Isaiah 9 - Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Critical, Doctrinal and Homiletical - Bible Commentaries

Verses 1-6

b) The light of the future proceeding from a child that is to be born of the race of David

Isaiah 9:1-6. (Isaiah 9:2-7).

2 (1)

THE people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light:

They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
(2) 3Thou hast multiplied the nation,

And not increased the joy:

They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest,

And as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

(3) 4For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden,

And the staff of his shoulder,
The rod of his oppressor,
As in the day of Midian.

5 (4) Fora every battle of the warrior is with confused noise,

And garments rolled in blood;

bBut this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.

(5) 6For unto us a child is born,

Unto us a son is given:
And the government shall be upon his shoulder:
And his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God,
The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
(6) 7Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end,

Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom;
To order it, and to establish it
With judgment and with justice, from henceforth even for ever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this,

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

On Isaiah 9:1. צַלְמָוֶת is regarded by almost all later authorities as modified from צַלְמוּת (root צלם “to be dark”). But I rather side with BOETTCHER (De inferis, § 190 sq., 285, and Neue exeg. Krit. Aehrenl. II., p. 124), who, referring to עַזְמָוֶת (name of a person, 2 Samuel 23:31; 1 Chronicles 27:25, and of a place, Nehemiah 7:28; Nehemiah 12:29; Ezra 2:24; comp. Song of Solomon 8:6) explains it as a superlative expression. The word often stands parallel with חשֶׁךְ and other kindred expressions (Job 3:5; Job 10:21; Job 28:3; Psalms 107:10; Psalms 107:14, etc.). It is a poetic term and intensive of חשׁך, being related to it as the night of death to common night. The word does not again occur in Isaiah.—נָגַהּ Kal. only here in Isaiah; Hiph. Isaiah 13:10.

On Isaiah 9:2. Had the Prophet meant the heathen, he would have written הַגּוֹי .נוים is evidently a distinct and single people.—In what follows, the most important inquiry is whether K’thibh or K’ri presents the correct reading. Of the old versions TARG., JON. and SYRUS decidedly read לוֹ; the LXX., too, so expresses itself that this reading is detected. But JEROME and SYMMACHUS read לֹא. But many as have been the attempts, no one has yet been able to obtain a satisfactory sense from the latter. I therefore take לֹו for the correct reading (as do KNOBEL, DRECHSLER, DELITZSCH [J. A. ALEXANDER] among the later authorities). It stands in front as in Jeremiah 7:7-9; Jeremiah 7:14; Jeremiah 7:33; Proverbs 24:8, because an emphasis rests on it.

On Isaiah 9:3. עֹל סֻבֳּלוֹ, “the yoke of his burden.” Of the noun סבל only this form occurs, and that, in this verse, Isaiah 10:27; Isaiah 14:25. How the primary form is to be pointed is thus undecided. But we are justified in assuming סֹבֶל ( = סֵבֶל 1 Kings 11:28) after analogy of גֻּדְלו (Psalms 150:2) from גֹּדֶל (Isaiah 9:8; Isaiah 10:12, etc.) as with סֻבֲּכוֹ (Jeremiah 4:7), קֻמְצוֹ (Leviticus 2:2; Leviticus 5:12; Leviticus 6:8). גֻּשְׁמָהּ Ezekiel 22:24. Comp. EWALD, § 255 b.—The goad of the neck is explained by “the goad of the driver.” מַטֶּה and שֵׁבֶט occur not seldom together in Isaiah 10:5; Isaiah 10:15; Isaiah 10:34; Isaiah 14:5; Isaiah 28:27; Isaiah 30:31 sq.—הַנֹּגֵשׂ בּוֹ is evidently an allusion to Exodus 5:6, where Pharaoh’s task-masters are called נֹגְשִׂים בָּעָם. Only in these two passages does נָגַשׂ occur with בְּ (after analogy of verbs that mean a physical holding to, holding fast, penetrating into: דָּבַק ,נָגַע ,הֶֽחֱזִיק ,אָחַז, etc., comp. נֹהֵג בָּם Isaiah 11:6).

On Isaiah 9:4. The כִּי at the beginning seems to me to be not co-ordinate with, but subordinated to the כִּי that begins ver 3.—The words סאוד םאן ב׳ are very difficult. The ancient versions all vary, and it is evident the word was unknown to all. JOSEPH KIMCHI first cited the Syriac סְאוּנֹא ,מְסֹן ,מְסֹנֹא ,סְאוּן = calceus, ocrea, caliga, as also to the like meaning Chaldaic סֵינָא and מְסָנָא (comp. Aetheop. אֲסָאן). To this explanation assent, among modern authorities, ROSENMUELLER, GESENIUS. HENGSTENBERG, EWALD, DRECHSLER, BOETTCHER, DELITZSCH, DIESTEL. I side with these, and give to סְאוֹן the meaning “boot,” and סֹאֵן, as particip. of the verbi denom. סָאַן “to boot, to stride in boots.”—רַעַשׁ is understood by many of the noise of battle, according to Jeremiah 10:22 (GESENIUS, DELITZSCH [J. A. ALEXANDER] etc.). But the expression is not too strong for the heavy tramp of the booted foot, as DELITZSCH says it is, since, Psalms 72:16. it is even used of the rustling of the standing grain. Besides, the Prophet would depict here the wild noise of the impetuous advance, as afterwards the shocking look of the blood-stained garments. HOHEISEL has shown from PLIN. Hist. Nat. IX. 18, that soldiers’ boots were stuck with nails (clavi caligares). He also cites JOSEP. De bello jud. VI. 1, 8, where it is told of a centurion who had τὰ ὑποδήματα πεπαρμένα πυκνοῖς καὶ ὀξέσιν ἥλοις, and JUVEN. Sat. III. 247 sq., where one cast down in the tumult says: “Planta mox undique magna calcor et in digito clavus mihi militis haerit.” מגללה part. Pual, from גָלַל, which Isaiah uses again only in the Niph. (Isaiah 34:4).—The Vav before היתה is that paratactic ו which we must render by a relative pronoun “that, this.”—The phrase היה לשׂרפה is found only here and Isaiah 64:10.—מאכלת only here and Isaiah 9:18.

