Isaiah 9:17

17 Therefore * the Lord does 1not take pleasure in their young men, 2Nor does He have pity on their orphans or their widows; For every one of them is 3godless and an 4evildoer, And every 5mouth is speaking foolishness. 6In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away And His hand is still stretched out.

Isaiah 9:17 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 9:17

Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men,
&c.] Take no delight and pleasure in them; but, on the contrary, detest and abhor them, and so destroy them, being depraved and corrupted by the bad instructions and examples of their parents: neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows;
who are objects of pity and compassion; yet these being wicked, as well as the fathers of the one, and the husbands of the other, shall be no more spared than they have been; so that this expresses both the general corruption and destruction of this people: for everyone [is] a hypocrite and an evildoer;
a hypocrite, as Aben Ezra on the place observes, is one that is outwardly good, and inwardly wicked; which was the general character of the people of Israel in Isaiah's time, as it was of the Jews in the times of Christ, see ( Matthew 23:25-28 ) they pretended to do good, but were doers of evil, workers of iniquity, continually committing sin; and yet would be thought to be very upright and sincere, both in their religion towards God, and in their dealings with men; but deceitful in both: and every mouth speaketh folly;
or falsehood; a lie, as the Targum, as all lies are foolish; as also all vain words, all impious ones; or the savour of irreligion or superstition, and indeed every idle word, and all unsavoury and corrupt speech, and there is particularly foolish talking, which is not convenient, ( Ephesians 5:4 ) : for all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand [is]
stretched out still;
which is repeated from ( Isaiah 9:12 ) . (See Gill on Isaiah 9:12).

Isaiah 9:17 In-Context

15 The head is the elder and honorable man, And the prophet who teaches falsehood is the tail.
16 For those who guide this people are leading them astray; And those who are guided by them are brought to confusion.
17 Therefore the Lord does not take pleasure in their young men, Nor does He have pity on their orphans or their widows; For every one of them is godless and an evildoer, And every mouth is speaking foolishness. In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away And His hand is still stretched out.
18 For wickedness burns like a fire; It consumes briars and thorns; It even sets the thickets of the forest aflame And they roll upward in a column of smoke.
19 By the fury of the LORD of hosts the land is burned up, And the people are like fuel for the fire; No man spares his brother.

Cross References 6

  • 1. Jeremiah 18:21; Amos 4:10; Amos 8:13
  • 2. Isaiah 27:11
  • 3. Isaiah 10:6; Isaiah 32:6
  • 4. Isaiah 1:4; Isaiah 14:20; Isaiah 31:2
  • 5. Matthew 12:34
  • 6. Isaiah 5:25

Footnotes 1

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