Isaiah 9 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~735-732 BC, during the war in which Syria and the northern kingdom of Israel attacked Judah, and the years just after
Location
Jerusalem, capital of the southern kingdom of Judah, with the prophet's eye on Galilee and the northern territories in the far north of the land
Audience
the people of Judah, and later readers of Isaiah's collected prophecies who were living with the consequences of Assyrian conquest
Situation
Isaiah promises that the northern regions humiliated by invasion will see a great light, and that a royal child will be born who will rule with justice forever. The chapter then turns to a series of judgment poems against the northern kingdom, each ending with the refrain that God's anger has still not turned away.
Key Background
Zebulun and Naphtali, the tribal areas named at the start, were the first Israelite territories stripped away by the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser the Third around 733 BC and turned into Assyrian provinces, so they stood for the deepest national humiliation. The string of throne names given to the promised child follows an Egyptian and wider Near Eastern coronation custom in which a new king received a set of grand titles at his enthronement. The repeated refrain about God's outstretched hand is a poetic device that binds several separate judgment poems into one long argument.
Still, there will be no more for the land that was crushed. In earlier days he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in days to come he will bring honor to the road by the sea, beyond the Jordan, of the
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. Those living in a land of — light has broken over them.
You have multiplied the nation, you have made its immense. They celebrate in your presence the way people celebrate at harvest, the way soldiers shout when dividing what they've won.
Because the that weighed them down, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of the one who drove them — you have shattered these like the
Every that in battle-thunder, every cloak rolled in blood — all of it will be fuel for fire, consumed by flames.
Because a child has been born for us, a son has been given to us, and the of rests on his shoulders. He will be called: Wonderful God, Everlasting of
His governance and his peace will grow without end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing it and sustaining it with and with what is right, from now until forever. The of of will accomplish this.
The Lord has sent a against Jacob, and it has fallen on Israel.
And all the people will know it — Ephraim and those who live in Samaria — who say with swelling pride:
"The bricks have fallen, but we will build with stone. The sycamores have been chopped down, but we will replace them with
So Yahweh has raised up Rezin's enemies against him and stirred up his foes —
Aram from the east and the Philistines from the west — they devour Israel with open mouths. Even after all this, anger has not turned away; his is out.
But the people have not to the one who struck them; they have not sought Yahweh of Armies.
So Yahweh has cut off from Israel and tail, palm and in a single day.
The elder and the dignitary — they are the head. The prophet who teaches lies — he is the tail.
Those who guide this people have led them astray, and those who are guided by them are up.
That is why the Lord takes no pleasure in their young men, and has no compassion on their orphans and widows — because every one of them is and speaks what is foul, and every mouth speaks foolishness. Even after all this, his anger has not turned away; his hand is still stretched out.
Because burns like fire; it devours thorns and thistles, it sets the thickets of the forest ablaze, and they spiral upward in columns of smoke.
By the of Yahweh of Armies the land is scorched, and the people are fuel for fire. No one spares even their own brother.
They carve off meat on the right but are still hungry; they devour on the left but are never full. Each one feeds on the of their own — Manasseh against Ephraim, Ephraim against Manasseh, and together they turn against Judah. Even after all this, his anger has not turned away; his hand is still stretched out.
Even after all this, his anger has not turned away; his hand is still stretched out.