On Isaiah 9:5. יֶלֶד means both the new-born child (Exodus 1:17; Exodus 2:3; Exodus 2:6), and also the grown boy (Genesis 42:22, etc.). Isaiah uses the word pretty often: Isaiah 2:6; Isaiah 8:18; Isaiah 11:7; Isaiah 29:23; Isaiah 57:4-5. The following בֵּן defines the sex. In 1 Chronicles 22:9, where the birth of Solomon is promised to David, it is said: הִנֵּה גוֹלַד לָךְ. It is not impossible that the source whence the chronicler drew suggested the Prophet’s words here—וַתְּהִי is praeter. propheticum. For the Prophet sees the entire life of the Messiah child as actually before him.—The noun מִשׂרָה, principatus, principatum, is found only here and Isaiah 9:6. The root שָׂרָה, kindred to שָׂרַר, whence שַׂר. שָׂרָהis not used in Hebrew in the sense of dominari, principatum tenere.—על שׁכמו, “The shoulders are mentioned here as Isaiah 9:3; Isaiah 10:27, in as much as they bear and carry (Genesis 49:15; Psalms 81:7), the office bearer having the office, as it were, on his shoulders.” HENGST. יקרא must be taken impersonally, as often: Genesis 11:9; Genesis 16:14; Numbers 11:34; Joshua 7:26; Judges 15:19. The TARGUM JONATHAN, translates on the assumption that only שׂר־שׁלום is the name of the child, and that all that precedes is the name of him that bestows the name, for it renders thus: “et appellabitur nomen ab admirabili consilii, Deo forti, qui manet in aeternum, Messias, cujus diebus pax super nobis multiplicabitur. The most Rabbis follow this view, referring the predicates, “everlasting Father, Prince of peace,” to Hezekiah. Even the Masorets would have only these predicates just named regarded as the name of the child, as may be seen from the Sakeph over גִּבּוֹר. But every one looks for the name of the one to be named after שׂמו, and not for that of the one giving the name. As the expressions אל גבור ,אבי־עד ,שׂר־שׁלום form pairs, symmetry requires that פלא יועץ be regarded as a pair. If we construe it as two words, we have five names, which does not harmonize with the duality underlying the passage. Beside it has an analogy in פֶרֶא אָדָם (Genesis 16:12) which is predicated of Ishmael. In this the man is properly subject and the notion “wild ass” is attribute. It might read אדם פרא: but the expression would not be so strong. Ishmael is not said to be a man that might be called a wild ass; but he is called directly a wild ass, that is at the same time a man accordingly, a human (two-legged) wild ass. So too is פלאיועץ stronger than יועץ פלא; for the latter would be the counsellor of a wonderful thing, or, that is a wonder, whereas the former presents the subject as a personal wonder, i. e., a wonderful one that gives counsel. Comp. the expressions יָמִים מִסְפָּר ,אֲנָשִׁים מְעַט, which are stronger than if the words were reversed. פֶלֶא may be either St. constructus or absolutus, but the latter gives the more intensive sense.—אל גבור cannot be “strong hero” (GESEN., DE W., MAUR.) because (as KNOB. says) אֵל does not occur as an adjective and because it does not read גִּבּוֹר אֵל. Like most words of this formation, גבור is a substantive, but it is no abstract noun, and the boundary of nomina concreta substantiva and adjectiva is fluctuating (comp. יִלּוֹד 2 Samuel 5:14). So הַגִּבּוֹר stands as attribute of אֵל in the midst of adjectives, Deuteronomy 10:17; Jeremiah 32:18 : and Isaiah 10:21 אל גביר is undoubted predicate of the absolute Godhead.—אבי עד. Names compounded of אֲבִי are frequent. In many it means pater meus (thus is properly pointed אָבִי), e. g. in אֲבִיָּה ,אֲבִיאֵל אֲבִיהוּא: for pater Dei, Jehovae is a dogmatic, and pater illius (for אביהוא) is a grammatical impossibility. In the names where אֲבִי is st. constructus, e. g., אֲבִיעֶזֶר אֲבִיחַיִל ,אֲבִישָׁלוֹם ,אֲבִישׁוּע etc., it may be doubtful whether it is genitivus auctoris or attributivus. But in אבי עד the genitive of the author is inconceivable: eternity has no author. We must take it then as genitive of the attribute = Father whose predicate is eternity.

On Isaiah 9:6. מַרְבֶּה (formed like מַֽעֲשֶׂה ,מַשְׁקֶה ,מַרְאה), means multiplicatio, “increase,” and occurs again only Isaiah 33:23. ELIAS LEVITA conjectures that originally the text read לָם רַבָּה (eis multiplicatur imperium), which is little probable. We might rather conjecture that it originally read לְהֵרְבַּה, to which also the LXX. would agree, which ends Isaiah 9:5 with αὐτᾡ and begins Isaiah 9:6 with μεγάλη ή�; from which it may be inferred they read רַבָּה הַמִּשְׂרָה (לוֹ =) לֹה. The unusual construction would facilitate the change to לם רבה. [On the ם clausum see J. A. ALEXANDER in loc.]—אין קץ vid. Isaiah 2:7. HENGSTENBERG would have למרבה וגו depend on אין קץ. Grammatically this is admissible. But then למרבה would be superfluous. One would only expect למשׂרה. Evidently מרבה corresponds to אין קץ and stands in the same relation to משׂרה as אין קץ to על כסא—.שׁלום and על ממלכתו relate to the subject and not to the object of the increase and peace-making.—The infinitives להכין and לסעדה I hold to be gerundive infinitives: thus is avoided the tautological relation to למרבה וגו, i. e., the repetition of the aim.—קגאה is a two-edged word. It involves both the notion of the negative zeal consuming all that is opposed to it, and the notion of the positive zeal that provides and furthers all that serves the purpose. The same words occur again Isaiah 37:32. Beside that, קגאה is found Isaiah 11:13; Isaiah 26:11; Isaiah 42:13; Isaiah 59:17; Isaiah 63:15.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. The progress at the close of Isaiah 8:0 to this first part of Isaiah 9:0 is like that from early dawn to sunrise. “No dawn,” Isaiah 8:20, “No darkness,” Isaiah 8:23 (Isaiah 9:1), “Light is risen upon them,” Isaiah 9:1, represent the stages in which the successive unfolding of the light contained in the Law and Testimony takes place. The light becomes not only clearer and brighter, but wider extended Isaiah 9:1-4 (2–5). All this blessing proceeds from a child, a son that is born to the people. It is a wonderful child; that is proved by his might and his names, that point to an origin above the earth. The child is a son of David, and will raise up the kingdom of David on the foundation of justice and righteousness. All this shall appear as accomplished by the zeal of Jehovah Isaiah 9:6 (7).

2. The people—divide the spoil.

Isaiah 9:1-2. The people that walk in darkness is certainly the same as Isaiah 8:23 (Isaiah 9:1). So Matthew 4:16 understands the passage. But if the great light first rises on this part of the Israelitish nation, it will still not be confined to them. How could such great salvation be the portion of one member and not of the whole organism? The imagery is like Isaiah 50:10; Isaiah 60:1 sq. The distresses referred to Isaiah 8:21 must necessarily have had a hurtful effect on the population numerically. Hence increase of the nation necessarily belongs to the new dawning day of happiness and prosperity. This benedictio vere theocratica is elsewhere, too, promised as the physical basis of the period of Messianic prosperity. Comp. Isaiah 49:18-21; Isaiah 54:1-3; Jeremiah 3:16 (and my comment in loc.); Isaiah 23:3 sq. We assume that “the people” means Israel, not the heathen (see above, Text. and Gram.).

The nation, dwindled down to a remnant, is without joy; but, as no blessing comes singly, the nation, again become numerous, has great joy. This joy is so great because it is a joy before the Lord (Psalms 42:3; Psalms 95:2; Psalms 100:2). For substance comp. Judges 5:30; Psalms 4:8; Psalms 68:13; Psalms 126:5 sq.; Isaiah 33:23.

