Ver. 1. Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such.] Dimness of anguish had been forethreatened. (Isaiah 8:22) Now this is added for an allay, as being a promise of a mitigation of their misery, and yet further of Christ’s incarnation, which is the sum of all the good news in the world. Evangelistam hic agit Isaias, non prophetam, saith one, i.e., Isaiah here acteth the part of an evangelist rather than of a prophet. He foretelleth, saith another interpreter, that as the Assyrians preyed upon Samaria and Galilee, so shall the Lord Christ also prey upon them spiritually, and for their greatest good. (Isaiah 9:2) And as Tiglathpileser first carried away a few out of Galilee, lightly afflicting the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali, and then Shalmaneser, more grievously afflicting her, carried captive those and all the rest of the ten tribes; similarily Christ, first preaching in Galilee, converted and called from there various of his disciples, and afterwards, when he was lifted up from the earth, he drew all men unto him. (John 12:32) He rode upon his white horse, the apostles, conquering the world, and to conquer. (Revelation 6:2) And hence that sincere joy in the hearts of his servants, far exceeding that of harvest, which is not without great toil, or that of soldiers dividing the spoil, which is not achieved without confused noise and garments rolled in blood. (Isaiah 9:2,3,5) By the way of the sea.] The sea of Tiberias, (John 21:1) or lake of Genesareth. (Luke 5:1) Beyond Jordan.] Or, Beside Jordan. In Galilee of the Gentiles.] [See Trapp on “Mt 4:15”] Scult. A Lap. Oecolamp.
Ver. 2. The people that walked in darkness.] Liberationis lucem promittit. [See Trapp on “Mt 4:16”]
Ver. 3. Thou hast multiplied the nation.] Or, “Never since thou multipliedst this people, didst thou give them such joy”— i.e., such matter of joy as now thou intendest to do. Or thus, “Thou wilt multiply this nation, thou wilt increase their joy”; especially by sending thy Son, who is called “the gift,” (John 4:10) “the benefit,” (1 Timothy 6:2) such as wherein all discontents are soon swallowed up. Everlasting joy shall be upon the heads of the Lord’s ransomed ones, they “shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (Isaiah 35:10) They joy before thee.] Pleasure there must be in the ways of God, because therein men let out their souls into God, the fountain of all good. Christ’s chariot is paved with love. (Song of Solomon 3:9,10) According to the joy in harvest.] And a great deal more. (Psalms 4:7) They do “over abound exceedingly with joy.” (2 Corinthians 7:4) Joys they have “unspeakable, and full of glory.” (1 Peter 1:8) And as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.] Wherein the pleasure is usually more than the profit, (Psalms 119:162) and yet the profit oft very great too, [as 2 Chronicles 20:25] and as at the sack of Constantinople, at the wealth whereof the Turks themselves wondered, and derided their folly that possessing so much they would bestow so little in the defence of themselves and their country. Turkish History, fol. 345.
Ver. 4. For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden,] i.e., Thou hast disenthralled and delivered thy people from the burdenous yokes of their enemies, both corporal and spiritual; that taking thine easy yoke, thy light burden upon them, they might “serve thee without fear in holiness and righteousness before thee all the days of their lives.” (Luke 1:74) The Jewish doctors expound all this of Sennacherib’s tyranny, and their deliverance therefrom. But the prophet intendeth a further matter (Isaiah 9:6,7) And the staff of his shoulder.] Wherewith he was beaten and bastinadoed. [thrashed] See Isaiah 14:5. The rod of his oppressor.] Metaphora ab agasonibus, a metaphor from horse drivers, who lay on without mercy. Whipping among the Turks hath been usually inflicted even upon the greatest bashaws of the court upon the least displeasure of the tyrant, especially if they be not natural Turks born. The poor captives met with hard measure this way at Babylon; but Satan’s slaves with much harder. Christ fitly noteth here that the rod wherewith the devil whippeth sinners is their own lusts and passions; yea, herewith they punish themselves, by his instigation, as the lion beateth himself with his own tail. As in the day of Midian.] Beaten by Gideon. (Judges 7:21) So “the day of Gibeah.” (Hosea 9:9) “The day of Jerusalem.” (Psalms 137:7) The battle of Agincourt, the Sicilian vespers, &c. Gideon, by the sound of trumpet and shining of lamps out of earthen broken vessels, overcame those Midianites; so by the trumpet of his Word and light of the gospel, carried through the world by weak instruments, hath Christ confounded his adversaries, (1 John 2:14) as one fitly maketh the comparison. See it largely prosecuted in sixteen particulars in Cornelius A Lapide upon the text. Turkish History, 361.