Discovery BoxIsaiah 9:18-19 
Context9:18 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
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.
2 sn Evil was uncontrollable and destructive, and so can be compared to a forest fire.
3 tn Heb “and they swirled [with] the rising of the smoke” (cf. NRSV).
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.”
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.
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.