3. For thou hast broken—fuel of fire.

Isaiah 9:3-4. These verses mention a twofold negative cause of joy: 1, the deliverance from the burden of oppression; 2, the cessation of war. The deliverance from oppression is mentioned first. But in order to give assurance that its recurrence is not to be apprehended, it is added that all arming for war, with its consequences, is for ever done away. Israel does not free itself by its own power from the yoke and goad of the driver. The Lord has done it like once He destroyed Midian by a little band that was not even armed (Judges 7:0, especially Isaiah 9:2). The overthrow of the Midianites is mentioned Isaiah 10:26 in the same sense as here. The deliverance from bondage is especially described as everlasting, in that, Isaiah 9:4, the absolute end of all warlike occupation is announced. For as long as there is war, there are the conquered and slaves. Only when there is no more war does slavery cease, to which no one submits except by compulsion. Comp. for substance Psalms 46:9-10; Ezekiel 39:9-10; Zechariah 9:10. ROSENMUELLER recalls the fact, that there exist coins of Vespasian and Domitian on which Peace is represented as kindling with a torch a heap of the implements of war.

4. For unto us a child—will perform this.

Isaiah 9:5-6. A third כִּי “for” refers the totality of all the blessings before named to a personal cause, to a child that is bestowed as a gift to Israel and all mankind. Herein lies the reason why the prophetic testament of Isaiah is inserted at this place. For, from Isaiah 7:0 on, the Prophet has represented the Messianic salvation as proceeding from the race of David in a genuine human way by means of conception, pregnancy and birth. Thus the statement fits this place very well, that one day there will be a birth, the fruit of which will be a child, which, fashioned wonderfully and infinitely higher than all other human children, will establish the kingdom of David, his ancestor, not only on the firmest foundations, but shall raise it up to the point of eternal power and peace.

There is no need of a definite subject for ויקרא “and one shall call,” as the present has nothing to do with an actual name for use and calling. The name-giving is only ideal, not real, i. e., it is not the end, but means to the end, viz., the characteristic. The Prophet invents the names only in order by this means to characterize the child briefly, thus to say what he is, not how he shall actually be called by name. It is in this respect like יִהוָֹה צִדְקֵנוּ. “Jehovah our righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6) and many other similar designations (comp. Isaiah 1:26; Isaiah 60:14; Jeremiah 11:16; Ezekiel 48:35, etc.). A wonder-counsellor is one (הִכְּלִיא עֵצָה28:29) “wonderful in counsel,” who forms wonderful, unfathomably deep purposes, into which “the angels desire to look” (1 Peter 1:12). “Mighty God” being added, intimates that He has the power to accomplish His purposes. In this expression “God” is the chief word, and “mighty” is the attribute (see above, Text. and Gram.). Therefore the child is expressly called אֵל, “God,” and that, too, God, who is at the same time Hero.

The question arises: can this name אֵל “God” be applied to a creature, and in what sense? Psalms 82:1; Psalms 82:6, comp. John 10:34 sq., are cited, where princes are called אלהים “gods.” When the Jews would have stoned Jesus “for blasphemy and because, being a man, he made himself God,” Jesus replied by referring to the Psalm: “Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?” Evidently He would say that it is not under all circumstances blasphemy to predicate divinity of a man, because otherwise the Psalm could not possibly have spoken so of men. He therefore does not deny that he had called Himself God, but He challenged the right of the Jews to charge Him on that account with blasphemy, because it was possible He may have called Himself God in that sense that was allowable from their standpoint. It appears therefore that the notion אלהים certainly can be used in various senses, and in some circumstances may be said of a creature, and without blasphemy. But there is a difference between אֵל and אֱלהִים. For the former is never used in the wide sense in which we see the latter used. אֵל always means the Godhead in a specific or absolute sense, even in passages like Genesis 31:29; Deuteronomy 28:32; Micah 2:1; Proverbs 3:27. In Ezekiel 31:11אֵל=אֵיל, comp. HAEVERNICKin loc. and Ezekiel 32:21. We must, of course, admit that for the Prophet himself there hovered a certain obscurity about this expression. For it is impossible for us to ascribe to him the full, clear insight into the being of the person of Christ and of His Homoousia with the Father. It was the New Testament fulfilment, and especially the Resurrection of the Lord, that first brought full light in this respect. The term “mighty God” must be contemplated from a double standpoint. From that of the Old Testament the expression appears to be a term of indefinite extent. It is possible that it designates the absolute Godhead, but it is far from clear in what sense. But if we contemplate the expression from the New Testament point of view, and in the light of its fulfilment, i. e., in the light of the Resurrection and Ascension, then it is plain not only that it may be taken as the predicate of the absolute Godhead, but that it must be so taken. For there is no son of David that can be regarded as the fulfiller of this prophecy except Jesus of Nazareth. But He is “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead,” Romans 1:4.

But in what sense is eternal fatherhood (אכי עד) ascribed to the child (יֶלֶד) in our passage? From the fact that the Son is called “Everlasting Father,” we know at once that it does not mean the Father that from eternity begot the Son. But we must here, too, distinguish between the Old Testament and the New Testament points of view, and must say that from the former the entire comprehensiveness of the expression is not appreciable. When Isaiah 63:16; Isaiah 64:7 calls Jehovah the true Father of Israel, this passage may be taken as saying that the Son is the eternal Mediator of this love. But from 1 Corinthians 15:0 we learn that the Son will be the Second Adam, Mediator of incorruptibility and immortality (9:53) for His own. Finally the child is called “Prince of Peace,” because, according to Isaiah 9:6, He stands at the head of a kingdom to which is assured eternal peace. This assurance is founded on the fact that this King will be David and Solomon in one person: David in so far as He casts down every enemy; Solomon in so far as he reaps peace from this sowing of war (Psalms 72:3; Psalms 72:7; Jeremiah 33:6; Micah 5:4, etc.).—Of the increase,etc. The Prophet sees the promised Son enthroned with highly significant titles that He may be a true semper Augustus, ever an augmenter of the kingdom and institutor of eternal peace. To this end the child is set on David’s throne and over David’s kingdom. The expected Son is Davidic. It is the Son that is promised to David 2 Samuel 7:0, the real Solomon; for his kingdom of peace shall have no end. That quantitative and qualitative influence of the augmentatio and pacificatio is only possible by founding the kingdom on judgment and justice (comp. on Isaiah 1:21), and by carrying out every single act of administration in this spirit. And upon his kingdom to order it is taken from 2 Samuel 7:12, where it is said: “I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish His kingdom” (וַהֲכִינֹתִי אֶת־מַמְלַכְתּוֹ). Comp. Isaiah 9:13; Isaiah 9:16; 1 Chronicles 17:11; 1Ch 22:10; 1 Chronicles 28:7; Proverbs 20:28.

[J. A. ALEXANDER on Isaiah 9:6. “The word קנאה, “zeal,” expresses the complex idea of strong affection comprehending or attended by a jealous preference of one above another. It is used to signify God’s disposition to protect and favor His people at the expense of others. Sometimes, moreover, it includes the idea of a jealous care of His own honor, or a readiness to take offence at anything opposed to it, and a determination to avenge it when insulted. The expressions are derived from the dialect of human passion, but describe something absolutely right on God’s part for the very reasons which demonstrate its absurdity and wickedness on man’s. These two ideas of God’s jealous partiality for His own people and His jealous sensibility respecting His own honour are promiscuously blended in the usage of the word, and are perhaps both included in the case before us, or rather the two motives are identical; that is to say, the one includes the other. The mention of God’s jealousy or zeal as the procuring cause of this result affords a sure foundation for the hopes of all believers. His zeal is not a passion, but a principle of powerful and certain operation. The astonishing effects produced by feeble means in the promotion, preservation, and extension of Christ’s kingdom can only be explained upon the principle that the zeal of the Lord of Hosts effected it.”

