Isaiah 9:18

For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke. FOR WICKEDNESS BURNETH AS THE FIRE - maketh consumption, not only spreading rapidly, but also consuming like fire. sin is its own punishment. IT SHALL DEVOUR THE BRIERS AND THORNS - emblem of the wicked: especially those of low rank (; ). AND SHALL KINDLE IN THE THICKETS OF THE FOREST - from the humble shrubbery the flame spreads to the vast forest; it reaches the high, as well as the low. THEY SHALL MOUNT UP (LIKE) THE LIFTING UP OF SMOKE. There is no Hebrew for "like:" translate, therefore, 'they (the thickets of the forest) shall lift them...

18._For wickedness burneth as the fire. _The Prophet attacks the wicked, who are accustomed to defend themselves by laying the blame on God. Either they practice evasions, in order to convince themselves that they are innocent, or, when they have been convicted, they still extenuate their guilt, as if the severity of God were beyond proper bounds. Never, certainly, do they acknowledge that God is just in punishing them, till they are compelled to acknowledge it; and even though they do not venture to excuse themselves publicly, still they fret and murmur. With the view of repressing such insolence, the Prophet compares the calamities to _burning_, but shows that the wickedness of men is the wood and fuel, by which the anger of God is kindled: as if he had said, “All exclaim and make loud complaints that the wrath of God _burns _violently, and yet they do not consider that their own sins...

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 9:18. _FOR WICKEDNESS_] Wickedness rageth like a fire, destroying and laying waste the nation: but it shall be its own destruction, by bringing down the fire of God's wrath, which shall burn up the briers and the thorns; that is, the wicked themselves. Briers and thorns are an image frequently applied in Scripture, when set on fire, to the rage of the wicked; violent, yet impotent, and of no long continuance. "They are extinct as the fire of thorns," Psalms 118:12. To the wicked themselves, as useless and unprofitable, proper objects of God's wrath, to be burned up, or driven away by the wind. "As thorns cut up they shall be consumed in the fire," Isaiah 33:12. Both these ideas seem to be joined in...

FOR WICKEDNESS - This commences the third part of the prophecy, which continues to the end of the chapter. It is a description of prevailing impiety. The effects and prevalence of it are described by the image of a raging, burning flame, that spreads everywhere: first among the humble shrubbery - the briers and thorns, then in the vast forests, until it spreads over the land, and sends a mighty column of flame and smoke up to heaven. BURNETH AS THE FIRE - Spreads, rages. extends as fire does in thorns and in forests. In what respects it burns like the fire, the prophet immediately specifies. It spreads rapidly everywhere, and involves all in the effects. Wickedness is not unfrequently in the Scriptures compared to a fire that is shut up long, and then bursts forth with raging violence. Thus Hosea 7:6 :...

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

FOR WICKEDNESS BURNETH AS THE FIRE,.... That is, the punishment of their sins, as the Targum interprets it; the wrath of God for sin, which is poured out like fire, and consumes as that does; unless wicked men are meant, who are consumed with the fire of divine vengeance; the sense is the same: IT SHALL DEVOUR THE BRIERS AND THORNS; sinners and ungodly, so the Targum paraphrases it; and Aben Ezra observes, they are the wicked; who are compared to briers and thorns, for their unfruitfulness in themselves, harmfulness to others, and for their weakness to stand against the fury of incensed Deity, see 2 Samuel 23:6: AND SHALL KINDLE IN THE THICKETS OF THE FOREST. Kimchi thinks there is a gradation in these words, that as fire first begins to burn the thorns, and smaller wood, and then the greater; so wickedness consumes first the little ones, who are the

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

WICKEDNESS. lawlessness. Hebrew. _rasha'._ App-44....