Through Yahweh of Armies’ wrath, the land is burned up; and the people are the fuel for the fire. No one spares his brother.
Parallel Translations
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Through Yahweh of Armies’ wrath, the land is burned up; and the people are the fuel for the fire. No one spares his brother.
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Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.
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(9-18) Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land burnt up; the people also are as the fuel of fire; no man spareth his brother.
Cross-references (18)
Passages linked to Isaiah 9:19 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Micah 7:2 The godly man has perished out of the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net.
- Micah 7:6 For the son dishonors the father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.
- Isaiah 1:31 The strong will be like tinder, and his work like a spark. They will both burn together, and no one will quench them.”
- Isaiah 5:30 They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress. The light is darkened in its clouds.
- Isaiah 8:22 and look to the earth, and see distress, darkness, and the gloom of anguish. They will be driven into thick darkness.
- Isaiah 13:9 Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it.
- Isaiah 13:13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place in Yahweh of Armies’ wrath, and in the day of his fierce anger.
- Isaiah 13:18 Their bows will dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes will not spare children.
- Isaiah 24:6 Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.
- Isaiah 24:11-12 There is a crying in the streets because of the wine. All joy is darkened. The mirth of the land is gone. The city is left in desolation, and the gate is struck with destruction.
- Isaiah 60:2 For, behold, darkness will cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but Yahweh will arise on you, and his glory shall be seen on you.
- Jeremiah 13:16 Give glory to Yahweh your God, before he causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while you look for light, he turns it into the shadow of death, and makes it deep darkness.
- Ezekiel 9:5 To the others he said in my hearing, “Go through the city after him, and strike. Don’t let your eye spare, neither have pity.
- Joel 2:2 A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn spreading on the mountains, a great and strong people; there has never been the like, neither will there be any more after them, even to the years of many generations.
- Amos 5:18 “Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long for the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light.
- Matthew 27:45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.
- Acts 2:20 The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.
- 2 Peter 2:4 For if God didn’t spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved for judgment;
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Though there were no foreign enemy, yet they shall…
Though there were no foreign enemy, yet they shall destroy one another.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 9:19 Through the wrath of the LORD of…
Isa 9:19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.
Ver. 19. Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened,] viz., By that pride of smoke, or vast pillar of smoke, mentioned Isa 9:18. Tristem et miseram rerum faciem designat.
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No man shall spare his brother.] Wickedness is cruel, and a man had as good deal with a cannibal as with a truly covetous wretch.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Darkened, either with the smoke last mentioned, or with…
Darkened, either with the smoke last mentioned, or with misery. Or, burnt up, as the LXX., Chaldee, and Arabic interpreters render it.
No man shall spare his brother; they shall destroy one another, as they did in their civil wars, which were frequent among them. The name brother is oft largely used among the Hebrews, even of the remoter kindred, yea, of the fellow members of one city, or tribe, or nation.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is…
Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened,.... Brought into great distress and affliction; sore judgments and calamities being upon it; for not darkness in a natural, but in a figurative sense, is intended, see Isa 8:22 the allusion is to the ascending of the smoke before mentioned, through fire being kindled in the thickets of the forest, which filled the air with darkness; as smoke arising in great quantity does. This sense of the word, which is only to be met with in this place, is given by Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, from the use of it in the Arabic language, in which it signifies (f) darkness; but the Septuagint and Arabic versions render it, "the whole land is burned"; and which is confirmed by the Targum, which so interprets it; and this sense well agrees with the context:
and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire; this explains who are meant by the briers and thorns, and thickets of the forest, the inhabitants of the land of Israel; who, as they are the fuel of fire, were the objects of divine wrath and fury:
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no man shall spare his brother; which may be ascribed either to the darkness and confusion in which they should be, and so not be able to discern a friend from a foe, as persons surrounded with smoke; or to their malignant spirit, cruelty and inhumanity, not only doing ill to their enemies, but to their own friends and relations, to their own flesh and blood.
(f) "obscura evasit", ---- "tertia pars noctis, a fine crepusculi, tempus quo posterior peragitur precatio vespertina", Golius, col. 1521, 1522. Castel col. 2944. So Schindler, col. 1410. "ateme, caligo, tenebra, crepusculum".
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Through the wrath - By the anger, or indignation.…
Through the wrath - By the anger, or indignation. This spreading desolation is the proof of his anger.
