Isaiah 9:20 (KJV)

Passage

And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:

Nearby Context

Isaiah 9:18 For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.

Isaiah 9:19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.

Isaiah 9:20 And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:

Isaiah 9:21 Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "shall", "snatch", "right", "hand", "hungry", and "left". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "shall" and "snatch", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 19's "Through the wrath of the LORD of..." into verse 21's "Manasseh Ephraim and Ephraim Manasseh and they...", so "shall" and "snatch" belong inside that flow. In Isaiah context, the local focus is the Holy One of Israel, judgment and restoration, the servant of the LORD, and Zion's hope.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "shall" and "snatch" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.