Isaiah 9

The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it falls on Israel. Wesley: consolation for the faithful is behind him (9:1–7); he returns to the rebellious Israelites. It fell—it shall certainly be accomplished.

“Sent”—an earnest word against Jacob. It will fall.

Calvin: Jacob and Israel are the same; the diversity is elegant. The wicked gain nothing by trying to turn the judgment away. To send is to appoint. The word must dwell in him; it cannot vanish without effect. It hath fallen: certainty of the result. God hath spoken, who cannot be deceived and cannot change.

The word does what it was sent to do. Lord, word against Jacob, fall on Israel.

All the people will know, including Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and in arrogance of heart. Wesley: they shall know whether my word be true or false; Ephraim the proudest of the ten tribes; Samaria the strongest place, seat of king and court.

They will find out. The word is still to be tested by the event.

Calvin: people here is Israel, not Judah. Know: actual experience, an indirect reproof of unbelief. Fortified cities, thinking themselves beyond danger, are more insolent. He attacks obstinacy: chastised once and again, they reckoned losses as gain and became more hardened. The insult proceeds from haughtiness of heart.

Too late, but they will know. Ephraim, Samaria, pride, arrogance of heart.

The bricks have fallen, but we will build with cut stone. The sycamore fig trees have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place. Wesley: we have received some damage; we doubt not we shall quickly repair it with advantage.

“Bricks”—a boast after a blow. They still say it.

Calvin: obstinate men who despise the calamity as if it were an advantage, an occasion to adorn houses and fields more splendidly. Not the fault of a single age: luxury increases after chastisements; men go on in crimes more shamelessly than ever. What then but heavier blows?

Israel treats its loss as a chance to upgrade. Both readings hold: bricks, dressed stones, sycamores, cedars.

The LORD will set up on high against him the adversaries of Rezin, and will stir up his enemies. Wesley: to chastise pride and defeat hopes; the Assyrians; Rezin named because confederate with Ephraim; his—Ephraim’s, not Rezin’s.

God turns the situation around against them. The ally’s foes become Ephraim’s. The Lord does it.

Calvin: proud of alliance with Syria, they hoped everything would succeed. He threatens a change that takes away all hope. After Rezin slain, that country ruined. He will mingle various enemies. The army of that monarchy was collected out of various nations.

The Lord turns the league inside out. Adversaries of Rezin, his enemies.

The Syrians in front, and the Philistines behind; and they will devour Israel with open mouth. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. Wesley: though Rezin was destroyed, the nation survived, submitted to Assyria, and invaded Israel; east and west; devour like wild beasts.

The word “still” opens the refrain. The hand is still out because they have not yet turned (v. 13). The next stroke is already His.

Calvin: former friends invade on every side. Alliances we thought useful prove our destruction. God does not expend all His scourges at once; when we proceed obstinately He multiplies them. The severest line: they think a single punishment has exhausted God. His hand is stretched out still: He has not dispensed with the rods.

The word “still” warns that more judgment remains. Syrians, Philistines, devour, anger not turned away, hand stretched out still.

The people have not turned to him who struck them, neither have they sought the LORD of Armies. Wesley: him—to God.

The blows of 9:8–12 were meant to bring Israel back, and still they did not turn. Arminians read the verse as God waiting to be sought, and a people who refused to seek him.

Calvin: the most heinous of all, when in spite of chastisements they grow hardened and kick. Desperate wickedness. God inflicts punishment to bring back the wanderers; by terrifying He humbles that they may return. The beginning of conversion is to seek God. Hypocrites plead prayers, fastings, tears; God chooses to be sought when the sinner, truly subdued, willingly takes the yoke he had shaken off.

They would not be drawn. Did not turn, him who struck, nor inquire, Lord of hosts.

Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed, in one day. Wesley: high and low; mighty and noble; weakest and meanest; all together, one as well as another.

The whole range in one day. The so follows the not-turning.

Calvin: vengeance universal; the whole nation corrupted; no part sound. When iniquity abounds, each flatters himself by the crowd. Branch: stronger; reed: feeblest. Neither the strong nor the weak spared.

No rank is cover. Both agree: head, tail, palm branch, reed, one day.

The elder and the honorable man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail. Wesley: false prophets perish, not as a loss of good men, but to show the calamity reaches all, and to beat down vain hopes they had fed.

Lying prophecy is the rear of the beast.

