Isaiah 9:3

3. Hast multiplied the nation What nation? The true spiritual Israel all adherents to Messiah who come in place of the old Israel, undoubtedly come now into the prophet’s foreground.

And not Better, to him, as marginal reading. For the true Israel thou hast… increased… joy This spiritual joy is compared with joy in harvest. The Hebrew word for “joy” is in the construct state. “Joy of” , and the ellipsis is thus filled: “ Joy of the people,” etc. See Gesenius’s Grammar, § 116. Hilarious joy is still a common usage in Palestinian festive seasons after harvest and after vintage; and spiritual joy in the text is, in its outward manner not in its quality or kind compared with this; also with the joy which occurred in old time in the division of spoils of war after great victories.