Isaiah 9:19

Because of the anger of the Lord who commands armies, the land was scorched, ¹  and the people became fuel for the fire. ²  People had no compassion on one another. ³ 

Isa 5:30; Isa 8:22; Isa 9:5; Isa 13:18; Isa 24:11,12; Isa 60:2; Jer 13:16; Eze 9:5; Joe 2:2; Am 5:18; Mic 7:2,6; Mt 27:45; Ac 2:20; 2Pe 2:4

¹ 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.”

² 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.

³ 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.