IX. (1) NEVERTHELESS THE DIMNESS... — It is obvious, even in the English version, that the Chapter s are wrongly divided, and that what follows forms part of the same prophetic utterance as Isaiah 8. That version is, however, so obscure as to be almost unintelligible, and requires an entire remodel... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PEOPLE THAT WALKED IN DARKNESS... — The words throw us back upon Isaiah 8:21. The prophet sees in his vision a light shining on the forlorn and weary wanderers. They had been wandering in the “valley of the shadow of death” (the phrase comes from Psalms 23:4; Job 3:5), almost as in the gloom of... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST MULTIPLIED THE NATION, AND NOT INCREASED THE JOY... — Better, following the marginal reading of the Hebrew: _Thou hast increased its joy._ The picture is one of unmingled brightness; the return as of a golden age, the population growing to an extent never attained before (comp. Isaiah 26:1... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THOU HAST BROKEN THE YOKE OF HIS BURDEN... — The text comes in the Hebrew with all the emphasis of position. _The yoke of his burden_ ... _thou hast broken._ The phrase suggests a bondage like that of Egypt, where the “task-masters” (the same word as that here rendered “oppressors”) drove the pe... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR EVERY BATTLE OF THE WARRIOR... — Here again the whole verse requires re-translating: _“Every boot of the warrior that tramps noisily, and the cloak rolled in blood, are_ (_i.e.,_ shall be) _for burning,_ (_as_)_ fuel for fire._ The picture of the conquerors collecting the spoil is continued from... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN. — The picture of a kingdom of peace could not be complete without the manifestation of a king. In the description of that king Isaiah is led to use words which cannot find a complete fulfilment in any child of man. The loftiness of thought, rising here as to its highest... [ Continue Reading ]
OF THE INCREASE... — Better, “_For the increase of the government, and for peace with no end_ ... The “throne of David,” though in harmony with the whole body of prophetic tradition as to the Messiah, may be noted as the first appearance of that tradition in Isaiah. HENCEFORTH EVEN FOR EVER. — The w... [ Continue Reading ]
(8).THE LORD SENT A WORD INTO JACOB... — For “hath lighted” read _it lighteth._ A new section, though still closely connected with the historical occasion of Isaiah 7, begins. The vision of the glory of the far-off king comes to an end, and the prophet returns to the more immediate surroundings of h... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BRICKS ARE FALLEN DOWN... — Sun-dried bricks and the cheap timber of the sycamore (1 Kings 10:27) were the common materials used for the dwellings of the poor, hewn stones and cedar for the palaces of the rich. Whatever injury Samaria had sustained (the words are too proverbially figurative to m... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE THE LORD SHALL SET UP THE ADVERSARIES... — The Hebrew tenses are in the past (_has set up_)_,_ but probably as representing the prophet’s visions of an accomplished future. The “adversaries” of the text can hardly be any other than the Assyrians; yet the context that follows clearly points... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR ALL THIS HIS ANGER IS NOT TURNED AWAY... — The formula which in Isaiah 5:25 had been applied to Judah is here and in Isaiah 9:17; Isaiah 9:21 used of Israel at large, and specially of Ephraim. It embodied the law which governed God’s dealing with both.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE PEOPLE TURNETH NOT... — What follows was the word that was meant for all Israel. They had not “turned” to the Lord, there were no proofs of that conversion which true prophets and preachers have at all times sought after.... [ Continue Reading ]
HEAD AND TAIL, BRANCH AND RUSH... — The “branch” is strictly that of the palm-tree, which in its stately height answered to the nobles of the land, while the “rush,” the emblem of a real or affected lowliness (Isaiah 58:5) represented the “mean man” of Isaiah 2:9. The same proverbial formula meets u... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ANCIENT AND HONOURABLE... — Comp. Isaiah 3:2, for the meaning of the words. These, the prophet seems to say, were the true leaders of the people. The ideal work of the prophet was, indeed, that of a teacher who was to lead even them, but _corruptio optimi pessima;_ and to Isaiah, as to Jeremiah,... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE THE LORD SHALL HAVE NO JOY... — The Hebrew tenses are in the past, _The Lord had no joy._ The severity of the coming judgment is represented as not sparing even the flower of the nation’s youth, the widows and orphans who were the special objects of compassion both to God and man. The corr... [ Continue Reading ]
IT SHALL DEVOUR THE BRIERS AND THORNS... — The words are obviously figurative for men who were base and vile, as in 2 Samuel 23:6; but the figure may have been suggested by Isaiah 7:23. The outward desolation, with its rank growth of underwood, was to the prophet’s eye a type of the moral condition... [ Continue Reading ]
THROUGH THE WRATH OF THE LORD OF HOSTS IS THE LAND DARKENED... — The vision of darkness and famine which had come before the prophet’s eyes in Isaiah 8:21 appears once again, and here, as there, it is a question whether the words are to be understood literally or figuratively. The definiteness of th... [ Continue Reading ]