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The Prince of Peace

[2] The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shined.
[3] Thou has multiplied the nation,
thou hast increased its joy;
they rejoice before thee
as with joy at the harvest,
as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
[4] For the yoke of his burden,
and the staff for his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor,
thou hast broken as on the day of Midian.
[6] For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government will be upon his shoulder,
and his name will be called
“Wonderful Counsellor, Might God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
[7] Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom,
to establish it, and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and for evermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

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Commentary:

9:1-7. At this point, though not yet very clearly, we begin to see the figure of
King Hezekiah, who, unlike his father Ahaz, was a pious man who put all his
trust in the Lord. After Galilee was laid waste by Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria,
and its population subsequently deported (cf. 8:21-22), Hezekiah of Judah would
reconquer that region, which would recover its splendour for a period. All this
gave grounds for hope again.

This oracle may have a connexion with the Immanuel prophecy (7:1-17), and the
child with messianic prerogatives that has been born (cf. 9:6-7) could be the child
that Isaiah prophesied about (cf. 7:14). For this reason, 9:1-7 is seen as the se-
cond oracle of the Immanuel cycle. This “child” that is born, the son given to us,
is a gift from God (9:6), because it is a sign that God is present among his peo-
ple. The Hebrew text attributes four qualities to the child which seem to embrace
all the typical features of Israel’s illustrious forebears — the wisdom of Solomon
(cf. 1 Kings 3: “Wonderful Counsellor”), the prowess of David (cf. 1 Sam 7: “Migh-
ty God”), the administrative skills of Moses (cf. Ex 18:13-26) as liberator, guide
and father of the people (cf. Deut 34:10-12), (”Everlasting Father”), and the virtues
of the early patriarchs, who made peace pacts (cf. Gen 21:22-34; 26:15-35; 23:
6), (”Prince of peace”). In the old Latin Vulgate, the translation gave six features
(”Admirabilis, Consiliarius, Deus, Fortis, Pater future saeculi, Princeps pacis”);
these have found their way into the liturgy. The New Vulgate has reverted to the
Hebrew text. Either way, what we have here are titles that Semite nations ap-
plied to the reigning monarch; but, taken together, they go far beyond what be-
fitted Hezekiah or any other king of Judah. Therefore, Christian tradition has in-
terpreted them as being appropriate only for Jesus. St Bernard, for example, ex-
plains the justification for these names as follows: “He is Wonderful in his birth,
Counsellor in his preaching, God in his works, Mighty in the Passion, Everlas-
ting Father in the resurrection, and Prince of Peace in eternal happiness” (Ser-
mones de diversis, 53, 1).

Because these names are applied to Jesus, the short-term conquest of Galilee
by Hezekiah is seen as being only an announcement of the definitive salvation
brought about by Christ. In the Gospels we find echoes of this oracle in a num-
ber of passages that refer to Jesus. When Luke narrates the Annunciation by
the angel to Mary (Lk 1:31-33) we hear that the son that she will conceive and
give birth to will receive “the throne of his father David and he will reign over the
house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Lk 1:32b-33;
cf. Is 9:7). And in the account about the shepherds of Bethlehem, they are told
that “to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord
…” (Lk 2:11-12; cf. Is 9:6). St Matthew sees the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in
Galilee (Mt 4:12-17) as the fulfillment of this Isaian oracle (cf. Is 9:1): the lands
that in the prophet’s time were laid waste and saw ethnic cleansing and trans-
plantation were the first to receive the light of salvation from the Messiah.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.