way of ... people--their distrust of Jehovah, and the panic which led them and Ahab to seek Assyrian aid.
12-16. The words of Jehovah.
confederacy--rather, a conspiracy; an appropriate term for the unnatural combination of Israel with Syrian foreigners against Judea and the theocracy, to which the former was bound by ties of blood and hereditary religion [Maurer].
to all ... say--rather, of all which this people calleth a conspiracy [G. V. Smith].
their fear--namely, object of fear: the hostile conspiracy.
be afraid--rather [Maurer], "nor make others to be afraid."
17. I--Whatever the rest of the nation may do, I will look to Jehovah alone.
that hideth ... face--though He seems now to withdraw His countenance from Judah (the then representative of "the house of Jacob"). Let us wait and trust in, though we cannot see, Him ([Is 50:10]; ; [Ha 2:3]; [Lu 2:25], 38).
18. I and the children--Isaiah means "salvation of Jehovah"; His children's names, also ([Is 7:3], ; ), were "signs" suggestive of the coming and final deliverance.
wonders--that is, symbols of the future ([Is 20:3]; [Zec 3:8]). "Behold I ... me" is quoted in [He 2:13] to prove the manhood of the Messiah. This is the main and ultimate fulfilment of the prophecy; its temporary meaning is applied to Ahaz' time. Isaiah typically, in [Is 8:17], , personates Messiah, who is at once "Father" and "Son," Isaiah and Immanuel, "Child" and "Mighty God," and is therefore called here a "wonder," as in [Is 9:6], "Wonderful." Hence in [He 2:13], believers are called His "children"; but in [Is 8:11], , His "brethren." On "the Lord hath given me," see [Joh 6:37], ; ; .
which dwelleth in ... Zion--and will therefore protect Jerusalem.
19. Seek unto--Consult in your national difficulties.
them ... familiar spirits--necromancers, spirit charmers. So Saul, when he had forsaken God ([1Sa 28:7], &c.), consulted the witch of En-dor in his difficulties. These follow in the wake of idolatry, which prevailed under Ahaz ([2Ki 16:3], [4, 10]). He copied the soothsaying as he did the idolatrous "altar" of Damascus (compare [Le 20:6], which forbids it, [Is 19:3]).
wizards--men claiming supernatural knowledge; from the old English, "to wit," that is, know.
peep--rather "chirp faintly," as young birds do; this sound was generally ascribed to departed spirits; by ventriloquism the soothsayers caused a low sound to proceed as from a grave, or dead person. Hence the Septuagint renders the Hebrew for "necromancers" here "ventriloquists" (compare [Is 29:4]).
mutter--moan.
should not, &c.--The answer which Isaiah recommends to be given to those advising to have recourse to necromancers.
for the living, &c.--"should one, for the safety of the living, seek unto (consult) the dead?" [Gesenius]. Lowth renders it, "In place of (consulting) the living, should one consult the dead?"
20. To the law, &c.--the revelation of God by His prophet ([Is 8:16]), to which he directs them to refer those who would advise necromancy.
if they speak not ... it is because--English Version understands "they" as the necromancers. But the Hebrew rendered "because" is not this but "who"; and "if not," ought rather to be "shall they not"; or, truly they shall speak according to this word, who have no morning light (so the Hebrew, that is, prosperity after the night of sorrows) dawning on them [Maurer and G. V. Smith]. They who are in the dark night of trial, without a dawn of hope, shall surely say so, Do not seek, as we did, to necromancy, but to the law," &c. The law perhaps includes here the law of Moses, which was the "Magna Charta" on which prophetism commented [Kitto].
21-22. More detailed description of the despair, which they shall fall into, who sought necromancy instead of God; [Is 8:20] implies that too late they shall see how much better it would have been for them to have sought "to the law," &c. ([De 32:31]). But now they are given over to despair. Therefore, while seeing the truth of God, they only "curse their King and God"; foreshadowing the future, like conduct of those belonging to the "kingdom of the beast," when they shall be visited with divine plagues ([Re 16:11]; compare [Jr 18:12]).
through it--namely, the land.
hardly bestead--oppressed with anxiety.
hungry--a more grievous famine than the temporary one in Ahaz' time, owing to Assyria; then there was some food, but none now ([Is 7:15], ; [Le 26:3-5, 14]-[16, 20]).
their king ... God--Jehovah, King of the Jews ([Psa 5:2]; ).
look upward ... unto the earth--Whether they look up to heaven, or down towards the land of Judea, nothing but despair shall present itself.
dimness of anguish--darkness of distress ([Pr 1:27]).
driven to darkness--rather, "thick darkness" ([Jr 23:12]). Driven onward, as by a sweeping storm. The Jewish rejection of "their King and God," Messiah, was followed by all these awful calamities.
Chapter 9
Is 9:1-7. Continuation of the Prophecy in the Eighth Chapter
1. Nevertheless, &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 [Is 8:9], [10, 17], . Do not despair, for, &c.
when 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, [2Ki 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 Phoenician race ([Jud 1:30]; [1Ki 9:11]). Besides the recent deportation by Tiglath-pileser, it had been sorely smitten by Ben-hadad of Syria, two hundred years before ([1Ki 15:20]). It was after the Assyrian deportation colonized with heathens, by Esar-haddon ([2Ki 17:24]). Hence arose the contempt for it on the part of the southern Jews of purer blood ([Joh 1:46]; 7:52). The same region which was so darkened once, shall be among the first to receive Messiah's light ([Mt 4:13], [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 [De 33:18], ; [Ac 2:7]; [Psa 68:27], , 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 ([Mt 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.
2. the people--the whole nation, Judah and Israel.
shadow of death--the darkest misery of captivity.
3. multiplied ... nation--primarily, the rapid increase of Israelites after the return from Babylon; more fully and exhaustively the rapid spread of Christianity at first.
not 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.
before thee--a phrase taken from sacrificial feasts; the tithe of harvest was eaten before God ([De 12:7]; ).
as men rejoice ... divide ... spoil--referring to the judgments on the enemies of the Lord and His people, which usually accompany revelations of His grace.
4. The occasion of the "joy," the deliverance not only of Ahaz and Judah from the Assyrian tribute ([2Ki 16:8]), and of Israel's ten tribes from the oppressor ([2Ki 15:19]), but of the Jewish Christian Church from its last great enemy.
hast--the past time for the future, in prophetic vision; it expresses the certainty of the event.
yoke of his burden--the yoke with which he was burdened.
staff 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].
day of Midian--([Jud 7:8-22]). As Gideon with a handful of men conquered the hosts of Midian, so Messiah the "child" ([Is 9:6]) shall prove to be the "Prince of peace," and the small Israel under Him shall overcome the mighty hosts of Antichrist (compare [Mi 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 [2Co 4:7], with [Jud 7:22]. As the "dividing of the spoil" ([Is 9:3]) was followed by that which was "not joy," the making of the idolatrous ephod ([Jud 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 ([Re 20:3], ), previous to Satan's last doom ([Re 20:10]).
5. 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 ([Is 2:4]; , ; [Psa 46:9]; [Eze 39:9]; [Mi 5:5], ; [Zec 9:9], ). Compare Mal 4:1, as to the previous burning up of the wicked.
6. For--the ground of these great expectations,