tithesis is quite the same as in chap. viii. 23 (ix.
1), where the former distress is contrasted with the light which is now
to shine upon them, the former disgrace with the later glory; and in
the same manner in chap. ix. 1 (2), where the present _light_ is
rendered brighter by being contrasted with the former _darkness_. The
contrast of the present _increase_ with the former absence of joys
shows that the joy is to be viewed as being connected with the
increase, and that if formerly the joy was less, the reason of it was
chiefly in the _decrease_. Ps. cvii. 38, 39, 41, shews how affliction
and decrease, joy and increase, go hand in hand; farther, Jerem. xxx.
19: "And out of them proceed thanksgivings, and the voice of the merry
ones; and I multiply them, and they do not decrease; and I honour them,
and they are not small." The decrease is a single symptom only of a
depressed, joyless condition, which everywhere in the kingdom of God
shall be brought to an end by Christ. Most of the ancient translators
(LXX., Chald., Syr.) follow the marginal reading [Hebrew: lv], "_to
him_" hast thou increased the joy. According to many modern
interpreters, [Hebrew: la] is supposed to be a different mode of
writing for [Hebrew: lv]. But no _proof_ that could stand the test can
be brought forward for [Pg 83] such a mode of writing; nor is there any
reason for supposing that [Hebrew: la] stands here in a different sense
from what it does in chap. viii. 23, and it would indeed be strange
that [Hebrew: lv] should have been placed before the verb. At most, it
might be supposed that the Prophet intended an ambiguous and double
sense: not/(to him) didst thou increase the joy. But altogether apart
from such an ambiguous and double sense, behind the negative, at all
events, the positive is concealed; thou multipliest the people, and
increasest to them the joy, thou who formerly didst decrease their joy,
&c.; and it is to this positive that the words refer which, in Luke ii.
10, the angels address to the shepherds: [Greek: me phobeisthe, idou
gar euangelizomai humin charan megalen hetis estai panti to lao hoti
etechthe humin semeron soter, hos esti Christos Kurios]; comp. Matth.
ii. 10.--In the following words, the Prophet expresses, in the first
instance, the nature of the joy, then its greatness. The joy over the
blessings received is a joy _before God_, under a sense of His
immediate presence. The expression is borrowed from the sacrificial
f