Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 9:16

For the leaders of this people cause [them] to err; and [they that are] led of them [are] destroyed.

16. Render: And the leaders of this people have become misleaders, and they of it that are led are swallowed up (or perhaps as Isa 3:12 confused).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

For the leaders of this people … – Note, Isa 3:12. Hebrew They that call this people blessed – referring more particularly to the false prophets.

They that are led of them – Hebrew, They that are called blessed by them.

Are destroyed – Hebrew, Are swallowed up; see the note at Isa 3:12. They are ruined; or swallowed up as in a vast whirlpool or vortex.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Isa 9:16

For the leaders of this people cause them to err

Leaders misleading

Render: And the leaders of this people have become misleaders.

(Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)

Leaders responsibility for the peoples faults

1. By conniving at their wickedness.

2. By countenancing wicked people.

3. By setting them ill examples. (M. Henry.)

Unfaithful physicians

It is ill with a people when their physicians are their worse disease. (M. Henry.)

A shameless ruler

(Charles II):–A king might be pardoned for amusing his leisure with wine, wit, and beauty, but it was intolerable that he should sink into a mere saunterer and voluptuary; that the gravest affairs of State should be neglected, and that the public service should be starved, and the finances deranged in order that harlots and parasites might grow rich. (Macaulays England.)

The responsibility of leaders

The ancients placed the statues of their princes and patriots near the fountains, to show that they were the spring heads of good or evil to the public. (J. Trapp.)

Leadership

I. The world is so constituted that LEADERS OF THE PEOPLE ARE AT PRESENT A NECESSITY.

II. LEADERSHIP INVOLVES FOR THE LEADERS THE HIGHEST HONOUR OR THE DEEPEST SHAME.

1. The man who leads his fellow men well is entitled to the highest honour.

2. But leadership does not necessarily involve any honour at all.

3. Through leadership a man may reach the most utter degradation and shame.

(1) Through his incompetence.

(2) Through his dishonesty.

III. LEADERSHIP INVOLVES FOR THE LED SALVATION OR DESTRUCTION. (R. A. Bertram.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

The leaders; their governors, both civil and ecclesiastical, and especially the latter, their teachers, even the false prophets last mentioned. Or, they that bless or praise them, to wit, the false prophets, that flatter them in their wicked ways, with hopes and promises of peace, as their manner was, Jer 6:14; 28:9. Both ways the sense is the same.

Cause them to err; either compelling them by power, or deceiving them by false doctrines and evil counsels and persuasions.

Are destroyed; shall certainly perish; nor will it excuse them that they followed the counsel and conduct of their leaders.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

16. leaders, &c.(See Isa3:12, Margin, and see on Isa3:12.)

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For the leaders of this people cause [them] to err,…. Or, “who bless this people”, as the Septuagint and Arabic versions; and so the Targum,

“who praise this people;”

that call them blessed, pronounce them happy, see Mal 3:15 and promise them happiness, both in this world and that to come, though guilty of notorious sins, and live a vicious course of life; and so harden them in their iniquities, and cause them to wander more and more from the way of truth and righteousness; and lead them unto, and leave them in, fatal mistakes about their state and condition. These seem to design the ecclesiastical leaders of the people, the blind leaders of the blind, see Isa 3:12:

and [they that are] led of them [are] destroyed; or, “they” that “are blessed of them are swallowed up” c; and so irrecoverably lost; the deceivers and the deceived perish together; as it is sinful in teachers and leaders of the people to teach them false things, and lead them out of the way, it is criminal in the people to be led and taught by them, who ought to take care what they hear and receive; and therefore both are righteously punished; for the words are a reason why the Lord would cut off both the one and the other.

c “qui ex hoc populo beati dicuntur, absorbebuntur”, Vatablus.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

16. For the rulers of this people are seducers. (152) Some render it, they who make thee blessed, or, they who call thee blessed; as if he had said that nothing was more hurtful or destructive to a nation than flatteries, which gave encouragement to unbounded licentiousness. But I shall follow the reading which I approved on a former occasion, when the same word occurred. (153) (Isa 3:12.) He means that the rulers and magistrates, whose duty it was to restrain the people within the limits of decent behavior, allowed all to indulge freely in crimes and wickedness. On this account they ought justly to be reckoned seducers and corrupters, for corruption flows from them to the whole body of the people, as from the head to the members. Magistrates and pastors are appointed in order to restrain the waywardness of the people, to enjoin what is good and right, and especially to defend the honor of God. If they neglect these duties they ought to be reckoned impostors and not rulers, for they give rise to miserable confusion. Now, when every one does what he pleases, and the reins of government are nowhere to be found, can there be anything but the most terrible result? When the common people are thus punished on account of their faults, no lighter vengeance awaits the rulers, because they have neglected the duty entrusted to them, and have occasioned so many evils.

And they who are governed are destroyed. By this clause he means that wicked princes, and those who rule according to their own caprice, are destructive; and in like manner teachers who rather deceive and impose on men than point out the way of salvation, because through their fault the people are ruined. But at the same time he shows that this affords no excuse to any one for seeking to make bad rulers a cloak for their own transgressions, as is commonly done, for if the blind lead the blind, as Christ says, both will fall into the ditch. It is certain that none are ruined by wicked and treacherous leaders, but those who of their own accord wish to be led astray.

(152) For the leaders of this people (margin, they that call them blessed) cause them to err. — Eng. Ver.

(153) See the author’s explanation of this phrase at page 140. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

16. The leaders led See Isa 3:12. The “leaders” and the “led” are both swallowed up in misery: the former because of their bad leadership, the latter as the result of their wrong following. Num 16:30.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Isa 9:16-17. For the leaders, &c. We have here a defence of the divine judgment taken from the universal corruption of the people; wherein God sets forth the justice of his proceeding, and shews that not from choice, but for the iniquities of the people, he is compelled to punish.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

“Handfuls of Purpose”

For All Gleaners

“For the leaders of this people cause them to err.” Isa 9:16

This is the last result of debased society. When the light that is in us becomes darkness, how great is that darkness! Isaiah and Jeremiah both regard as utterly contemptible and worthless those who professed to be spiritual guides and yet who guided themselves by selfish considerations. Whether this verse was really in the original text or whether it was a merely marginal note, it is absolutely certain that the spirit of it is proved by the history of all ages. The verse may therefore be used by way of accommodation to show that even our leaders and guides are not to be trusted simply because they happen to sustain official positions. The law and the testimony may always be trusted: they cannot be bribed, they cannot be perverted, except by the basest quality of mind; the people must go to the law and to the testimony for themselves, often putting aside teacher and priest that they may see the living word with their own eyes. Even leadership is not exempt from temptation. The greatest statesmen may have objects of their own to gain. On the finest robe of patriotism there may be spots which only the divine eyes can detect. We should therefore be Bible-readers on our own account; not only readers of the mere letter, but readers of the sum total. Society may be said to be shaken at its very base when its great men allow their minds to be corrupted. This is true politically, but how much more true in relation to all matters that are spiritual and divine. When the pulpit is wrong how can the pew be right? The prophet who has beclouded his vision, or so distorted it as to accommodate it to human wish and human conceit, is likely to acquire an immediate influence, simply because the heart which he addresses is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, is indeed prepared to receive any lie as a way of escape from the severe discipline by which God trains and strengthens the soul. We shall be judges according to our position and influence. How deep the condemnation of those who knew the right and yet pursued the wrong; men who held the holy Word and gave it an unholy interpretation! Leaders and prophets should examine themselves, because even they have not escaped the contagion of human nature; even they are not free from those insidious temptations which often take the soul unawares. Leaders and prophets are tempted to believe that they are free from many of the restraints which they would impose upon other people. The larger our capacity and the larger our influence, the more keen should be our self-inspection, the more wakeful should be our daily vigilance. Here is a lesson to parents, to teachers, to reformers, and to all men of influence.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

Isa 9:16 For the leaders of this people cause [them] to err; and [they that are] led of them [are] destroyed.

Ver. 16. For the leaders of this people cause them to err. ] By their ill counsel and example. Exempla enim non ibi consistunt, ubi cceperunt. The ancients placed the statues of their princes and patriots near the fountains, to show that they were the spring heads of good or evil to the public. Some read the words thus: Those that bless this people, viz., the false prophets, have been misleaders: ductoresfuerunt seductores. Pope Plus II hath this memorable saying, Nihil excellenter malum in Ecclesia, Catholica patratur cuius prima origo a sacerdotibus non dependeat, in forte occulto quodam Dei concilio fiat. a Nothing exceedingly bad is done in the Catholic Church, unless it is first started by the priests, it becomes hidden in the plan of God.

And they that are led of them. ] Or, Blessed by them.

Are destroyed. ] Or, Swallowed up; or, Blindfolded. b

a In Hist. Auster.

b Objecti. – Tremel.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)