Isaiah 29:2
Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel.
Original Language Analysis
וַהֲצִיק֖וֹתִי
Yet I will distress
H6693
וַהֲצִיק֖וֹתִי
Yet I will distress
Strong's:
H6693
Word #:
1 of 8
to compress, i.e., (figuratively) oppress, distress
כַּאֲרִיאֵֽל׃
Ariel
H740
כַּאֲרִיאֵֽל׃
Ariel
Strong's:
H740
Word #:
2 of 8
ariel, a symbolical name for jerusalem, also the name of an israelite
וְהָיְתָ֤ה
H1961
וְהָיְתָ֤ה
Strong's:
H1961
Word #:
3 of 8
to exist, i.e., be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary)
Historical Context
The prophecy found partial fulfillment in Sennacherib's siege (701 BC), when Jerusalem was surrounded and distressed, though miraculously delivered (Isaiah 37). Full fulfillment came in the Babylonian destruction (586 BC) when the city truly became a place of slaughter and burning—its Temple reduced to rubble, its people killed or exiled.
Questions for Reflection
- How does God's covenant faithfulness sometimes manifest as discipline rather than deliverance?
- What does it mean that the place of sacrifice becomes the sacrifice itself?
- When have you experienced God bringing you into 'straits' for redemptive purposes?
Related Resources
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Analysis & Commentary
Yet I will distress Ariel (וַהֲצִיקוֹתִי לַאֲרִיאֵל, vahatsiqothi la'Ariel)—the verb צוק (tsûq) means to press, constrain, bring into straits. The Lion of God will be pressed into narrow places by God Himself. And there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel establishes a grim wordplay: Jerusalem will become to Yahweh like an altar hearth—a place of blood, smoke, and sacrificial death. But here, the city itself becomes the sacrifice.
The divine 'I will' asserts God's active agency in judgment. This is no mere consequence of political miscalculation; it is covenant discipline. The heaviness (תַּאֲנִיָּה, ta'aniyah) and sorrow (אֲנִיָּה, aniyah) are prophetic mourning terms, echoing funeral laments. God transforms the altar city into an altar of judgment.