{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"ISA","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Isaiah","commonName":"Isaiah","introduction":"ISAIAH, son of Amoz (not Amos); contemporary of Jonah, Amos, Hosea, in Israel, but younger than they; and of Micah, in Judah. His call to a higher degree of the prophetic office (Isa 6:1-13) is assigned to the last year of Uzziah, that is, 754 B.C. The first through fifth chapters belong to the closing years of that reign; not, as some think, to Jotham's reign: in the reign of the latter he seems to have exercised his office only orally, and not to have left any record of his prophecies because they were not intended for all ages. The first through fifth and sixth chapters are all that was designed for the Church universal of the prophecies of the first twenty years of his office. New historical epochs, such as occurred in the reigns of Ahaz and Hezekiah, when the affairs of Israel became interwoven with those of the Asiatic empires, are marked by prophetic writings. The prophets had now to interpret the judgments of the Lord, so as to make the people conscious of His punitive justice, as also of His mercy. Isa. 7:1-10:4 belong to the reign of Ahaz. The thirty-sixth through thirty-ninth chapters are historical, reaching to the fifteenth year of Hezekiah; probably the tenth through twelfth chapters and all from the thirteenth through twenty-sixth chapters, inclusive, belong to the same reign; the historical section being appended to facilitate the right understanding of these prophecies; thus we have Isaiah's office extending from about 760 to 713 B.C., forty-seven years. Tradition (Talmud) represents him as having been sawn asunder by Manasseh with a wooden saw, for having said that he had seen Jehovah (Exo 33:20; Kg2 21:16; Heb 11:37). Ch2 32:32 seems to imply that Isaiah survived Hezekiah; but \"first and last\" is not added, as in Ch2 26:22, which makes it possible that his history of Hezekiah was only carried up to a certain point. The second part, the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters, containing complaints of gross idolatry, needs not to be restricted to Manasseh's reign, but is applicable to previous reigns. At the accession of Manasseh, Isaiah would be eighty-four; and if he prophesied for eight years afterwards, he must have endured martyrdom at ninety-two; so Hosea prophesied for sixty years. And Eastern tradition reports that he lived to one hundred and twenty. The conclusive argument against the tradition is that, according to the inscription, all Isaiah's prophecies are included in the time from Uzziah to Hezekiah; and the internal evidence accords with this.\n\nHis WIFE is called the prophetess [Isa 8:3], that is, endowed, as Miriam, with a prophetic gift.\n\nHis CHILDREN were considered by him as not belonging merely to himself; in their names, Shearjashub, \"the remnant shall return\" [Isa 7:3, Margin], and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, \"speeding to the spoil, he hasteth to the prey\" [Isa 8:1, Margin], the two chief points of his prophecies are intimated to the people, the judgments of the Lord on the people and the world, and yet His mercy to the elect.\n\nHis GARMENT of sackcloth (Isa 20:2), too, was a silent preaching by fact; he appears as the embodiment of that repentance which he taught.\n\nHis HISTORICAL WORKS.--History, as written by the prophets, is retroverted prophecy. As the past and future alike proceed from the essence of God, an inspired insight into the past implies an insight into the future, and vice versa. Hence most of the Old Testament histories are written by prophets and are classed with their writings; the Chronicles being not so classed, cannot have been written by them, but are taken from historical monographs of theirs; for example, Isaiah's life of Uzziah, Ch2 26:22; also of Hezekiah, Ch2 32:32; of these latter all that was important for all ages has been preserved to us, while the rest, which was local and temporary, has been lost.