Yet I will distress Ariel, and
there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel .
. .And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy
speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be as of one that
hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out
of the dust. (Isa 29: 2,4 [emphasis added])
The term “as Ariel” is a pun in the underlying Hebrew.
“Ariel” in Hebrew is אֲרִיאֵל . The Term, “as
Ariel” is כַּאֲרִיאֵֽל which in Hebrew means “like/as an altar
hearth,” no doubt reflective of the total destruction awaiting Jerusalem/Ariel
at the time of this oracle.
Much nonsense has been written about the term “familiar spirit” and its use in Isa 29:4. Some (e.g. James R. White, Letters to a Mormon Elder) have argued that
this has occult meanings, due to the Hebrew term “familiar spirit” (אוֹב) often
being used in such a manner (e.g. Lev 20:27). However, it is used in a simile,
evident by the use of the prefixed preposition meaning “like/as” (כ). The NRSV
captures the Hebrew rather well with the following translation:
Then
deep from the earth you shall speak, from low in the dust your words shall
come; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and your
speech shall whisper out of the dust.
The 1985 JPS Tanakh also
does a good job in translating the simile within the context and meaning of Isa
29:
And
you shall speak from lower than the ground, Your speech shall be humbler than
the sod; Your speech shall sound like a ghost's from the ground, Your voice
shall chirp from the sod.
The NEB commentary for this
verse is correct when it states that 29:4’s use of “as a familiar spirit” “is used metonymically for the voice that emerges from [the] pit [or KJV "ground"]
(square brackets my own).
