Isaiah 9:19 - Exposition

Is the land darkened ; rather, burst up ( συγκέκαυται , 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. Isaiah 9:21 , and see 2 Kings 15:30 , where we find that Pekah fell a victim to a conspiracy headed by Hoshea).