\n\nThe INSCRIPTION (Isa 1:1) applies to the whole book and implies that Isaiah is the author of the second part (the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters), as well as of the first. Nor do the words, \"concerning Judah and Jerusalem\" [Isa 1:1], oppose the idea that the inscription applies to the whole; for whatever he says against other nations, he says on account of their relation to Judah. So the inscription of Amos, \"concerning Israel\" [Amo 1:1], though several prophecies follow against foreign nations. EWALD maintains that the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters, though spurious, were subjoined to the previous portion, in order to preserve the former. But it is untrue that the first portion is unconnected with those chapters. The former ends with the Babylonian exile (Isa 39:6), the latter begins with the coming redemption from it. The portion, the fortieth through forty-sixth chapters, has no heading of its own, a proof that it is closely connected with what precedes, and falls under the general heading in Isa 1:1. JOSEPHUS (The Antiquities of the Jews, 11. 1, sec. 1, 2) says that Cyrus was induced by the prophecies of Isaiah (Isa 44:28; Isa 45:1, Isa 45:13) to aid the Jews in returning and rebuilding the temple Ezr 1:1-11 confirms this; Cyrus in his edict there plainly refers to the prophecies in the second portion, which assign the kingdoms to him from Jehovah, and the duty of rebuilding the temple. Probably he took from them his historical name Cyrus (Coresh). Moreover, subsequent prophets imitate this second portion, which EWALD assigns to later times; for example, compare Jer. 50:1-51:64 with Isaiah's predictions against Babylon [Isa. 13:1-14:23]. \"The Holy One of Israel,\" occurring but three times elsewhere in the Old Testament [Kg2 19:22; Psa 78:41; Psa 89:18; Jer 50:29; Jer 51:5], is a favorite expression in the second, as in the first portion of Isaiah: it expresses God's covenant faithfulness in fulfilling the promises therein: Jeremiah borrows the expression from him. Also Ecclesiasticus 48:22-25 (\"comforted\"), quotes Isa 40:1 as Isaiah's. Luk 4:17 quotes Isa 61:1-2 as Isaiah's, and as read as such by Jesus Christ in the synagogue.\n\nThe DEFINITENESS of the prophecies is striking: As in the second portion of isaiah, so in Mic 4:8-10, the Babylonian exile, and the deliverance from it, are foretold a hundred fifty years before any hostilities had arisen between Babylon and Judah. On the other hand, all the prophets who foretell the Assyrian invasion coincide in stating, that Judah should be delivered from it, not by Egyptian aid, but directly by the Lord. Again Jeremiah, in the height of the Chaldean prosperity, foretold its conquest by the Medes, who should enter Babylon through the dry bed of the Euphrates on a night of general revelry. No human calculation could have discovered these facts. EICHORN terms these prophecies \"veiled historical descriptions,\" recognizing in spite of himself that they are more than general poetical fancies. The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah was certainly written ages before the Messiah, yet it minutely portrays His sufferings: these cannot be Jewish inventions, for the Jews looked for a reigning, not a suffering, Messiah.\n\nRationalists are so far right that THE PROPHECIES ARE ON A GENERAL BASIS whereby they are distinguished from soothsaying. They rest on the essential idea of God. The prophets, penetrated by this inner knowledge of His character, became conscious of the eternal laws by which the world is governed: that sin is man's ruin, and must be followed by judgment, but that God's covenant mercy to His elect is unchangeable. Without prophetism, the elect remnant would have decreased, and even God's judgments would have missed their end, by not being recognized as such: they would have been unmeaning, isolated facts. Babylon was in Isaiah's days under Assyria; it had tried a revolt unsuccessfully: but the elements of its subsequent success and greatness were then existing. The Holy Ghost enlightened his natural powers to discern this its rise; and his spiritual faculties, to foresee its fall, the sure consequence, in God's eternal law, of the pride which pagan success generates--and also Judah's restoration, as the covenant-people, with whom God, according to His essential character, would not be wroth for ever. True conversion is the prophet's grand remedy against all evils: in this alone consists his politics. Rebuke, threatening, and promise, regularly succeed one another. The idea at the basis of all is in Isa 26:7-9; Lev 10:3; Amo 3:2.