For wickedness burneth as a fire it devoureth briars and thorns, and kindleth in the thickets of the forest, and they go rolling up like a pillar of smoke.
Isaiah 9 keeps returning to one line: God's anger is not turned away, and His hand is stretched out still. This verse names the fire behind that refrain — wickedness itself, burning through the nation.
One writer reads verses 18-20 as the fruit of the nation's own sins. He finds mercy even in the blow, then follows the story into the next chapter.
There are still divisions and miseries because of their iniquities (v. 18-20). But the people is not yet turned to God, and His hand is stretched out still (v. 21). God does not crush His people even when He smites. He leaves some consolation. Still, His people take up their pride again (chapter 10:1-4). At last God calls the great instrument of His anger (chapter 10:5). The Assyrian is the rod of His wrath.
after
The fire starts in briers and thorns, catches the thickets of the forest, and ends in a column of smoke. One writer traces how far this burning reaches — and where it stops.
This next view of their judgment is not so much punishment coming from outside. Because they slighted His chastening, the Lord gave Israel up to complete inner collapse… Then comes a vivid picture. Wickedness burns like fire. The Lord's wrath consumes the land. Brother attacks brother with reckless, unsparing violence… The nearest of the ten tribes would devour each other, and both would be against Judah. Still, this is God's earthly judgment. We must look elsewhere for the far more terrible eternal judgment. That judgment awaits those who will not repent and will not believe, at the resurrection of judgment.
Isaiah 9 and 10 return again and again to the same line about God's anger. One writer explains why that line has to repeat.
The prophet shows why God's indignation rose against His people: Israel worshipped idols, and their kings most of all. He sends a chastening upon them. But whatever that chastening did at first, the evil burst out again with fresh fury. Evil always does, unless it is put away. So that terrible word sounds out: "For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still." His wrath burns again and again.
One writer later applied this line to churches in the region of Galatia. They turned away from God's grace at startling speed.
A little leaven leavens the whole lump; wickedness does burn as a fire, and spiritual corruption spreads like a contagious plague (Isa. 9:18; Haggai 2:13; 1 Cor. 15:33). We know nothing of where this sad, widespread desertion of God's grace began in these churches. But it seems to have spread with almost electric speed through the whole region of Galatia.
Earlier in the same chapter stands the promise of a child born, a son given. One writer reads the chapter as speaking to two kinds of people at once.
How clear it is that the prophet has two groups in Judah in mind: the righteous and the wicked! The righteous receive the glorious promise. The wicked face calamities that are great and will grow greater, and the prophet's words toll the death-knell of their utter ruin: "For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still!" Even the great prophecy, the promise of a Son, could not turn away the Lord's anger. It was never meant to. It was meant to give a sure word of prophecy where the righteous might rest their hope, and to lay a foundation the righteous could build on all through the time of judgment.
- Fire refused. God had already struck the nation, and they did not turn to Him. These miseries grow out of their own sins, yet even in smiting He leaves some consolation.
- Fire self-fed. Wickedness itself does the burning. Brother turns on brother, tribe on tribe, and the Lord's wrath consumes the land.
- Fire re-lit. Chastening alone does not put evil out. It breaks out again with fresh fury, so the refrain about God's outstretched hand keeps returning.
- Fire spread. The same principle works among Christians. Like leaven in dough or a spreading plague, corruption moves fast — it swept the Galatian churches.
- Fire outlasted. This is earthly judgment, not the final one. Inside it stands the promise of the Son — ground the righteous can build on while judgment lasts.
Through the wrath of Jehovah of hosts is the land burned up, and the people is as fuel for fire a man spareth not his brother;
Chapter 9:19 belongs to a long complaint that runs in stages, each closing with the same refrain about God's outstretched hand. One writer maps the whole movement and shows where it finally stops.
In Isaiah 9:8 the Spirit has already given the great leading facts about Messiah, Immanuel. From there He takes up the general history of Israel again, giving the Messiah no special place until near the end. This prophecy closes with Isaiah 12. It mentions the pride of Ephraim, yet it looks at Jacob or Israel as a whole. The different phases of chastisement or distress are in verses 8-12, 13-17, 18-21, and Isaiah 10:1-4. The Assyrian then reappears as the rod of the Lord. When God has accomplished all He had determined about Zion, He will break the rod He has used. Then the remnant will seek the Lord and lean on Him.
This burning anger has a name in the prophets, and a cause, and a stated end point.
The prophet shows that the idolatry of Israel, and especially of their kings, roused God's indignation against His people. He sends chastening on them. But whatever the first effects of the chastening might be, the evil broke out again with fresh fury, as evil always does unless it is put away. So that terrible word sounds out: "For all this His anger has not turned away, and His hand is stretched out still." His wrath burns again and again. Then in Isaiah 10:25 we find the Lord saying that His indignation will come to an end.
The stage just before this verse shows how a nation reaches the point of not sparing its own.
The next view of their judgment (vv. 13-17) is not so much judicial retribution from outside. Because Israel slighted His chastening, the Lord gives them up to complete internal collapse... The ruin is universal. In one day it falls on all classes in Israel, from the highest to the lowest — "palm-branch and rush". Leaders and led are plunged together into common destruction. What a picture! The righteous Lord is indignant at the widespread falsehood and wrong under the highest pretensions to holiness. So He shuts up both His affections and even His compassion. How much more dismal and hopeless that is!
Verse 19 says the wrath scorches the land and the people become the fuel. One writer reads this as God's judgment on earth, and then points past it.
