Text -- Isaiah 3:6-26 (NET)

3:6 Indeed, a man will grab his brother right in his father’s house and say, ‘You own a coat– you be our leader! This heap of ruins will be under your control.’ 3:7 At that time the brother will shout, ‘I am no doctor, I have no food or coat in my house; don’t make me a leader of the people!’” 3:8 Jerusalem certainly stumbles, Judah falls, for their words and their actions offend the Lord; they rebel against his royal authority. 3:9 The look on their faces testifies to their guilt; like the people of Sodom they openly boast of their sin. Too bad for them! For they bring disaster on themselves. 3:10 Tell the innocent it will go well with them, for they will be rewarded for what they have done. 3:11 Too bad for the wicked sinners! For they will get exactly what they deserve. 3:12 Oppressors treat my people cruelly; creditors rule over them. My people’s leaders mislead them; they give you confusing directions. 3:13 The Lord takes his position to judge; he stands up to pass sentence on his people. 3:14 The Lord comes to pronounce judgment on the leaders of his people and their officials. He says, “It is you who have ruined the vineyard! You have stashed in your houses what you have stolen from the poor. 3:15 Why do you crush my people and grind the faces of the poor?” The sovereign Lord who commands armies has spoken.

Washing Away Impurity

3:16 The Lord says, “The women of Zion are proud. They walk with their heads high and flirt with their eyes. They skip along and the jewelry on their ankles jingles. 3:17 So the sovereign master will afflict the foreheads of Zion’s women with skin diseases, the Lord will make the front of their heads bald.” 3:18 At that time the sovereign master will remove their beautiful ankle jewelry, neck ornaments, crescent shaped ornaments, 3:19 earrings, bracelets, veils, 3:20 headdresses, ankle ornaments, sashes, sachets, amulets, 3:21 rings, nose rings, 3:22 festive dresses, robes, shawls, purses, 3:23 garments, vests, head coverings, and gowns. 3:24 A putrid stench will replace the smell of spices, a rope will replace a belt, baldness will replace braided locks of hair, a sackcloth garment will replace a fine robe, and a prisoner’s brand will replace beauty. 3:25 Your men will fall by the sword, your strong men will die in battle. 3:26 Her gates will mourn and lament; deprived of her people, she will sit on the ground.

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Wesley: Isa 3:6

We are utterly undone, and have neither food nor raiment; but thou hast something left to support the dignity which we offer to thee.

Wesley: Isa 3:6

To heal it.

Wesley: Isa 3:7

A repairer of the ruins of the state.

Wesley: Isa 3:9

Their pride, and wantonness, and impiety m manifestly shews itself in their very looks.

Wesley: Isa 3:9

They act it publickly, casting off all fear of God and reverence to men.

Wesley: Isa 3:9

Procured a fit recompense for their wickedness, even utter ruin.

Wesley: Isa 3:10

O ye priests and Levites, that God will be their safeguard and portion.

Wesley: Isa 3:12

Weak and effeminate rulers.

Wesley: Isa 3:12

Thy rulers civil and ecclesiastical.

Wesley: Isa 3:13

He will shortly and certainly stand up as a judge, to enquire into the cause, and to give sentence.

Wesley: Isa 3:13

To defend and deliver them.

Wesley: Isa 3:14

The princes or rulers; such were commonly chosen out of those who were in ripe years.

Wesley: Isa 3:14

Destroyed instead of preserving the church and commonwealth of Israel.

Wesley: Isa 3:14

The goods which you have violently taken away from the poor.

Wesley: Isa 3:16

The women; (hitherto he reproved the men).

Wesley: Isa 3:16

By some ornaments which they wore upon their shoes.

Wesley: Isa 3:17

By giving her into the power of those enemies that shall strip her of all her raiment.

Wesley: Isa 3:18

It is agreed by all, that this and several words that follow, were ornaments used in those times. And it is of no concern, exactly to understand the nature and differences of them.

Wesley: Isa 3:18

There were in ancient times, and at this day there are some ornaments worn, which carry a manifest resemblance to the moon or half moon.

Wesley: Isa 3:20

He seems to mean boxes of perfumes.

Wesley: Isa 3:21

jewels - Which were fastened to the head, and hung down upon the forehead to the beginning of the nose.

Wesley: Isa 3:22

Of silver or gold, either used to curl the hair, or fastened and worn in the hair.

Wesley: Isa 3:23

The looking - glasses, as we call them, tho' in truth they were not made of glass, but of bright and burnished brass.

Wesley: Isa 3:24

Which were fine and costly, and useful to gird their garments about them.

Wesley: Isa 3:24

Torn and tattered garments.

Wesley: Isa 3:24

By the heat of the sun, to which they are now commonly exposed, from which they used formerly to guard themselves with the utmost care.

Wesley: Isa 3:26

The gates of Zion or Jerusalem, which, by a figure, are said to lament, to imply the great desolation of the place; that there would be no people to go out and come in by the gates, as they used to do.

Wesley: Isa 3:26

Like a mournful woman bewailing the loss of her husband and children.

JFB: Isa 3:6

Such will be the want of men of wealth and ability, that they will "take hold of" (Isa 4:1) the first man whom they meet, having any property, to make him "ruler."

JFB: Isa 3:6

One having no better hereditary claim to be ruler than the "man" supplicating him.

JFB: Isa 3:6

Which none of us has. Changes of raiment are wealth in the East (2Ki 5:5).

JFB: Isa 3:6

Let our ruined affairs be committed to thee to retrieve.

JFB: Isa 3:7

Literally, "lift up," namely, his hand; the gesture used in solemn attestation. Or, his voice, that is, answer; so Vulgate.

JFB: Isa 3:7

Of the body politic, incurably diseased (Isa 1:6).

JFB: Isa 3:7

So as to relieve the people and maintain a ruler's dignity. A nation's state must be bad indeed, when none among men, naturally ambitious, is willing to accept office.

JFB: Isa 3:8

Reason given by the prophet, why all shrink from the government.

JFB: Isa 3:8

To provoke His "glorious" Majesty before His "eyes" (compare Isa 49:5; Hab 1:13). The Syriac and LOWTH, by a slight change of the Hebrew, translate, "the cloud of His glory," the Shekinah.

JFB: Isa 3:9

The Hebrew means, "that which may be known by their countenances" [GESENIUS and WEISS]. But MAURER translates, "Their respect for person"; so Syriac and Chaldee. But the parallel word "declare" favors the other view. KIMCHI, from the Arabic, translates "their hardness" (Job 19:3, Margin), or impudence of countenance (Jer 3:3). They have lost not only the substance of virtue, but its color.

