a brick (from the whiteness of the clay) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
down
נָפָ֖לוּna.Fa.lu
H5307
to fall · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
build
נִבְנֶ֑הniv.Neh
H1129
to build (literally and figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common plural
stones
וְגָזִ֣יתve.ga.Zit
H1496
something cut · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
sycomores
שִׁקְמִ֣יםshik.Mim
H8256
a sycamore (usually the tree) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
down
גֻּדָּ֔עוּgu.Da.'u
H1438
to fell a tree · verb, pual perfect, 3rd person common plural
change
נַחֲלִֽיףna.cha.Lif
H2498
properly · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common plural
cedars
וַאֲרָזִ֖יםva.'a.ra.Zim
H730
a cedar tree (from the tenacity of its roots) · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Malachi 1:4 Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, b…
1 Kings 10:27 And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycomore trees that are in the vale, for abundance.
1 Kings 7:9-12 All these were of costly stones, according to the measures of hewed stones, sawed with saws, within and without, even from the foundation un…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 9:8–end
Here are terrible threatenings, which are directed primarily against Israel, the kingdom of the ten tribes, Ephraim and Samaria, the ruin of which is here foretold, with all the woeful confusions that were the prefaces to that ruin, all which came to pass within a few years after; but they look further, to all the enemies of the throne and kingdom of Christ the Son of David, and read the doom of all the nations that forget God, and will not have Christ to reign over them. Observe,
I. The preface to this prediction (Isa 9:8): The Lord sent a word into Jacob, sent it by his servants the prophets. He warns before he wounds. He sent notice what he would do, that they might meet him in the way of…
bricks--in the East generally sun-dried, and therefore soon dissolved by rain. Granting, say the Ephraimites to the prophet's threat, that our affairs are in a ruinous state, we will restore them to more than their former magnificence. Self-confident unwillingness to see the judgments of God (Isa 26:11).
hewn stones-- (Kg1 5:17).
sycamores--growing abundantly on the low lands of Judea, and though useful for building on account of their antiseptic property (which induced the Egyptians to use them for the cases of their mummies), not very valuable. The cedar, on the other hand, was odorous, free from knots, durable, and precious (Kg1 10:27). "We will replace cottages with palaces."
John Gill on Isaiah 9:10
The bricks are fallen down,.... Houses made of bricks, which were without the cities besieged and destroyed by the Assyrians; of which the haughty Israelites made no account, looking upon such a desolation as little, or no loss at all:
but we will build with hewn stone, so that the houses will be better and stronger, more beautiful, and more durable:
the sycamores are cut down; which grew in the fields, and outer parts of the cities, and were but a mean sort of wood, and which the Assyrians cut down to serve several purposes in their siege; of this sort of trees; see Gill on Luke 19:4,
but we will change them into cedars; that is, will plant cedars in place of them; trees tall and large,…
Whoever offers God his choicest goods is likened to Abel's works, while the one who brings cheap things is likened to the works of Cain or to the one who laughed at his father and went to tell his two brothers, or again to the one who decided to build a tower in the plain of Shinar, forgetting the one who had piloted him on the boat and had saved him from the water of the flood and blessed his fathers. Now he said, fleeing, "Come, let us dress stones and cut sycamores and cedars, and let us build a tower for ourselves."
Because the prophet recognized that the Jewish people would perish from the faith and because he foresaw that there would arise within the church holy apostles, through whom many of the Gentiles would be established in the strength of faith and life, he spoke with great encouragement, saying, "The stones have fallen, but we will build with square stones." Having foreseen the rise of the apostles, martyrs and doctors of the holy church, he was less troubled by the fall of the stones, which represents the judgment of the Jews, because he also saw the work of Almighty God, which is the holy church built from square stones.Four tables were built from the square stones, therefore, inasmuch as faith, life, patience and kindness were given from the lives of the saints as an example for the people to follow, that they might already have a foretaste of the table. That is, the people might know the virtues through which they can offer a sacrifice of prayer to Almighty God on the altars of their hearts. Whatever good the faithful people of the holy church have done or continue to do, then, they first received from the exemplary lives of their preachers. For how could they have acquired this foretaste of the table if they had not found the square stones? Let's look briefly at each of them, dearest brothers. Do you want to see an instance of faith? "For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." Would you like to know what life is like? "The world is crucified to me and I to the world." Do you want to hear what patience sounds like? "To the present hour we hunger, we are buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our hands. We are cursed and we bless, we are persecuted and we endure, we are slandered and we implore."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Dwellings — The materials used in buildings were commonly bricks, sometimes also stones (Lev. 14:40, 42), which were held together by cement (Jer. 43:9) or bitumen (Gen. 11:3). The exterior was usually…
House — Till their sojourn in Egypt the Hebrews dwelt in tents. They then for the first time inhabited cities (Gen. 47:3; Ex. 12:7; Heb. 11:9). From the earliest times the Assyrians and the Canaanites were…
Brick · Houses — Houses
Cedar · Va — Va
Cedar, The · Described as: Strong and durable — Described as: Strong and durable
Confidence · FALSE — FALSE
House · .Stone — .Stone
Houses · Built of: Bricks — Built of: Bricks
Israel, Prophecies Concerning · .Of — .Of
Pride · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Stones · Houses built of — Houses built of
Sycamore · Abundant in the land of — Abundant in the land of
War · 28:25-68;32:30; — 28:25-68;32:30;
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on Isaiah 9:10
The bricks are fallen down. These are the words of men who were obstinate, and who despised the calamity which they had sustained, as if it had been of advantage to them, because it afforded them an opportunity of adorning with greater splendor both their houses and their fields. "We shall build," they say, "more magnificently. The brick houses have been thrown down that we may dwell in splendid palaces; and since the trees have been cut down, we shall plant more fruitful ones." This was not the fault of a single age, for at this day we see the same obstinacy in the world. How many are the distresses with which Europe has been afflicted for thirty or forty years? How many are the chastisemen…
The great light would not arise till the darkness had reached its deepest point. The gradual increase of this darkness is predicted in this second section of the esoteric addresses. Many difficult questions suggest themselves in connection with this section. 1. Is it directed against the northern kingdom only, or against all Israel? 2. What was the historical standpoint of the prophet himself? The majority of commentators reply that the prophet is only prophesying against Ephraim here, and that Syria and Ephraim have already been chastised by Tiglath-pileser. The former is incorrect. The prophet does indeed commence with Ephraim, but he does not stop there. The fates of both kingdoms flow in…
In their proud confidence, Israel thought it would replace whatever was lost with more expensive items (see 2:13-16; Amos 5:11).
Rashi on Isaiah 9:10
And the Lord strengthened the adversaries of Rezin over him They trust in their dependence on Rezin, king of Aram, and the Holy One, blessed be He, shall strengthen the king of Assyria over him and stir him up to incite him to come upon him. So I heard from my teachers, but I say that “His enemies” is said in reference to the Shechinah. The Holy One, blessed be He, shall incite His enemies [to war] with one another, one nation with another nation, Aram and the Philistines with Israel, and Israel among themselves, as it is stated below in this matter: “Manasseh with Ephraim...”
