4:16. “Darkness” and “land of the shadow of death” speak, on the one hand, of the material poverty of the land and the grief of the people as the result of repeated hostile invasions by Syrians from Damascus and then Asyrians from Nineveh. In Isaiah’s own day Tiglath-pileser, who established the neo-Assyrian empire, came down and took many people into captivity from this very area. On the other hand, this was an area where spiritual death existed because of constant pagan influence. This was still