force of arms, but by means of right and
righteousness, the exercise of which will attract the nations to Him;
so that with the increase of dominion, the increase of peace goes hand
in hand. The guarantee that these glorious results shall really take
place is the zeal of the Lord, and it is this to which the Prophet
points at the close.

* * * * * * * * * *

Chap. viii. 23 (ix. 1). "_For not is darkness to the land, to which is
distress; in the former time he has brought disgrace upon the land of
Zebulun and the hind of Naphtali, and in the after-time he brings it to
honour, the region on the sea, the other side of the Jordan, Galilee of
the Gentiles._"

[Hebrew: ki] stands in its ordinary signification, "for." Allow not
yourselves to be turned away by anything from trusting in the God of
Israel; hold fast by His word alone, and by His servants,--such was the
fundamental thought of the whole preceding section. It meets us last in
ver. 20, in the exhortation: [Pg 71] "To the Law and to the testimony!"
in so far as this is rich in consolation and promise. The Prophet,
after having, in the preceding verses, described the misery which will
befal those who do not follow this exhortation, supports and
establishes it by referring to the _help of the Lord_ already alluded
to in vers. 9 and 10, and to the _light of His grace_ which He will
cause to shine into the darkness of the people,--a darkness produced by
their unbelief and apostacy; and this light shall be brightest where
the darkness was greatest. All the attempts at connecting this [Hebrew:
ki] with the verse immediately preceding instead of referring it to the
main contents of the preceding section, have proved futile. [Hebrew:
ki] can neither mean "nevertheless," nor "yea;" and the strange
assertion that it is almost without any meaning at all cannot derive
any support from Isaiah xv. 1: "The _burden_ of Moab, _for_ in the
night the city of Moab is laid waste;" for only in that case is
[Hebrew: ki] without any meaning at all, if [Hebrew: mwa] be falsely
interpreted.--Ver. 22, where the phrase [Hebrew: mevP Cvqh] "darkness
of distress" is equivalent to "darkness which consists in distress"
(compare also: "behold trouble and darkness" in the same verse), shows
that [Hebrew: mveP] and [Hebrew: mvcq] are substantially of the same
meaning.--Our verse forms an antithesis to ver. 22; the latter verse
described the darkness brought on by