8.14 Sanctuary, a place of refuge. Both stone and rock were used in Israelite religious language as metaphors for God as a place of refuge (1 Sam 7.12; Ps 31.3); Isaiah adds a shocking modifier to each term to set up a terrifying contrast. God will be either a sanctuary or the stone or rock that destroys (cf. 28.16–17), depending on whether one fears God more than anything else.
8.16–18 The message preserved among Isaiah’s circle of supporters while Israel remains disobedient (cf. 30.8–11).
8.16 Bind, seal, as one does a scroll (29.11).
8.18 Signs, the symbolic names of Isaiah’s children.
8.19–22 Condemnation of necromancy (see 1 Sam 28.3–14 for this practice of consulting the dead).
8.19 Chirp and mutter, a disparaging comment about the necromancer’s customary manner of speaking during the consultation of the dead (29.4).
ISAIAH 9a
The Righteous Reign of the Coming King
1But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
2b The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.
3You have multiplied the nation,
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as people exult when dividing plunder.
4For the yoke of their burden,
and the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
5For all the boots of the tramping warriors
and all the garments rolled in blood
shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
6For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
Judgment on Arrogance and Oppression
8The Lord sent a word against Jacob,
and it fell on Israel;
9and all the people knew it—
Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—
but in pride and arrogance of heart they said:
10“The bricks have fallen,
but we will build with dressed stones;
the sycamores have been cut down,
but we will put cedars in their place.”
11So the LORD raised adversariesc against them,
and stirred up their enemies,
12the Arameans on the east and the Philistines on the west,
and they devoured Israel with open mouth.
For all this his anger has not turned away;
his hand is stretched out still.
13The people did not turn to him who struck them,
or seek the LORD of hosts.
14So the LORD cut off from Israel head and tail,
palm branch and reed in one day—
15elders and dignitaries are the head,
and prophets who teach lies are the tail;
16for those who led this people led them astray,
and those who were led by them were left in confusion.
17That is why the Lord did not have pity ond their young people,
or compassion on their orphans and widows;
for everyone was godless and an evildoer,
and every mouth spoke folly.
For all this his anger has not turned away;
his hand is stretched out still.
18For wickedness burned like a fire,
consuming briers and thorns;
it kindled the thickets of the forest,
and they swirled upward in a column of smoke.
19Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts
the land was burned,
and the people became like fuel for the fire;
no one spared another.
20They gorged on the right, but still were hungry,
and they devoured on the left, but were not satisfied;
they devoured the flesh of their own kindred;e
21Manasseh devoured Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,
and together they were against Judah.
For all this his anger has not turned away;
his hand is stretched out still.
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a Ch 8.23 in Heb
b Ch 9.1 in Heb
c Cn: Heb the adversaries of Rezin
d Q Ms: MT rejoice over
e Or arm
9.1–7 This passage served originally as an oracle for the coronation of a Judean king, probably Hezekiah. It celebrates the accession of the new king with the traditional ideals of Davidic kingship (see 11.1–9).
9.1 The areas mentioned were turned into three Assyrian provinces by Tiglath-pileser III in 733–32 BCE: Zebulun and Naphtali represent the Assyrian province of Galilee; the way of the sea corresponds to the Assyrian province of Dor, south of Mount Carmel; and the land beyond the Jordan is equivalent to the province of Gilead.
9.2 People, the Israelite inhabitants of the areas annexed by Assyria (v. 1). Darkness is standard imagery for oppression, light for royal relief from such oppression.
9.3 You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy, better “You have multiplied exultation, you have increased rejoicing.”
9.4 Day of Midian. See Judg 7.15–25.
9.6 Child, son. The divine birth or adoption of the king was announced on his coronation day (see Ps 2.7). As in the Egyptian coronation ritual, where the birth is announced to the other gods, the for us probably refers to the angelic members of God’s divine council. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, coronation names like those given Egyptian kings at their accession.
9.8–10.4 Israel’s failure to learn from past judgments is a warning to Judah. Note the refrain (9.12, 17, 21; 10.4; 5.25).
9.8–12 Judgment on the Northern Kingdom’s unrepentant pride.
