“The Lord sent his word” (unlike Isaiah 9:8) to Jacob, or Israel.
Evil number one: pride. Israelites felt confident that they could handle any losses and that they could rebuild. They had high regard for their own abilities and little regard for God. Enemies would gather against them.
Read verse 12 as if standing in the middle of the country, looking eastward: Syrians are “before,” on the east, and Philistines are “behind,” on the west.
Four times (in 2 Nephi 19:12, 17, 21; and 20:4) Isaiah used the following formulaic parallelism, almost as a chorus to his poetic pronouncement of condemnation:
For all this his anger is not turned away;
but his hand is stretched out still.
Is this synonymous parallelism (saying the same thing twice), or is it antithetic parallelism (saying the opposite), or could it be both kinds of parallelism? Footnote 12d of Isaiah 9:12 says, “In spite of all, the Lord is available if they will turn to him.” However, the context of this parallel thought is that since the Lord’s people are still unrepentant, his anger is still directed against them (2 Nephi 15:25). Bullinger indicates that the hand stretched out is an idiom, meaning “to send judgments upon,” “to inflict punishment.” 55 And verses 13–14 say: “The people turneth not unto him… . Therefore will the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush”—that is, great and small.
Perhaps this critical couplet is either synonymous or antithetic parallelism, with the correct intent from the two opposite meanings depending on the response of the people. The Lord’s hand, like his word, can be a sharp two-edged sword providing either protection and salvation or destruction and damnation. His hand is like a stone, which can be used to build or to crush. The Lord’s hand may sometimes be construed as a hand offering relief, though here Isaiah seems to be describing the back of the Lord’s hand slapping wrath against those who have rejected His open palm.
For the hand of judgment, see Isaiah 5:25; 9:12, 17, 21; 10:4; 14:26–27. For the hand of mercy, see Isaiah 59:1–2; 65:1–2.