Isaiah 29:3

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

I will camp in a circle around you; I will besiege you with towers and set up siege works against you.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
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.

Hebrew Names Version
I will encamp against you round about, and will lay siege against you with posted troops, and I will raise siege works against you.

King James Version
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
And I will encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with towers and I will raise siegeworks against you.

New American Standard Bible
I will camp against you encircling you, And I will set up siegeworks against you, And I will raise up battle towers against you.

New Century Version
I will put armies all around you, Jerusalem; I will surround you with towers and with devices to attack you.

Amplified Bible
I will camp against you and encircle you, And I will hem you in with siege works, And I will raise fortifications against you.

World English Bible
I will encamp against you round about, and will lay siege against you with posted troops, and I will raise siege works against you.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And I wil besiege thee as a circle, and fight against thee on a mount, and will cast vp ramparts against thee.

Legacy Standard Bible
And I will camp against you encircling you,And I will fortify siegeworks against you,And I will raise up fortifications against you.

Contemporary English Version
I will surround you and prepare to attack from all sides.

Complete Jewish Bible
I will encamp all around you, besiege you with towers and mount siege-works against you.

Darby Translation
And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with watch-posts, and I will raise forts against thee.

Easy-to-Read Version
"I will put armies all around you, Ariel. I will raise war towers against you.

George Lamsa Translation
And I will encamp against you round about, and I will lay a siege against you with ramparts, and I will raise forts against you.

Good News Translation
God will attack the city, surround it, and besiege it.

Lexham English Bible
And I will encamp in a circle against you, and I will lay siege to you with towers and I will raise up siegeworks against you.

Literal Translation
And I will camp as a circle on you, and will lay siege work on you; and I will raise up ramparts on you.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For I wil laye sege to the rounde aboute, and kepe ye in with towers, and graue vp dykes agaynst ye.

American Standard Version
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.

Bible in Basic English
And I will make war on you like David, and you will be shut in by earthworks, and I will make towers round you.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And I will encamp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mound, and I will raise siege works against thee.

King James Version (1611)
And I will campe against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
A will besiege thee rounde about, and fight against thee thorowe a bulwarke, and wyll reare vp diches against thee.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And I will compass thee about like David, and will raise a mound about thee, and set up towers round thee.

English Revised Version
And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a fort, and I will raise siege works against thee.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Y schal cumpasse as a round trendil in thi cumpasse, and Y schal caste erthe ayens thee, and Y schal sette engynes in to thi bisegyng.

Update Bible Version
And I will encamp against you round about, and will lay siege against you with posted troops, and I will raise siege works against you.

Webster's Bible Translation
And I will encamp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.

New English Translation
I will lay siege to you on all sides; I will besiege you with troops; I will raise siege works against you.

New King James Version
I will encamp against you all around, I will lay siege against you with a mound, And I will raise siegeworks against you.

New Living Translation
I will be your enemy, surrounding Jerusalem and attacking its walls. I will build siege towers and destroy it.

New Life Bible
I will camp against you, all around you. And I will build battle walls against you, and towers from which to fight you.

New Revised Standard
And like David I will encamp against you; I will besiege you with towers and raise siegeworks against you.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And I will encamp round about against thee, - And lay siege against thee with a fort, And raise against thee siege-works;

Douay-Rheims Bible
And I will make a circle round about thee, and I will cast up a rampart against thee, and raise up bulwarks to besiege thee.

Revised Standard Version
And I will encamp against you round about, and will besiege you with towers and I will raise siegeworks against you.

Young's Literal Translation
And I encamped, O babbler, against thee, And I laid siege against thee -- a camp. And I raised up against thee bulwarks.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
I will camp against you encircling you, And I will set siegeworks against you, And I will raise up battle towers against you.

Contextual Overview

¹Woe to you, O Ariel, Ariel, the city where David camped! Year upon year let your festivals recur. ²And I will constrain Ariel, and there will be mourning and sorrow; she will be like an altar hearth before me. ³I will camp in a circle around you; I will besiege you with towers and set up siege works against you.⁴You will be brought low, you will speak from the ground, and out of the dust your words will be muffled. Your voice will be like a spirit from the ground; your speech will whisper out of the dust. ⁵But your many foes will be like fine dust, the multitude of the ruthless like blowing chaff. Then suddenly, in an instant, ⁶you will be visited by the LORD of Hosts with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, with windstorm and tempest and flame of consuming fire. ⁷All 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, ⁸as when a hungry man dreams he is eating, then wakes and is still hungry. And like a thirsty man dreams he is drinking, then awakens faint and parched, so it will be for all the many nations who go to battle against Mount Zion.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

2 Kings 18:17, 2 Kings 19:32, 2 Kings 24:11, 2 Kings 24:12, 2 Kings 25:1-4, Ezekiel 21:22, Matthew 22:7, Luke 19:43, Luke 19:44

Reciprocal: Jeremiah 5:15 - I will Jeremiah 52:4 - pitched

Gill's Notes on the 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 Luke 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, 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.

o כדור "quasi pila", Piscator; "instar globi", Gataker. p Joseph. de Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 7. sect. 1. & c. 12. sect. 1, 2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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 Isaiah 10:5).

Round about - (כדוּר kadûr). As in a circle; that is, he would encompass or encircle the city. The word used here דור dûr in Isaiah 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 Luke 19:43 : ‘For the days shall come upon thee, than thine enemies shall cast a trench (χάρακα charaka - “a rampart,” a “mound”) about thee σοί soi “against thee”), and “compass thee round” περικυκλώτονσί σε perikuklōsousi se, “encircle thee”).’ So also Luke 21:20. The Septuagint renders this, ‘I will encompass thee as David did;’ evidently reading it as if it were כדוּד kadûd; 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 מצב mutsâb means a post, a military station, from יצב yâtsab, “to place, to station.” The word in this form occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures, but the word מצב matsâb occurs in 1 Samuel 13:23; 1 Samuel 14:1, 1Sa 14:4; 2 Samuel 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, Πύργου Purgou; ‘Towers;’ and so also two manuscripts by changing the Hebrew letter ד (d) into the Hebrew letter ר (r). But there is no necessity for altering the Hebrew text. Lowth prefers the reading of the Septuagint.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 29:3. And I will camp against thee round about - "And I will encamp against thee like David"] For כדור caddur, some kind of military engine, כדוד 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 מצרת metsuroth, read מצדות metsudoth: so the Septuagint and five MSS. of Dr. Kennicott's, one of them ancient, and four of De Rossi's.