9.8 Word, prophetic announcement of judgment that sets in motion the judgment it proclaims (55.10–11; Jer 23.18–20).
9.9 Ephraim, designation for the Northern Kingdom; Samaria, its royal capital.
9.10 Bricks, sycamores, common building material. Dressed stones, cedars, expensive material used in palaces.
9.13–17 Judgment on Israel’s leaders who led the people astray (see 3.12).
9.18–21 Wickedness led to the judgment of civil war.
9.20 Flesh of their own kindred, a striking metaphorical description of Israel’s self-destruction in the sectional conflicts climaxing in the Syro-Ephraimite war.
9.21 Manasseh, Ephraim, tribes that constituted the two major sectional rivals for dominance in the Northern Kingdom. Judah, the Southern Kingdom.
ISAIAH 10
1Ah, you who make iniquitous decrees,
who write oppressive statutes,
2to turn aside the needy from justice
and to rob the poor of my people of their right,
that widows may be your spoil,
and that you may make the orphans your prey!
3What will you do on the day of punishment,
in the calamity that will come from far away?
To whom will you flee for help,
and where will you leave your wealth,
4so as not to crouch among the prison
ers
or fall among the slain?
For all this his anger has not turned away;
his hand is stretched out still.
Arrogant Assyria Also Judged
5Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger—
the club in their hands is my fury!
6Against a godless nation I send him,
and against the people of my wrath I command him,
to take spoil and seize plunder,
and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7But this is not what he intends,
nor does he have this in mind;
but it is in his heart to destroy,
and to cut off nations not a few.
8For he says:
“Are not my commanders all kings?
9Is not Calno like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad?
Is not Samaria like Damascus?
10As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols
whose images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
11shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols
what I have done to Samaria and her images?”
12When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, hea will punish the arrogant boasting of the king of Assyria and his haughty pride. 13For he says:
“By the strength of my hand I have done it,
and by my wisdom, for I have understanding;
I have removed the boundaries of peoples,
and have plundered their treasures;
like a bull I have brought down those who sat on thrones.
14My hand has found, like a nest,
the wealth of the peoples;
and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken,
so I have gathered all the earth;
and there was none that moved a wing,
or opened its mouth, or chirped.”
15Shall the ax vaunt itself over the one who wields it,
or the saw magnify itself against the one who handles it?
As if a rod should raise the one who lifts it up,
or as if a staff should lift the one who is not wood!
16Therefore the Sovereign, the LORD of hosts,
will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors,
and under his glory a burning will be kindled,
like the burning of fire.
17The light of Israel will become a fire,
and his Holy One a flame;
and it will burn and devour
his thorns and briers in one day.
18The glory of his forest and his fruitful land
the LORD will destroy, both soul and body,
and it will be as when an invalid wastes away.
19The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few
that a child can write them down.
The Repentant Remnant of Israel
20On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on the one who struck them, but will lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 21A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. 22For though your people Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness. 23For the Lord GOD of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in all the earth.b
24Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: O my people, who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians when they beat you with a rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. 25For in a very little while my indignation will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction. 26The LORD of hosts will wield a whip against them, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb; his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt. 27On that day his burden will be removed from your shoulder, and his yoke will be destroyed from your neck.
He has gone up from Rimmon,c
28he has come to Aiath;
he has passed through Migron,
at Michmash he stores his baggage;
29they have crossed over the pass,
at Geba they lodge for the night;
Ramah trembles,
Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30Cry aloud, O daughter Gallim!
Listen, O Laishah!
Answer her, O Anathoth!
31Madmenah is in flight,
the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.
32This very day he will halt at Nob,
he will shake his fist
at the mount of daughter Zion,
the hill of Jerusalem.
33Look, the Sovereign, the LORD of hosts,
will lop the boughs with terrifying power;
the tallest trees will be cut down,
and the lofty will be brought low.
34He will hack down the thickets of the forest with an ax,
and Lebanon with its majestic treesd will fall.
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a Heb I
b Or land
c Cn: Heb and his yoke from your neck, and a yoke will be destroyed because of fatness
d Cn Compare Gk Vg: Heb with a majestic one
10.1–4 Judgment on those who pervert justice by oppressive laws (Jer 8.8).