Then follows a most vivid picture. Wickedness burns like fire, the Lord's wrath consumes the land, and brother turns on brother with reckless, unsparing violence... The closest of the ten tribes would devour each other, and both would turn on Judah. Even so, this is the earthly judgment of God.
Another writer draws the same three strands together in a sentence: the strife between the tribes, the darkened land, and the anger that stays.
So further miseries would come on them, and strife between the tribes. The wrath of the Lord would darken the land and yet be like a fire, with the people as fuel. And still His anger would remain.
The same chapter opened with the promise of a Son. That promise and this judgment stand together, aimed at two different groups.
How clear it is that two classes in Judah are before the prophet's mind, the righteous and the wicked! The first receives the glorious promise. The troubles of the second are great and will grow greater, and the prophet's words are the death-knell of their utter ruin: "For all this His anger has not turned away, and His hand is stretched out still!" Even the great prophecy, the promise of a Son, could not turn away the Lord's anger, and was never meant to. It was meant to give a sure word of prophecy where the righteous might rest their hope. It laid a foundation on which the righteous could build all through the time of judgment.
- Refrain. Isaiah 9:19 sits in the third of four stages of chastisement (9:8-12, 13-17, 18-21, 10:1-4). Each stage closes with the same words about God's hand still stretched out.
- Roused. The wrath here is "the indignation": anger stirred by Israel's idolatry. It flares up again and again because the evil was never put away.
- Refused. Israel slighted the correction that came from outside. So God gave the nation up to collapse from inside, and leaders and led went down together.
- Reversed. The fire then feeds on the people themselves. Brother no longer spares brother, and the closest tribes devour each other before turning on Judah.
- Reserved. This is God's judgment on earth. A graver eternal judgment still awaits the unbelieving. Yet in the same chapter the promised Son stands as a foundation the righteous can build on all through the burning.
and he snatcheth on the right hand, and is hungry, and eateth on the left hand; and they are not satisfied. They eat every man the flesh of his own arm
Isaiah paints a nation tearing at itself. Blow after blow has fallen on Israel, nothing has changed their heart, and now the closest relatives become the fiercest enemies.
This is not an isolated threat but part of a measured series of strokes, each marked by the same closing line about God's outstretched hand.
At this point the prophet took up his charges against the people and their sins again. He had paused them to tell his vision of the Lord of Hosts and to give the prediction about Immanuel. We now learn how God stretched out His hand over them in anger and discipline. In Isaiah 5, woe was pronounced on them six times, and now we get the hand of God stretched out in wrath four times over — verses 12, 17, 21, and Isaiah 10:4. There seems to be an increase of severity as we go on.
The quarrel here is between brothers, and that is what makes it so bitter. An earlier feud between Ephraim and the Manassites draws out the principle.
Their taunting words about the Gileadites came true, word for word, about themselves. They became "fugitives of Ephraim among the Manassites," and sadly the Manassites do not spare them. The quarrels of brothers are the worst of all. The closer the ties that break, the more bitterness they stir up. As the saying goes, civil strife is the most uncivil thing there is.
The eating here is not appetite fed but appetite frustrated. Whichever way the man grabs, he stays empty.
Then comes a vivid picture. Wickedness burns like fire, the Lord's wrath consumes the land, and brother turns on brother with reckless, unsparing violence… The nearest of the ten tribes would devour each other, and both would devour Judah. Even so, this is the earthly judgement of God. To find the still more awful eternal judgement, we must look elsewhere. That judgement awaits the unrepentant and unbelieving in the resurrection of judgement.
One writer names three things at work in the chastening of God's people, and shows why this chastening changed nothing.
There are three things in the chastenings of God's people: first, the instrument; second, the enemy's malice; third, the hidden intention of God. If you look at the instrument, you only accuse, or grow discontented. But even behind the malice of Satan there is the goodness of God. Sometimes the heart admits that the chastening came because of known evil. Then it would just reform itself a little. But the hand of God stays stretched out. There is no return to the One who strikes them, only an effort to appease God with a certain amount of hypocrisy. The conscience has never come into direct contact with God.
He also describes what God's people look like when they are in a good state, and what God still leaves them when they are not.
When the people of God are in a good state, they have the glory of God at heart, and without it they cannot be satisfied. It is not enough for them that no evil is going on. That is enough for man, but not for the glory of God. There are still divisions and miseries because of their sins (vv. 18-20)… God does not crush His people even when He smites them. He leaves some comfort.
The same image of people eating each other turns up elsewhere in Scripture.
"Let the rest eat every one the flesh of another." This has happened in a literal way in some of Israel's ordeals under siege (2 Kings 6:26-29), and no doubt will happen in the tribulation. In a spiritual sense, bitter hatred between neighbours makes people bite and devour one another. Such things come from ignoring God.
L. M. Grant (Zechariah 11:9; the ESV reads "let those who are left devour the flesh of one another")
One writer adds that this judgment is not spent history.
The nation in unrepentance, and God's wrath against them, has had its past and present fulfilment. It is not yet exhausted. It looks forward to the coming day of wrath.
- Slighted. The chastening had already come, and still the people did not return to the One striking them.
- Devoured. The violence turns inward, brother against brother. Quarrels between relatives are the most bitter of all.
- Unsatisfied. Grabbing right and left leaves the man hungry still, and what he eats is his own flesh and blood.
- Stretched out. The outstretched hand returns four times over. Yet God does not crush His people. He leaves comfort.
- Ahead. This is earthly judgment, not the final one, and its language still points forward to a coming day of wrath.