18 For evil was burning like a fire; the blackberries and thorns were burned up; the thick woods took fire, rolling up in dark clouds of smoke.
For see, the day is coming, it is burning like an oven; all the men of pride and all who do evil will be dry stems of grass: and in the day which is coming they will be burned up, says the Lord of armies, till they have not a root or a branch.
For though they are like twisted thorns, and are overcome as with drink, they will come to destruction like stems of grass fully dry.
And say to the woodland of the South, Give ear to the words of the Lord: this is what the Lord has said: See, I will have a fire lighted in you, for the destruction of every green tree in you and every dry tree: the flaming flame will not be put out, and all faces from the south to the north will be burned by it. And all flesh will see that I the Lord have had it lighted: it will not be put out.
And the smoke of their pain goes up for ever and ever; and they have no rest day and night, who give worship to the beast and his image, and have on them the mark of his name.
And if your hand is a cause of trouble to you, let it be cut off; it is better for you to go into life with one hand than to have two hands and go into hell, into the eternal fire. [] And if your foot is a cause of trouble to you, let it be cut off: it is better for you to go into life with one foot than to have two feet and go into hell. [] And if your eye is a cause of trouble to you, take it out: it is better for you to go into the kingdom of God with one eye than, having two eyes, to go into hell, Where their worm is ever living and the fire is not put out. Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if the taste goes from it, how will you make it salt again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace one with another.
Then will he say to those on the left, Go from me, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire which is ready for the Evil One and his angels:
Who may keep his place before his wrath? and who may undergo the heat of his passion? his wrath is let loose like fire and the rocks are broken open by him.
This is what the Lord let me see: and I saw that the Lord God sent for a great fire to be the instrument of his punishment; and, after burning up the great deep, it was about to put an end to the Lord's heritage.
So they will be like the morning cloud, like the dew which goes early away, like the dust of the grain which the wind is driving out of the crushing-floor, like smoke going up from the fireplace.
Now the people were saying evil against the Lord; and the Lord, hearing it, was angry and sent fire on them, burning the outer parts of the tent-circle. And the people made an outcry to Moses, and Moses made prayer to the Lord, and the fire was stopped. So that place was named Taberah, because of the fire of the Lord which had been burning among them.
For with fire and sword will the Lord come, judging all the earth, and his sword will be on all flesh: and great numbers will be put to death by him. As for those who keep themselves separate, and make themselves clean in the gardens, going after one in the middle, taking pig's flesh for food, and other disgusting things, such as the mouse: their works and their thoughts will come to an end together, says the Lord.
For it is the day of the Lord's punishment, when he gives payment for the wrongs done to Zion. And its streams will be turned into boiling oil, and its dust into burning stone, and all the land will be on fire. It will not be put out day or night; its smoke will go up for ever: it will be waste from generation to generation; no one will go through it for ever.
And the peoples will be like the burning of chalk: as thorns cut down, which are burned in the fire.
And the Lord will send out the sound of his great voice, and they will see his arm stretched out, with the heat of his wrath, and the flame of a burning fire; with a cloud-burst, and storm, and a rain of ice.
My passion is over: if the thorns were fighting against me, I would make an attack on them, and they would be burned up together.
For this cause the Lord, the Lord of armies, will make his fat become wasted; and in his inner parts a fire will be lighted like a burning flame. And the light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: wasting and burning up his thorns in one day. And he will put an end to the glory of his woods and of his planted fields, soul and body together; and it will be as when a man is wasted by disease.
For this cause, as the waste of the grain is burned up by tongues of fire, and as the dry grass goes down before the flame, so their root will be like the dry stems of grain, and their flower will go up in dust: because they have gone against the law of the Lord of armies, and have given no honour to the word of the Holy One of Israel.
And the strong will be as food for the fire, and his work as a flame; and they will be burned together, with no one to put out the fire.
For that would be a crime; it would be an act for which punishment would be measured out by the judges: It would be a fire burning even to destruction, and taking away all my produce.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 9
Commentary on Isaiah 9 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 9
The prophet in this chapter (according to the directions given him, ch. 3:10, 11) saith to the righteous, It shall be well with thee, but Woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with him. Here are,
Isa 9:1-7
The first words of this chapter plainly refer to the close of the foregoing chapter, where every thing looked black and melancholy: Behold, trouble, and darkness, and dimness-very bad, yet not so bad but that to the upright there shall arise light in the darkness (Ps. 112:4) and at evening time it shall be light, Zec. 14:7. Nevertheless it shall not be such dimness (either not such for kind or not such for degree) as sometimes there has been. Note, In the worst of times God's people have a nevertheless to comfort themselves with, something to allay and balance their troubles; they are persecuted, but not forsaken (2 Co. 4:9), sorrowful yet always rejoicing, 2 Co. 6:10. And it is matter of comfort to us, when things are at the darkest, that he who forms the light and creates the darkness (ch. 45:7) has appointed to both their bounds and set the one over against the other, Gen. 1:4. He can say, "Hitherto the dimness shall go, so long it shall last, and no further, no longer.'
Isa 9:8-21
Here are terrible threatenings, which are directed primarily against Israel, the kingdom of the ten tribes, Ephraim and Samaria, the ruin of which is here foretold, with all the woeful confusions that were the prefaces to that ruin, all which came to pass within a few years after; but they look further, to all the enemies of the throne and kingdom of Christ the Son of David, and read the doom of all the nations that forget God, and will not have Christ to reign over them. Observe,