Calvin: heads are princes who sat at the helm; the tail is false prophets who deceive by falsehoods—not because they were mean, but the lowest part of the body. He presses hardest on those whose rank led others into sin.

The teachers of lies go with the nobles. Agreed: elder, honored, head, prophet who teaches lies, tail.

For those who lead this people lead them astray; and those who are led by them are destroyed. Wesley: leaders—false prophets; by false doctrines and evil counsels; they that are led of them are destroyed—shall certainly perish.

Leading, swallowing. The led still perish. Not a works-gospel: the word was there to inquire (v. 13). Not a fake warning: swallowed up is still the end of this road.

Calvin: magistrates whose duty was to restrain allowed all to indulge; they ought to be reckoned seducers. Yet this affords no excuse: if the blind lead the blind, both fall. None are ruined by wicked leaders but those who of their own accord wish to be led astray.

They wanted the leash. Both hear: guide, leading astray, guided, swallowed up.

The Lord will not rejoice over their young men, neither will he have compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is profane and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. Wesley: shall not rejoice over them to do them good; fatherless are His special care, much less others. Every one—not precisely: seven thousand elect among them in Elijah’s day, but the body of the people. Hypocrite—they professed to worship, yet had forsaken Him.

The refrain “still” returns. A body gone godless, and a leftover He still knows.

Calvin: no sex or age exempt. All hypocrites and evil-doers: no true fear of God; inward contempt seated in the heart, consciences stupefied. Wickedness has taken the mind, then the members; they boast of crimes without shame. Repeat the refrain: a single punishment has not exhausted Him.

The body is the point; the hand is not done. Both see: young men, fatherless, widows, godless, folly, anger not turned away, hand stretched out still. Wesley names Elijah’s seven thousand; Calvin names the body’s contempt.

Wickedness burns like a fire. It devours the briers and thorns; yes, it kindles in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke. Wesley: shall burn you; thorns—the low and mean; forest—tall trees entangled, ready to catch and spread; smoke like a vast furnace.

Their wickedness is the fire.

Calvin: the wicked blame God; he shows their sins are the wood and fuel. They may not remonstrate as if He had dealt cruelly. Gradation: a fire gathers strength, spreads, ascends. At first He proceeds gently; if light chastisement fail, He doubles; if obstinate, wrath burns to the uttermost.

They are the fuel. Wickedness, fire, briers, thorns, thickets, smoke.

Through the wrath of the LORD of Armies the land is burned up; the people are fuel for the fire, and no one spares his brother. Civil fire: the land itself burns, and brother will not spare brother.

God’s wrath burns, and the people are its fuel. They still refuse to spare.

Calvin: God is a righteous avenger, gracious and merciful, but just, and cannot endure the wicked. Darkness/scorch from the smoke of that fire. No man shall spare his brother: when no enemies are seen, He will arm us for our destruction. Intestine broils. He has blinded them and given them up (Rom 1:28).

The hand uses their own hands. Wrath of the Lord of hosts, land, fuel, no one spares another.

They slice meat on the right hand, and be hungry; and he will eat on the left hand, and they will not be satisfied. Everyone will eat the flesh of his own arm. Insatiable: they eat and stay empty, even of their own.

Famine drives Israel to devour one another in rage. The hunger does not turn them to the Lord of hosts (v. 13).

Calvin: snatch at all hands: insatiable covetousness or cruelty. They suck a brother’s blood as if it were their own flesh. The bitterness is heightened because this is Abraham’s seed. A dreadful proof of heavenly punishment when brothers inflict mutual wounds.

The chosen race at its own arm. Undisputed: right, hungry, left, not satisfied, flesh of his own arm.

Manasseh eating Ephraim and Ephraim eating Manasseh, and they together will be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. Wesley: though nearer than any other tribe, both sons of Joseph.

“Still”—the refrain the third time. The word of v. 8 has fallen; they still have not turned. The child of 9:6 is not this fire; this is Ephraim under a stretched-out hand.

Calvin: tribes from one patriarch, Joseph, will destroy themselves by mutual conflict, then unite against Judah. For all this: still more severe chastisements when, after being frequently invited, they refuse to be reconciled. He does not cease to afflict till He destroy, as Moses: seven times more (Lev 26). His hand stretched out: rods prepared, that He may immediately strike. Not a woman’s passion; wrath followed by revenge.

Invited, refused, struck again. Manasseh, Ephraim, against Judah, anger not turned away, hand stretched out still.