\n\nThe USE OF THE PRESENT AND PRETERITE in prophecy is no proof that the author is later than Isaiah. For seers view the future as present, and indicate what is ideally past, not really past; seeing things in the light of God, who \"calls the things that are not as though they were.\" Moreover, as in looking from a height on a landscape, hills seem close together which are really wide apart, so, in events foretold, the order, succession, and grouping are presented, but the intervals of time are overlooked. The time, however, is sometimes marked (Jer 25:12; Dan 9:26). Thus the deliverance from Babylon, and that effected by Messiah, are in rapid transition grouped together by THE LAW OF PROPHETIC SUGGESTION; yet no prophet so confounds the two as to make Messiah the leader of Israel from Babylon. To the prophet there was probably no double sense; but to his spiritual eye the two events, though distinct, lay so near, and were so analogous, that he could not separate them in description without unfaithfulness to the picture presented before him. The more remote and antitypical event, however, namely, Messiah's coming, is that to which he always hastens, and which he describes with far more minuteness than he does the nearer type; for example, Cyrus (compare Isa 45:1 with Isa 53:1-12). In some cases he takes his stand in the midst of events between, for example, the humiliation of Jesus Christ, which he views as past, and His glorification, as yet to come, using the future tense as to the latter (compare Isa 53:4-9 with Isa 53:10-12). Marks of the time of events are given sparingly in the prophets: yet, as to Messiah, definitely enough to create the general expectation of Him at the time that He was in fact born.\n\nThe CHALDÆISMS alleged against the genuineness of the second portion of Isaiah, are found more in the first and undoubted portion. They occur in all the Old Testament, especially in the poetical parts, which prefer unusual expressions, and are due to the fact that the patriarchs were surrounded by Chaldee-speaking people; and in Isaiah's time a few Chaldee words had crept in from abroad.\n\nHis SYMBOLS are few and simple, and his poetical images correct; in the prophets, during and after the exile, the reverse holds good; Haggai and Malachi are not exceptions; for, though void of bold images, their style, unlike Isaiah's, rises little above prose: a clear proof that our Isaiah was long before the exile.\n\nOf VISIONS, strictly so called, he has but one, that in the sixth chapter; even it is more simple than those in later prophets. But he often gives SIGNS, that is, a present fact as pledge of the more distant future; God condescending to the feebleness of man (Isa 7:14; Isa 37:30; Isa 38:7).\n\nThe VARIETIES IN HIS STYLE do not prove spuriousness, but that he varied his style with his subject. The second portion is not so much addressed to his contemporaries, as to the future people of the Lord, the elect remnant, purified by the previous judgments. Hence its tenderness of style, and frequent repetitions (Isa 40:1): for comforting exhortation uses many words; so also the many epithets added to the name of God, intended as stays whereon faith may rest for comfort, so as not to despair. In both portions alike there are peculiarities characteristic of Isaiah; for example, \"to be called\" equivalent to to be: the repetition of the same words, instead of synonyms, in the parallel members of verses; the interspersing of his prophecies with hymns: \"the remnant of olive trees,\" &c., for the remnant of people who have escaped God's judgments. Also compare Isa 65:25 with Isa 11:6.\n\nThe CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT favors the opinion that Isaiah himself collected his prophecies into the volume; not Hezekiah's men, as the Talmud guesses from Pro 25:1. All the portions, the dates of which can be ascertained, stand in the right place, except a few instances, where prophecies of similar contents are placed together: with the termination of the Assyrian invasion (the thirty-sixth through thirty-ninth chapters) terminated the public life of Isaiah. The second part is his prophetic legacy to the small band of the faithful, analogous to the last speeches of Moses and of Jesus Christ to His chosen disciples.