”Is not this the reign of Christ? Does it not answer all the requisite conditions? The Evangelists take pains to prove by formal genealogies His lineal descent from David; and His reign, unlike all others, still continues and is constantly enlarging. HENDEWERK and other modern German writers have objected that this prophecy is not applied to Christ in the New Testament. But we have seen already that the first verse of the chapter and the one before it are interpreted by Matthew as a prophecy of Christ’s appearing as a public teacher first in Galilee, and, no one has denied that this is part of the same context. Nor is this all. The expressions of the verse before us were applied to Christ, before His birth, by Gabriel, when he said to Mary (Luke 1:32-34), ”He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.” The historical allusions in these words show clearly that the person spoken of was expected, or, in other words, a subject of prophecy; and though the terms are not precisely those used by Isaiah, they agree with them more closely than with any other passage. Indeed the variations may be perfectly accounted for upon the supposition that the angel’s message was intended to describe the birth of Christ as a fulfilment, not of this passage only, but of several others also which are parallel with this, and that the language was so framed as to suggest them all, but none of them so prominently as the one before us, and the earlier promise upon which it was founded. Comp. 2 Samuel 7:11-12; Daniel 7:14; Daniel 7:27; Micah 4:7, etc.”]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. On Isaiah 7:1. “Hierosolyma oppugnatur, etc. Jerusalem is assaulted but not conquered. The church is pressed but not oppressed.”—Foerster.

2. On Isaiah 7:2. “Quando ecclesia, etc. When the Church is assaulted and Christ crucified over again in His elect, Rezin and Pekah, Herod and Pilate are wont to form alliance and enter into friendly relations. There are, so to speak, the foxes of Samson, joined indeed by the tails, but their heads are disconnected.”—Foerster.—“He that believes flees not (Isaiah 28:16). ‘The righteous is bold as a lion’ (Proverbs 28:1). Hypocrites and those that trust in works (work-saints) have neither reason nor faith. Therefore they cannot by any means quiet their heart. In prosperity they are, indeed, overweening, but in adversity they fall away (Jeremiah 17:9).” Cramer.

3. On Isaiah 7:9. (“If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.”) “Insignis sententia, etc. A striking sentiment that may be adapted generally to all temptation, because all earnest endeavor after anything, as you know, beguiles us in temptation. But only faith in the word of promise makes us abide and makes sure whatever we would execute. He warns Ahaz, therefore, as if he said: I now promise you by the word, it shall be that those two kings shall not hurt you. Believe this word! For if you do not, whatever you afterwards devise will deceive you: because all confidence is vain which is not supported by the word of God.”—Luther.

4. On Isaiah 7:10-12. “Wicked Ahaz pretends to great sanctity in abstaining from asking a sign through fear of God. Thus hypocrites are most conscientious where there is no need for it: on the other hand, when they ought to be humble, they are the most insolent. But where God commands to be bold, one must be bold. For to be obedient to the word is not tempting God. That is rather tempting God when one proposes something without having the word for it. It is, indeed, the greatest virtue to rest only in the word, and desire nothing more. But where God would add something more than the word, then it must not be thought a virtue to reject it as superfluous. We must therefore exercise such a faith in the word of God that we will not despise the helps that are given in addition to it as aids to faith. For example the Lord offers us in the gospel all that is necessary to salvation. Why then Baptism and the Lord’s Supper? Are they to be treated as superfluous? By no means. For if one believes the word he will at the same time exhibit an entire obedience toward God. We ought therefore to learn to join the sign with the word, for no man has the power to sever the two.

But do you ask: is it permitted to ask God for a sign? We have an example of this in Gideon. Answer: Although Gideon was not told of God to ask a sign, yet he did it by the impulse of the Holy Spirit, and not according to his own fancy. We must not therefore abuse his example, and must be content with the sign that is offered by the Lord. But there are extraordinary signs or miracles, like that of the text, and ordinary ones like Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Yet both have the same object and use. For as Gideon was strengthened by that miraculous event, so, too, are we strengthened by Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, although no miracle appears before our eyes.” Heim and Hoffmann after Luther. Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, also asked the Lord to show him the right wife for Isaac by means of a sign of His own choosing, (Genesis 24:14).

It ought to be said that this asking a sign (opening the Bible at a venture, or any other book) does not suit Christian perfection (Hebrews 6:1). A Christian ought to be inwardly sensible of the divine will. He ought to content himself with the guarantees that God Himself offers. Only one must have open eyes and ears for them. This thing of demanding a sign, if it is not directly an effect of superstition (Matthew 12:39; Matthew 16:4; 1 Corinthians 1:22), is certainly childish, and, because it easily leads to superstitious abuses, it is dangerous.

5. On Isaiah 7:13. “Non caret, etc. That the Prophet calls God his God is not without a peculiar emphasis. In Zechariah 2:12 it is said, that whoever touches the servants of God touches the pupil of God’s eye. Whoever opposes teacher and preacher will have to deal with God in heaven or with the Lord who has put them into office.”—Foerster.

6. On Isaiah 7:14. “The name Immanuel is one of the most beautiful and richest in contents of all the Holy Scripture. ‘God with us’ comprises God’s entire plan of salvation with sinful humanity. In a narrower sense it means ‘God-man’ (Matthew 1:23), and points to the personal union of divinity and humanity, in the double nature of the Son of God become man. Jesus Christ was a God-with-us, however, in this, that for about 33 years He dwelt among us sinners (John 1:11; John 1:14). In a deeper and wider sense still He was such by the Immanuel’s work of the atonement (2 Corinthians 5:19; 1 Timothy 2:3). He will also be such to every one that believes on Him by the work of regeneration and sanctification and the daily renewal of His holy and divine communion of the Spirit (John 17:23; John 17:26; John 14:19-21; John 14:23). He is such now by His high-priestly and royal administration and government for His whole Church (Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 7:25). He will be snch in the present time of the Church in a still more glorious fashion (John 10:16). The entire and complete meaning of the name Immanuel, however, will only come to light in the new earth, and in the heavenly Jerusalem (Revelation 21:3; Revelation 21:23; Revelation 22:5).”—Wilh. Fried. Roos.

Isaiah 8:7. On Isaiah 8:5 sqq. “Like boastful swimmers despise small and quiet waters, and on the other hand, for the better display of their skill, boast of the great sea and master it, but often are lost in it,—thus, too, did the hypocrites that despised the small kingdom of Judah, and bragged much and great things of the power and splendor of the kingdom of Israel and of the Syrians; such hypocrites are still to be found now-a-days—such that bear in their eye the admiranda Romae, the splendor, riches, power, ceremonies and pomp of the Romish church, and thereupon ‘set their bushel by the bigger-heap.’ It is but the devil’s temptation over again: ‘I will give all this to thee.’ ”—Cramer.—“Fons Siloa,” etc. “The fountain of Siloam, near the temple, daily reminded the Jews that Christ was coming.”—Calvin on John 9:7.

