Isaiah 9:2

“The people that walked in darkness, &c.] Meaning not the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem, in the times of Hezekiah, when Sennacherib besieged them, as Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it; and much less the people of Israel in Egypt, as the Targum paraphrases it; but the inhabitants of Galilee in the times of Christ; (see <400416>Matthew 4:16) (<430148>John 1:48 7:49,52) and is a true character of all the people of God before conversion, who are in a state of darkness, under the power of sin, shut up in unbelief; are in gross ignorance of themselves, and their condition; of sin, and the danger they are exposed to by it; of divine and spiritual things; of the grace of God; of the way of peace,…”

“the people--the whole nation, Judah and Israel. shadow of death--the darkest misery of captivity.”

“The people that walked in darkness - The inhabitants of the region of Galilee. They were represented as walking in darkness, because they were far from the capital, and from the temple; they had few religious privileges; they were intermingled with the pagan, and were comparatively rude and uncultivated in their manners and in their language. Allusion to this is several times made in the New Testament; John 1:46 : ‘Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?’ John 7:52 : ‘Search and look, for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet;’ Matthew 26:69; Mark 14:70. The word walked here is synonymous with lived, and denotes that thick darkness brooded over the country, so that they lived, or walked amidst…”

“The people - Israel and Judah. Darkness - The expression is general and so may well comprehend both calamity and ignorance, idolatry and profaneness, in which those parts were eminently involved. Have seen - Shall see at the coming of the Messiah. Isaiah 9:3”

“walked: Isa 50:10, Isa 60:1-3, Isa 60:19; Mic 7:8, Mic 7:9; Mat 4:16; Luk 1:78, Luk 1:79, Luk 2:32; Joh 8:12; Joh 12:35, Joh 12:46; Eph 5:8, Eph 5:13, Eph 5:14; Pe1 2:9; Jo1 1:5-7 in the land: Job 10:21; Psa 23:4, Psa 107:10, Psa 107:14; Amo 5:8 Isaiah 9:3”

“The range of vision is first widened in Isa 9:2.: "The people that walk about in darkness see a great light; they who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light shines." The range of vision is here extended; not to the Gentiles, however, but to all Israel. Salvation would not break forth till it had become utterly dark along the horizon of Israel, according to the description in Isa 5:30, i.e., till the land of Jehovah had become a land of the shadow of death on account of the apostasy of its inhabitants from Jehovah (zalmâveth is modified, after the manner of a composite noun, from zalmūth, according to the form kadrūth, and is derived from צלם, Aeth. salema, Arab.…”