Isaiah 9:1

Isaiah 9:1. Nevertheless … vexation Lit. For ( there is) no gloom to her that ( is) in straitness. The sentence is an enigma. Duhm translates it as a question and regards it as the gloss of a reader who with difficulty had made up his mind that the "gloom" is metaphorical and justified his conclusion thus: "For is there not gloom to (a land) that is in straits?" It is a nice question whether the ancient scholiast or the modern commentator displays the greater subtlety here. If the words are retained in the text we must supply a different tense in the two members, as R.V. "But (for) there shall beno gloom to her that wasin anguish."

when at the first … more grievously afflicther] Begin a new sentence and render as R.V. In the former time he brought into contempt … but in the latter time hath he made it glorious, &c., or (since the words for "land" have the acc. termination), "brought contempt on the land … brought honour to it." The subject is Jehovah.

the land of Zebulun … Naphtali Lower and Upper Galilee.

the way of the sea either "in the direction of the (Mediterranean) Sea," or "the region along the West side of the Sea of Gennesareth." In the time of the Crusades Via Mariswas the name of the road leading from Acre to Damascus.

beyond Jordan the land of Gilead (2 Kings 15:29).

in Galilee of the nations (omit "in") the circuit of the nations. Although the Hebrew word (Gâlîl) is the origin of the later "Galilee," the district to which it was applied in the O.T. was only the northernmost corner of what was afterwards Upper Galilee (see 1 Kings 9:11; Joshua 20:7; Joshua 21:32; 2 Kings 15:29).

These remote provinces are singled out for special mention because they were the first to be depopulated by Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings 15:29), those parts of the land, therefore, on which the reproach of foreign dominion will have lain longest when the Deliverance comes. The prophecy acquired a new and surprising significance when the "good news of the Kingdom" began to be proclaimed by our Lord first in Galilee (Matthew 4:13 ff.). But the following verses (Isaiah 9:2) refer of course to the whole nation.