Isaiah 9:4 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden— His burdensome yoke. The following discourse illustrates the preceding; for it sets forth the great and mighty benefits connected with the appearance of the Messiah, among which the first mentioned is a taking off of the yoke from the shoulders of the people of Christ, and the giving them true liberty, after the example of the deliverance formerly obtained by Gideon, though proceeding from God alone without any human aid. See Jeremiah 23:6 and Luke 1:70-71 where Zechariah seems to have had this passage in view. The yoke here spoken of means the yoke of sin, which occasioned the yoke and servitude of the law, (Galatians 3:19. Acts 15:10.) and the oppressor seems most probably to refer to that strong man, whose power Christ broke and destroyed. The general meaning of the verse is, that Christ destroyed the power of sin and Satan: Hebrews 2:14-15. 1 John 3:8. We may just observe, that as all the great deliverances in the church were figurative of that through Christ, so this of Gideon has by most writers been understood as remarkably figurative of the Christian redemption. See Vitringa.