8. On Isaiah 8:10. “When the great Superlatives sit in their council chambers and have determined everything, how it ought to be, and especially how they will extinguish the gospel, then God sends the angel Gabriel to them, who must look through the window and say: nothing will come of it.”—Luther.—“Christ, who is our Immanuel, is with us by His becoming man, for us by His office of Mediator, in us by the work of His sanctification, by us by His personal, gracious presence.”—Cramer.

9. On Isaiah 8:14-15. Christ alone is set by God to be a stone by which we are raised up. That He is, however, an occasion of offence to many is because of their purpose, petulance and contempt (1 Peter 2:8). Therefore we ought to fear lest we take offence at Him. For whoever falls on this stone will shatter to pieces (Matthew 21:44).” Cramer.

10. On Isaiah 8:16 sqq. He warns His disciples against heathenish superstition, and exhorts them to show respect themselves always to law and testimony. “They must not think that God must answer them by visions and signs, therefore He refers them to the written word, that they may not become altogether too spiritual, like those now-a-days who cry: spirit! spirit! … Christ says, Luke 16:0 : They have Moses and the prophets, and again John 5:39 : Search the Scriptures. So Paul says, 2 Timothy 3:16 : The Scripture is profitable for doctrine. So says Peter, 2 Peter 1:9 : We have a sure word of prophecy. It is the word that changes hearts and moves them. But revelations puff people up and make them insolent.” Heim and Hoffmann after Luther.

Chap. 9–11. On Isaiah 9:1 sqq. (2). “Postrema pars, etc. The latter part of chap. 8 was νομικὴ καὶ� (legal and threatening) so, on the other hand, the first and best part of chap. 9 is εὐαγγελικὴ καὶ παραμυθητική, (evangelical and comforting). Thus must ever law and gospel, preaching wrath and grace, words of reproof and words of comfort, a voice of alarm and a voice of peace follow one another in the church.” Foerster.

12. On Isaiah 9:1 (2). Both in the Old Testament and New Testament Christ is often called light. Thus Isaiah calls Him “a light to the gentiles,” Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 49:6. The same Prophet says: “Arise, shine (make thyself light), for thy light is come,” Isaiah 60:1. And again Isaiah 9:19 : “The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light.” In the New Testament it is principally John that makes use of this expression: “The life was the light of men,” John 1:4, “and the light shined in the darkness,” John 9:5. John was not that light, but bore testimony to the light, John 9:8. “That was the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” John 9:9. And further: “And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light,” John 3:19. “I am the light of the world,” (John 8:12; John 9:5; comp. John 12:35).

13. On Isaiah 9:1 (2). The people that sit in darkness may be understood to comprise three grades. First, the inhabitants of Zebulon and Naphtali are called so (Isaiah 8:23), for the Prophet’s gaze is fixed first on that region lying in the extreme end of Palestine, which was neighbor to the heathen and mixed with them, and on this account was held in low esteem by the dwellers in Judah. The night that spreads over Israel in general is darkest there. But all Israel partakes of this night, therefore all Israel, too, may be understood, as among the people sitting in darkness. Finally, no one can deny that this night extends over the borders of Israel to the whole human race. For far as men dwell extends the night which Christ, as light of the world, came to dispel, Luke 1:76 sqq.

14. On Isaiah 9:5 (6). Many lay stress on the notion “child,” inasmuch as they see in that the reason for the reign of peace spoken of afterwards. It is not said a man, a king, a giant is given to us. But this is erroneous. For the child does not remain a child. He becomes a man: and the six names that are ascribed to Him and also the things predicted of His kingdom apply to Him, not as a child, but as a man. That His birth as a child is made prominent, has its reason in this, that thereby His relation to human kind should be designated as an organic one. He does not enter into humanity as a man, i.e. as one whose origin was outside of it, but He was born from it, and especially from the race of David. He is Son of man and Son of David. He is a natural offshoot, but also the crowning bloom of both. Precisely because He was to be conceived, carried and born of a human mother, and indeed of a virgin, this prophecy belongs here as the completion and definition of the two prophetic pictures Isaiah 7:10 sqq.; Isaiah 8:1 sqq.—“He came down from heaven for the sake of us men, and for our bliss (1 Timothy 1:15; Luke 2:7). For our advantage: for He undertook not for the seed of angels, but for the seed of Abraham (Hebrews 2:16). Not sold to us by God out of great love, but given (Romans 5:15; John 3:16). Therefore every one ought to make an application of the word ‘to us’ to himself, and to learn to say: this child was given to me, conceived for me, born to me.”—Cramer.—“Cur oportuit, etc. Why did it become the Redeemer of human kind to be not merely man nor merely God, but God and man conjoined or θεάνθρωπον? Anselm replies briefly, indeed, but pithily: Deum qui posset, hominem, qui deberet.” Foerster.

15. On Isaiah 9:5 (6). “You must not suppose here that He is to be named and called according to His person, as one usually calls another by his name; but these are names that one must preach, praise and celebrate on account of His act, works and office.” Luther.

16. On Isaiah 9:6. “Verba pauca, etc. A few words, but to be esteemed great, not for their number but for their weight.” Augustine. “Admirabilis in, etc. Wonderful in birth, counsellor in what He preaches, God in working, strong in suffering, father of the world to come in resurrection, Prince of peace in bliss perpetual.” Bernard of Clairvaux. In reference to “a child is born,” and “a son is given,” Joh. Cocceius remarks in his Heb. Lex. s. v. יֶלֶד: “respectu, etc., in respect to His human nature He is said to be born, and in respect to His divine nature and eternal generation not indeed born, but given, as, John 3:16, it reads God gave His only begotten Son.”

“In the application of this language all depends on the words is born to us, is given to us.” The angels are, in this matter, far from being as blessed as we are. They do not say: To us a Saviour is born this day, but; to you. As long as we do not regard Christ as ours, so long we shall have little joy in Him. But when we know Him as our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, as a gift that our heavenly Father designed for us, we will appropriate Him to ourselves in humble faith, and take possession of all His redeeming effects that He has acquired. For giving and taking go together. The Son is given to us; we must in faith receive Him.” J. J. Rambach, Betracht. über das Ev. Esaj., Halle, 1724.

On Isaiah 9:6 (7). “The government is on His shoulders.” “It is further shown how Christ differs in this respect from worldly kings. They remove from themselves the burden of government and lay it on the shoulders of the privy counsellors. But He does not lay His dominion as a burden on any other; He needs no prime minister and vicegerent to help Him bear the burden of administration, but He bears all by the word of His power as He to whom all things are given of the Father. Therefore He says to the house of Jacob (Isaiah 46:3 sq.): Hearken unto me ye who were laid on my shoulders from your mothers’ womb. I will carry you to old age. I will do it, I will lift, and carry and deliver,—on the contrary the heathen must bear and lift up their idols, (Isaiah 46:1; Isaiah 46:7).”—Rambach. “In the first place we must keep in mind His first name: He is called Wonderful. This name affects all the following.” “All is wonderful that belongs to this king: wonderfully does He counsel and comfort; wonderfully He helps to acquire and conquer, and all this in suffering and want of strength. (Luther, Jen. germ. Tom. III. Fol. 184 b.). ” “He uses weakness as a means of subduing all things to Himself. A wretched reed, a crown of thorns and an infamous cross, are the weapons of this almighty God, by means of which He achieves such great things. In the second place, He was a hero and conqueror in that just by death, He robbed him of his might who had the power of death, i.e., the devil (Hebrews 2:14); in that He, like Samson, buried His enemies with Himself, yea, became poison to death itself, and a plague to hell (Hosea 13:14) and more gloriously resumed His life so freely laid down, which none of the greatest heroes can emulate.”—Rambach.