JFB: Isa 3:9

Literally, "corresponds" to them; their look answers to their inner character (Hos 5:5).

JFB: Isa 3:9

(Jud 1:13). "Foaming out their own shame"; so far from making it a secret, "glorying" in it (Phi 3:19).

JFB: Isa 3:9

Compare "in themselves" (Pro 1:31; Pro 8:36; Jer 2:19; Rom 1:27).

JFB: Isa 3:10

The faithlessness of many is no proof that all are faithless. Though nothing but croaking of frogs is heard on the surface of the pool, we are not to infer there are no fish beneath [BENGEL]. (See Isa 1:19-20).

JFB: Isa 3:10

(Pro 1:31) in a good sense (Gal 6:8; Rev 22:14). Not salvation by works, but by fruit-bearing faith (Isa 45:24; Jer 23:6). GESENIUS and WEISS translate, Declare as to the righteous that, &c. MAURER, "Say that the righteous is blessed."

JFB: Isa 3:11

Antithesis to "well" (Isa 3:10); emphatic ellipsis of the words italicized. "Ill!"

JFB: Isa 3:11

His conduct; "hands" being the instrument of acts (Ecc 8:12-13).

JFB: Isa 3:12

(See Isa 3:4).

JFB: Isa 3:12

Literally, "exactors," that is, exacting princes (Isa 60:17). They who ought to be protectors are exactors; as unqualified for rule as "children," as effeminate as "women." Perhaps it is also implied that they were under the influence of their harem, the women of their court.

JFB: Isa 3:12

Hebrew, "call thee blessed"; namely, the false prophets, who flatter the people with promises of safety in sin; as the political "rulers" are meant in the first clause.

JFB: Isa 3:12

(Jer 6:16). The right way set forth in the law. "Destroy"--Hebrew, "Swallow up," that is, cause so utterly to disappear that not a vestige of it is left.

JFB: Isa 3:13

No longer sitting in silence.

JFB: Isa 3:13

Indignant against a wicked people (Isa 66:16; Eze 20:35).  

JFB: Isa 3:14

Hence they are spoken of as "taken away" (Isa 3:1-2).

JFB: Isa 3:14

The Jewish theocracy (Isa 5:1-7; Psa 80:9-13).

JFB: Isa 3:14

"burnt"; namely, by "oppressive exactions" (Isa 3:12). Type of the crowning guilt of the husbandmen in the days of Jesus Christ (Mat 21:34-41).

JFB: Isa 3:14

(Mat 23:14).

JFB: Isa 3:15

What right have ye to beat, &c. (Psa 94:5; Mic 3:2-3).

JFB: Isa 3:15

By exactions, so as to leave them nothing.

JFB: Isa 3:15

Persons; with the additional idea of it being openly and palpably done. "Presence," equivalent to "face" (Hebrew).

JFB: Isa 3:16

Luxury had become great in Uzziah's prosperous reign (2Ch 26:5).

JFB: Isa 3:16

Proudly elevated (Psa 75:5).

JFB: Isa 3:16

Rather, "making the eyes to glance about," namely, wantonly (Pro 6:13) [MAURER]. But LOWTH, "falsely setting off the eyes with paint." Women's eyelids in the East are often colored with stibium, or powder of lead (see on Job 42:14; Jer 4:30, Margin).

JFB: Isa 3:16

Tripping with short steps.

JFB: Isa 3:16

With their ankle-rings on both feet, joined by small chains, which sound as they walk, and compel them to take short steps; sometimes little bells were attached (Isa 3:18, Isa 3:20).

JFB: Isa 3:17

Literally, "make bald," namely, by disease.

JFB: Isa 3:17

Cause them to suffer the greatest indignity that can befall female captives, namely to be stripped naked, and have their persons exposed (Isa 47:3; compare with Isa 20:4).

JFB: Isa 3:18

The finery.

JFB: Isa 3:18

(See Isa 3:16).

JFB: Isa 3:18

Network for the head. Or else, from an Arabic root, "little suns," answering to the "tires" or neck-ornaments, "like the moon" (Jdg 8:21). The chumarah or crescent is also worn in front of the headdress in West Asia.

JFB: Isa 3:19

Rather, pendants, hanging about the neck, and dropping on the breast.

JFB: Isa 3:19

Veils covering the face, with apertures for the eyes, close above and loosely flowing below. The word radically means "tremulous," referring to the changing effect of the spangles on the veil.

JFB: Isa 3:20

Turbans.

JFB: Isa 3:20

The short stepping-chains from one foot to another, to give a measured gait; attached to the "tinkling ornaments" (Isa 3:16).

JFB: Isa 3:20

Literally, "girdles."

JFB: Isa 3:20

Rather, "houses of the breath," that is, smelling boxes [Vulgate].

JFB: Isa 3:20

Rather, amulets suspended from the neck or ears, with magic formulæ inscribed; the root means to "whisper" or "conjure."

JFB: Isa 3:21

The cartilage between the nostrils was bored to receive them; they usually hung from the left nostril.

JFB: Isa 3:22

Here begin entire articles of apparel. Those before were single ornaments.

JFB: Isa 3:22

From a root, "to put off"; not worn commonly; put on and off on special occasions. So, dress-clothes (Zec 3:4).

JFB: Isa 3:22

Fuller tunics with sleeves, worn over the common one, reaching down to the feet.

JFB: Isa 3:22

That is, mufflers, or hoods. In Rth 3:15, "veils"; perhaps here, a broad cloak, or shawl, thrown over the head and body.

JFB: Isa 3:22

Rather, money bags (2Ki 5:23).

JFB: Isa 3:23

Mirrors of polished metal (Exo 38:8). But the Septuagint, a transparent, gauze-like, garment.

JFB: Isa 3:23

Miters, or diadems (Isa 62:3; Zec 3:5).

JFB: Isa 3:23

Large enough to cover the head and person. Distinct from the smaller veils ("mufflers") above (Gen 24:65). Token of woman's subjection (1Co 11:10).

JFB: Isa 3:24

Arising from ulcers (Zec 14:12).

JFB: Isa 3:24

To gird up the loose Eastern garments, when the person walked.

JFB: Isa 3:24

The Septuagint, better, a "rope," an emblem of poverty; the poor have nothing else to gird up their clothes with.

