Isaiah 9:18-21 - Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

Bible Comments

Social Injustice Condemned

Isaiah 9:18-21; Isaiah 10:1-4

The terrible indictment of the preceding paragraphs is continued here. Notice the awful monotony of the refrain, Isaiah 9:12; Isaiah 9:17; Isaiah 9:21; Isaiah 10:4. Internal anarchy spread with the rapidity of a prairie fire. Jealousy and distrust awoke murderous hatred. Even the ties of brotherhood would not avail to arrest the knife of the assassin. In the horrors of starvation men would consume their own flesh, Isaiah 9:20. Civil strife would exhaust the forces, which, combined with God's blessing, might have arrested the invader. The weak would become the spoil of the strong; and there would be no appeal. What pathetic questions are suggested in Isaiah 10:3! What will ye do? To whom will ye flee? See Hebrews 9:26-28. What hope is there for the soul that has known and refused the offer of forgiveness in Jesus! Dear soul, make haste to the cleft of the Rock!

Isaiah 9:18-21

18 For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.

19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuele of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.

20 And he shall snatchf on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:

21 Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.