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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Isaiah 9:8 - 9:21
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Jehovah's Hand Stretched our in Judgment
v. 8. The Lord sent a word into Jacob, a warning against His people, and it hath lighted upon Israel, falling from heaven like a morsel intended for the whole nation. God revealed His intention to His servant, and by the preaching of the prophet it reached the place for which it was intended.
v. 9. And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, the northern kingdom with its capital being emphatically mentioned first, as being leaders in disobedience and haughtiness, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,
v. 10. The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars, that is, they intended to replace their former lowly dwellings of dried clay and the cheap wood of the sycamore fig-tree by splendid palaces of stone and costly cedar-wood. It is the height of presumption and blasphemous pride if men scorn the punishment of the Lord.
v. 11. Therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, namely, the Assyrians, who, according to God's plan, conquered Syria and then advanced upon the northern kingdom, and join his enemies together, rather, Jehovah will stir up Ephraim's enemies against him;
v. 12. the Syrians before, for as allies of the Assyrians they would attack Israel from the east, and the Philistines behind, for these ancient enemies made use of every opportunity to wreak vengeance upon Israel and Judah, Cf 2Ch_28:16-19; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth, eating with a full mouth, pillaging the land almost to the point of destruction. Thus the Lord punishes the pride of unrepentant sinners. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still. The misfortunes here described were but the beginning of the great destruction which would strike the entire nation for its disobedience, and so the Lord would not withdraw His chastening hand.
v. 13. For the people turneth not unto Him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts. The object of His punishment, therefore, is not realized, they refuse to repent of their sins and thus give Him a new cause for punishing them.
v. 14. Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel, in wreaking His final vengeance upon the rebellious people, head and tail, branch and rush, in one day, in one great destruction. The prophet explains the figure used in this connection:
v. 15. The ancient and honorable, the princes and nobles of the people, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. The false prophets considered themselves leaders among the people, but they are here told, with bitter irony, that they are morally the basest of the people, the vilest part of the nation.
v. 16. For the leaders of this people cause them to err, thereby showing themselves utterly unfit for leadership; and they that are led of them are destroyed, literally, "swallowed up," namely, by the error and its peril, just as the humble rush must perish if submerged and covered with a flood of filthy water.
v. 17. Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, the All-powerful, who formerly granted success to the arms of Israel's young men, would withdraw His assistance, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows, who formerly had been the special objects of His fostering care; for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer; that is, corrupt, atrociously bad, inclined to every form of wickedness, and every mouth speaketh folly, blasphemous foolishness and villainy. And so once more the warning cry rings forth: For all this His anger Is not turned away, but His hand Is stretched out still, ready to apply further punishment.
v. 18. For wickedness burneth as the fire, challenging God to continue in His course of punishment, bringing forth its own destruction; it shall devour the briers and thorns, the great mass of the lowly people, who have become weeds and thistles on the face of the earth, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, of the standing timber, of the upper classes of Israel, and they shall mount up, the fire lifting them up in a heavy column, like the lifting up of smoke. Thus the fire of God's wrath, growing out of the nation's wickedness, would bring destruction upon the entire people, the picture being that of a devastating forest-fire.
v. 19. Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, burned out to ashes, utterly destroyed, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire, to be devoured without mercy; no man shall spare his brother, for selfishness takes account only of its own safety, disregarding all considerations of charity, patriotism, and kinship.
v. 20. And he (impersonal subject), that is, every man, shall snatch on the right hand and be hungry, like a beast snapping in every direction; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied; they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm, the members of his own family and tribe:
v. 21. Manasseh, Ephraim; and Epraim, Manasseh, in a form of civil war in which every man's hand would be turned against his neighbor; and they together shall be against Judah, for the hatred which obtained between Israel and Judah continued in the nation even as late as the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, when their murderous selfishness reached its climax. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still; for if sinners will not heed His warning here in time, His destruction will be upon them throughout eternity.