Isaiah 9:8

The Lord sent a word unto Jacob,.... The prophet, having comforted Judah with the promise of the Messiah, returns to denounce the judgments of God upon the ten tribes, under the names of Jacob and

The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel. The Lord sent a word into Jacob - (Isaiah 9:8-12), the first strophe. Into Jacob ... - against the Ten tribes (Lowth).

Sent a word; a prophetical and threatening message by me; for now the prophet, having inserted some consolatory passages for the support of God’ s faithful people, returns to his former work of commination against the rebellious Israelites. It lighted, Heb. it fell, i.e. it shall fall, in the prophetical style. It shall certainly be accomplished. Israel; the same with Jacob in the former clause, the posterity of Jacob or Israel.

Isaiah 9:8 The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel.Ver. 8. The Lord sent a word into Jacob.] He sent it as a shaft out of a bow, that will be sure to hit. God loves to forewarn; but woe be to those that will not be warned. The Septuagint render it, The Lord sent a plague, or death, into Jacob; and indeed after the white horse followeth the red and the black. Like as Tamerlane, that warlike Scythian, displayed first a white flag in token of mercy; and then a red, menacing and threatening blood; and then, lastly, a black flag, the messenger and ensign of death, was hung abroad. And it hath lighted upon Israel.] (1.) They were not ignorant of such a word; (2.) They could neither avert nor avoid his wrath.

(8).The Lord sent a word into Jacob . . .—For “hath lighted” read it lighteth. A new section, though still closely connected with the historical occasion of Isaiah 7, begins. The vision of the glory of the far-off king comes to an end, and the prophet returns to the more immediate surroundings of his time. The “word” which Jehovah sends is the prophetic message that follows. It is a question whether the terms “Jacob” and “Israel” stand in the parallelism of identity or contrast, but the use of the former term in Isaiah 2:3; Isaiah 2:5-6, makes the former use more probable. In this case both names stand practically for the kingdom of Judah as the true representative of Israel, the apostate kingdom of the Ten Tribes being no longer worthy of the name, and therefore described here, as in Isaiah 7:5; Isaiah 7:8; Isaiah 7:17, simply as Ephraim. The occasion of the prophecy is given in Isaiah 9:9. Pekah, the king of Ephraim, was still confident in his strength, and in spite of his partial failure, and the defeat of his ally (2 Kings 16:9), derided the prophet’s prediction.

Verse 8. Lord - "JEHOVAH"] For אדני Adonai, thirty MSS. of Kennicott's, and many of De Rossi's, and three editions, read יהוה Yehovah.

Chap. Isaiah 9:8 to Isaiah 10:4 (+ Isaiah 5:25-30)Jehovah’s hand stretched out in wrath over His people. An oracle against North IsraelThe key-note of the prophecy is given in the recurrent refrain—Isaiah 9:12; Isaiah 9:17; Isaiah 9:21, Isaiah 10:4, Isaiah 5:25. (On the reasons for including ch. Isaiah 5:25-30 see on that passage.) It is the most artistically arranged of all Isaiah’s writings, being divided into regular strophes as follows:— (i) Ch. Isaiah 9:8-12. The introduction (Isaiah 9:8-10) explains that the oracle concerns the inhabitants of Samaria, and points to the buoyant assurance and self-confidence which was the habitual temper of the Northern Kingdom. The prophet then enters on a review of the various calamities by which Jehovah had sought to bring the nation to repentance, the first of these being the aggressions of its powerful neighbours on the East and the West (Isaiah 9:11-12). This was the first stroke of Jehovah’s hand. (ii) Isaiah 9:13-17. A second blow descends on the impenitent nation in some sudden disaster by which the state is bereft of its leaders, great and small (13–16); the condition of the people is then seen to be utterly corrupt, so that Jehovah withdraws His compassion even from the helpless widows and orphans (17). (iii) Isaiah 9:18-21. The third visitation is a state of anarchy and internecine strife, which is described mainly in a succession of powerful and telling images. The nation is rent by the conflict of rival factions, the only bond of unity being a common hatred of Judah. (iv) Ch. Isaiah 10:1-4. The fourth strophe opens with a “Woe” on the maladministration of the judges, which was always to Isaiah’s mind the chief symptom of a rotten republic (Isaiah 9:1-2). This is followed by an allusion to a day of slaughter in which the magnates shall vainly seek safety beneath the slain (3, 4). [It is possible that another strophe originally stood here, the closing words of which are preserved in Isaiah 5:25. (v) Ch. Isaiah 5:26-30. The prediction of the Assyrian invasion forms, as has been already explained, the dénouement of this great drama of judgment. (For the exegesis, see on the passage above, pp. 40–42.) The refrain is of course dropped; Jehovah’s wrath is stayed, His hand is no longer stretched forth. It is assumed in the foregoing analysis that the passage is in the main (down at least to the end of ch. 9) a retrospect of historical judgments; and this is the view naturally suggested by the tenses of the original, which are with few exceptions perfects, or the equivalents of perfects. A majority of commentators, however, taking the perfects as those of prophetic certainty, interpret the oracle as an ideal delineation of the stages of a judgment yet to come. And it is no doubt conceivable that the prophet might assume an ideal standpoint on the eve of the Assyrian invasion, regarding the preliminary chastisements as past, although they were in reality still future at the time of writing.

The Lord sent - Not Yahweh here, but “Adonai.” It is apparent that this verse is the commencement of a new prophecy, that is not connected with that which precedes it.

8. The Lord — Not Jehovah this time, but Adonai, the universal Lord and proprietor. — Furst. Sent a word into Jacob — “Word,” is a direct revelation, by prophets and by Moses.