JFB: Isa 3:24

(1Pe 3:3-4).

JFB: Isa 3:24

(Isa 3:17).

JFB: Isa 3:24

A broad plaited girdle.

JFB: Isa 3:24

(2Sa 3:31).

JFB: Isa 3:24

A sunburnt countenance, owing to their hoods and veils being stripped off, while they had to work as captives under a scorching sun (Son 1:6).

JFB: Isa 3:25

Of Jerusalem.

JFB: Isa 3:26

The place of concourse personified is represented mourning for the loss of those multitudes which once frequented it.

JFB: Isa 3:26

The very figure under which Judea was represented on medals after the destruction by Titus: a female sitting under a palm tree in a posture of grief; the motto, Judæa capta (Job 2:13; Lam 2:10, where, as here primarily, the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar is alluded to).

JFB: Isa 3:26

The calamitous period described in previous chapter.

JFB: Isa 3:26

Indefinite number among the Jews. So many men would be slain, that there would be very many more women than men; for example, seven women, contrary to their natural bashfulness, would sue to (equivalent to "take hold of," Isa 3:6) one man to marry them.

JFB: Isa 3:26

Foregoing the privileges, which the law (Exo 21:10) gives to wives, when a man has more than one.

JFB: Isa 3:26

Of being unwedded and childless; especially felt among the Jews, who were looking for "the seed of the woman," Jesus Christ, described in Isa 4:2; Isa 54:1, Isa 54:4; Luk 1:25.

Clarke: Isa 3:6

Of the house of his father "Of his father’ s house"- For בית beith , the house, the ancient interpreters seem to have read מבית mibbeith , from the house; του οικειου του πατρος αυτου, Septuagint; domesticum patris sui, Vulgate; which gives no good sense. But the Septuagint MS. 1. D. 2: for οικειου has οικου . And, his brother, of his father’ s house, is little better than a tautology. The case seems to require that the man should apply to a person of some sort of rank and eminence; one that was the head of his father’ s house, (see Jos 12:14), whether of the house of him who applies to him, or of any other; ראש בית אביו rosh beith abaiu , the chief, or head of his father’ s house. I cannot help suspecting, therefore, that the word ראש rosh , head, chief, has been lost out of the text

Saying - Before שמלה simlah , garment, two MSS., one ancient, and the Babylonish Talmud have the word לאמר lemor , saying; and so the Steptuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, and Chaldee. I place it with Houbigant, after שמלה simlah

Thou hast clothing "Take by the garment"- That is, shall entreat him in an humble and supplicating manner. "Ten men shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, Let us go with you; for we have heard that God is with you,"Zec 8:23. And so in Isa 4:1, the same gesture is used to express earnest and humble entreaty. The behavior of Saul towards Samuel was of the same kind, when he laid hold on the skirt of his raiment, 1Sa 15:27. The preceding and following verses show, that his whole deportment, in regard to the prophet, was full of submission and humility

And let this ruin be under thy hand "And let thy hand support"- Before תחת ידך tachath yadecha , a MS. adds תהיה tihyeh , "let it be;"another MS. adds in the same place, תקח בידך takach beyadecha , which latter seems to be a various reading of the two preceding words, making a very good sense: "Take into thy hand our ruinous state."Twenty-one MSS. of Kennicott’ s, thirteen of De Rossi’ s, one of my own, ancient, and three editions of the Babylonish Talmud have ידיך yadeycha , plural, "thy hands."

Clarke: Isa 3:7

In that day shall he swear "Then shall he openly declare"- The Septuagint, Syriac, and Jerome, read וישא veyissa , adding the conjunction, which seems necessary in this place

I will not be a healer - I am noy a leche. - Old MS. Bible. Leech was the ancient English word for a physician

For in my house is neither bread nor clothing "For in my house is neither bread nor raiment"- "It is customary through all the East,"says Sir J. Chardin, "to gather together an immense quantity of furniture and clothes; for their fashions never alter."Princes and great men are obliged to have a great stock of such things in readiness for presents upon all occasions. "The kings of Persia,"says the same author, "have great wardrobes, where there are always many hundreds of habits ready, designed for presents, and sorted,"Harmer, Observ., 2:11 and 88. A great quantity of provision for the table was equally necessary. The daily provision for Solomon’ s household, whose attendants were exceedingly numerous, was proportionately great, 1Ki 4:22, 1Ki 4:23. Even Nehemiah, in his strait circumstances, had a large supply daily for his table; at which he received a hundred and fifty of the Jews and rulers, besides those that came from among the neighboring heathen, Neh 5:17, Neh 5:18

This explains the meaning of the excuse made by him that is desired to undertake the government. He alleges that he has not wherewithal to support the dignity of the station, by such acts of liberality and hospitality as the law of custom required of persons of superior rank. See Harmer’ s Observations, 1:340, 2:88.

Clarke: Isa 3:8

The eyes "The cloud"- This word appears to be of very doubtful form, from the printed editions, the MSS., and the ancient versions. The first yod in עיני eyney , which is necessary according to the common interpretation, is in many of them omitted; the two last letters are upon a rasure in two MSS. I think it should be ענן anan , "a cloud,"as the Syriac reads; and the allusion is to the cloud in in which the glory of the Lord appeared above the tabernacle; see Exo 16:9, Exo 16:10; Exo 40:34-38; Num 16:41, Num 16:42

Either of the readings gives a very good sense. The allusion may be to the cloud of the Divine presence in the wilderness: or the eyes of the Lord may be meant, as they are in every place beholding the evil and the good. And he cannot look upon iniquity but with abhorrence; therefore, the eyes of his glory might be well provoked by their crimes.

Clarke: Isa 3:9

The show of their countenance - Bishop Lowth has it the steadfastness of their countenance - they appear to be bent on iniquity, their eyes tell the wickedness of their hearts. The eye is the index of the mind. Envy, hatred, malice, malevolence, concupiscence, and murder, when in the heart, look most intelligently out at the eye. They tell the innocent to be on their guard; and serve the same purpose as the sonorous rings in the tail of the rattlesnake - they announce the presence of the destroyer

Clarke: Isa 3:9

They declare their sin as Sodom - Impure propensities are particularly legible in the eyes: whoever has beheld the face of a debauchee or a prostitute knows this; of these it may be said, they wish to appear what they really are. They glory in their iniquity. This is the highest pitch of ungodliness

Clarke: Isa 3:9

They have rewarded evil unto themselves - Every man’ s sin is against his own soul. Evil awaiteth sinners - and he that offends his God injures himself.

