ISAIAH CHAPTER 9 Joy in the midst of affliction, Isaiah 9:1-5. The birth, person, office, and kingdom of Christ, Isaiah 9:6,7. Judgments for their pride, Isaiah 9:8-12; for their impenitency and hypocrisy, Isaiah 9:13-21. The dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation: the words thus rendered contain a mitigation of the foregoing threatening; and so the sense of the verse may be this, The calamity of this land and its inhabitants shall be great, yet not such as that which was brought upon the kingdom of the ten tribes by the king of Assyria, who at first indeed dealt more gently with them, but afterwards quite rooted them out, and carried them away into a dreadful captivity, from whence they were not to return, no, not when the Messiah came into the world; for after this darkness of which I have now spoken, there shall come a glorious light, as it follows in the next verse. The Dutch interpreters take it in the same sense, and render the words thus, But the land that was distressed shall not be utterly darkened. To the same purpose they may be thus rendered, according to the Hebrew, But darkness shall not be (i.e. shall not abide or continue; for to be is sometimes put for to abide or continue to be, as 1 Samuel 12:14 Proverbs 23:5 Matthew 17:4 Hebrews 8:4) unto her, (to wit, the land, which by the consent of interpreters is understood here, as it was Isaiah 8:21) to whom this distress is or shall be. She shall be distressed and darkened, as I said before, Isaiah 8:22, but not irrecoverably, nor for ever. Some understand the words to be an aggravation of the darkness or misery threatened Isaiah 8:22, rendering the words thus, for the dimness shall not be, &c. And so the sense is, This shall not be so slight an affliction as that which befell them by Pul, 2 Kings 15:19, nor as that which succeeded it by Tiglathpileser, who, at the desire of Ahaz, did about this time make another invasion into the land of Israel, 2 Kings 15:29, and was a heavier stroke than the former; but this shall be far heavier than either of them. But the former sense seems better to agree, both with the following verses, and with Matthew 4:14-16, where these words are expounded as a promise, and said to be fulfilled by Christ's preaching the gospel in these parts. At the first; in the first invasion which the king of Assyria made upon Israel. He, to wit, God, who is oft understood in such cases, and who is here supposed to be the author or inflicter of this judgment. Or it is an impersonal speech, he afflicted for was afflicted, than which nothing is more common in the Hebrew language. Lightly afflicted; either,
1. By Pul; or rather,
2. By Tiglath-pileser, who at this time invaded and subdued these parts, as it is expressed, 2 Kings 15:29; the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali: these parts are particularly mentioned, because this storm fell most heavily upon them; but under them the other parts of the land are understood by a common figure called synecdoche. Did more grievously afflict her; either,
1. By Tiglath-pileser; or rather,
2. By Shalmaneser, who took Samaria, and carried Israel into captivity, 2 Kings 17:5,6; of which calamity, though yet to come, the prophet speaks as if it were past, as the manner of the prophet is. By the way of the sea; in that part of the land which bordereth upon the sea, to wit, the lake of Gennesaret, which is very commonly called a sea, as Matthew 4:18 1 Thessalonians 21:1, &c., and upon which the portions of Zebulun and Naphtali bordered. Beyond Jordan; or, on this side Jordan; for this preposition is used both ways, and this land might be said to be either beyond or on this side Jordan, in divers respects. Galilee of the nations, or Galilee of the Gentiles, to wit, the Upper Galilee, so called because it bordered upon the Gentiles. But this last clause, and the two foregoing clauses, are otherwise rendered and interpreted by divers learned men, as a prophecy concerning the light of the gospel that should shine in those parts: As at the first time (to wit, in the former ages of the Israelitish church and commonwealth) he made the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali vile or contemptible; (as he might be said to have done, partly, by putting those people at so great a distance from his sanctuary; partly, by exposing them to some calamities which other tribes escaped; and partly, by denying them those honours and privileges which he afforded to other tribes, of which see 1 Thessalonians 7:52, Out of Galilee ariseth no prophet; and 1 Thessalonians 1:46, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ? which was an eminent city of Galilee;) so in the latter or last time (to wit, in the days of the Messiah, or of the gospel, which are frequently so called in the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament) he made it (i.e. he will make it, for the prophet speaks of things to come as past, as he doth most commonly in this prophecy) glorious (to wit, by Christ's first preaching the gospel in those parts) in or towards the way of the sea, (to wit, of Galilee or Gennesaret,) beyond or on this side Jordan, in Galilee of the Gentiles: which interpretation I thought fit to propose, as deserving further consideration.