17. On Isaiah 9:18 (19) sqq. True friendship can never exist among the wicked. For every one loves only himself. Therefore they are enemies one of another; and they are in any case friends to each other, only as long as it concerns making war on a third party.

Isaiah 10-18. On Isaiah 10:4. (Comp. the same expression in chap. 10). God’s quiver is well filled. If one arrow does not attain His object, He takes another, and so on, until the rights of God, and justice have conquered.

19. On Isaiah 10:5-7. “God works through men in a threefold way. First, we all live, move and have our being in Him, in that all activity is an outflow of His power. Then, He uses the services of the wicked so that they mutually destroy each other, or He chastises His people by their hand. Of this sort the Prophet speaks here. In the third place, by governing His people by the Spirit of sanctification: and this takes place only in the elect.”—Heim and Hoffmann.

20. On Isaiah 10:5 sqq. “Ad hunc, etc. Such places are to be turned to uses of comfort. Although the objects of temptation vary and enemies differ, yet the effects are the same, and the same spirit works in the pious. We are therefore to learn not to regard the power of the enemy nor our own weakness, but to look steadily and simply into the word, that will assuredly establish our minds that they despair not, but expect help of God. For God will not subdue our enemies, either spiritual or corporal, by might and power, but by weakness, as says the text: my strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9).—Luther.

21. On Isaiah 10:15. “Efficacia agendi penes Deum est, homines ministerium tantum praebent. Quare nunc sibilo suo se illos evocaturum minabatur (cap. Isaiah 5:26; Isaiah 7:18); nunc instar sagenae sibi fore ad irretiendos, nunc mallei instar ad feriendos Israelitas. Sed praecipue tum declaravit, quod non sit otiosus in illis, dum Sennacherib securim vocat, quae ad secandum manu sua et destinata fuit et impacta. Non male alicubi Augustinus ita definit, quod ipsi peccant, eorum esse; quod peccando hoc vel illud agant, ex virtute Dei esse, tenebras prout visum est dividentis (De praedest Sanctt.).”—Calvin Inst. II. 4, 4.

22. On Isaiah 10:20-27. “In time of need one ought to look back to the earlier great deliverances of the children of God, as to the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, or later, from the hand of the Midianites. Israel shall again grow out of the yoke.”—Diedrich.

Isaiah 11-23. On Isaiah 11:4. “The staff of His mouth.” “Evidence that the kingdom of Christ will not be like an earthly kingdom, but consist in the power of the word and of the sacraments; not in leathern, golden or silver girdles, but in girdles of righteousness and faith.”—Cramer.

24. On Isaiah 11:10 sqq. If the Prophet honors the heathen in saying that they will come to Christ before Israel, he may be the more readily believed, when Isaiah 11:11 sqq., he gives the assurance that the return out of the first, the Egyptian exile, shall be succeeded by a return out of the second, the Assyrian exile, (taking this word in the wider sense of Isaiah). It is manifest that the return that took place under Zerubbabel and Ezra was only an imperfect beginning of that promised return. For according to our passage this second return can only take place after the Messiah has appeared. Farthermore, all Israelites that belong to “the remnant of Israel,” in whatever land they may dwell, shall take part in it. It will be, therefore, a universal, not a partial return. If now the Prophet paints this return too with the colors of the present (Isaiah 11:13 sqq.), still that is no reason for questioning the reality of the matter. Israel will certainly not disappear, but arise to view in the church of the new covenant. But if the nation is to be known among the nations as a whole, though no more as a hostile contrast, but in fraternal harmony, why then shall not the land, too, assume a like position among the lands? But the nation can neither assume its place among nations, nor the land its place among lands, if they are not both united: the people Israel in the land of their fathers.

25. On Isaiah 11:0 “We may here recall briefly the older, so-called spiritual interpretation. Isaiah 11:1-5 were understood of Christ’s prophetic office that He exercised in the days of His flesh, then of the overthrow of the Roman Empire and of Antichrist, who was taken to be the Pope. But the most thorough-going of those old expositors must acknowledge, at Isaiah 11:4, that the Antichrist is not yet enough overthrown, and must be yet more overthrown. If such is the state of the case, then this interpretation is certainly false, for Isaiah 11:4 describes not a gradual judgment, but one accomplished at once. There have been many Antichrists, and among the Popes too, but the genuine Antichrist described 2 Thessalonians 2:0, is yet to be expected, and also the fulfillment of Isaiah 11:4 of our chapter. Thereby is proved at the same time that the peaceful state of things in the brute world and the return of the Jews to their native land are still things of the future, for they must happen in that period when the Antichristian world, and its head shall be judged by Christ. But then, too, the dwelling together of tame and wild beasts is not the entrance of the heathen into the church, to which they were heretofore hostile, and the return of the Jews is not the conversion of a small part of Israel that took place at Pentecost and after. The miracles and signs too, contained in Isaiah 11:15-16 did not take place then. We see just here how one must do violence to the word if he will not take it as it stands. But if we take it as we have done, then the whole chapter belongs to the doctrine of hope (Hoffnungslehre) of the Scripture, and constitutes an important member of it. The Lord procures right and room for His church. He overthrows the world-kingdom, together with Antichrist. He makes of the remnant of Israel a congregation of believers filled with the Spirit, to whom He is near in an unusual way, and from it causes His knowledge to go out into all the world. He creates peace in the restless creatures, and shows us here in advance what more glorious things we may look for in the new earth. He presents to the world a church which, united in itself, unmolested by neighbors, stands under God’s mighty protection. All these facts are parts of a chain of hope that must be valuable and dear to our hearts. The light of this future illumines the obscurity of the present; the comfort of that day makes the heart fresh.” Weber, der Prophet Jesaja, 1875.

Chap. 12–26. On Isaiah 12:4 sq. “These will not be the works of the New Testament: sacrificing and slaying, and make pilgrimage to Jerusalem and to the Holy Sepulchre, but praising God and giving thanks, preaching and hearing, believing with the heart and confessing with the mouth. For to praise our God is good; such praise is pleasant and lovely” (Psalms 147:1). Cramer.

27. On Chap. 12 “With these words conclude the prophetic discourses on Immanuel. Through what obscurity of history have we not had to go, until we came to the bright light of the kingdom of Christ! How Israel and the nations had to pass through the fire of judgment before the sun arises in Israel and the entire gentile world is illumined! It is the, same way that every Christian has to travel. In and through the fire we become blessed. Much must be burnt up in us, before we press to the full knowledge of God and of His Son, before we become entirely one with Him, entirely glad and joyful in Him. Israel was brought up and is still brought up for glory, and we too. O that our end too were such a psalm of praise as this psalm!” Weber, Der Pr. Jes. 1875.

