Isaiahchapter 9
21 verses · Isaiah · 8th century BC · The Prophets
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Introduction
Isaiah, The Prophets, Isaiah Overview.
Isaiah spoke this chapter after the Assyrians had stripped the northern tribes of Israel of their land. Its first hearers had watched Galilee and the lands east of the Jordan become Assyrian provinces. It holds two parts that belong together, a promise of light and a warning of judgment still to come. Listen for where the light is said to dawn first. Notice the names given to the child and what they claim about his rule. Mark the refrain that closes each stanza of the second part. The chapter sets the hope of a coming king beside the stubbornness of a proud nation.
Context
- Who
- Judeans watching the north go dark, and northerners already under Assyrian governors
- What
- A promise of light for Galilee through a child born to reign on David's throne, followed by a poem of judgment on the northern kingdom.
- Where
- The northern territories of Zebulun and Naphtali, Galilee of the nations, and the kingdom of Israel with its capital Samaria.
- When
- After the campaigns of Tiglath-pileser III in 733 to 732 BC, before the fall of Samaria in 722 BC.
- Why
- To give hope to a land darkened by conquest and to warn Israel that its pride would not escape God's anger.
Historical context
The darkness named here is dated. In 733-732 BC Tiglath-pileser III swept the north of Israel, took Galilee and Gilead, and carried the people to Assyria; his own annals record the campaign and the deportation numbers, and the territory was reorganized into Assyrian provinces. Zebulun and Naphtali were the first Israelite ground to lose its nationhood. The road called the way of the sea ran through it, which is why armies always came that way.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The relief images are farm and battlefield. A yoke is the bar across a draft animal's shoulders; the staff is the rod the driver used on its back; both are pictured snapped. Then a bonfire: every soldier's boot and every blood-soaked uniform thrown on the fire, because when a war is truly over the gear is fuel, not stores.
The four titles read like a royal accession. When a new king took the throne in Egypt and in the courts around Israel, he received a string of throne names announcing what his reign would be. This list ends with words no human king could take, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and it is attached to a child.
The refrain about the outstretched hand runs through a description of northern arrogance that is almost comic. The bricks have fallen, so we will rebuild in cut stone; the sycamores are cut down, so we will use cedars. Sun-dried mud brick and cheap sycamore-fig timber were what ordinary people built with; dressed stone and imported Lebanese cedar were what kings built with. A ruined nation announcing an upgrade is a nation that has learned nothing.
Significance
The first hearers had just watched the northern tribes vanish into the Assyrian system. Isaiah says the light starts there, in the region that went dark first, out on the pagan road, not in Jerusalem.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And the government is described as resting on one person's shoulder, with no end to its increase, on David's throne. To people whose government had just been dissolved by an emperor, that was the whole point.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The two verses of the child born and the son given are read aloud in the Ashkenazi synagogue as the close of the Haftarah of Yitro. The site's table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts records that Haftarah as Isaiah 6:1 to 7:6 and 9:5 to 9:6. The probe printed the Ashkenazi rite only for this chapter. The Sephardi Haftarah of that Sabbath ends at Isaiah 6:13.
The verse numbers are the Hebrew ones, which the table itself warns can part from an English Bible. Isaiah 9:5 to 9:6 in the Hebrew is 9:6 to 9:7 in an English Bible, and the corpus notes on this chapter follow the Hebrew count throughout.
How it is read
Rashi is the main commentator on this chapter in the corpus, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Ibn Ezra is quoted from the Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah, translated by M. Friedlander in 1873, which Sefaria reports as Public Domain.
Rashi reads the chapter through the deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib. The people who walked in darkness are "The inhabitants of Jerusalem, who were darkened by their concern" over Sennacherib (Rashi on Isaiah 9:1:1). The great light they saw came "with Sennacherib’s downfall" (Rashi on Isaiah 9:1:2). The broken yoke is the tribute that weighed on Hezekiah (Rashi on Isaiah 9:3:1).
On the child born, the verse the synagogue reads, Rashi names Hezekiah. Although Ahaz is wicked, "his son who was born to him many years ago" shall be a righteous man (Rashi on Isaiah 9:5:1). He reads the increase of the government in the next verse as the king who takes the authority of the Holy One upon himself, "to fear Him" (Rashi on Isaiah 9:6:1).