\n\nThe EXPECTATION OF MESSIAH is so strong in Isaiah, that JEROME To Paulinus calls his book not a prophecy, but the gospel: \"He is not so much a prophet as an evangelist.\" Messiah was already shadowed forth in Gen 49:10, as the Shiloh, or tranquillizer; also in Psalms 2, 45, 72, 110. Isaiah brings it out more definitely; and, whereas they dwelt on His kingly office, Isaiah develops most His priestly and prophetic office; the hundred tenth Psalm also had set forth His priesthood, but His kingly rather than, as Isaiah, His suffering, priesthood. The latter is especially dwelt on in the second part, addressed to the faithful elect; whereas the first part, addressed to the whole people, dwells on Messiah's glory, the antidote to the fears which then filled the people, and the assurance that the kingdom of God, then represented by Judah, would not be overwhelmed by the surrounding nations.\n\nHis STYLE (HENGSTENBERG, Christology of the Old Testament,) is simple and sublime; in imagery, intermediate between the poverty of Jeremiah and the exuberance of Ezekiel. He shows his command of it in varying it to suit his subject.\n\nThe FORM is mostly that of Hebrew poetical parallelism, with, however, a freedom unshackled by undue restrictions.\n\nJUDAH, the less apostate people, rather than Israel, was the subject of his prophecies: his residence was mostly at Jerusalem. On his praises, see Ecclesiasticus 48:22-25. Christ and the apostles quote no prophet so frequently. \n\n\n\nNext: Isaiah Chapter 1\n\n","order":23,"numberOfChapters":66,"sha256":"05afbc35163ce25bd06467062226b36d66e6285d8ca85b4815540db57d9466be","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":66,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/66.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":66},"totalNumberOfVerses":1200},"chapter":{"number":9,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["the people--the whole nation, Judah and Israel. \n\nshadow of death--the darkest misery of captivity.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["multiplied . . . nation--primarily, the rapid increase of Israelites after the return from Babylon; more fully and exhaustively the rapid spread of Christianity at first. \n\nnot increased the joy--By a slight change in the Hebrew, its (joy) is substituted by some for not, because \"not increased the joy\" seems opposite to what immediately follows, \"the joy,\" &c. HENGSTENBERG, retains not thus: \"Whose joy thou hadst not increased,\" (that is, hadst diminished). Others, \"Hast thou not increased the joy?\" The very difficulty of the reading, not, makes it less likely to be an interpolation. HORSLEY best explains it: The prophet sees in vision a shifting scene, comprehending at one glance the history of the Christian Church to remotest times--a land dark and thinly peopled--lit up by a sudden light--filled with new inhabitants--then struggling with difficulties, and again delivered by the utter and final overthrow of their enemies. The influx of Gentile converts (represented here by \"Galilee of the Gentiles\") soon was to be followed by the growth of corruption, and the final rise of Antichrist, who is to be destroyed, while God's people is delivered, as in the case of Gideon's victory over Midian, not by man's prowess, but by the special interposition of God. \n\nbefore thee--a phrase taken from sacrificial feasts; the tithe of harvest was eaten before God (Deu 12:7; Deu 14:26). \n\nas men rejoice . . . divide . . . spoil--referring to the judgments on the enemies of the Lord and His people, which usually accompany revelations of His grace.