Is the land darkened - The word used here - עתם ‛âtham - occurs nowhere else. According to Gesenius, it is the same as תמם tâmam to be or make complete; and hence means, “in this place, to be consumed, or laid waste.” Kimchi and Aben Ezra render it, ‘The land is darkened.’ Septuagint, Συγκέκαυται Sungkekautai. Chaldee, צרוכת chărôkat - ‘Is scorched.’ Jerome renders it, Conturbata est terra - ‘The land is disturbed.’ The effect is doubtless such as ascending and spreading columns of fire and smoke would produce, and perhaps the general word desolate had better be used in translating the word.
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And the people shall be as fuel of the fire - This is an image of widespread ruin. The idea is, that they shall destroy one another as pieces of wood, when on fire, help to consume each other. The way in which it shall be done is stated more fully in the next verse.
No man shall spare his brother - There shall be such a state of wickedness, that it shall lead to anarchy, and strife, and mutual destruction. The common ties of life shall be dissolved, and a man shall have no compassion on his own brother.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Brother. Civil wars shall rage, 4 Kings xv. Josephus…
Brother. Civil wars shall rage, 4 Kings xv. Josephus (Jewish Wars vii.) perhaps alluded to this passage, when he said, that an ancient prophecy announced ruin to the Jews, when they should turn their arms against each other. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain darkened--namely, with smoke (Isa 9:18). The Septuagint and Chaldee…
darkened--namely, with smoke (Isa 9:18). The Septuagint and Chaldee render it, "is burnt up," so MAURER, from an Arabic root meaning "suffocating heat."
no man . . . spare . . . brother--intestine discord snapping asunder the dearest ties of nature.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 19. Through the wrath — Prophecy breathes an intense…
19. Through the wrath — Prophecy breathes an intense ethical spirit, expressing how God feels toward wrong in itself.
Land darkened — Or, blackened by fire of judgment — the besotted people being the fuel thereof.
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No man… spare — When humanity loses all pity for itself the extreme of judgment has come.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 19. darkened] Another translation is “made to glow”; the…
19. darkened] Another translation is “made to glow”; the word is not found elsewhere.
no man sparing his brother. The clause shews that the fire is an emblem of ungovernable party strife. The sense would be still clearer if we could adopt Duhm’s hazardous emendation in the preceding clause so as to make it read “and the people became like man-eaters (cannibals).”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (19, 20) Through the wrath of the Lord of…
(19, 20) Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened . . .—The vision of darkness and famine which had come before the prophet’s eyes in Isa_8:21 appears once again, and here, as there, it is a question whether the words are to be understood literally or figuratively. The definiteness of the language of Isa_9:20 suggests the thoughts of the horrors of a famine like that of Samaria (2Ki_6:28-29), or of Deu_28:53-57; Zec_11:9. But even that scene of horror might be only typical of a state of chaos and confusion pervading the whole order of society, fierce passions, jealousies, rivalries working out the destruction of the nation’s life; such as Thucydides (iii. 82-84) has painted as the result of the Peloponnesian war. The mention of Ephraim and Manasseh as conspicuous in the self-destructive work confirms the figurative interpretation. They were devouring “the flesh of their own arm” when they allowed their old tribal jealousies (Jdg_8:1; Jdg_12:1-4; 2Sa_19:43) to break up the unity of the nation.
And they together shall be against Judah.—This formed the climax of the whole. The only power of union that showed itself in the northern kingdom was to perpetuate the great schism in which it had its origin. The idea that Israel as such was a nation was forgotten. Ephraim and Manasseh could join in a common expedition against Judah when they could join in nothing else. Of this the alliance of Pekah with Rezin was the most striking instance (2Ch_28:6-15). Traces of internal division are found in the conspiracy of the Gileadites of the trans-Jordanic district of Manasseh, against Pekah’s predecessor in Samaria (2Ki_15:25).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Is the land darkened; rather, burst up (sugkekautai ,…
Is the land darkened; rather, burst up (sugkekautai , LXX). The root used occurs in Arabic in this sense. It is not used elsewhere in Scripture. The people shall be as the fuel of the fire. Though the general ravage, devastation, and desolation of the laud, with its buildings, its trees, and its other vegetable products, is included in the image of the fire devouring the thorny brakes and tangled thickets of a dense forest, yet the threat is intended still more against the Israelite people, who were the true "fuel of the fire," since the ravage would go on until the land should be depopulated. No man shall spare his brother. We have here a new feature. Not only shall foreign enemies Syrians and Philistines dew, up Israel, but the plague of civil war will also be let loose upon them (comp. ver. 21, and see 2Ki_15:30, where we find that Pekah fell a victim to a conspiracy headed by Hoshea).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.