John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 9:16

"For they that lead this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed." — Isaiah 9:16 (ASV)

For the rulers of this people are seducers. Some render it, they who make you blessed, or, they who call you blessed; as if he had said that nothing was more hurtful or destructive to a nation than flatteries, which gave encouragement to unbounded licentiousness. But I will follow the reading which I approved previously, when the same word occurred (Isaiah 3:12).

He means that the rulers and magistrates, whose duty it was to restrain the people within the limits of decent behavior, allowed everyone to indulge freely in crimes and wickedness. For this reason, they should justly be regarded as seducers and corrupters, because corruption flows from them to the whole body of the people, as from the head to the members.

Magistrates and pastors are appointed to restrain the waywardness of the people, to enjoin what is good and right, and especially to defend the honor of God. If they neglect these duties, they should be regarded as impostors and not rulers, for they give rise to miserable confusion.

Now, when everyone does as they please, and the reins of government are nowhere to be found, can there be anything but the most terrible result? When the common people are punished in this way for their faults, no lighter vengeance awaits the rulers, because they have neglected the duty entrusted to them and have caused so many evils.

And they who are governed are destroyed. By this clause he means that wicked princes, and those who rule according to their own caprice, are destructive; likewise, teachers who deceive and impose on people rather than point out the way of salvation, because through their fault the people are ruined. But at the same time, he shows that this provides no excuse for anyone to make bad rulers a cloak for their own transgressions, as is commonly done, for if the blind lead the blind, as Christ says, both will fall into the ditch. It is certain that no one is ruined by wicked and treacherous leaders, but those who of their own accord wish to be led astray.