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["The occasion of the \"joy,\" the deliverance not only of Ahaz and Judah from the Assyrian tribute (Kg2 16:8), and of Israel's ten tribes from the oppressor (Kg2 15:19), but of the Jewish Christian Church from its last great enemy. \n\nhast--the past time for the future, in prophetic vision; it expresses the certainty of the event. \n\nyoke of his burden--the yoke with which he was burdened. \n\nstaff of . . . shoulder--the staff which strikes his shoulder [MAURER]; or the wood, like a yoke, on the neck of slaves, the badge of servitude [ROSENMULLER]. \n\nday of Midian-- (Jdg 7:8-22). As Gideon with a handful of men conquered the hosts of Midian, so Messiah the \"child\" (Isa 9:6) shall prove to be the \"Prince of peace,\" and the small Israel under Him shall overcome the mighty hosts of Antichrist (compare Mic 5:2-5), containing the same contrast, and alluding also to \"the Assyrian,\" the then enemy of the Church, as here in Isaiah, the type of the last great enemy. For further analogies between Gideon's victory and the Gospel, compare Co2 4:7, with Jdg 7:22. As the \"dividing of the spoil\" (Isa 9:3) was followed by that which was \"not joy,\" the making of the idolatrous ephod (Jdg 8:24-27), so the gospel victory was soon followed by apostasy at the first, and shall be so again after the millennial overthrow of Antichrist (Rev 20:3, Rev 20:7-9), previous to Satan's last doom (Rev 20:10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["every battle, &c.--rather, \"every greave of (the warrior who is) armed with greaves in the din of battle, and the martial garment (or cloak, called by the Latins sagum) rolled in blood, shall be for burning, (and) fuel for fire\" [MAURER]. All warlike accoutrements shall be destroyed, as no longer required in the new era of peace (Isa 2:4; Isa 11:6-7; Psa 46:9; Eze 39:9; Mic 5:5, Mic 5:10; Zac 9:9-10). Compare Mal 4:1, as to the previous burning up of the wicked.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["For--the ground of these great expectations, \n\nunto us--for the benefit of the Jews first, and then the Gentiles (compare \"unto you,\" Luk 2:11). \n\nson . . . given-- (Psa 2:7). God's gratuitous gift, on which man had no claim (Joh 3:16; Rom 6:23). \n\ngovernment . . . upon . . . shoulder--The ensign of office used to be worn on the shoulder, in token of sustaining the government (Isa 22:22). Here the government on Messiah's shoulder is in marked antithesis to the \"yoke and staff\" of the oppressor on Israel's \"shoulder\" (Isa 9:4). He shall receive the kingdom of the earth from the Father, to vindicate it from the misrule of those to whom it was entrusted to hold it for and under the Most High, but who sought to hold it in defiance of His right; the Father asserts His right by the Son, the \"Heir of all things,\" who will hold it for Him (Dan 7:13-14). \n\nname . . . called--His essential characteristics shall be. \n\nWonderful--(See on Isa 8:18; Jdg 13:18, Margin; Ti1 3:16). \n\nCounsellor-- (Psa 16:7; Rom 11:33-34; Co1 1:24; Col 2:3). \n\nmighty God-- (Isa 10:21; Psa 24:8; Tit 2:13) HORSLEY translates: \"God the mighty man.\" \"Unto us . . . God\" is equivalent to \"Immanuel\" (Isa 7:14). \n\neverlasting Father--This marks Him as \"Wonderful,\" that He is \"a child,\" yet the \"everlasting Father\" (Joh 10:30; Joh 14:9). Earthly kings leave their people after a short reign; He will reign over and bless them for ever [HENGSTENBERG]. \n\nPrince of Peace--(See on Isa 9:5; Gen 49:10; Shiloh, \"The Tranquillizer\"). Finally (Hos 2:18). Even already He is \"our peace\" (Luk 2:14; Eph 2:14).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Of . . . increase . . . no end--His princely rule shall perpetually increase and be unlimited (Dan 2:44). \n\nthrone of David-- (Kg1 8:25; Psa 2:6; Psa 132:11; Jer 3:17-18 Eze 34:23-26; Eze 37:16, Eze 37:22; Luk 1:32-33; Act 2:30). \n\njudgment . . . justice--It is not a kingdom of mere might, and triumph of force over enemies, but of righteousness (Isa 42:21; Psa 45:6-7), attainable only in and by Messiah. \n\nzeal, &c.--including not only Christ's hidden spiritual victory over Satan at the first coming, but the open one accompanied with \"judgments\" on Antichrist and every enemy at the second coming (Isa 59:17; Psa 9:6-8).\n\nDelivered a little later than the previous one. The ninth and tenth chapters ought to have been so divided. The present division into chapters was made by Cardinal Hugo, in A.D. 1250; and into verses, by Robert Stephens, the famous printer of Paris, in 1551. After the Assyrian invasion of Syria, that of Ephraim shall follow (Kg2 16:9); Isa 9:8-11, Isa 9:17-20, foretell the intestine discords in Israel after Hoshea had slain Pekah (A.D. 739), that is, just after the Assyrian invasions, when for seven years it was stripped of magistrates and torn into factions. There are four strophes, each setting forth Ephraim's crime and consequent punishment, and ending with the formula, \"For all this His anger is not turned away,\" &c. (Isa 9:12, Isa 9:17, Isa 9:21, and Isa 10:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["PROPHECY AS TO THE TEN TRIBES. (Isa. 9:8-10:4)\n\nHeading of the prophecy; (Isa 9:8-12), the first strophe. \n\nunto Jacob--against the ten tribes [LOWTH]. \n\nlighted upon--fallen from heaven by divine revelation (Dan 4:31).