Clarke: Isa 3:10

Say ye to the righteous - לצדיק letsaddik , the ל lamed is added here by one MS. and the Chaldee. The righteous is the person

1.    Who fears God

2.    Departs from evil

3.    Walks according to the testimony of God

4.    And expects and prepares for a glorious immortality

"Pronounce ye."- The reading of this verse is very dubious. The Septuagint for אמרו imru read נאסר neasor , or both, אמרו נאסר imru neasor , and כי לא טוב לנו ki lo tob lanu . Δησωμεν τον δικαιον, ὁτι δυσχρηστος ἡμιν εστι. Perhaps, for אמרו imru , the true reading may be אשרו ashsheru , "bless you;"or אמרו אשרי imru ashrey , "say ye, blessed is."The Vulgate and an ancient MS. read in the singular number, יאכל yochel , comedat, "he shall eat.

"It shall be well with him:"- כי טוב ki tob , "that good."Say nothing to such but good. He is a good man, he does nothing but good, and has a good God to deal with, from whom he expects nothing but goodness. It shall be well with such in all circumstances of life

1.    In prosperity

2.    In adversity

3.    In sickness

4.    In health

5.    In death

6.    In judgment. And

7.    Through eternit

In every case, occurrence, and circumstance, he shall eat the fruit of his doings - he shall derive benefit from being a righteous man, and walking in a righteous way.

Clarke: Isa 3:11

Wo unto the wicked - לרשע lerasha , the man who is

1.    Evil in his heart

2.    Evil in his purposes

3.    Evil in his life

As he is wicked, he does that which is wicked; and is influenced by the wicked one, of whom he is the servant and the son. It shall be ill with him, רע ra ; in a single word say to him - evil! Of him you can speak no good; and to him you can speak no good - all is evil, in him - before him - after him - round about him - above him - below him. Evil in time - evil through eternity

Clarke: Isa 3:11

The reward of his hands - What he has deserved he shall get. He shall be paid that for which he has labored, and his reward shall be in proportion to his work. O, what a lot is that of the wicked! Cursed in time, and accursed through eternity!

Clarke: Isa 3:12

Err "Pervert"- בלעו billeu , "swallow."Among many unsatisfactory methods of accounting for the unusual meaning of this word in this place, I choose Jarchi’ s explication, as making the best sense. "Read בללו billalu , ‘ confound.’ Syriac."- Dr. Judd. "Read בהלו beholu , ‘ disturb or trouble.’ "- Secker. So Septuagint. This verse might be read, "The collectors of grapes shall be their oppressors; and usurers (noshim , instead of nashim , women) shall rule over them."

Clarke: Isa 3:13

The people "His people"- עמו ammo , Septuagint.

Clarke: Isa 3:14

The vineyard. "My vineyard"- כרמי - "dr carmi , Septuagint, Chaldee, Jerome.

Clarke: Isa 3:15

And grind the faces - The expression and the image is strong, to denote grievous oppression but is exceeded by the prophet Micah, Mic 3:1-3 : -

"Hear, I pray you, ye chiefs of Jacob

And ye princes of the house of Israel

Is it not yours to know what is right

Ye that hate good and love evil

Who tear their skins from off them

And their flesh from off their bones

Who devour the flesh of my people

And flay from off them their skin

And their bones they dash in pieces

And chop them asunder, as morsels for the pot

And as flesh thrown into the midst of the caldron.

In the last line but one, for כאשר keasher , read, by the transposition of a letter, כשאר kisher , with the Septuagint and Chaldee.

Clarke: Isa 3:16

And wanton eyes "And falsely setting off their eyes with paint"- Hebrew, falsifying their eyes. I take this to be the true meaning and literal rendering of the word; from שקר shakar . The Masoretes have pointed it, as if it were from שקר sakar , a different word. This arose, as I imagine, from their supposing that the word was the same with סקר sakar , Chaldee, "intueri, innuere oculis;"or that it had an affinity with the noun סיקרא sikra , which the Chaldeans, or the rabbins at least, use for stibium, the mineral which was commonly used in colouring the eyes. See Jarchi’ s comment on the place. Though the colouring of the eyes with stibium be not particularly here expressed, yet I suppose it to be implied; and so the Chaldee paraphrase explains it; stibio linitis oculis, "with eyes dressed with stibium."This fashion seems to have prevailed very generally among the Eastern people in ancient times; and they retain the very same to this day

Pietro delta Valle, giving a description of his wife, an Assyrian lady born in Mesopotamia, and educated at Baghdad, whom he married in that country, (Viaggi, Tom. I., Lettera 17), says, "Her eyelashes, which are long, and, according to the custom of the East, dressed with stibium, (as we often read in the Holy Scriptures of the Hebrew women of old, Jer 4:30; Eze 23:40; and in Xenophon, of Astyages the grandfather of Cyrus, and of the Medes of that time, Cyropaed. lib. i.), give a dark, and at the same time a majestic, shade to the eyes.""Great eyes,"says Sandys, Travels, p. 67, speaking of the Turkish women, "they have in principal repute; and of those the blacker they be the more amiable; insomuch that they put between the eyelids and the eye a certain black powder with a fine long pencil, made of a mineral, brought from the kingdom of Fez, and called Alcohole; which by the not disagreeable staining of the lids doth better set forth the whiteness of the eye; and though it be troublesome for a time, yet it comforteth the sight, and repelleth ill humours." Vis ejus (stibii) astringe ac refrigerare, principalis autem circa oculos; namque ideo etiam plerique Platyophthalmon id appellavere, quoniam in calliblepharis mulierum dilatat oculos; et fluxiones inhibet oculorum exulcerationesque . "It is astringent in its virtue, and refrigerant, and to be chiefly employed about the eyes, and it is called Platyophthalmon, for being put into those ointments with which women beautify their eyes, it dilates them, removes defluxions, and heals any ulcerations that may be about the eyelids."- Pliny, Nat. Hist. 33:6

