Isaiah 9:3

You ¹  have enlarged the nation; you give them great joy. ²  They rejoice in your presence as harvesters rejoice; as warriors celebrate ³  when they divide up the plunder.

Jud 5:3; 1Sa 30:16; 2Ch 20:25-28; Ne 9:23; Ps 4:7; Ps 107:38; Ps 119:162; Ps 126:5,6; Isa 12:1; Isa 16:9,10; Isa 25:9; Isa 26:15; Isa 35:2,10; Isa 49:20-22; Isa 54:1; Isa 55:12; Isa 61:7,10; Isa 65:18; Isa 66:10; Jer 31:7,12-14; Ho 4:7; Zec 2:11; Zec 8:23; Zec 10:8; Lu 11:22; Ac 8:8; Php 4:4; 1Pe 1:8

¹ sn The Lord is addressed directly in vv. 3-4.

² tc The Hebrew consonantal text reads “You multiply the nation, you do not make great the joy.” The particle לֹא (lo’, “not”) is obviously incorrect; the marginal reading has לוֹ (lo, “to him”). In this case, one should translate, “You multiply the nation, you increase his (i.e., their) joy.” However, the parallelism is tighter if one emends הַגּוֹי לוֹ (hagoy lo, “the nation, to him”) to הַגִּילָה (haggilah, “the joy,” a noun attested in Isa 65:18), which corresponds to הַשִּׂמְחָה (hasimkhah, “the joy”) later in the verse (H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:386). As attractive as this reading is, it has not textual evidence supporting it. The MT reading (accepting the marginal reading “to him” for the negative particle “not”) affirms that Yahweh caused the nation to grow in population and increased their joy.

³ tn Heb “as they are happy.” The word “warriors” is supplied in the translation to clarify the word picture. This last simile comes close to reality, for vv. 4-5 indicate that the people have won a great military victory over their oppressors.