable forests of Lebanon into a simple, well-cleared garden, and also, and vice versa, into a garden into a forest. Lebanon here primarily means the wild strength and power of the Assyrian king, and the garden means the Jewish state. "Deaf". The Prophet is probably speaking here about the spiritually deaf Jews, upon whom God brought a spirit of slumber (v. 11). With the manifestation of God's grace among the people, all their stubbornness will end - they will cease to be deaf and blind to the revelations of God. At the same time, they will find happiness for themselves, will be freed from all need and will rejoice in communion with their Lord. The content of these verses (18, 19) is reproduced in Christ’s famous response to the disciples of John the Baptist (Matt. 11:5; Luke 7:22) and, therefore, this place has a messianic meaning, pointing to the changes that the Gospel grace will make in the life of all humanity. “The offender and blasphemer” is, first of all, the king of Assyria (cf. Is. 36 et seq.), and then, in general, every enemy of the Church of God. “All the champions of untruth” are our own, domestic oppressors of the Jewish people. "To him who demands judgment at the gates". According to Jewish custom, judges heard litigation at the city gates, in the squares located at these gates, so that there would always be witnesses to how the case was dealt with. Isa.29:22. Therefore this is what the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, says about the house of Jacob: Then Jacob will not be ashamed, and his face will no longer turn pale. Isa.29:23. For when he sees his children among himself, the work of my hands, they will honor my name holy and holy the Holy One of Jacob, and revere the God of Israel. Isa.29:24. Then those who wander in spirit will learn wisdom, and those who are disobedient will learn obedience. In conclusion, the prophet proclaims salvation from God to the best elements of the people of Israel. This chosen remnant will sacredly honor the name of God and will possess true wisdom. “He redeemed Abraham,” that is, he delivered him from the influences of a pagan, albeit related, environment (Joshua 24:2, 14–15), leading him out of Mesopotamia. “Jacob will not be ashamed,” that is, he will receive everything that was promised to him from God (cf. Is. 19:9; Is. 20:5; Is. 37:27). “His face will no longer turn pale.” Among peoples with a bronze complexion, embarrassment and shame were indicated not by the color that catches the face, but by pallor. “When they see their children among themselves, the work of My hands” is more correctly translated: “when his (Israel’s) children (descendants) see My work, which I will do among them.” “Those who wander in spirit” are not only Jews, but also Gentiles (Eph. 4:18). In general, this prophecy about people turning to God continues to be fulfilled even now (Rom. 11; John 9:5, 39). Chapter 29 forms a complete poem about the humiliation and rise of Ariel or Jerusalem. The authenticity of this chapter does not raise any serious objections. The stanzas of Condamin's poem are divided as follows: 1 stanza – 1–4 art. – (3, 2, 2) Stanza 2 – 5–8 art. – (3, 2, 2) Stanza 2 – 9–10 art. – (2, 2) (Verses 11–14 are written in prose, and 15–16 Condamin refers to the beginning of the 30th chapter, due to the similarity in thoughts and construction with 1–2 of the 30th chapter). 1st stanza – 17–21 st. – (1, 2, 2) Stanza 2 – 22–24 art. – (1, 2, 2) The Slavic translation from LXX speaks of the siege of Jerusalem by David. “Woe to the city of Ariel, but David is a warrior. Collect life from year to year, take it down along with Moab. For I will embitter Ariel, and his strength and wealth will be mine: And I will sit with you like David, and I will build a fort around you.” – The theme of punishment is quite consonant with the theme of David’s siege of Jerusalem – “David was thirty years old when he began to reign; reigned for forty years... And the king and his people went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of that country; but they said to David, “You will not come in here; The blind and the lame will drive you away,” this meant: “David will not enter here.” But David took the fortress of Zion: this is the city of David.” (2 Samuel 5:4–7 et seq.). There is no reason to think that the play on words “Ariel-Ariel-Ariel” adds anything to the prophecy. At the same time, the arrogance of the besieged is quite consistent with the wickedness of the Jews of that time and their contempt for the law of God (David - figuratively - the Lord). Ariel is a figurative name for the capital city, sanctuary city, lion city. Note ed. In the Slavic translation of LXX and in the 7th art. Ariel and Jerusalem are designated as different cities. “And it will be like a dream that I saw in a dream at night, the riches of all tongues, who fought against Ariel, and all those who fought against Jerusalem, and all those who gathered together and embittered her.” It should apparently be assumed that the word Ariel was used by the Jews not as a name - a proper name, but as a name-characteristic. There are many cases when translators perceived definitional phrases as proper names (for example: Jehovah - Existing forever and ever, elohim - Creator of the Universe, Adonai - Righteous Judge. And vice versa - Jehovah-Jireh - “The Lord will provide.” In this case, it was more correct to use the phrase “Jehovah-Jireh” as a proper name - a local toponymic name. Ed. You might be interested in: