Four times the phrase is repeated, each time after a surface or insufficient fix—or maybe it just presents as an important reminder:
“In view of all this, his anger has not turned back, But his hand is still stretched out to strike.” There it is four times in close succession:
Isaiah 9:12— After attacks by Assyrians.
Isaiah 9:17 — After widespread godlessness under rebellious leadership.
Isaiah 9:21 — After internal tribal strife and civil war-like division.
Isaiah 10:4 — After wide-scale injustice and oppression of the vulnerable.
“In view of all this, his anger has not turned back, But his hand is still stretched out to strike.”
It’s almost like the refrain from Desolation Row. “Don’t send me no more letters, no. Not unless you mail them from Desolation Row.”
Mail all you want. No one pays attention to them. Hardly any point in sending more.
There was even a fifth letter addressed to the two-tribe southern kingdom, four chapters prior:
“In view of all this, his anger has not turned back, But his hand is still stretched out to strike. He has raised up a signal to a distant nation; He has whistled for them to come from the ends of the earth; And look! they are coming very swiftly. (5:25-26)
He whistles to Assyria. It does sweep in from the north. Naphtali and Zebulun are foremost in its path—that is the “contempt” those tribes are subjected to “as in former times when the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali were treated with contempt. But at a later time He will cause it to be honored—the way by the sea, in the region of the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.” (9:1)
The Assyrian king who swept in from 734-732 BCE was Tiglath-Pileser III, called Pul in the Bible. The invasion devastated the region: populations were exiled, lands incorporated into Assyrian provinces , were hardest hit, their peoples killed, exiled, repopulated, by others displaced from their own conquered lands. Later it would become known as Galilee. It would be “honored” in that Jesus began his ministry there, a “great light” to the people there “walking in darkness.” (9:2)
Verses prophetically applied to Jesus follow, the most explicit we have seen thus far. Start with 9:6:
“For a child has been born to us, A son has been given to us; And the rulership will rest on his shoulder. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”
Conventional Jews today don’t buy it. They figure it a reference to Hezekiah. They reckon the four glowing descriptions no more than the kissing-up praise you’d lavish on any king back then, who might resent it if you didn’t. Even the next verse:
“To the increase of his rulership And to peace, there will be no end, On the throne of David and on his kingdom In order to establish it firmly and to sustain it Through justice and righteousness, From now on and forever. The zeal of Jehovah of armies will do this.” (9:7)
That’s Hezekiah, too, they say—also the higher critics who are guided exclusively by what they can see and touch, rather than by the “walking by faith, not by sight” of 2 Corinthians 5:7. Prophecy, to them, is almost always later day interpretation of which they are dubious.
Not only do Isaiah’s countrymen ignore the anger that is still ongoing and the hand still ready to strike—which has struck in the north—but they regard each as a challenge from which they will build back better.
“Bricks have fallen, But we will build with hewn stone. Sycamore trees have been cut down, But we will replace them with cedars.” (9:10)
They don’t humble themselves, repent, and turn back to God (as Isaiah 9:13) They say: “No problem—we’ll upgrade! We’ll replace bricks with expensive, quarried stone blocks and ordinary trees with luxurious Lebanese cedars.” It’s pride and arrogance. It’s trust in human strength. It’s defiance against God. “You knocked it down? We’ll build it better!”
The boastful response only invites greater judgment—four times repeated. Ultimately, it becomes the total destruction of the northern kingdom by Assyria in 722 BCE.
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