Ille supercilium madida fuligine tactu

Obliqua producit acu, pingitque tremente

Attollens oculos

Juv. Sat. 2:93

One his eyebrows, tinged with black soot

Lengthens with an oblique bodkin, and paints

Lifting up his winking eyes

"But none of those [Moorish] ladies,"says Dr. Shaw, Travels, p. 294, fol., "take themselves to be completely dressed, till they have tinged the hair and edges of their eyelids with alkahol, the powder of lead ore. This operation is performed by dipping first into the powder a small wooden bodkin of the thickness of a quill; and then drawing it afterwards through the eyelids, over the ball of the eye."Ezekiel, Eze 23:40, uses the same word in the form of a verb, כחלת עניך cachalt eynayik , "thou didst dress thine eyes with alcahol;"which the Septuagint render εστιβιζου τους, οφθαλμους σου, "thou didst dress thine eyes with stibium;"just as they do when the word פוך phuch is employed: compare 2Ki 9:30; Jer 4:30. They supposed, therefore, that פוך phuch and כחל cachal , or in the Arabic form, alcahol , meant the same thing; and probably the mineral used of old for this purpose was the same that is used now; which Dr. Shaw (ibid. note) says is "a rich lead ore, pounded into an impalpable powder."Alcoholados; the word משקרות meshakkeroth in this place is thus rendered in an old Spanish translation. - Sanctius. See also Russell’ s Nat. Hist. of Aleppo, p. 102

The following inventory, as one may call it, of the wardrobe of a Hebrew lady, must, from its antiquity, and the nature of the subject, have been very obscure even to the most ancient interpreters which we have of it; and from its obscurity must have been also peculiarly liable to the mistakes of transcribers. However, it is rather matter of curiosity than of importance; and is indeed, upon the whole, more intelligible and less corrupted than one might have reasonably expected. Clemens Alexandrinus, Paedag. lib. ii., c. 12, and Julius Pollux, lib. vii., c. 22, have each of them preserved from a comedy of Aristophanes, now lost, a similar catalogue of the several parts of the dress and ornaments of a Grecian lady; which, though much more capable of illustration from other writers, though of later date, and quoted and transmitted down to us by two different authors, yet seems to be much less intelligible, and considerably more corrupted, than this passage of Isaiah. Salmasius has endeavored, by comparing the two quotations, and by much critical conjecture and learned disquisition, to restore the true reading, and to explain the particulars; with what success, I leave to the determination of the learned reader, whose curiosity shall lead him to compare the passage of the comedian with this of the prophet, and to examine the critic’ s learned labors upon it. Exercit. Plinian, p. 1148; or see Clem. Ales. as cited above, edit. Potter, where the passage, as corrected by Salmasius, is given

Nich. Guel. Schroederus, professor of oriental languages in the University of Marpurg, has published a very learned and judicious treatise upon this passage of Isaiah. The title of it is, " Commentarius Philologico-Criti cus de Vestitu Mulierum Hebraearum ad Iesai 3 ver. 16-24. Lugd. Bat. 1745 ."As I think no one has handled this subject with so much judgment and ability as this author, I have for the most part followed him, in giving the explanation of the several terms denoting the different parts of dress, of which this passage consists; signifying the reasons of my dissent, where he does not give me full satisfaction

Bishop Lowth’ s translation of these verses is the following: -

18.    In that day will the Lord take from them the ornaments,
Of the feet-rings, and the net-works, and the crescents

19.    The pendants, and the bracelets, and the veils

20.    The tires, and the fetters, and the zones, And the perfume-boxes, and the amulets

21.    The rings, and the jewels of the nostrils

22.    The embroidered robes, and the tunics, And the cloaks, and the little purses

23.    The transparent garments, and the fine linen vests, And the turbans, and the mantles

24.    And there shall be instead of perfume, a putrid ulcer;
And instead of well-girt raiment, rags;
And instead of high-dressed hair, baldness;
And instead of a zone, a girdle of sackcloth;
And sun-burnt skin, instead of beauty

The daughters of Zion - walk - What is meant by these several kinds of action and articles of dress cannot be well conjectured. How our ancestors understood them will appear from the following, which is the translation of these verses in my old MS. Bible: -

16. The doughteris of Syon wenteh with strught out necks, and ib beckes (winking) of eegen, geeden and flappeden with hondis for joye, and geeden: and with theire feet in curyous goying geeden; - 17. the Lord schall fully make ballid the top of the boughtris of Syon: and the Lord the her of hem schal naken. And for ournemente schal be schenschip

18. In that day, the Lord schal don awey the ournement of Schoon and hoosis: 19. and beegis, and brochis, and armeerclis, and mytris; 20. and coombis, and rybanys and reversis at the hemmys, and oynment boris and ereringis; 21. and ryngis and jemmys in the frount hongynge; 22. and chaunginge clothis, and litil pallis, and scheetis, and prynys; 23. and scheweris, and neche hercheuys, and flyetis, and roketis; 24. and ther schal be for swot smel, stynke, and for gyrdil, a litl coord; and for crisp her, ballidnesse; and for brest boond and heyr

Some of these things are hard to be understood, though I think this version as good as that of the very learned bishop: but there is little doubt that articles of clothing and dress bore these names in the fourteenth century.

Clarke: Isa 3:17

The Lord will smite "Will the Lord humble"- ταπεινωσει, Septuagint; and so Syriac and Chaldee. For שפח sippach they read שפל shaphal . Instead of יהוה Yehovah , many MSS. have אדני Adonai

Will discover their secret parts "Expose their nakedness"- It was the barbarous custom of the conquerors of those times to strip their captives naked, and to make them travel in that condition, exposed to the inclemency of the weather; and the worst of all, to the intolerable heat of the sun. But this to the women was the height of cruelty and indignity; and especially to such as those here described, who had indulged themselves in all manner of delicacies of living, and all the superfluities of ornamental dress; and even whose faces had hardly ever been exposed to the sight of man. This is always mentioned as the hardest part of the lot of captives. Nahum, Nah 3:5, Nah 3:6, denouncing the fate of Nineveh, paints it in very strong colors: -

"Behold, I am against thee, saith Jehovah, God of hosts

And I will discover thy skirts upon thy face

And I will expose thy nakedness to the nations

And to the kingdoms thy shame

And I will throw ordures upon thee

And I will make thee vile, and set thee as a gazing-stock."