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["know--to their cost: experimentally (Hos 9:7). \n\nSamaria--the capital of Ephraim (compare as to phrase, Isa 1:1).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["bricks--in the East generally sun-dried, and therefore soon dissolved by rain. Granting, say the Ephraimites to the prophet's threat, that our affairs are in a ruinous state, we will restore them to more than their former magnificence. Self-confident unwillingness to see the judgments of God (Isa 26:11). \n\nhewn stones-- (Kg1 5:17). \n\nsycamores--growing abundantly on the low lands of Judea, and though useful for building on account of their antiseptic property (which induced the Egyptians to use them for the cases of their mummies), not very valuable. The cedar, on the other hand, was odorous, free from knots, durable, and precious (Kg1 10:27). \"We will replace cottages with palaces.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["adversaries of Rezin--the Assyrians, who shall first attack Damascus, shall next advance \"against him\" (Ephraim). This is the punishment of Ephraim's pride in making light (Isa 9:10) of the judgment already inflicted by God through Tiglath-pileser (Kg2 15:29). A second Assyrian invasion (see on Isa 7:1) shall follow. The reading \"princes\" for \"adversaries\" in uncalled for. \n\njoin--rather, \"arm\"; cover with armor [MAURER]. \n\nhis--Rezin's.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["Syrians--Though now allies of Ephraim, after Rezin's death they shall join the Assyrians against Ephraim. \"Together,\" in Isa 9:11, refers to this. Conquering nations often enlist in their armies the subject races (Isa 22:6; compare Kg2 16:9; Jer 35:11), [ABEN EZRA, GESENIUS]. HORSLEY less probably takes \"Syrians before,\" as the Syrians to the east, that is, not Rezin's subjects, but the Assyrians: \"Aram\" being the common name of Syrians and Assyrians. \n\nPhilistines--of Palestine. \n\nbehind--from the west: in marking the points of the compass, Orientalists face the east, which is before them: the west is behind. The right hand is the south: the left, the north. \n\ndevour--as a ravenous beast (Isa 1:20; Jer 10:25; Jer 30:16; Num 14:9). \n\nFor all this, &c.--The burden of each strophe.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["Second strophe.\n\nturneth not--the design of God's chastisements; not fulfilled in their case; a new cause for punishment (Jer 2:20; Jer 5:3).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["head and tail--proverbial for the highest and lowest (Deu 28:13, Deu 28:44). \n\nbranch and rush--another image for the same thought (Isa 19:15). The branch is elevated on the top of the tree: the rush is coarse and low.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["ancient--the older. \n\nhonourable--the man of rank. \n\nprophet . . . lies, . . . tail--There were many such in Samaria (Kg1 22:6, Kg1 22:22-23; compare as to \"tail,\" Rev 9:19).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["leaders, &c.--(See Isa 3:12, Margin, and see on Isa 3:12.)\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["no joy--the parallelism, \"neither . . . mercy,\" shows that this means, He shall have no such delight in their youthful warriors, however much they be the nation's delight and reliance, as to save them from the enemy's sword (Isa 31:8; compare Jer 18:21). \n\nfatherless, &c.--not even the usual objects of His pity (Psa 10:14, Psa 10:18; Psa 68:5; Jer 49:11; Hos 14:3) shall be spared. \n\nhypocrite--rather, a libertine, polluted [HORSLEY]. \n\nfolly--wickedness (Psa 14:1). \n\nstill--Notwithstanding all these judgments, more remain.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["Third strophe.