Isaiah 9:16

16 And they that bless his people, shall be deceivers, and they that be blessed, shall be cast down. (And they who bless his people, shall be deceivers, and they who be blessed, shall be cast down.)

Isaiah 9:16 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 9:16

For the leaders of this people cause [them] to err
Or, "who bless this people", as the Septuagint and Arabic versions; and so the Targum,

``who praise this people;''

that call them blessed, pronounce them happy, see ( Malachi 3:15 ) and promise them happiness, both in this world and that to come, though guilty of notorious sins, and live a vicious course of life; and so harden them in their iniquities, and cause them to wander more and more from the way of truth and righteousness; and lead them unto, and leave them in, fatal mistakes about their state and condition. These seem to design the ecclesiastical leaders of the people, the blind leaders of the blind, see ( Isaiah 3:12 ) ( Matthew 15:14 ) : and [they that are] led of them [are] destroyed;
or, "they" that "are blessed of them are swallowed up" ^F3; and so irrecoverably lost; the deceivers and the deceived perish together; as it is sinful in teachers and leaders of the people to teach them false things, and lead them out of the way, it is criminal in the people to be led and taught by them, who ought to take care what they hear and receive; and therefore both are righteously punished; for the words are a reason why the Lord would cut off both the one and the other.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 (Myelbm wyrvamw) "qui ex hoc populo beati dicuntur, absorbebuntur", Vatablus.

Isaiah 9:16 In-Context

14 And the Lord shall lose from Israel the head and the tail, [the] crooking and [the] beshrewing, either (the) refraining, in one day. (And the Lord shall destroy in Israel the head and the tail, yea, the crooked and the depraved, all in one day.)

15 An eld man and honourable, he is the head; and a prophet teaching leasing, he is the tail. (An old and honourable man, he is the head; and a prophet teaching lies, he is the tail.)

16 And they that bless his people, shall be deceivers, and they that be blessed, shall be cast down. (And they who bless his people, shall be deceivers, and they who be blessed, shall be cast down.)

17 For this thing the Lord shall not be glad on the young men thereof, and he shall not have mercy on the fatherless children and widows thereof; for each man is an hypocrite and wayward, and each mouth spake folly. In all these things the strong vengeance of him is not turned away, but yet his hand is stretched forth; and the people is not turned again to the Lord smiting it (and still the people did not turn again to the Lord/and still the people did not return to the Lord, who struck them).

18 For why wickedness is kindled as fire; it shall devour the briars and thorns, and it shall be kindled in the thickness of the forest, and it shall be wrapped (al)together in the pride of smoke. (For wickedness is kindled like a fire; it shall devour the briars and thorns, and it shall be kindled in the thickness of the forest, and it shall be wrapped up in a pall, or in a column, of smoke.)