Clarke: Isa 3:18

Ornaments about their feet "The ornaments of the feet rings"- The late learned Dr. Hunt, professor of Hebrew and Arabic in the University of Oxford, has very well explained the word עכס both verb and noun, in his very ingenious Dissertation on Prov, Isa 7:22, Isa 7:23. The verb means to skip, to bound, to dance along, and the noun, those ornaments of the feet which the Eastern ladies wore; chains or rings, which made a tinkling sound as they moved nimbly in walking. Eugene Roger, Description de la Terre Sainte, 54:2 ch. 2, speaking of the Arabian women, of the first rank in Palestine, says," Au lieu de brasselets elles ont de menottes d’ argent, qu’ elles portent aux poignets et aux pieds; ou sont attachez quantite de petits annelets d’ argent, qui font un cliquetis comme d’ une cymbale, lorsqu’ elles cheminent ou se mouvent quelque peu ."See Dr. Hunt’ s Dissertation; where he produces other testimonies to the same purpose from authors of travels. Hindoo women of ill fame wear loose ornaments one above another on their ankles, which at every motion make a tinkling noise. See Ward

And their cauls "the net-works"- I am obliged to differ from the learned Schroederus almost at first setting out. He renders the word שביסים shebisim by soliculi, little ornaments, bullae, or studs, in shape representing the sun, and so answering to the following word שהרנים saharonim , lunulae, crescents. He supposes the word to be the same with שמישים shemishim , the י yod in the second syllable making the word diminutive, and the letter מ mem being changed for ב beth , a letter of the same organ. How just and well founded his authorities for the transmutation of these letters in the Arabic language are, I cannot pretend to judge; but as I know of no such instance in Hebrew, it seems to me a very forced etymology. Being dissatisfied with this account of the matter, I applied to my good friend above mentioned, the late Dr. Hunt, who very kindly returned the following answer to my inquiries: -

"I have consulted the Arabic Lexicons, as well MS. as printed, but cannot find שביסים shebisim in any of them, nor any thing belonging to it; so that no help is to be had from that language towards clearing up the meaning of this difficult word. But what the Arabic denies, the Syriac perhaps may afford; in which I find the verb שבש shabas , to entangle or interweave, an etymology which is equally favorable to our marginal translation, net-works, with שבץ shabats , to make chequer work, or embroider, (the word by which Kimchi and others have explained שביס shabis ); and has moreover this advantage over it, that the letters ש sin and ס samech are very frequently put for each other, but צ tsaddi and ס samech scarcely ever. Aben Ezra joins שביסים shebisim and עכסים achasim , which immediately precedes it, together; and says that שביס shabis was the ornament of the leps, as עכס eches was of the feet. His words are, שביס תכשיט של שוקים כמו עכס של רגלים - L."

Clarke: Isa 3:20

The tablets - The words בתי הנפש bottey hannephesh , which we translate tablets, and Bishop Lowth, perfume boxes, literally signify houses of the soul; and may refer to strong scented bottles used for pleasure and against fainting; similar to bottles with otto of roses, worn by the ladies of the East to the present time.

Clarke: Isa 3:21

Nose-jewels "The jewels of the nostril"- נזמי האף nizmey haaph . Schroederus explains this, as many others do, of jewels, or strings of pearl hanging from the forehead, and reaching to the upper part of the nose; than which nothing can be more ridiculous, as such are seldom seen on an Asiatic face. But it appears from many passages of Holy Scripture that the phrase is to be literally and properly understood of nose-jewels, rings set with jewels hanging from the nostrils, as ear-rings from the ears, by holes bored to receive them

Ezekiel, enumerating the common ornaments of women of the first rank, has not omitted this particular, and is to be understood in the same manner, Eze 16:11, Eze 16:12. See also Gen 24:47 : -

"And I decked thee with ornaments

And I put bracelets upon thine hands

And a chain on thy neck

And I put a jewel on thy nose

And ear-rings on thine ears

And a splendid crown upon thine head.

And in an elegant proverb of Solomon, Pro 11:22, there is a manifest allusion to this kind of ornament, which shows it to have been used in his time: -

"As a jewel of gold in the snout of a swine

So is a woman beautiful, but wanting discretion.

This fashion, however strange it may appear to us, was formerly and is still common in many parts of the East, among women of all ranks. Paul Lucas, speaking of a village or clan of wandering people, a little on this side of the Euphrates, says, (2d Voyage du Levant, tom. i., art. 24), "The women, almost all of them, travel on foot; I saw none handsome among them. They have almost all of them the nose bored; and wear in it a great ring, which makes them still more deformed."But in regard to this custom, better authority cannot be produced than that of Pietro della Valle, in the account which he gives of the lady before mentioned, Signora Maani Gioerida, his own wife. The description of her dress, as to the ornamental parts of it, with which he introduces the mention of this particular, will give us some notion of the taste of the Eastern ladies for finery. "The ornaments of gold and of jewels for the head, for the neck, for the arms, for the legs, and for the feet (for they wear rings even on their toes) are indeed, unlike those of the Turks, carried to great excess, but not of great value: for in Bagdad jewels of high price are either not to be had, or are not used; and they wear such only as are of little value, as turquoises, small rubies, emeralds, carbuncles, garnets, pearls, and the like. My spouse dresses herself with all of them according to their fashion; with exception, however, of certain ugly rings of very large size, set with jewels, which, in truth, very absurdly, it is the custom to wear fastened to one of their nostrils, like buffaloes: an ancient custom, however, in the East, which, as we find in the Holy Scriptures, prevailed among the Hebrew ladies even in the time of Solomon, Pro 11:22. These nose-rings, in complaisance to me, she has left off, but I have not yet been able to prevail with her cousin and her sisters to do the same; so fond are they of an old custom, be it ever so absurd, who have been long habituated to it."Viaggi, Tom. i., Let. 17

It is the left nostril that is bored and ornamented with rings and jewels. More than one hundred drawings from life of Eastern ladies lie now before me, and scarcely one is without the nose-jewel: both the arms and wrists are covered with bracelets, arm-circles, etc., as also their legs and feet; the soles of their feet and palms of their hands coloured beautifully red with henna, and their hair plaited and ornamented superbly. These beautiful drawings are a fine comment on this chapter.

Clarke: Isa 3:23

The glasses - The conjunction ו vau , and - And the glasses, is added here by forty-three of Kennicott’ s and thirty-four of De Rossi’ s MSS., and one of my own, ancient, as well as by many editions

And the veils. "The transparent garments"- Τα διαφανη Λακωνικα, Sept. A kind of silken dress, transparent, like gauze; worn only by the most elegant women, and such as dressed themselves elegantius quam necesse esset probis , "more elegantly than modest women should."Such garments are worn to the present day; garments that not only show the shape of every part of the body, but the very color of the skin. This is evidently the case in some scores of drawings of Asiatic females now before me. This sort of garments was afterwards in use among the Greeks. Prodicus, in his celebrated fable (Xenoph. Memorab. Socr. lib. ii.) exhibits the personage of Sloth in this dress: Εσθητα δε, εξ ἡς αν μαλιστα ὡρα διαλαμποι : -

"Her robe betray’

Through the clear texture every tender limb

Height’ ning the charms it only seem’ d to shade

And as it flow’ d adown so loose and thin

Her stature show’ d more tall, more snowy white her skin.

