Isaiah 9:14

14. Render: And (so) Jehovah cut off from Israel head and tail, palm-branch and rush, in one day. head and tail] i.e. leader and follower, a proverbial expression, like the next phrase.

15 is almost universally regarded as an erroneous explanation of Isa_9:14 and therefore a gloss; but this is not quite certain. False prophets were frequently guilty of following where they pretended to lead (1Ki_22:6; Eze_13:10) and might be very appropriately described as the “tail.” The verse may be objected to on account of its somewhat prosaic character, but the strophe is not complete without it.

The ancient and honourable] see on Isa_3:2-3.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Isa 9:14 Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.

Ver. 14. Head and tail,] i.e., High and low {a} {as Isa 9:15} Here he compareth Israel, non sine morsu, to a beast with a long tail, for the perverseness of their practices. Or else to the serpent amphisbaena, which stingeth both with head and tail.

Branch and rush.] Strong and feeble. A "branch," or bough, hath some tack in it; a "rush" is a spongy, unsubstantial substance.

{a} Mεγαν και μικρον. - Sept. Parvi properemus et ampli.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Isa_9:14

Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tall, branch and rush, in one day

God giving account of His actions

I.

THE GROUND OR OCCASION OF THE JUDGMENT in the particle therefore. Wherefore? (Isa_9:13). The cause which is here expressed may be conceived to proceed in the way of a three-fold gradation.

1. Of their simple impiety. Sin is the meritorious cause of all punishment.

2. Of their additional impenitency. Those that sin and so thoroughly provoke Gods anger against themselves, by repentance may happily divert and appease it. But the people in the text turned not to Him that smote them. And this made their judgment to be so much the surer to them. Impenitency seems in a manner to own and justify sin and stand in the commission of it. Further, it does in a manner trespass upon all the attributes of God, which it either questions or vilifies. The omniscience of God, as to the deserts of sin (Psa_94:7). The truth of God, as to the threats of sin (2Pe_3:4). The justice of God, as to the punishing of sin, The power of God, as to me executing of judgment.

3. Of their continued obstinacy. They did not seek the Lord of hosts.

II. THE JUDGMENT ITSELF. (T. Horton, D. D.)

Gods judgment on Israel

I. THE DENUNCIATION OF IT.

1. The Author of it. The Lord.

(1) His sovereignty and power. It is He only that is able to punish; it is He only that hath all men and creatures under His command.

(2) His purity. There are none who are so fit to punish others as those who are innocent persons.

2. The nature of it. The Lord will cut off. From correction He passes to destruction. First, He cuts them short; and if that will do no good upon them, He cuts them off. First the pruning knife, then the axe. There is a two-fold sword which God makes use of for cutting with, before He proceeds to cut off; the sword of His mouth, i.e., the Word of God, and the sword of His hand, i.e., the rod of God. He will.

(1) A word of premonition. Despise not Gods gracious hints and admonitions of judgment beforehand.

(2) A word of procrastination. God is slow to anger.

(3) A word of resolution. God will not be always willing; He will be at last doing.

3. The subject of it. If Israel shall provoke God by their impenitency and obstinacy against Him, even Israel shall be punished and cut off by Him 1Pe_4:17).

II. THE EXTENT OF IT. That we have expressed in a double metaphor; the one from the nature of the head and the tail; the other from the nature of a tree, in the branches and roots: both of them coming to one and the same purpose. Whereby we have signified to us the universality and impartiality of the destruction which is here threatened; it shall be of so general an extent, as to reach to all sorts of persons, high and low, rich and poor, great and small, to one as well as to another.

1. The metaphor taken from a body in the head and the tail. We may reduce it by way of explication to a threefold rank of--

(1) Age: old and young.

(2) Estate: rich and poor.

(3) Place or authority: governors and governed; magistrates, ministers, and those who are subordinate and in subjection to them.

2. The metaphor taken from the nature of a tree or plant: the branch and the rush. It is not said the branch and the root, because the Lord reserved a remnant which should be spared by Him. But the branch and the rush; the branch as an emblem of usefulness--persons of parts and employments; the rush as a note of unfruitfulness--idle and unprofitable persons. The branch is a note of strength and solidity; the rush of weakness and inconstancy. The branch (in like manner as the head) is a note of supremacy, the rush of meanness, In the execution of public judgments for the impenitency and incorrigibleness of a nation, Gods hand is indifferent and impartial; He will spare no ranks or sorts or conditions of people at all

III. THE TIME OR SEASON OF IT. In one day. It is a day--

1. In regard of the certainty of it, as that which is set and fixed.

2. In regard of the suddenness, as that which is speedy and soon accomplished. (T. Horton, D. D.)

Judgment obliterates classifications

Branch and rush--the allusion is to the beauteous palm tree: it shall be cut down notwithstanding its beauty; and the rush--the common growths round about it, entangled roots, poor miserable shrubs that crowd and cumber the earth--branch and rush cannot stand before Gods sword and fire: everything that is wrong goes down in a common destruction. Judgment obliterates our classifications. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

head and tail--proverbial for the highest and lowest (Deu 28:13, Deu 28:44).