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Verses 8-12

B.—THREATENING OF JUDGMENT TO BE ACCOMPLISHED BY MEANS OF ASSYRIA, ADDRESSED TO ISRAEL OF THE TEN TRIBES

Isaiah 9:8 (Isaiah 9:7).– Isaiah 10:4.

To the prophecies that denounce impending judgment against Judah, of which Assyria was to be the agent, is joined a prophecy, that announces the same fate for the kingdom of the Ten Tribes. For, that the latter are the subject of this prophecy appears, 1) because, in the whole passage, only Israel or Jacob (Isaiah 9:7; Isaiah 9:11; Isaiah 9:13), the “Ephraimites and inhabitants of Samaria” (Isaiah 9:8) appear as those addressed; never Judah. For Isaiah 9:8 shows plainly that we must so understand Jacob and Israel (Isaiah 9:7), because those receiving the word spoken of in Isaiah 9:7 are designated as “the whole people,” and they in turn in the second clause of Isaiah 9:8 are specified, not as Judah and Israel, but as Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria: 2) because Isaiah 9:20 we notice that the totality who are there reproached with ruinous dissensions are divided into Ephraim and Manasseh. These are opposed to one another; if they unite it is for the purpose of attacking Judah. If Judah were included in the totality addressed there, it must read: “Ephraim Judah, Judah Ephraim.” But Ephraim and Manasseh are designated as the mutually contending members; Judah as one outside of the community and the common object of their hatred. We will show below that Isaiah 9:11 a does not conflict with this interpretation.

As to the period to which this prophecy belongs, we may ascertain it from Isaiah 9:9. It appears there that at this time pieces must have been rent away from the kingdom of the Ten Tribes. We know of only one such diminution of their territory occurring in that period. It is that related 2 Kings 15:29. According to that account Tiglath-Pileser, who had been invoked by Ahaz, depopulated a great part of the eastern and northern region of that kingdom. At that time the Ephraimites must have boasted that it would be easy to repair the damage they had suffered. Isaiah felt that he must meet this foolish notion, which took the damage done by Tiglath-Pileser for the conclusion of their visitation, with the announcement that that visitation was only the beginning, only the first of many following degrees. If, then, the foregoing prophecies (7–9:6) fall in the time before the introduction of the Assyrians, then our present passage belongs to the period immediately after. And if chapters 7–9:6, are attributed to the beginning of the three years, when both Pekah and Ahaz were living, say about 743 B. C., then the present prophecy belongs to the close of this period, say about 740–39 B. C. (Comp. on Isaiah 7:15-17)

The form of our passage is artistic, yet simple. Proceeding from the underlying thought that what the Ephraimites took for the end, was only the first stage, the Prophet builds up his prophecy in three stages, each of which points to the succeeding one with the refrain: “for all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.” Even the last concludes with these words to show that the judgment on Israel continues still beyond the immediate horizon of the prophetic view. This extreme visible horizon is the exile (Isaiah 10:4). Beyond that the Israel of the Ten Tribes has disappeared to the present day. They experienced no restoration like Judah did. But to “the day of visitation and desolation” (Isaiah 10:3) the punishments increase as the inward corruption grows. After that visitation to which the audacious words Isaiah 9:9 refer, Israel, instead of recovering and growing strong, is renewedly hard pressed on the East and the West. But still more comes (Isaiah 9:11 b). Still the people are not converted to Him that smites them. Therefore the punishment falls first of all on the leaders of the people, who have proved themselves betrayers, whose sins must be expiated by the betrayed down to the young men, the widows and the orphans (Isaiah 9:13-16). But still more comes. For the people are as a forest on fire: for the flames of discord spread on all sides with devouring and desolation (Isaiah 9:17-20). Injustice and violence, according to the constant Old Testament sentiment, the chief cause of the ruin of states, bring the people to the verge of the abyss. Then no seeking for aid from foreign nations will avail. Nothing remains but to submit to the horrors of exile. But still more comes. For even the carrying away into exile is not yet the end of God’s judgments on Israel (Isaiah 10:1-4).

Thus we have four sections, of which the first two have each five verses, the last two four verses. They may be set forth as follows:

1. The supposed end is the beginning of the judgment (Isaiah 9:7-11).

2. The deceivers the bane of the deceived (Isaiah 9:12-16).

3. Israel devouring itself by the flames of discord (Isaiah 9:17-20).

4. Injustice and violence fill up the measure and precipitate Israel into the horrors of exile (Isaiah 10:1-4).

____________________________
1. THE SUPPOSED END IS THE BEGINNING OF THE JUDGMENT

CHAPTER Isaiah 9:8-12. (Isaiah 9:7-11)

8 (7) THE LORD sent a word into Jacob,

And it hath lighted upon Israel.
(8) 9And all the people shall know,

Even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria,

That say in the pride and stoutness of heart,
(9) 10The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones:

The sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.

11 (10) Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him,

And ajoin his enemies together;

(11) 12The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind;

And they shall devour Israel with bopen mouth.

For all this his anger is not turned away,
But his hand is stretched out still.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

On Isaiah 9:8. גאוה according to Isaiah 13:3; Isaiah 13:11; Isaiah 16:6; Isaiah 25:11.—גדל לככ again only Isaiah 10:12.—לאמר does not depend on וידעו, but on גאוה and גדל לבב to which it relates as quotation marks, in as much as it introduces the speech that manifests that haughtiness.

On Isaiah 9:9. גזית, properly אַבְנֵי גָזִית, 1 Kings 5:31; Ezekiel 40:42; lapides caesurae, i. e., caesi, only here in Isa.—That בָּנָה means not simply exstruere, construere, “build up,” “construct,” but also simply struere “to pile,” “pile up,” appears from passages like 1 Kings 18:32; Exodus 20:25.—שׁקמיס only here. גדע Isaiah 10:33; Isaiah 14:12; Isaiah 22:25; Isaiah 45:2 (from these examples it appears that it is wont to be joined with נכּל); but the context shows that not cutting down trees is meant, as DRECHSLER supposes, but breaking down wooden buildings. חלף (see on Isaiah 8:8) is “to exchange.” Hiph. is—“let come in as exchange, reparation;” comp. Isaiah 40:31; Isaiah 41:1.

On Isaiah 9:10. וישׂגב and also ויאכלו, Isaiah 9:11, are praeter. propheticum. The ו involves at the same time adverbial meaning. DRECHSLER remarks that שׂגכ Pi. has always the meaning “to make high, unattainable, place higher, defendere, munire.” But then it is construed with מן (Psalms 59:2; Psalms 107:41). That עלין stands here proves that the word is taken in an offensive sense, which it may very well have. Moreover it is to be noticed that שִׂגֵכ stands in contrast with the high structures which the Israelites purpose in Isaiah 9:9.—It is incomprehensible how EWALD can prefer שָׂרֵי, the reading of some MSS. to צָרֵי of the text; or how CHEYNE can construe צרי ר as genitive of the subject, seeing that the same power that slew Rezin and conquered his land, not twenty years later actually made an end to the kingdom of Ephraim.—סִכְסֵןְ is found only here and Isaiah 19:2. The verb סָכַןְ, with all its derivatives (סֻכָּה, סִכּוּת, מָסָןְ, סֹןְ) has the sense of “covering.” Now there is a word שֵׂןְ, spina (Num. 33:65) and שֻׂכָּה telum acutum (Job 40:31). As regards the exchange of ס for שׂ compare שָׂכַןְ Exodus 33:22. Seeing the meaning “to cover” in the sense usual with the Hebrews, i. e., “to protect,” does not at all suit here (comp. Isaiah 9:11), and “to cover,” = “to cover with arms, to arm,” cannot be supported, I prefer, with TARG., SYR., SAAD., GESENIUS (Thes.), DELITZSCH, [J. A. ALEXANDER], to take סִכְסֵןְ in the sense of “to set on,” stimulate, concitare.