They were called multitia and coa ( scil, vestimenta ) by the Romans, from their being invented, or rather introduced into Greece, by one Pamphila of the island of Cos. This, like other Grecian fashions, was received at Rome, when luxury began to prevail under the emperors. It was sometimes worn even by the men, but looked upon as a mark of extreme effeminacy. See Juvenal, Sat. ii., 65, etc. Publius Syrus, who lived when the fashion was first introduced, has given a humorous satirical description of it in two lines, which by chance have been preserved: -

" Aequum est, induere nuptam ventum textilem

Palam prostare nudam in nebula linea ?"

Clarke: Isa 3:24

Instead of sweet smell "perfume"- A principal part of the delicacy of the Asiatic ladies consists in the use of baths, and of the richest oils and perfumes; an attention to which is in some degree necessary in those hot countries. Frequent mention is made of the rich ointments of the spouse in the Song of Solomon, Son 4:10, Son 4:11 : -

"How beautiful are thy breasts, my sister, my spouse

How much more excellent than wine

And the odour of thine ointments than all perfumes

Thy lips drop as the honey-comb, my spouse

Honey and milk are under thy tongue

And the odor of thy garments is as the odour of Lebanon.

The preparation for Esther’ s being introduced to King Ahasuerus was a course of bathing and perfuming for a whole year; "six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours;"Est 2:12 (note). A diseased and loathsome habit of body, instead of a beautiful skin, softened and made agreeable with all that art could devise, and all that nature, so prodigal in those countries of the richest perfumes, could supply, must have been a punishment the most severe and the most mortifying to the delicacy of these haughty daughters of Sion

Burning instead of beauty "A sunburnt skin"- Gaspar Sanctius thinks the words כי תחת ki thachath an interpolation, because the Vulgate has omitted them. The clause כי תחת יפי ki thachath yophi seems to me rather to be imperfect at the end. Not to mention that כי ki , taken as a noun for adustio , burning, is without example, and very improbable. The passage ends abruptly, and seems to want a fuller conclusion

In agreement with which opinion, of the defect of the Hebrew text in this place, the Septuagint, according to MSS. Pachom. and 1 D. ii., and Marchal., which are of the best authority, express it with the same evident marks of imperfection at the end of the sentence; thus: ταυτα σοι αντι καλλωπισμου The two latter add δου . This chasm in the text, from the loss probably of three or four words, seems therefore to be of long standing

Taking כי ki in its usual sense, as a particle, and supplying לך lech from the σοι of the Septuagint, it might possibly have been originally somewhat in this form: -

>

marah	raath	lech	thihyeh	yophi	thachath	ki

"Yea, instead of beauty thou shalt have an illfavoured countenance.

כי תחת יפי ki thachath yophi (q. יחת yachath ), "for beauty shall be destroyed."Syr. חתת chathath or נחת nachath .-Dr. Durell

"May it not be כהי cohey , ‘ wrinkles instead of beauty?’ as from יפה yaphah is formed יפי yephi , yophi ; from מרה marah , מרי meri , etc.; so from כהה cahah , to be wrinkled, כהי cohey ."- Dr. Jubb. The כי ki is wanting in one MS., and has been omitted by several of the ancients.

Clarke: Isa 3:25

Thy mighty men - For גבורתך geburathech an ancient MS. has גבורך gibborech . The true reading, from the Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, and Chaldee, seems to be גבוריך gibborayich .

Clarke: Isa 3:26

Sit upon the ground - Sitting on the ground was a posture that denoted mourning and deep distress. The prophet Jeremiah (Lam 2:8) has given it the first place among many indications of sorrow, in the following elegant description of the same state of distress of his country: -

"The elders of the daughter of Sion sit on the ground, they are silent: They have cast up dust on their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth; The virgins of Jerusalem have bowed down their heads to the ground.

"We find Judea,"says Mr. Addison, (on Medals, Dial. ii), "on several coins of Vespasian and Titus, in a posture that denotes sorrow and captivity. I need not mention her sitting on the ground, because we have already spoken of the aptness of such a posture to represent an extreme affliction. I fancy the Romans might have an eye on the customs of the Jewish nation, as well as those of their country, in the several marks of sorrow they have set on this figure. The psalmist describes the Jews lamenting their captivity in the same pensive posture: ‘ By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered thee, O Zion.’ But what is more remarkable, we find Judea represented as a woman in sorrow sitting on the ground, in a passage of the prophet, that foretells the very captivity recorded on this medal."Mr. Addison, I presume, refers to this place of Isaiah; and therefore must have understood it as foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish nation by the Romans: whereas it seems plainly to relate, in its first and more immediate view at least, to the destruction of the city by Nebuchadnezzar, and the dissolution of the Jewish state under the captivity at Babylon. - L

Several of the coins mentioned here by Mr. Addison are in my own collection: and to such I have already referred in this work. I shall describe one here. On the obverse a fine head of the emperor Vespasian with this legend, Imperator Julius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, Tribunitia Potestate Pater Patriae, Consul VIII

On the reverse a tall palm tree, emblem of the land of Palestine, the emperor standing on the left, close to the tree, with a trophy behind him; on the right, Judea under the figure of a female captive sitting on the ground, with her head resting on her hand, the elbow on her knee, weeping. Around is this legend, Judea Capta. Senates Consulto. However this prediction may refer proximately to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, I am fully of opinion that it ultimately refers to the final ruin of the Jewish state by the Romans. And so it has been understood by the general run of the best and most learned interpreters and critics.

Calvin: Isa 3:6

6.When every man shall take hold of his brother As this verse is closely connected with the former, and proceeds without interruption as far as the phrase he shall swear, the particle כי ( ki) is evidently taken for an adverb of time. For Isaiah, intending to express the extreme wretchedness of the people, says that there will be no man who will undertake to govern them, though he were requested to do so. To such an extent unquestionably does ambition prevail among men, that many are always eager to contend for power, and endeavor to obtain it even at the hazard of their lives. In every age the whole world has been convulsed by the desire of obtaining kingly power; and there is not a villain so inconsiderable as not to contain men who willingly undertake to become rulers; and all this proves that man is an animal desirous of honor. Hence it follows that everything is in a deplorable condition, when that dignity is not only despised but obstinately rejected; for the mournful calamity has reached its lowest depth, when that which men naturally desire with the greatest ardor is universally disclaimed.

