Isaiah 9:18-19

9:18 For evil burned like a fire,

it consumed thorns and briers;

it burned up the thickets of the forest,

and they went up in smoke.

9:19 Because of the anger of the Lord who commands armies, the land was scorched,

and the people became fuel for the fire.

People had no compassion on one another.


tn Or “Indeed” (cf. NIV “Surely”). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

sn Evil was uncontrollable and destructive, and so can be compared to a forest fire.

tn Heb “and they swirled [with] the rising of the smoke” (cf. NRSV).

tn The precise meaning of the verb עְתַּם (’ÿtam), which occurs only here, is uncertain, though the context strongly suggests that it means “burn, scorch.”

sn The uncontrollable fire of the people’s wickedness (v. 18) is intensified by the fire of the Lord’s judgment (v. 19). God allows (or causes) their wickedness to become self-destructive as civil strife and civil war break out in the land.

tn Heb “men were not showing compassion to their brothers.” The idiom “men to their brothers” is idiomatic for reciprocity. The prefixed verbal form is either a preterite without vav (ו) consecutive or an imperfect used in a customary sense, describing continual or repeated behavior in past time.