A Christian reader knows these verses as a prophecy of the Messiah, and the church reads the names of the child of Christ. The classical Jewish reading in the corpus reads them of Hezekiah and his reign. The two traditions part here, and each holds its own reading. The rest of the chapter Rashi reads as the word against Pekah son of Remaliah and the northern kingdom (Rashi on Isaiah 9:7:1).
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 39 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 4 in the Talmud and 35 in the Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased. The verse numbers are the Hebrew ones the corpus prints.
On verse 1 it holds Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 5, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Masei 10:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 3:3. It also holds Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 3:7. On verse 2 it holds Tractate Soferim 6:6. On verse 3 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 26:6, Kohelet Rabbah 8:9:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 44:4. On verse 4 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 9:24, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 1:16 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 1:17. It also holds Ein Yaakov, Sotah 1:22. On verse 5 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 2:10, Devarim Rabbah 1:20 and Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 11:24.
On verse 6 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 11:7, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:24 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 5:3. On verse 7 it holds Chullin 91a:20, Ein Yaakov, Khullin 7:3 and Jerusalem Talmud Makkot 2:6:11. On verse 9 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Batra 2:5 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Moed Katan 3:18. On verse 11 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 42:3, Eikhah Rabbah 1:57 and Esther Rabbah, Petichta 10. On verse 13 it holds Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of Samuel HaKatan 1:4.
On verse 14 it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Shoftim 10:1. On verse 16 it holds Bava Batra 25b:6, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Ketubot 1:4 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 2:23. On verse 17 it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 14:3:4, Pesikta Rabbati 29:1 and Pesikta Rabbati 29:11. On verse 19 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 2:22, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Taanit 1:10 and Ein Yaakov, Bava Batra 2:5. On verse 20 it holds Midrash Tehillim 6:1 and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 12:1.
The corpus file also carries one locator anchored to a verse this chapter does not have, and it is left out of the list above. Pesikta Rabbati 7:1 is anchored at Isaiah 9:29. The chapter has 21 verses in the Berean Standard Bible as the store holds it.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Isaiah 9:1:1 to 9:20:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 9:14:1, Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873, reported Public Domain; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/isaiah/9.json, the 39 Talmud and Midrash locators on the verses of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Isaiah 9: the Haftarah of Yitro, Isaiah 6:1 to 7:6 and 9:5 to 9:6, in the Ashkenazi rite.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A Great Light: Unto Us a Child Is Born
Isaiah 9:1-2
Galilee of the nations: Zebulun and Naphtali are named with "the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations" as the first honored. Matthew 4:15-16 quotes the passage of Jesus beginning His ministry in Galilee. The district hit earliest by judgment is honored earliest by grace.
Cross references
Isaiah 9:1
- Quoted inMatthew 4:15“Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
'the land of Zebulun and Naphtali', Galilee-of-the-nations fulfillment formula
have seen a great light: Matthew 4:15-16 quotes verses 1 and 2 when Jesus settles at Capernaum, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. Barnes explained the darkness of Galilee as distance from the temple and a people mixed with the nations. The light dawns first where Assyria struck first.
Isaiah 9:3-5
You have enlarged the nation: The King James has the nation multiplied without increase of joy. The commentators trace this to a Hebrew word read as not or to him. The Berean reads "increased its joy," the yoke broken "as in the day of Midian," when Gideon routed a great army by the Lord's power.
as in the day of Midian: The day of Midian is Gideon's victory in Judges 7, where three hundred men routed a great army. The oppressor now is Assyria. Barnes read the past tense as prophetic, the future seen in the vision as already done.
every garment rolled in blood: Barnes and Clarke noted that the Hebrew word behind boot, seon, occurs nowhere else, and they took it as the warrior's boot or greaves. Every boot of battle and garment of blood becomes fuel for the fire once the war has ended. Verse 6 gives the reason, a child born.
Isaiah 9:6-7
unto us a child is born: The child is born like any child, yet "the government will be upon His shoulders," and all four names are given to Him alone. Delitzsch and Barnes note that Mighty God is the Hebrew el gibbor, used of the Lord at Isaiah 10:21, so the text itself claims deity.
