Ésaïe 9:2

La Bible David Martin

Tu as multiplié la nation, tu lui as accru la joie, ils se réjouiront devant toi, comme on se réjouit en la maison, comme on s'égaye quand on partage le butin.

Parallel Translations

La Bible Ostervald (1996)
Tu as multipli� la nation; tu as augment� sa joie; ils se r�jouissent devant toi, comme on se r�jouit dans la moisson, comme on s'�gaie en partageant le butin.

Darby's French Translation
le peuple qui marchait dans les t�n�bres a vu une grande lumi�re; ceux qui habitaient dans le pays de l'ombre de la mort,... la lumi�re a resplendi sur eux!

Louis Segond (1910)
Le peuple qui marchait dans les t�n�bres Voit une grande lumi�re; Sur ceux qui habitaient le pays de l'ombre de la mort Une lumi�re resplendit.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

walked: Isaiah 50:10, Isaiah 60:1-3, Isaiah 60:19, Micah 7:8, Micah 7:9, Matthew 4:16, Luke 1:78, Luke 1:79, Luke 2:32, John 8:12, John 12:35, John 12:46, Ephesians 5:8, Ephesians 5:13, Ephesians 5:14, 1 Peter 2:9, 1 John 1:5-7

in the land: Job 10:21, Psalms 23:4, Psalms 107:10, Psalms 107:14, Amos 5:8

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 33:23 - O 2 Kings 15:29 - Galilee Job 3:5 - the shadow Job 33:28 - see Job 34:22 - nor Psalms 118:27 - showed Psalms 126:6 - shall doubtless Isaiah 42:7 - to bring Isaiah 49:9 - to them Malachi 4:2 - the Sun Matthew 4:14 - saying Luke 4:44 - Galilee John 7:52 - Search Acts 26:18 - and to 2 Peter 1:19 - a light 1 John 2:8 - the darkness

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The people that walked in darkness,.... Meaning not the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem, in the times of Hezekiah, when Sennacherib besieged them, as Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it; and much less the people of Israel in Egypt, as the Targum paraphrases it; but the inhabitants of Galilee in the times of Christ; see Matthew 4:16 John 1:48 and is a true character of all the people of God before conversion, who are in a state of darkness, under the power of sin, shut up in unbelief; are in gross ignorance of themselves, and their condition; of sin, and the danger they are exposed to by it; of divine and spiritual things; of the grace of God; of the way of peace, life, and salvation by Christ; and of the work of the blessed Spirit; and of the truths of the Gospel; they are in the dark, and can see no objects in a spiritual sense; not to read the word, so as to understand it; or to work that which is good; and they "walk" on in darkness, not knowing where they are, and whither they are going; and yet of these it is said, they

have seen a great light; Christ himself, who conversed among the Galilaeans, preached unto them, and caused the light of his glorious Gospel to shine into many of their hearts; by which their darkness was removed, so that they not only saw Christ, this great light, with their bodily eyes, but with the eyes of their understanding; who may be called the "light", because he is the author and giver of all light, even of nature, grace, and glory; and a "great" one, because he is the sun, the greatest light, the sun of righteousness, the light of the world, both of Jews and Gentiles; he is the true light, in distinction from all typical ones, and in opposition to all false ones, and who in his person is God over all.

They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death; as Galilee might be called, because it was a poor, miserable, and uncomfortable place, from whence no good came; and this character fitly describes God's people in a state of nature and unregeneracy, who are dead in Adam, dead in law, and dead in trespasses and sins, dead as to the spiritual use of the powers and faculties of their souls; they have no spiritual life in them, nor any spiritual sense, feeling, or motion; and they "dwell", continue, and abide in this state, till grace brings them out of it; see John 12:46:

upon them hath the light shined: Christ in human nature, through the ministration of his Gospel, by his spirit, so as to enlighten them who walk in darkness, and to quicken them who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, and to comfort them in their desolate estate; and this light not only shone upon them in the external ministration of the word, as it did "upon" the inhabitants in general, but it shone "into" the hearts of many of them in particular, so that in this light they saw light.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The people that walked in darkness - The inhabitants of the region of Galilee. They were represented as walking in darkness, because they were far from the capital, and from the temple; they had few religious privileges; they were intermingled with the pagan, and were comparatively rude and uncultivated in their manners and in their language. Allusion to this is several times made in the New Testament; John 1:46 : ‘Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?’ John 7:52 : ‘Search and look, for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet;’ Matthew 26:69; Mark 14:70. The word walked here is synonymous with lived, and denotes that thick darkness brooded over the country, so that they lived, or walked amidst it.

Have seen a great light - Light is not only an emblem of knowledge in the Scriptures, but of joy, rejoicing, and deliverance. It stands opposed to moral darkness, and to times of judgment and calamity. What is the particular reference here, is not agreed by expositors. The immediate connection seems to require us to understand it of deliverance from the calamities that were impending over the nation then. They would be afflicted, but they would be delivered. The tribes of Israel would be carried captive away; and Judah would also be removed. This calamity would particularly affect the ten tribes of Israel - the northern part of the land, the regions of Galilee - “for those tribes would be carried away not to return.” Yet this region also would be favored with a especially striking manifestation of light. I see no reason to doubt that the language of the prophet here is adapted to extend into that future period when the Messiah should come to that dark region, and become both its light and its deliverer. Isaiah may have referred to the immediate deliverance of the nation from impending calamities, but there is a fullness and richness of the language that seems to be applicable only to the Messiah. So it is evidently understood in Matthew 4:13-16.

They that dwell - The same people are referred to here as in the former member of the verse.

In the land of the shadow of death - This is a most beautiful expression, and is special to the Hebrew poets. The word צלמות tsalmâveth, is exceedingly poetical. The idea is that of death, as a dark substance or being, casting a long and chilly shade over the land - standing between the land and the light - and thus becoming the image of ignorance, misery, and calamity. It is often used, in the Scriptures, to describe those regions that were lying as it were in the penumbra of this gloomy object, and exposed to all the chills and sorrows of this melancholy darkness. Death, by the Hebrews, was especially represented as extending his long and baleful shadow ever the regions of departed spirits; Job 38:17 :

Have the gates of death been opened to thee?

Hast thou seen the gates of the shadow of death?

Before I go - I shall not return -

To the land of darkness

And of the shadow of death.

Job 10:21

It is thus an image of chills, and gloom, and night - of anything that resembles the still and mournful regions of the dead. The Chaldee renders these two verses thus: ‘In a former time Zebulun and Naphtali emigrated; and those who remained after them a strong king shall carry into captivity, because they did not remember the power which was shown in the Red Sea, and the miracles which were done in Jordan, and the wars of the people of the cities. The people of the house of Israel who walked in Egypt as in the midst of shades, came out that they might see a great light.’