Isaiah 9:18-19

9:18 For ¹  evil burned like a fire, ² 

it consumed thorns and briers;

it burned up the thickets of the forest,

and they went up in smoke. ³ 

9:19 Because of the anger of the Lord who commands armies, the land was scorched, ⁴ 

and the people became fuel for the fire. ⁵ 

People had no compassion on one another. ⁶ 

[9:18]  ¹ 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.

[9:18]  ² sn Evil was uncontrollable and destructive, and so can be compared to a forest fire.

[9:18]  ³ tn Heb “and they swirled [with] the rising of the smoke” (cf. NRSV).

[9:19]  ⁴ 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.”

[9:19]  ⁵ 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.

[9:19]  ⁶ 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.