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In vv.1-4 the prophet tells of an imminent siege of Jerusalem. The meaning of the term Ariel is still in dispute. It may mean lion, although the context does not support this. Emerging consensus regards it as “altar hearth.” Jerusalem, the chosen city where David settled, has become corrupt even to its central core with empty and irreverent religion expressed on a profaned altar. Therefore God will reduce Jerusalem to an altar with the inhabitants as the sacrifice.
V.3 portrays what in reality took place as the Assyrians set up their towers and siegeworks. V.4 in Hebrew suggests not so much captives lying on the ground but death and deathlike voices rising out of the grave.
Vv.5-12 show a remarkable reversal. In an instant, God will act to reverse the fortunes of Jerusalem, as indeed he did during the siege of Jerusalem in 701 b.c. when the entire Assyrian army suddenly and inexplicably abandoned its siege and fled (37:36-37; 2Ki 19:35-36; 2Ch 32:20-21).
Playing on the term dust in v.4, Isaiah indicates the similar fate of Judah’s enemies when the Lord acts to save his city, Jerusalem. The descriptive phrases in v.6, while they do not appear in the historical contexts mentioned above, frequently occur in poetry as an indication of theophany, or the presence of God.
Vv.7 and 8 seem to extend the notion that Assyria is not Jerusalem’s only enemy to be reduced to dust but that all foreign enemies of any time will experience God’s wrath. Such a view was a building block in the view of the inviolability of Zion (Jerusalem), i.e., that it will never be destroyed (cf. Ps 2).
With v.9 Isaiah returns in the harshest of terms to his indictment of the leaders of Jerusalem. He chides them for their blindness and senselessness. The blindness of the people leads to hypocrisy (vv.13-14), a verbal faith that is unrelated to genuine heart religion.
To break through, God finds it necessary to do something astonishing (“wonder upon wonder”). It will take cataclysmic devastation and a similar restoration to shock the people to their senses.
The next oracle (vv.15-17), a woe oracle, continues the theme of misguided wisdom. Isaiah mocks those who go to great lengths (and depths) to assure that their plans are somehow hidden from the Lord. Perhaps a secret political plan has been made between Israel and Egypt without consultation with Isaiah.
Vv.22-24 bring this section to a conclusion. The therefore of v.22 suggests that after God’s astonishing work (v.14) of cleansing and purifying Israel (both the northern and southern kingdoms are intended here), God’s people will rediscover their true identity. This may explain the reference to Abraham, for redemption is a rediscovery of one’s own past. Central to their self-understanding is a rediscovery of the One who created and redeemed them, the Holy One.