Isaiah 29:3

3 I will encamp against you on all sides; I will encircle you with towers and set up my siege works against you.

Isaiah 29:3 in Other Translations

King James Version (KJV)
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.
English Standard Version (ESV)
3 And I will encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with towers and I will raise siegeworks against you.
New Living Translation (NLT)
3 I will be your enemy, surrounding Jerusalem and attacking its walls. I will build siege towers and destroy it.
The Message Bible (MSG)
3 Like David, I'll set up camp against you. I'll set siege, build towers, bring in siege engines, build siege ramps.
American Standard Version (ASV)
3 And I will encamp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with posted troops, and I will raise siege works against thee.
GOD'S WORD Translation (GW)
3 I will set up war camps all around you. I will blockade you with towers. I will put up mounds of dirt around you.
Holman Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
3 I will camp in a circle around you; I will besiege you with earth ramps, and I will set up my siege towers against you.
New International Reader's Version (NIRV)
3 I will be like an army that is camped against you on all sides. I will surround you with towers in order to attack you. I will build my ramps all around you and set up my ladders.

Isaiah 29:3 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 29:3

And I will camp against thee round about
Or as a "ball" or "globe" F15; 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 ( Luke 19:43 ) ( 21:20 ) : 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, ( Isaiah 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.


FOOTNOTES:

F15 (rwdk) "quasi pila", Piscator; "instar globi", Gataker.
F16 Joseph. de Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 7. sect. 1. & c. 12. sect. 1, 2.

Isaiah 29:3 In-Context

1 Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David settled! Add year to year and let your cycle of festivals go on.
2 Yet I will besiege Ariel; she will mourn and lament, she will be to me like an altar hearth.
3 I will encamp against you on all sides; I will encircle you with towers and set up my siege works against you.
4 Brought low, you will speak from the ground; your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth; out of the dust your speech will whisper.
5 But your many enemies will become like fine dust, the ruthless hordes like blown chaff. Suddenly, in an instant,

Cross References 2

Scripture quoted by permission.  Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.  NIV®.  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica.  All rights reserved worldwide.