Isaiah 29 · Verse 7

Isaiah 29:7

And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.
Isaiah 29:7, King James Version

Isaiah 29:7 in other translations

BSBAll the many nations going out to battle against Ariel— even all who war against her, laying siege and attacking her— will be like a dream, like a vision in the night,
WEBThe multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night.
ASVAnd the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her stronghold, and that distress her, shall be as a dream, a vision of the night.
YLTAnd as a dream, a vision of night, hath been The multitude of all the nations Who are warring against Ariel, And all its warriors, and its bulwark, Even of those distressing her.
DARBYAnd the multitude of all the nations that war against Ariel, even all that war against her and her fortifications, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.
BBEAnd all the nations making war on Ariel, and all those who are fighting against her and shutting her in with their towers, will be like a dream, like a vision of the night.
WebsterAnd the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night-vision.

What does Isaiah 29:7 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
7. munition--fortress.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 7 As a dream - This is the beginning of the comparison, which is pursued and applied in the next verse. Sennacherib and his mighty army are not compared to a dream because of their sudden disappearance; but the disappointment of their eager hopes is compared to what happens to a hungry and thirsty man, when he awakes from a dream in which fancy had presented to him meat and drink in abundance, and finds it nothing but a vain illusion. The comparison is elegant and beautiful in the highest degree, well wrought up, and perfectly suited to the end proposed. The image is extremely natural, but not obvious: it appeals to our inward feelings, not to our outward senses; and is applied to an event in its concomitant circumstances exactly similar, but in its nature totally different. See De S. Poes. Hebr. Praelect. 12. For beauty and ingenuity it may fairly come in competition with one of the most elegant of Virgil, greatly improved from Homer, Iliad 22:199, where he has applied to a different purpose, but not so happily, the same image of the ineffectual working of imagination in a dream: - Ac veluti in somnis, oculos ubi languida pressit Nocte quies, necquicquam avidos extendere cursus Velle videmur, et in mediis conatibus aegri Succidimus; non lingua valet, non corpore notae Sufficiunt vires, nec vox, nec verba sequuntur. Aen., 12:908. "And as, when slumber seals the closing sight, The sick wild fancy labors in the night; Some dreadful visionary foe we shun With airy strides, but strive in vain to run; In vain our baffled limbs their powers essay; We faint, we struggle, sink, and fall away; Drain'd of our strength, we neither fight nor fly, And on the tongue the struggling accents die." Pitt. Lucretius expresses the very same image with Isaiah: - Ut bibere in somnis sitiens quum quaerit, et humor Non datur, ardorem in membris qui stinguere possit; Sed laticum simulacra petit, frustraque laborat, In medioque sitit torrenti flumine potans. As a thirsty man desires to drink in his sleep, And has no fluid to allay the heat within, But vainly labors to catch the image of rivers, And is parched up while fancying that he is drinking at a full stream. Bishop Stock's translation of the prophet's text is both elegant and just: - "As when a hungry man dreameth; and, lo! he is eating: And he awaketh; and his appetite is unsatisfied. And as a thirsty man dreameth; and, lo! he is drinking: And he awaketh; and, lo! he is faint, And his appetite craveth." Lucretius almost copies the original. All that fight against her and her munition "And all their armies and their towers" - For צביה ומצדתה tsobeyha umetsodathah, I read, with the Chaldee, צבאם ומצדתם tsebaam umetsodatham.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Isaiah 29:1-8

Judgements on Jerusalem and on its enemies. (Is. 29:1-8) The senselessness and hypocrisy of the Jews. (Is. 29:9-16) The conversion of the Gentiles, and future blessings for the Jews. (Is. 29:17-24) Verses 1-8 Ariel may signify the altar of burnt-offerings. Let Jerusalem know that outward religious services will not make men free from judgements. Hypocrites never can please God, nor make their peace with him. God had…

Read the full comment on Isaiah 29:1-8 →

Isaiah 29:7 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

וְהָיָ֗הve.ha.Yahand it will beH1961
כַּֽחֲלוֹם֙ka.cha.lOmlike a dreamH2472
חֲז֣וֹןcha.Zona vision ofH2377
לַ֔יְלָהLay.lah[the] nightH3915
הֲמוֹן֙ha.mOn[the] multitude ofH1995
כָּל\־kol-allH3605
הַגּוֹיִ֔םha.go.Yimthe nationsH1471
הַצֹּבְאִ֖יםha.tzoe.'Imwhich wage warH6633
עַל\־'al-onH5921
אֲרִיאֵ֑ל'a.ri.'ElArielH740
וְכָל\־ve.kholand allH3605
צֹבֶ֙יהָ֙tzo.Vei.ha[those who] wage war against itH6633
וּמְצֹ֣דָתָ֔הּu.me.Tzo.da.Tahand stronghold itsH4685
וְהַמְּצִיקִ֖יםve.ha.me.tzi.Kimand those [who] bring distressH6693
לָֽהּ\׃Lahto it

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Isaiah 29:7

  • Job 20:8

    He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.

  • Zechariah 12:9

    And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

  • Micah 4:11-12

    Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion. But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.

  • Psalms 73:20

    As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.

  • Zechariah 14:12-15

    And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour. And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great abundance. And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague.

  • Isaiah 17:14

    And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.

  • Revelation 20:8-9

    And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

  • Zechariah 12:3-5

    And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness. And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts their God.

  • Isaiah 37:36

    Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

  • Zechariah 14:1-3

    Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

  • Jeremiah 25:31-33

    A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.

  • Nahum 1:3-12

    The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. …

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
the multitude.
37:36; 41:11,12; Jer 25:31-33; 51:42-44; Na 1:3-12; Zec 12:3-5
Zec 14:1-3,12-15; Re 20:8,9
that distress.
2
as a dream.
Job 20:8; Ps 73:20

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Isaiah 29:6

    Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.

  • Isaiah 29:7

    And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.

  • Isaiah 29:8

    It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.

Read all of Isaiah 29

Isaiah 29:7 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909
Y será como sueño de visión nocturna la multitud de todas las gentes que pelearán contra Ariel, y todos los que pelearán contra ella y sus ingenios, y los que la pondrán en apretura.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885
Et la multitude de toutes les nations qui font la guerre à Ariel, et tous ceux qui combattent contre elle et contre ses remparts, et qui l’enserrent, seront comme un songe d’une vision de nuit.
German
Elberfelder 1871
Und wie ein nächtliches Traumgesicht wird die Menge all der Nationen sein, welche Krieg führen wider Ariel, und alle, welche sie und ihre Festung bestürmen und sie bedrängen.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate
Et erit sicut somnium visionis nocturnæ multitudo omnium gentium quæ dimicaverunt contra Ariel, et omnes qui militaverunt, et obsederunt, et prævaluerunt adversus eam.