\n\nburneth--maketh consumption, not only spreading rapidly, but also consuming like fire: sin is its own punishment. \n\nbriers . . . thorns--emblem of the wicked; especially those of low rank (Isa 27:4; Sa2 23:6). \n\nforest--from the humble shrubbery the flame spreads to the vast forest; it reaches the high, as well as the low. \n\nmount up like . . . smoke--rather. \"They (the thickets of the forest) shall lift themselves proudly aloft [the Hebrew is from a Syriac root, a cock, expressing stateliness of motion, from his strutting gait, HORSLEY], in (in passing into) volumes of ascending smoke\" [MAURER].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["darkened--namely, with smoke (Isa 9:18). The Septuagint and Chaldee render it, \"is burnt up,\" so MAURER, from an Arabic root meaning \"suffocating heat.\" \n\nno man . . . spare . . . brother--intestine discord snapping asunder the dearest ties of nature.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["hungry--not literally. Image from unappeasable hunger, to picture internal factions, reckless of the most tender ties (Isa 9:19), and insatiably spreading misery and death on every side (Jer 19:9). \n\neat--not literally, but destroy (Psa 27:2; Job 19:22). \n\nflesh of . . . arm--those nearest akin: their former support (helper) (Isa 32:2) [MAURER].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["Manasseh, Ephraim--the two sons of Joseph. So closely united as to form between them but one tribe; but now about to be rent into factions, thirsting for each other's blood. Disunited in all things else, but united \"together against their brother Judah\" (Kg2 15:10, Kg2 15:30).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Isaiah Chapter 10\n\n"]}],"introduction":"CONTINUATION OF THE PROPHECY IN THE EIGHTH CHAPTER. (Isa 9:1-7)\n\nNevertheless, &c.--rather, \"For darkness shall not (continually) be on it (that is, the land) on which there is (now) distress\" [HENGSTENBERG and MAURER]. The \"for\" refers, not to the words immediately preceding, but to the consolations in Isa 8:9-10, Isa 8:17-18. Do not despair, for, &c. \n\nwhen at the first, &c.--rather, \"as the former time has brought contempt on the land of Zebulun and Naphtali (namely, the deportation of their inhabitants under Tiglath-pileser, Kg2 15:29, a little before the giving of this prophecy); so shall the after-coming time bring honor to the way of the sea (the district around the lake of Galilee), the land beyond (but HENGSTENBERG, \"by the side of\") Jordan (Perea, east of Jordan, belonging to Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh), the circle (but HENGSTENBERG, \"Galilee\") (that is, region) of the \"Gentiles\" [MAURER, HENGSTENBERG, &c.]. Galil in Hebrew is a \"circle,\" \"circuit,\" and from it came the name Galilee. North of Naphtali, inhabited by a mixed race of Jews and Gentiles of the bordering Phœnician race (Jdg 1:30; Kg1 9:11). Besides the recent deportation by Tiglath-pileser, it had been sorely smitten by Ben-hadad of Syria, two hundred years before (Kg1 15:20). It was after the Assyrian deportation colonized with heathens, by Esar-haddon (Kg2 17:24). Hence arose the contempt for it on the part of the southern Jews of purer blood (Joh 1:46; Joh 7:52). The same region which was so darkened once, shall be among the first to receive Messiah's light (Mat 4:13, Mat 4:15-16). It was in despised Galilee that He first and most publicly exercised His ministry; from it were most of His apostles. Foretold in Deu 33:18-19; Act 2:7; Psa 68:27-28, Jerusalem, the theocratic capital, might readily have known Messiah; to compensate less favored Galilee, He ministered mostly there; Galilee's very debasement made it feel its need of a Saviour, a feeling not known to the self-righteous Jews (Mat 9:13). It was appropriate, too, that He who was both \"the Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the Glory of His people Israel,\" should minister chiefly on the border land of Israel, near the Gentiles.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/9.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":9},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/10.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":10},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/8.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":8},"numberOfVerses":20}