branch and rush--another image for the same thought (Isa 19:15). The branch is elevated on the top of the tree: the rush is coarse and low.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 14. In one day.] Thirteen MSS. of Kennicott and De Rossi read ביום beyom, in a day; and another has a rasure in the place of the letter ב beth.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(14) Head and tail, branch and rush . . .—The “branch” is strictly that of the palm-tree, which in its stately height answered to the nobles of the land, while the “rush,” the emblem of a real or affected lowliness (Isa_58:5) represented the “mean man” of Isa_2:9. The same proverbial formula meets us in Isa_19:15.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail,.... The former of these is afterwards interpreted of "the ancient and honourable", men in high places, civil magistrates, judges, governors, and elders of the people, the king as supreme, and all subordinate officers; and so the Targum,

"the Lord will destroy from Israel the prince and the ruler;''

and the latter is interpreted of the false prophet. The people of Israel are compared to a beast with a tail, being so sadly degenerated and corrupted; as the Romish antichrist, in both his capacities, civil and ecclesiastical, is compared to a beast; the one being the head, and the other the tail, Rev 13:1 and Rome Pagan to a dragon with a tail, Rev 12:3 and the Saracens and Turks to locusts with tails like the tails of scorpions, Rev 9:10,

branch and rush, in one day. The Septuagint render it, "great and small"; and so the Arabic version; the first word intending the great men of the nation, in flourishing circumstances, like branches of trees; the latter the common, people, like reeds and rushes, weak and feeble; so Kimchi explains them,

"the strong and the weak;''

though the Targum interprets both of the governor and lord; and so Jarchi says they signify kings and governors; but Aben Ezra renders the word root and branch; and so they may denote the utter destruction of the people of Israel, fathers and children, high and low, rich and poor. See Mal 4:1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Will cut off head and tail - This is a proverbial expression, which is explained in the following verse; see also Deu 28:13-14. The head is often used to denote those in honor and authority. The tail is an expression applicable to the lower ranks, and would commonly indicate more than simply the common people. It would imply contempt; a state of great abjectness and meanness.

Branch and rush - This is also a proverbial expression, meaning the highest and lowest; see the note at Isa 19:15. The word here translated branch, means properly the bough or top of the palm tree. The palm grew to a great height before it gave out any branches, and hence, the image is a beautiful one to denote those high in office and authority. The word rush means the coarse, long-jointed reed, that grows in marshes - an apt emblem of the base and worthless classes of society.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Him. Hebrew, "the branch and the rush." (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "the great and the small."

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Head and tail; high and low, honourable and contemptible, as the next verse explains it.

Branch; the goodly branches of tall and strong trees, the mighty and noble.

Rush; the bulrush, the weakest and meanest persons.

In one day; all together, one as well as another, without any distinction.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Head and tail, branch and rush; i.e. the whole nation, from the highest to the lowest. The "branch" intended is the "palm branch," at once lofty in position and the most glorious form of vegetable life Psa_92:12; Song of Son_7:7, Son_7:8, etc.); the "rush" is the simple "sedge" that grows, not only low on the ground, but in the "mire". (Job_8:11) The same expression occurs again in Isa_19:15.

Vers. 14-17. Man in God"s view.

There are three classes among mankind in reference to whom we here learn the thought and feeling of God. We infer from what is stated in the text

I HIS SPECIAL INTEREST IN THE YOUNG. Things had come to such a state, the natural order of things was so reversed, that "the Lord would have no joy in their young men" (ver. 17). Hence we may fairly argue that the common and normal condition is that in which God has joy in the young. It is a strange and unnatural thing to him, that which is altogether alien to his own disposition, to take no deep and Divine interest in them. God has the young people in his thought, in his affection; they are the objects of his peculiar regard and tender interest. He is seeking their true welfare; he is addressing himself to them in the terms and the tones of fatherly love. There is nothing more pleasing in his eyes than the response which the young heart makes to his inviting voice.

II HIS PECULIAR TENDERNESS TOWARD THE AFFLICTED. It is a sign of the very extremity of the Divine displeasure that the Lord will not even "have mercy on the fatherless and widows." The rebelliousness of Israel must have been great indeed, her iniquity heinous and aggravated indeed, to bring about a conclusion so startling and so strange as that. For it is the most wide departure from the constant thought and habit of the Most High. It is in his heart of pity to show peculiar kindness to his afflicted children. Those who are in sorrow commonly receive the precious sympathy of their fellow-men; this may fail, but it is certainly insufficient. Then the wounded spirit finds refuge in the sympathy of Christ; it has the strongest assurance of his presence, his pity, his succor. (Psa_103:13 Heb_4:15, etc.)

III HIS SEVERITY TOWARD THE FALSE. The prophet regarded himself as being at the head of the nation, and expected to be so regarded by others. But not so did the Lord regard him if he were false to his vocation. In the Divine view he was not the distinguished bough waving from the top of the palm tree; he was the coarse reed that grew in the rank marshes (see vers. 14, 15).

