Bible Strands
Isaiah 9:3
You have enlarged the nation and increased its joy. The people rejoice before You as they rejoice at harvest time, as men rejoice in dividing the plunder.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Isaiah speaks on God’s behalf to a people transitioning from darkness and oppression into deliverance. The declaration sits between the promise of a dawning light and the description of a shattered yoke.
The words — The Hebrew הִגְדַּלְתָּ (higdalta) literally means "you have magnified" or "you enlarged," and שְׂמִחָה (semichah) translates directly to "rejoicing" or "joy." These terms anchor the verse’s explicit claim that God expands both the nation and its celebration.
The thread — The motif of national enlargement and joy recurs in Isaiah 26:15 and aligns with Psalm 119:162 and Isaiah 35:10, where promise and redemption are consistently tied to rejoicing like finding spoil or entering Zion with gladness.
Why it lands — The text states that God’s action directly produces communal expansion and joy, explicitly comparing it to harvest and plunder division. It requires the reader to acknowledge that divine intervention, not human strategy, initiates this celebration.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
Cross-references
- Psalms 119:162 I rejoice in Your promise like one who finds great spoil.
- Isaiah 26:15 You have enlarged the nation, O LORD; You have enlarged the nation. You have gained glory for Yourself; You have extended all the borders of the land.
- Isaiah 35:10 So the redeemed of the LORD will return and enter Zion with singing, crowned with everlasting joy. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee.
- Isaiah 65:18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for I will create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight.
- Isaiah 66:10 Be glad for Jerusalem and rejoice over her, all who love her. Rejoice greatly with her, all who mourn over her,
- Isaiah 61:7 Instead of shame, My people will have a double portion, and instead of humiliation, they will rejoice in their share; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs.
- Jeremiah 31:7 For this is what the LORD says: “Sing with joy for Jacob; shout for the foremost of the nations! Make your praises heard, and say, ‘O LORD, save Your people, the remnant of Israel!’
- Jeremiah 31:12 They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will be radiant over the bounty of the LORD—the grain, new wine, and oil, and the young of the flocks and herds. Their life will be like a well-watered garden, and never again will they languish.
- 1 Peter 1:8 Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
- 1 Samuel 30:16 So he led David down, and there were the Amalekites spread out over all the land, eating, drinking, and celebrating the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and the land of Judah.