Isaiah 9:6
“Christ, then, is the beginning of our virtue. He is the beginning of purity, who taught maidens not to look for the embraces of humanity but to yield the purity of their bodies and minds to the service of the Holy Spirit rather than to a husband. Christ is the beginning of frugality, for he became poor, though he was rich. Christ is the beginning of patience, for when he was reviled, he reviled not again. When he was struck, he did not strike back.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Exposition of the Christian Faith 3.7.52-53patristic
ConnectionsIsaiah 10:21, Isaiah 11:1, Luke 2:11
The zeal of the LORD of Hosts: The throne of David ties this king to the promise of 2 Samuel 7:12-16, a house and a kingdom God would establish forever. Luke 1:32-33 gives that throne to the son of Mary. Spurgeon preached on the zeal of the LORD of Hosts as God's fervour to finish His promise.
Bricks Fallen, Cedars Planted: the Pride of Ephraim
Isaiah 9:8-10
The Lord has sent a message: The Lord's word against Jacob "has fallen upon Israel," turning from the child's throne to the northern kingdom. Their answer is proud self-reliance, "The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with finished stone," cedars promised in place of sycamores. The boast answers the Lord's word by building grander.
Ephraim, the leading northern tribe, and Samaria, its capital, stand for the whole kingdom of Israel. Clarke observed that the verb know has no object here, and the Chaldee read it as the people exalting themselves. Their pride and arrogance of heart speak in verse 10.
we will rebuild with finished stone: Bricks and sycamores were the cheap materials of Samaria, and finished stone and cedars the costly ones. Clarke cited travellers who described eastern bricks as clay and straw dried in the sun. Israel answers the LORD's judgment with a plan to rebuild.
Isaiah 9:11-12
raised up the foes of Rezin: The Lord raises "the foes of Rezin," and "Aram from the east and Philistia from the west" devour Israel together. Verse 12 closes with the refrain, "His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised," which recurs four times. Each stanza ends with the threat still standing.
Aram from the east and Philistia from the west: Aram had been Israel's ally against Judah in 7:1. Barnes thought it probable that after the death of Rezin the Arameans joined the Assyrian invasion of Samaria. The refrain at the end of this verse returns in 9:17, 9:21 and 10:4.
Head and Tail Cut Off, and the Anger Not Turned Away
Isaiah 9:13-14
But the people did not return: The failure behind the boast is named, for "the people did not return to Him who struck them" nor sought the LORD of Hosts. The Lord will cut off Israel's "head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single day," every rank of society in one stroke.
both palm branch and reed: The palm branch grows at the crown of the tree and the reed in the marsh, so the pair means high and low. Verse 15 explains the head as the elder and the tail as the prophet who teaches lies. Gill counted the king and his judges among the head.
Isaiah 9:15-17
The head is the elder: Verse 15 defines the head and tail, leaders at both ends sharing blame. Since the guides mislead and "every mouth speaks folly," the usual claims on mercy fail, with no compassion on orphans and widows. The refrain returns, "His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised."
those who guide this people mislead them: Gill noted that the Septuagint and the Targum read those who guide as those who bless or praise this people. The prophet who teaches lies in verse 15 flatters, and the people he misleads are swallowed up. Jeremiah 23:17 records the same flattery.
compassion on their fatherless and widows: Deuteronomy 10:18 names God the defender of orphans and widows. The young, the orphans and the widows are those who usually move mercy, as Aquinas lists them. The severity is that even those the Lord protects are counted with the rest, for "every one of them is godless and wicked."
Isaiah 9:18-19
For wickedness burns like a fire: Sin is pictured as a self-spreading blaze, for "wickedness burns like a fire" through thorns, briers and forest thickets. The land is scorched and the people become "fuel for the fire" they kindled, until no man spares even his brother. The same fire runs on into verse 20.
the people are fuel for the fire: The Hebrew verb behind scorched occurs only here, and Barnes, following Gesenius, weighed several meanings. Gill read the land as darkened, black with the smoke of the fire in the forest thickets of verse 18. No man spares his brother, and verse 21 names the brothers.
Isaiah 9:20-21
They carve out what is: Hunger drives the nation to devour itself, "Each one devours the flesh of his own offspring," want turned entirely inward. Manasseh and Ephraim, brother tribes of one father, turn on each other and "together they turn against Judah," civil strife added to foreign invasion. The refrain closes the chapter.
Manasseh devours Ephraim: Manasseh and Ephraim were the two sons of Joseph. The last years of the northern kingdom brought murdered kings and rival claimants, recorded in 2 Kings 15. Matthew Henry observed that tribes able to unite against Judah were at war with one another.
Keep studying
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3432: “'The Zeal of the Lord'” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; John Gill; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.