Isaiah 9 Study Notes

9:12 Israel was beset by enemies to the northeast (Aram, who under their king, Rezin, allied and exploited them for its purposes) and Philistia to its immediate west. Note that the last two parts of this verse are repeated in vv. 17,21, as well as 10:4.

9:13 God’s punishment of his people was intended to convince them to return to his ways, but they were so dull of mind and spirit that they did not respond.

9:14 After the first Assyrian incursion into the north (733 BC), Israel continued in its sinful ways. God soon brought a more devastating judgment in 722 BC, ending their independent existence. The expression head and tail, palm branch and reed points to a totality (19:15).

9:15-16 It was particularly the leaders (including the elder and the prophet) who were responsible for the people going in the wrong direction.

9:17 Such was the corruption of Israel’s society that both the strong and the weak were guilty.

9:18-19 Devastation is seen as the natural consequence of wickedness itself (wickedness burns like a fire) as well as the result of divine anger (the land is scorched by the wrath of the Lord of Armies). Sin breaks up human relationships, even brotherly love.

9:20 The greediness of the people led them to consume everyone and everything in their path. Eventually their hunger turned them on themselves.

9:21 Manasseh and Ephraim were two large northern tribes whose founding fathers were brothers, the sons of Joseph (Gn 41:50-52; 48:5). They turned against each other, illustrating lack of compassion toward a brother (Is 9:19). Then together they turned against Judah.