Bible Strands
Isaiah 29:7
All 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,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet Isaiah addresses Judah concerning the siege of Ariel. The declaration announces the fate of hostile nations currently laying siege to the city.
The words — כַּחֲלוֹם (kaḥă·lō·wm) translates to "like a dream," and חֲזוֹן (ḥă·zō·wn) means "a vision." These terms describe the illusory and transient nature of the attackers' campaign.
The thread — The dream-and-vision motif recurs in Job 20:8, where a wicked man's fate is compared to a fleeting dream. Zechariah 12:9 similarly promises the destruction of nations gathered against Jerusalem, while Micah 4:11 records the same hostile assembly.
Why it lands — The text states that besieging armies will vanish like a waking dream, leaving their efforts unfulfilled. It demands readers recognize that human military campaigns against God's city possess no lasting reality or power.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Job 20:8 He will fly away like a dream, never to be found; he will be chased away like a vision in the night.
- Micah 4:11 But now many nations have assembled against you, saying, “Let her be defiled, and let us feast our eyes on Zion.”
- Zechariah 12:9 So on that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
- Psalms 73:20 Like one waking from a dream, so You, O Lord, awaken and despise their form.
- Isaiah 17:14 In the evening, there is sudden terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us and the lot of those who plunder us.
- Zechariah 12:3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth gather against her, I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who would heave it away will be severely injured.
- Zechariah 14:12 And this will be the plague with which the LORD strikes all the peoples who have warred against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.
- Revelation 20:8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to assemble them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the seashore.
- Isaiah 37:36 Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!
- Isaiah 41:11 Behold, all who rage against you will be ashamed and disgraced; those who contend with you will be reduced to nothing and will perish.