Passage

Isaiah 9.6

Book: Isaiah · NASB95

Verse

"For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6, NASB95)

Immediate context (±2 verses)

NASB95 (NASB95)

"4. For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian. 5. For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult, And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire."

"6. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace."

"7. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this. 8. The LORD sends a message against Jacob, And it falls on Israel." (Isaiah 9:4-8, NASB95)

(Hebrew numbering: this is Isaiah 9:5 in MT, 9:6 in LXX/Christian Bibles. The MT is what Christian translations follow.)

Setting

Speaker: Isaiah of Jerusalem.
Audience: the kingdom of Judah during a national crisis. Chapter 7-9 forms the Immanuel prophecy block delivered during the Syro-Ephraimite war (734-732 BC), when King Ahaz of Judah faced threats from Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Syria.
Location: Jerusalem.
Time period: c. 734-700 BC, during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah. The prophecy points forward to a future deliverer in the Davidic line.

Theological reading

The verse is the richest single Messianic prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, a future Davidic king is given four throne-names of unmistakable divine weight:

Pele Yo'etz, "Wonderful Counselor" / "Wonder of a Counselor." Pele (פֶּלֶא, H6382) typically describes God's miraculous deeds (Exodus 15:11; Psalm 77:11). The name attributes superhuman wisdom.
El Gibbor, "Mighty God." El is the singular form of H0430 - elohim; gibbor (גִּבּוֹר, H1368) means "warrior, mighty one." The same pair El Gibbor is used of YHWH directly in Isaiah 10:21 ("a remnant will return… to the Mighty God"). The name is unmistakably divine in Isaiah's own usage.
Avi Ad, "Eternal Father" / "Father of Eternity." Not "Father" in the Trinitarian-distinction sense (which would be a hopeless confusion in Hebrew theology) but "father" idiomatically as one who possesses or originates: father of forever = eternal one.
Sar Shalom, "Prince of Peace." The Davidic ruler brings shalom, wholeness, well-being, the eschatological peace of the messianic age (cf. Micah 5:4-5; Zechariah 9:9-10).

The combination is impossible to read of a mere human Davidic king. Mighty God in particular is divine throne-language.

Jewish counter-readings. Some Jewish exegetes (Rashi, ibn Ezra) refer the names to Hezekiah, taking the names as descriptive of the one who gives the names (i.e., God names the child Mighty God etc. as a description of God Himself). This reading is grammatically strained, the names are throne-names of the child, not utterances about a different agent, and was developed largely in response to Christian Christological use of the verse.

Patristic. Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho 76, c. AD 160) cites Isaiah 9:6 as proof of Christ's divinity from the Hebrew Scriptures, against Trypho's Jewish reading. Athanasius (Discourses Against the Arians III.11; Festal Letter 39) uses El Gibbor as part of his case that the Son is fully God by the witness of the OT itself, not merely a NT innovation. Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechetical Lectures 12, c. AD 350) preaches the four names as a programmatic Christology: Wonder of His person, Counsel of His teaching, Might of His miracles, Eternity of His being, Peace of His kingdom.

Reformed. Calvin (Isaiah commentary, ad loc.) takes all four names as Christological titles, defending against the Hezekiah reading at length: Hezekiah is dead and buried, but the verse promises an endless government, the next verse's "no end to the increase… forever" excludes any merely human fulfillment. Charles Spurgeon's frequent advent sermons on Isaiah 9:6 follow the same line: the four names are the names of one Person who is both true man (a child born) and true God (Mighty God, Eternal Father).

Modern conservative. John Oswalt (Isaiah NICOT commentary, 1986) and Alec Motyer (The Prophecy of Isaiah, 1993) treat the verse as messianic prophecy fulfilled in Christ; both press the El Gibbor identity-with-YHWH point as decisive against any reduction to mere Davidic kingship. Modern apologetic use (Michael Brown, Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 3) develops the Hebrew-grammatical case in detail.

Key words

H0430 - elohim, El is the singular form (the "El Gibbor" name)
H1368 - gibbor (pending), gibbor (mighty one / warrior), used of God in Isaiah 10:21, Deuteronomy 10:17
H6382 - pele (pending), pele (wonder), typically of God's miraculous deeds
H7965 - shalom, shalom (peace), covenant wholeness
H4899 - mashiach, mashiach (anointed), the broader messianic category