10.5–19 Isaiah reassures Judah that God, not Assyria, controls history. Despite its arrogant pride, Assyria is just God’s temporary instrument for punishing others; soon it too will experience God’s punishment.
10.9 Calno, or “Calneh” (Am 6.2), north Syrian city that twice fell to the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser (740 and 738 BCE). Carchemish, north Syrian city dominated by Tiglath-pileser and recaptured by the Assyrian king Sargon II after a brief revolt against Assyrian rule (717). Hamath, central Syrian territory captured by Tiglath-pileser (738) and recaptured by Sargon in 720. Arpad, north Syrian city captured by Tiglath-pileser (740). Samaria, capital of Israel; it fell to Assyria (722 and 720). Damascus, capital of southern Syria; it fell to Tiglath-pileser in 732.
10.10–11 To the Assyrian king, the God of Judah was just another idol (cf. 36.7–10).
10.12 Work, God’s strange work (28.21) of purging Zion by judgment (1.21–28; 29.1–8).
10.13 Removed the boundaries. Assyria absorbed whole nations into its provincial system and used widespread resettlement of their populations to destroy former national identities.
10.15 Rhetorical questions that underscore Assyria’s foolish misconception of its significance.
10.16–19 The original target of this oracle may have been Damascus and Israel (cf. the imagery in 17.1–6), but it now portrays the destruction of Assyria.
10.17 Light of Israel, an epithet for God that suggests the image of the deity as a devouring fire (29.6; 30.27–33; 31.9; 33.14).
10.20–23 Originally a threat to the Northern Kingdom, but a promise to Judah. In its present location this oracle conveys the ambiguous message of Judah’s salvation through judgment (see 1.21–28; 29.1–8).
10.20 Israel, Jacob, designations for the Northern Kingdom. One who struck them, the Aramean ruler of Damascus (9.11–12).
10.21 A remnant will return, the name of Isaiah’s first child, Shear-jashub (7.3). Israel’s return to God implied its acceptance of the Davidic dynasty in Jerusalem (2.5–6; 8.5–8). Mighty God, a coronation name of the Judean king in 9.6.
10.22 Your people Israel. Note contrast to my people, who live in Zion (v. 24). Sand of the sea, only a small remnant of the North will survive despite the ancient promise (Gen 22.17; 32.12; Hos 1.10).
10.24–27c The promise of deliverance from the rod of Assyria resumes the imagery of vv. 5, 15.
10.26 Oreb. See Judg 7.25. Staff. See Ex 14.16. Over the sea…Egypt. God’s deliverance of his people from Assyria is compared to the first exodus from Egypt.
10.27 Cf. 9.4.
10.27d–32 This oracle describes the march of an enemy army along the main north-south route from Israelite territory toward Jerusalem in the south.
It is the logical approach for the Syro-Ephraimite army to have taken in its attack on the city (7.1), but there is no evidence any Assyrian army ever took this route.
10.27d Rimmon, not in the Hebrew text; a better reading is “Samaria,” the Northern capital.
10.28 Aiath, a variant spelling of Ai, a village two miles east-southeast of Bethel. Migron, unidentified site in Benjamin (1 Sam 14.2). Michmash, a village located about seven miles northeast of Jerusalem and just north of a strategic pass across the Wadi es-Suwenit.
10.29 The crossing of the pass at Michmash through Geba, located just south of the Wadi es-Suwenit, suggests a wide swing off the main route, probably to bypass the Judean border fortress of Mizpeh, before regaining the main road at Ramah, five miles north of Jerusalem. Gibeah of Saul, modern Tell el-Ful, about three and a half miles north of Jerusalem.
10.30 Gallim, Laishah, unidentified villages near Anathoth, a village three miles north of Jerusalem.
10.31 Madmenah, Gebim, unidentified villages north of Jerusalem.
10.32 Nob, probably situated on Mount Scopus, about a mile northeast of Jerusalem. Shake his fist, a derisive gesture.
10.33–34 God, who founded (14.32) and lives in Zion (8.18), will respond to the enemy’s haughty derision by felling his proud troops like a forest (see 2.12–13; 9.18–19; 10.16–19).
ISAIAH 11
The Peaceful Kingdom
1A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
2The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
3His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
4but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
5Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
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