Isaiah 9 - Introduction

Isaiah 8:19 to Isaiah 9:7. Esoteric prophecies of the future addressed to Isaiah's disciples

The prophet, having now discontinued and "sealed up" his public "testimony," appears to address himself in what follows to his own immediate followers. The passage presents, in vivid contrast, two pictures; one of the darkness and despair that are settling down on the incorrigible nation, the other of the light and joy that are to break upon it with the advent of the Messianic salvation. "The morning cometh and also the night" (ch. Isaiah 21:12).

i. Isa 9:19-21. The night of despair and affliction. The whole of this section is unusually obscure, but two features can be clearly recognised, corresponding to the double prophecy in ch. Isaiah 6:9-12.

(1) Spiritual darkness, the people resorting to necromancy, &c., in default of a true revelation (19, 20). This we may regard as a symptom of the last stage of the hardening of heart foretold in Isaiah 6:9 f.

(2) Outward distress: men roaming through a dreary land, maddened by hunger, and seeking relief in vain (21, 22). The fulfilment of Isaiah 6:11 f.

Ch. Isaiah 9:1 (in the Hebr. 8:23) is a transition verse.

ii. Ch. Isaiah 9:2-7. The dawn of the Messianic age.

(1) The light and joy of the great deliverance (2, 3).

(2) The manner of the deliverance: the overthrow of the Assyrian tyrant (4, 5).

(3) The advent of the Messianic King (6, 7).