1. Any and every dissembler is hateful to God. He denounces the hypocrite, wherever he is found (ver. 17).

2. But the false teacher is the object of especial Divine displeasure. "The prophet that teacheth lies is the tail." Be it remembered that the prophet is now, what he was then, the man who professes to speak for God ; that if, making this profession, we publish that which is error rather than truth, we do two things which are most deplorable. In the first place we draw down on ourselves the awful anger of the righteous Ruler; and in the Second place we slay those whom we pretend to heal: they "that are led (misled) of us are destroyed" (ver. 16). To receive religious error into the soul is to be poisoned with a deadly drug; guilty indeed is the hand that administers it. C.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

TRUE NATIONAL GREATNESS

Isa_19:1-3; Isa_19:14. The burden of Egypt, &c.

The prophecies of Isaiah take a wide range, embrace the fortunes of almost every nation, however remote, with whom the Israelites were brought into common relation, whether of policy or commerce—Moab, Damascus, Tyre, Babylon, Ethiopia, Egypt. The prophet records the political and social phenomena of his day, not with the eye of a mere statesman or diplomatist, but as reviewing the moral as well as the political aspects of things, the eternal governing laws as well as the fitful moods and changes of a nation’s life, the spiritual as well as the material forces of the world.

Israel, in their dread of the great Assyrian monarchy, often cast wistful eyes towards Egypt, where they hoped to find a sure and powerful ally. The Egyptians accepted their subsidies, but thought they consulted their own interests best by observing what has been called amongst ourselves a “masterly inactivity.” Their strength was to sit still. They had a large standing army; but, as Rabshakeh showed, on a memorable occasion, that he knew (chap. Isa_36:6) the nation, with all its outward semblance of prosperity, was being eaten up with a thousand moral and social cankers, which corrupted the very source of all national life. This chapter lays bare those wounds and bruises and putrefying sores.

1. There was a day when Egypt had been famous for its wisdom. This wisdom had become a thing of the past (Isa_19:11-12).

2. There was no unity of purpose, no coherence of action in the body politic. The true ideas of the family, of the municipality, of the nation, were lost. Every man was fighting against his brother (Isa_19:2). It is history eternally repeating itself; it is the lament of Thucydides over Greece; of Horace, Livy, and Tacitus over the corruption of guilty imperialism, and over the absence of the masculine, simple, republican virtues of ancient Rome.

3. With the decay of public virtue comes the decay of public spirit, and then soon follows the decay of national strength. Then comes what these old Hebrew seers called the “judgment;” God coming out of His place to visit the earth; anarchy, internal dissolution, collapse, conquest by the foreigner; the giving over of the nation into the hand of a cruel lord; the establishment of a military despotism.

It were easy to point these remarks elsewhere, but let us look at home. Many feel that during the last decade of years or more England has been parting with many of her old traditions. Some of those principles which were merely corrupt remnants of a social and political system which has passed away—feudalism—we have undoubtedly gained by losing. But there are others which we have lost, or are fast losing, to the great detriment of the commonwealth. The high sense of duty to the State overruling the sense of interest in the individual citizen; the true measure of a nation’s wealth and greatness, not by its revenue in pounds sterling, but by its revenue in the healthy bodies, and honest hearts, and pure, healthy homes of the people; the noble, self-sacrificing spirit of devotion to the call of duty; the principle of right recognised as a higher principle than that of expediency; a temper of loyalty in the strict sense of the word, of willing obedience to the law and those who represent the law; strict commercial integrity, and not the tricks of trade which have been generated by an unwholesome competition—these are maxims of ancient wisdom which made England great, and the loss of which will make England small. Our greatness, whatever it has been, has not rested so much upon material forces, but, like Israel’s of old, upon moral. We can only hope that our position among the peoples will be maintained as long as we hold fast the principles by which it was won. These privileges are not things of chance, but the direct result of moral laws as immutable and irreversible as the laws which govern the physical world. God send us statesmen who will turn the nation’s mind away from delusive and partisan aims, and direct them seriously to efforts which may unite us all in one great crusade against evil; in which every soldier might certainly feel that he was fighting under the banner of Christ, in a righteous war, for objects which surely have a place in the redemption which Christ accomplished for the world.—Bishop Fraser: Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii. pp. 177, 178.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Head - High and low. Branch - The goodly branches of tall trees, the mighty and noble. Rush - The bulrush, the weakest and meanest persons. One day - All together, one as well as another.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The next stroke mentioned is a sudden destruction among all ranks of the people, the extremes being designated by two figures drawn from the animal and vegetable world. And Jehovah has cut of from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day. The allusion here is to a branch of the palm-tree or the tree itself. This tree, though now rare in the Holy Land, abounded there of old, especially in the southern part, where several places were named after it (Deu 34:3 2Ch 20:2). Hence it appears on Roman coins as the symbol of Judea. It is highly esteemed in the east, both for beauty and utility. Its branches grow near the top of its lofty trunk and bend towards the ground, as its leaves do also, with a gentle curvature, resembling that of a hand partly closed, from which peculiarity the Hebrew name and the Latin palma seem to be derived. Palm and rush denote that which is superior and inferior, including every class in the community.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The ancient, etc. Now the prophet explains that both head and root signify the old; the tail and the rush signify the false prophet.

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.