Is 8:23. As has been said above, the transition from chapter 8 to 9 is effected in the Hebrew text by the final words of Is 8:22: “But there is no darkness for him who is in distress.” The beginning of this chapter contains one of the clearest and most outstanding of the messianic prophecies. It opens with an introduction which Saint Matthew applies literally to Christ’s preaching in Galilee (Matthew 4:13–16). That Isaiah himself intended this application is evident from the intimate connection of this introduction with verses 6 and 7, which celebrate the birth of Christ.
The prophecy speaks of the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, two Israelite tribes settled in Galilee. Galilee, situated on the northern edge of Palestine and therefore more exposed than any other region of the Holy Land to hostile incursions from the neighboring Syrians and Assyrians, had also suffered the most from them (see 2 Kings 15:29). The following designations—the way of the sea, the Mediterranean, the land on this side of the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—all together refer to the same region which was later to become the stage of Christ’s preaching and miraculous works. Galilee of the Gentiles was so called because pagans, attracted by trade from surrounding regions, lived there. On this side of the Jordan means west of the Jordan. The way to the sea is the road leading through that region to the western coast of Palestine, which is washed by the sea.
In earlier times, preceding the coming of Christ, this region was despised. An echo of this contempt is still found in John 1:46 and Jn 7:52. But in later times, in the messianic age (see II:1 and the corresponding note), it was highly honored by the choice Christ made of it: He spent His youth and the greater part of His life there, performed miracles there, and from its midst chose holy apostles.
Is 9:1. Isaiah rightly calls all this a great light that has arisen and shines for a people who formerly walked in the darkness of ignorance and sin, and who dwelt in a land of the shadow of death—a region over which death had spread its shadow. This is an image portraying the extreme misery of a land that had become impoverished and barren. One may also think of the death of sin, in which souls lay as though buried before Christ. It should be noted how in chapter 7 Emmanuel appears as growing up in the land of Israel (Is 7:15–16); here, in chapter Is 9::6, He is the child who is born, a light shining in Galilee. These two passages of Scripture wonderfully correspond with one another and contribute to showing that the child born in chapter 9 is no one other than the Emmanuel of chapters 7 and 8.
Is 9:2. “You have multiplied the people dwelling in that land, O Lord God, through prosperity and abundance, whereas formerly it had been grievously diminished by adversity and misery, and you have not increased the joy.” Thus reads the Vulgate according to the Masoretic text (lo higdalta). Yet the Masoretes themselves give a marginal reading, replacing lo (“not”) with lo (“for him”). The sense then becomes: “You have made joy great for it,” which certainly fits best into the surrounding context and deserves preference. The other reading is regarded as elliptical: You have multiplied the people for whom formerly you did not increase joy, or You once multiplied that people, but did not increase joy within it. Such ellipses, however, are rather forced.
The people of Galilee are to be understood as multiplied in the Church of Christ, which counted its firstfruits there and received from there its messengers of faith, who would cause Israel according to the spirit to arise in multitude throughout all regions of the world. This wondrous propagation of the holy Church also gives rise to great and ever new joy, on account of the supernatural graces that the proclamation of the Gospel brings with it. The joy of the believing people is explained by two striking comparisons. In both cases, deeply felt and exuberant joy follows upon anxious distress and bitter labor. Both comparisons were well known to the Hebrews (see Judges 5:30; Psalms 68:13; 124:6; 128:7–8).
Is 9:3. The cause of such great joy is the deliverance from everything that had hitherto held that people in oppression. This deliverance is again set forth by means of rich imagery. The yoke that weighed upon you like a heavy burden, the rod with which your master struck you upon the shoulders, the staff with which the oppressors threatened you and drove you to slave labor—for in the Hebrew text it says and (not for) the staff; rod and staff are therefore one and the same—all this you have broken, as on the day of Midian, when Gideon defeated the army of the Midianites (Judges 7:19–25). That victory over Midian was achieved apart from all human or natural strength, solely through the wonder-working hand of God, by means of shining torches. In the same way, the victory over Satan was won through the preaching of the Gospel.
CONTINUE
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