Isaiah 9:10

The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. THE BRICKS ARE FALLEN DOWN. In the East bricks are generally sun-dried, and therefore soon dissolved by rain. Granting, say the Ephraimites to the prophet's threat, that our affairs are in a ruinous state, we will restore them to more than their former magnificence. Self-confident unwillingness to see and to repent under the judgments of God (). HEWN STONES - (). THE SYCAMORES ARE CUT DOWN - growing abundantly on the low lands of Judea, and, though useful for building on account of their antiseptic property (which induced the Egyptians to use them for the cases of their mummies), not very valuable....

10._The bricks are fallen down. _These are the words of men who were obstinate, and who despised the calamity which they had sustained, as if it had been of advantage to them, because it afforded them an opportunity of adorning with greater splendor both their houses and their fields. “_We shall build_, ” they say, “_more magnificently_. The brick houses have been thrown down that we may dwell in splendid palaces; and since the trees have been cut down, we shall plant more fruitful ones.” This was not the fault of a single age, for at this day we see the same obstinacy in the world. How many are the distresses with which Europe has been afflicted for thirty or forty years? How many are the chastisements by which she has been called to repentance? And yet it does not appear that those numerous chastisements have done any good. On the contrary, luxury increases every day, lawless passions...

8-21 Those are ripening apace for ruin, whose hearts are unhumbled under humbling providences. For that which God designs, in smiting us, is, to turn us to himself; and if this point be not gained by lesser judgments, greater may be expected. The leaders of the people misled them. We have reason to be afraid of those that speak well of us, when we do ill. Wickedness was universal, all were infected with it. They shall be in trouble, and see no way out; and when men's ways displease the Lord, he makes even their friends to be at war with them. God would take away those they thought to have help from. Their rulers were the head. Their false prophets were the tail and the rush, the most despicable. In these civil contests, men preyed on near relations who were as their own flesh. The people turn not to Him who smites them, therefore he continues to smite: for when God judges, he will overco...

Verse Isaiah 9:10. _THE BRICKS_] "The eastern bricks," says Sir _John_ _Chardin_, (see _Harmer's_ Observ. I., p. 176,) "are only clay well moistened with water, and mixed with straw, and dried in the sun." So that their walls are commonly no better than our mud walls; see _Maundrell_, p. 124. That straw was a necessary part in the composition of this sort of bricks, to make the parts of the clay adhere together, appears from Exodus 5:7-2. These bricks are properly opposed to hewn stone, so greatly superior in beauty and durableness. The sycamores, which, as _Jerome_ on the place says, are timber of little worth, with equal propriety are opposed to the cedars. "As the grain and texture of the sycamore is remarkably coarse and spongy, it could therefore stand in no competition at all...

THE BRICKS ARE FALLEN DOWN - The language of this verse is figurative; but the sentiment is plain. It contains the confession of the inhabitants of Samaria, that their affairs were in a ruinous and dilapidated state; but also their self-confident assurance that they would be able to repair the evils, and restore their nation to more than their former magnificence. Bricks, in oriental countries, were made of clay and straw, and were rarely turned. Hence, exposed to suns and rains, they soon dissolved. Walls and houses constructed of such materials would not be very permanent, and to build with them is strongly contrasted with building in a permanent and elegant manner with hewn stone. The meaning is, that their former state was one of less splendor than they designed that their subsequent state should be. Desolation had come in upon their country, and this they could not den

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 9:1 THE TROUBLES OF ISRAEL SHALL END THROUGH THE BIRTH OF A MARVELOUS CHILD. The section of the prophecy commencing with Isaiah 7:1 terminates in this glorious burst of glad and gracious promise. The gist of the whole section is: "Israel shall not suffer from Pekah and Rezin; her oppressors shall be Assyria and Egypt, more especially the former; Assyria shall overwhelm her, crush her, lay her low; she shall remain awhile in gloom and darkness; but at length the darkness shall be dispelled; a 'great light' shall shine forth, first in the north, then over all th

THE BRICKS ARE FALLEN DOWN,.... Houses made of bricks, which were without the cities besieged and destroyed by the Assyrians; of which the haughty Israelites made no account, looking upon such a desolation as little, or no loss at all: BUT WE WILL BUILD WITH HEWN STONE, so that the houses will be better and stronger, more beautiful, and more durable: THE SYCAMORES ARE CUT DOWN; which grew in the fields, and outer parts of the cities, and were but a mean sort of wood, and which the Assyrians cut down to serve several purposes in their siege; of this sort of trees, Luke 19:4: BUT WE WILL CHANGE THEM INTO CEDARS; that is, will plant cedars in place of them; trees tall and large, very delightful to look at, of great worth and usefulness, and very durable; though this may regard not so much the planting of them as the use of them in building, a

CHAPTER 9 The Message of Hope Concerning Israel's Future and the Impending Judgments 1. _The Messiah, His Name, His rule, His kingdom (Isaiah 9:1)_ 2. _Judgment upon Israel (Isaiah 9:8)_ 3. _The impenitent nation (Isaiah 9:13)_ 4. _The wrath of Jehovah (Isaiah 9:18)_ 5. _Unrighteous judges and three questions (Isaiah 10:1_ Matthew 4:12 quotes the opening verses of this chapter. This applies to His double advent. The first and second coming

ISAIAH 9:8 TO ISAIAH 10:4. YAHWEH SMITES EPHRAIM WITH STROKE AFTER STROKE. It is generally agreed that Isaiah 5:26 formed the closing strophe of this poem (p. 440). The date is probably before the coalition of Syria and Ephraim (Isaiah 9:11 f.), _i.e._ between 740 and 735. It is one of Isaiah's earliest prophecies. It is very uncertain whether the whole is a prediction of the future, or whether, with the exception of the conclusion, it describes calamities that have already overtaken the people. On the whole the former view is preferable. It is that adopted in RV, the tenses being taken as prophetic perfects, the alternative view being given in

The first strophe (Isaiah 9:8 being an introduction to the whole prophecy)....