For a Child Is Born to Us
1 But there shall be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the latter time he has made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. The light has shined on those who lived in the land of the shadow of death. 3 You have multiplied the nation. You have increased their joy. They rejoice before you according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the plunder. 4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian. 5 For all the armor of the armed man in the noisy battle, and the garments rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire. 6 For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on David’s throne, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.
Light arrives first in the province that had suffered longest, and the government is put on the shoulders of an infant.
But there shall be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the latter time he has made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
The two northern tribes were the first territory Assyria annexed 2 Kings 15:29 — the part of the country that suffered earliest and worst. The promise is that the honor will begin there, and Matthew quotes the verse when Jesus leaves Nazareth and settles at Capernaum Matthew 4:15–16.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. The light has shined on those who lived in the land of the shadow of death.
The tenses are past. Nothing has happened yet, and the prophet reports it as done — which is this book's habit whenever it is most certain.
You have multiplied the nation. You have increased their joy. They rejoice before you according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the plunder.
Two comparisons for the gladness, and both are about receiving what was not worked for by the people receiving it. A harvest comes from the ground; plunder comes from somebody else's defeat.
For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian.
The day of Midian is Gideon's — three hundred men with jars and torches against a valley full of camels Judges 7:22, a victory in which Israel struck almost no blows. The precedent chosen is deliberate: the deliverance being promised will not be military in the ordinary sense.
For all the armor of the armed man in the noisy battle, and the garments rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.
The equipment is not captured or reused. It is burned, which is what happens to war material when nobody expects to need any.
For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
The two verbs are not the same. Born is what happens to a child; given is what happens to a gift, and the second half of the line says where he came from before the first half says what he became.
And the government is on the shoulders of an infant. The word for shoulder is the one used two verses earlier of the yoke that was broken off a shoulder — what was taken off Israel's is put on his.
For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Four titles, and the second and third are the difficulty and the point. Mighty God is used of Yahweh himself two chapters later Isaiah 10:21 and is not a title any Judean king ever bore. Everlasting Father is not a claim to be the first person of the Trinity; it describes what he is to his people — a father to them, permanently, which is the one thing a dynasty of mortal kings could never supply.
Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on David’s throne, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.
A reign with no end and no ceiling on its growth, and the last clause names who guarantees it: the zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this. Nothing in the verse depends on the child.
settled What this mark means