Ver. 1. Woe to Ariel, to Ariel,] i.e., To the brazen altar, (Ezekiel 43:15,16) called here Ariel, or God’s lion, because it seemed as a lion to devour the sacrifices daily burnt upon it. Here it is put for the whole temple, which, together with the city wherein it stood, is threatened with destruction. The city where David dwelt.] Both Mount Moriah, whereon stood the temple, and Mount Zion, whereon stood the palace. Both Church and State are menaced with judgments, temporal in the eight first verses, and spiritual in the eight next. The rest of the chapter is no less consolatory than this is comminatory. Add ye year to year,] i.e., Feed yourselves on with these vain hopes, that years shall run on always in the same manner. See 2 Peter 2:4 Eze 12:22. Let them kill sacrifices.] And thereby think, but falsely and foolishly, to demerit God to themselves, as that emperor did, who, marching against his enemy, sacrificed, and then said, Non sic Deos coluimus ut ille nos vinceret, We have not so served God that he should serve us no better than to give our enemies the better of us. See Isaiah 58:3 Jer 7:21 Ho 9:1. Metonymiae adiuncta synecdochica. Antonin., Philosop.
Ver. 2. Yet I will distress Ariel.] Though a sacred place. Profligate professors are the worse for their privileges. The Jew first. (Romans 2:9) And it shall be unto me as Ariel,] i.e., It shall be full of slain bodies, as the altar is usually full of slaughtered beasts, and swimmeth, as it were, in blood. So Jeremiah 12:3 Isa 34:6. Arias Montanus giveth this sense: ‘Jerusalem, which once was Ariel, that is, a strong lion, shall now be Ariel, that is, a strong curse, or a rain of malediction.’
Ver. 3. And I will camp against thee round about.] I will bring the woe of war upon thee—a woe that no words, how wide soever, can possibly express. See this accomplished. (2 Kings 25:4) And will lay siege.] As the captain general of the Chaldees.
Ver. 4. And thou, shalt be brought down.] From those lofty pinnacles of self-exaltation whereunto thy pride hath perched thee. And speak out of the ground.] Humillime et submissime, thou shalt speak supplication, with a low voice (as broken men), who wast wont to face the heavens, and speak in spite of God and men, speak big words, bubbles of words. See Jeremiah 46:22. And thy voice shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit.] Cuius vox est gracilis, flebilis, hiulca, confusa, gemebunda. Out of the ground.] As the devil at Delphi did.
Ver. 5. Moreover, the multitude of thy strangers.] Thy foreign auxiliaries; these shall do thee no good, but be blown away as with a whirlwind. It shall be at an instant, suddenly.] The last siege and sack of Jerusalem was so by a specialty, as is to be read in Josephus. And some interpreters understand this whole chapter of the times of the New Testament, because our Saviour and St Paul do cite some places herehence, and apply the same to those their times, not by way of accommodation only, but as the proper and true sense of the text. [as Matthew 15:8,9 Romans 11:8 1 Corinthians 1:19]
Ver. 6. Thou shalt be visited with thunder and earthquake,] i.e., Fragosis, repentinis, vehementibus, et immedicabilibus plagis, with rattling, sudden, violent, and unmedicinable miseries and mischiefs, as if heaven and earth had conspired thine utter undoing. Some apply this to the prodigies that went before the last devastation of Jerusalem whereof see Joseph., lib. vii. cap. 12.
Ver. 7. Shall be as the dream of a night vision.] Both in regard of thee to whom this siege and ruin shall happen beyond all thought, judgment, and expectation, as also in respect of the Chaldees themselves, who will never be satisfied with tormenting thee, [as Isaiah 29:8] and yet shall fail of what they hope for too. Spes mortalium sunt somnia vigilantium, saith Plato. Diod.
Ver. 8. It shall be as when.] See on Isaiah 29:7.
Ver. 9. Stay yourselves, and wonder.] Sistite gradum, stand still, and stand amazed at this people’s stupendous stupidity and desperate security. Piscator rendereth the text thus: Cunctantur, itaque admiramini; deliciantur, itaque vociferamini. They delay (to return), therefore wonder ye at it; they sport at it, but cry ye out, as lamenting their folly. (Ezekiel 9:4, where the original is very elegant) Some translate the words thus: Obstupefacite vos ipsi, et sitis stupidi, et excaecate vos ipsi et sitis caeci, stupify yourselves and be stupid; blind yourselves and be blind; do so, I say, for you will do so undoubtedly. And here begin their spiritual miseries. See Isaiah 29:1 6:9,10. They are drunk, but not with wine.] But yet with that which is much worse, viz., with a spirit of stupidity; (Isaiah 29:10) they are not only drunk with a dry drunkenness, but deadly sick of a lethargy, being dulled in their understandings, lulled asleep in their sinful practices, ready to fly in the face of one that shall offer to awake them. Other drunkenness a man may sleep out, sleep himself sober, as Noah did; not so here, as Nazianzen well observeth upon this text. Homil. de plaga grandinis.