Isaiah 9:8-21

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 margin.

Isaiah 9:8. Yahweh has sent crashing into Israel His word with its power of self-fulfilment, which will soon teach the boastful Ephraimites another lesson. For they believe that the state of things temporarily overthrown by disaster was mean and fragile in comparison with the splendour and stability they will soon attain. So Yahweh will incite the Syrians and Philistines against them. Yet His anger is not turned away, His hand is still stretched out to smite.

Isaiah 9:10. To the present day houses in Palestine are generally built of sun-dried bricks and beams of sycomore, since they are the cheapest material. Hewn stone and cedar would be reserved for the rich (p. 109).

Isaiah 9:11. adversaries of Rezin: since the Syrians are Israel's enemies, and Rezin was king of Syria, we must correct the text, reading probably his adversaries.

Isaiah 9:13. Since this will have no salutary effect, Yahweh will in one day destroy both small and great. He will not spare the sturdiest or the most helpless; the whole nation is evil. Nor yet does this exhaust His wrath.

Isaiah 9:14. palm-branch and rush: the lofty and the low.

Isaiah 9:15 f. An insertion. Isaiah 9:15 contains an incorrect explanation of Isaiah 9:14; for Isaiah 9:16 cf. Isaiah 3:12.

Isaiah 9:17. rejoice over: spare (yiphsah for yismah) would give a better parallel.

Isaiah 9:18. Wickedness is like a fire, which first lays hold on the briers, and, gaining strength, sets alight the whole dense forest. The land will be visited by Yahweh's wrath, the people will be like cannibals, the land rent by a ruthless civil war. Yet His hand is still stretched out.

Isaiah 9:19. burnt up: of quite uncertain meaning. as the fuel of fire: we should probably read like cannibals.

Isaiah 9:20. his own arm: read, his neighbour (rç-ô for z e rô-ô); cf. Jeremiah 19:9.

Isaiah 10:1. This section differs in several ways from the rest of the poem, and may be derived from another context. It is probably Isaianic. It attacks unjust judges, who deprive the poor and defenceless of justice, that they may defraud them. What will they do when the storm of vengeance sweeps on them from afar? To whom can they turn?

Isaiah 10:3. glory: wealth.

Isaiah 10:4. Very difficult; the text must be corrupt. A re-division of the consonants gives Beltis crouches, Osiris is broken (Lagarde). This may be correct, but we have no evidence for the worship of these deities in Palestine at this time. The meaning would be, You can flee to no one, for your false gods will be buried under heaps of slain. Gray reads, To avoid crouching under the prisoners.