On Isaiah 9:11. The formula בכל־זאת וגו beside here and Isaiah 9:16; Isaiah 9:20; Isaiah 10:4, is found only Isa 9:25.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. The Lord sent—cedars.

Isaiah 9:8-10 (Isaiah 9:7-9). It seems to me that the words, “A word has the LORD sent,” etc., “is fallen,” etc., must be judged of according to passages like Job 4:12; Job 35:4; Psalms 62:12. As in those, a single little word, tossed to them, as it were, from the mouth of the Lord as from a judging and destroying power, is opposed to human pride and haughtiness, so the Prophet here opposes a single, brief word of the LORD to the Ephraimites which, as it were, falls by the way, but which suffices to humble that foolish pride. “The word” (דָּכָרִ) therefore, stands first with emphasis, as if the Prophet would say: only a word, nothing more has the LORD sent. And this word has, as it were, fallen in Israel by accident. I prefer to compare Ruth 3:18, for the meaning of נָכַּל “to fall,” rather than Daniel 4:28, because there, too, is the underlying idea of (at least seeming) accident. This mode of expression, by which the Prophet represents the following language as something accidental and by the way, has its reason, likely, in this, that Isaiah is a Prophet primarily for Judah, and not for Israel. He therefore steps beyond the sphere of his own proper activity with these words, which fall like a morsel from the table prepared for the children.

Jacob stands only poetically for Israel. It can mean the whole nation, and the people of the Ten Tribes just as well as the name Israel (comp. Isaiah 2:3; Isaiah 2:5-6; Isaiah 8:17). Only the context decides in what sense the name is to be taken where it occurs. In the introduction to this section, we have showed that both Jacob and Israel mean the kingdom of the Ten Tribes. This antithesis of Jacob and Israel in parallelism occurs here for the first time. It is found again as designation of the entire Israel, Isaiah 10:20; Isaiah 14:1; Isaiah 27:6; Isaiah 29:23; Isaiah 40:27; Isaiah 41:8; Isaiah 41:14; Isaiah 42:24; Isaiah 43:1; Isaiah 43:22; Isaiah 43:28; Isaiah 44:1, (2), 5, 21, 23; Isaiah 45:4; Isaiah 46:3; Isaiah 48:1; Isaiah 48:12; Isaiah 49:5-6. This antithesis is found first in Hosea 12:13 (of the Patriarch): then in Micah, and relatively the oftenest in him: Micah 1:5; Micah 2:12; Micah 3:1; Micah 3:8-9. In Nahum 2:3. In Jeremiah 2:4; Jeremiah 30:10; Jeremiah 31:7; Jeremiah 46:27. Ezekiel 39:25. From this it appears that the form of expression is pre-eminently characteristic of Isaiah. If it is asked; what kind of word the LORD sent? I would refer for answer neither to Isaiah 5:25 nor to Isaiah 7:14 sqq. For both are remote. Those are right that take Isaiah 9:8, or say Isaiah 9:10 sq., as the word referred to in Isaiah 9:7. Nothing is more natural; any word more remote must be more exactly designated. The word “they shall know it,” Isaiah 9:8, favors this. For what should the Ephraimites know? Certainly, the very word of which Isaiah 9:7 speaks. At the same time the context makes it clear, that they should learn how ill the plan of Jehovah (according to Isaiah 9:10) will suit their proud plans. Therefore, “the word,” Isaiah 9:7, is identical with the object of “they shall know,” Isaiah 9:8, and we are justified in translating “and shall know it.”

”Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria” are contrasted here just as “the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,” Isaiah 5:3, comp. Isaiah 1:1, Isaiah 2:1. The Ephraimites and Samaritans, then, shall come to a certain knowledge, as persons that are in a state of pride and height of courage, for which just that knowledge commends itself as the best remedy. Wherein the pride consists is said Isaiah 9:9.

The haughty language consists of two simple, easily understood contrasts. Wood and stone are the chief materials for building. Bricks are poorer than hewn stones, and sycamores than cedars. “Sycamore trees are common in Palestine,” as THEODORETin loc. says. Flourishing in low places, (signum camporum sunt sycamori,) says the JERUS. GEMARA, comp. 1 Chronicles 27:28); they are prized as wood for building, but not compared with the cedar. (Comp. under Text. and Gram.) The sense of the figurative language is plain. They acknowledge that Ephraim has suffered, but they hope abundantly to repair all these damages.

2. Therefore the Lord——stretched out still.

Isaiah 9:11-12 (Isaiah 9:10-11). Jehovah’s doing Isaiah 9:10 sq. brings to nought the proud hopes of Isaiah 9:9, and is announced here as the contents of “the word” of Isaiah 9:7. They would rise high, but the LORD raises above even their high house, the oppressors of Rezin. These oppressors are the Assyrians. They had proved themselves such even at that time. They are called oppressors of Rezin, because Israel’s strength at that time, lay in the alliance with Rezin. The same power that killed Rezin, and conquered his kingdom, actually made an end of Ephraim not twenty years later. Syria itself, compelled by Assyria, is represented as marching against Ephraim. Because of the words, “the Philistines behind,” DELITZSCH supposes that the Prophet, from Isaiah 9:11 on, extends his view and has in mind all Israel, since the northern kingdom never had to suffer from the Philistines, whereas (acc. to 2 Chronicles 28:16-19) an invasion by the Philistines in Judah is expressly mentioned as belonging to the judgments of Ahaz’s time. But if this were so, Isaiah 9:12 (11) would need to be more distinctly disconnected from Isaiah 9:11 (10). For, as they stand, the words “the Syrians—behind” must be taken as dependent on יסכסר “will set on,” and the nations named here as specifications of “the enemies” Isaiah 9:11 (10). But then those attacked by Syria and the Philistines are identical with Ephraim to whom “him” and “his” (the suffixes in איביו and עליו (Isaiah 9:10) refer. But Isaiah 9:12 a (11) is not to be taken in a literal sense. Syria and the Philistines represent East and West. Isaiah 2:6; Isaiah 11:14 puts the Philistines as representatives of the West as opposed to (קֶדֶם) the East. Moreover we must not take “eating with a full mouth” as meaning a complete destruction. On the contrary, we see from Isaiah 9:12 b (11), that recurs afterwards three times, that the Prophet would say: ye hold the damage that ye hope easily to repair, to be the end of your calamity. But I say to you: you are destined to have your oppressors come on you from every side in superior power, and yet even this will be but the beginning of the end.