Isaiah mentions other circumstances of an aggravating nature, tending to show that the Jews will rather lay aside every feeling of humanity and compassion than undertake the office of rulers. If one shall refuse to rule foreign nations, it will not perhaps be thought so wonderful; but when the preservation of brethren is in question, it is excessively unkind to decline the honorable office. It is therefore a proof that matters are utterly desperate, when the office of ruler is disdainfully rejected by that man to whom his kinsmen appeal, by entreating his support and throwing themselves on his protection. Now, since princes are commonly selected on account of their wealth, or, at least, kingly power is not usually bestowed on any who have not a moderate share of riches, lest poverty should lay them open to contempt and reproach, or drive them to unworthy means of gain, he likewise adds this circumstance, that though they are able to bear the burden, still they will not accept of it; as if he had said, “Not only the common people, but also the nobles and the wealthy, decline the task of government.”

The phrase take hold is likewise emphatic, for it means to “lay hands” on a person; as if Isaiah had said that those who shall wish to obtain a prince will not employ flatteries and entreaties, but will proceed with disorder and violence to seize on some person, and endeavor to compel him to occupy the throne.

Let this ruin be under thy hand. This last circumstance is not less weighty. The meaning is, “At least if you have any compassion or humanity, do not fail to aid us in our extreme wretchedness.” For when a multitude of men, like a scattered flock, bewailing with tears their ruinous condition, implore the protection of a shepherd, he who will not stretch out a helping hand must have a heart as hard as iron. Some translate it as if, by a figure of speech, (hypallage,) one word had been put for another, Let thy hand be under this ruin; that is, for the sake of upholding it.

Calvin: Isa 3:7

7.In that day shall he swear The word swear expresses an absolute and vehement refusal; for frequently he who at first excuses himself, or declares that he will not do it, at length yields to entreaty; but he who, in refusing, employs an oath, shuts out all hope, because he gives them to understand that his purpose is firm and decided. Perhaps, too, the phrase in that day, means “ immediately, without any delay, and without long consultation;” but as it may also be viewed demonstratively, (δεικτικῶς,) as pointing out more fully the time of the calamity, I do not express a strong opinion. The general meaning is obvious, that their ruinous condition will be past remedy.

As to the word חבש , ( chobesh,) though commentators differ in their interpretation of it, yet I cheerfully concur with those who think that the metaphor is here borrowed from surgeons; ⁵⁷ for nothing can more fully meet the case. It is as if one, to whom application had been made to heal a sick man, should declare that he has no skill in the art of healing, or that the disease is too inveterate to admit of being cured.

The next copulative ו , ( vau,) means for; as if he had said, “And undoubtedly I have not ability to do so.” ⁵⁸ His meaning therefore is, that the state of affairs will be so desperate, that no man, even when matters are at the worst, will venture to take measures for their defense.

Calvin: Isa 3:8

8.For Jerusalem is ruined Lest it should be thought that God is excessively cruel, when he punishes his people with such severity, the Prophet here explains briefly the reason of the calamity; as if he had said that the destruction of that ungodly people is righteous, because in so many ways they have persisted in provoking God. And thus he cuts off all ground of complaint; for we know with what insolent fury the world breaks out, when it is chastised with more than ordinary severity. He says that they were ready, both by words and by actions, to commit every kind of crimes. In speaking of their destruction, he employs such language as if it had already taken place; though the past may be taken for the future, as in many other passages.

To provoke the eyes of his glory. This mode of expression aggravates the crime, as denotes that they had intentionally resolved to insult God; for those things which are done before our eyes, if they are displeasing to us, are the more offensive. It is true that wicked men mock God, as if they were able to deceive him; but as nothing, however it may be concealed, escapes his view, Isaiah brings it as a reproach against them, that they openly and shamelessly, in his very presence, indulged in the commission of crimes. The word glory also deserves our attention; for it is a proof of extraordinary madness, if we have no feeling of reverence, when the majesty of God is presented to our view. If God had so illustriously displayed his glory before the nation of Israel, that they ought justly to have been humbled, if they had any remains of shame or of modesty. Whatever, then, may be the murmurings of wicked men against God, or their complaints of his severity, the cause of all the calamities which they endure will be found to be in their own hands.

Calvin: Isa 3:9

9.The proof of their countenance will answer in them, or, will answer against them ⁵⁹ As the Prophet had to do with impudent and brazen-faced hypocrites, who impudently boasted that they were good men; so he says that their countenance testifies what kind of persons they are, and that it will not be necessary to bring witnesses from a distance, in order to prove their wickedness; for to answer means “to bear testimony,” or “to confess.” Although, therefore, they disguise their face and countenance, so that they frequently deceive others, yet God compels them to show and prove what they are; so that, in spite of themselves they carry, as it were, in their forehead a mark of their deceit and hypocrisy.

Some explain it, that their crimes are so manifest that they cannot avoid seeing, as in a mirror, the baseness which they desire to conceal But the former meaning is confirmed by what immediately follows, that they declared their sin in the same manner as the inhabitants of Sodom. By these words he intimates that they devoted themselves to iniquity in such a manner, that they boasted of their transgressions without any shame; as if it had been honorable and praiseworthy in them to trample on every distinction between right and wrong, and not to indulge in every kind of wickedness. On this account he compares them to the inhabitants of Sodom, (Gen 18:20,) who were so much blinded by their lusts, that they rushed, with brutish stupidity, to everything base. So, then, this is the answer of the countenance, which he mentioned a little before, that they carry about with them plain tokens of impiety, which are abundantly sufficient to prove their guilt.

Woe unto their soul! Here he declares what was formerly mentioned, that the whole cause of their calamities is to be found in themselves; for by their sins and iniquities they provoked the Lord; and consequently that they have no means of evasion, that it is useless to contrive idle pretenses, because the evil itself dwells in their bones; as if he had said, “God cannot be accused, as if he punished you unjustly. Acknowledge that it has been done by yourselves; give glory to a righteous judge and lay the whole blame on yourselves.”

Calvin: Isa 3:10

10.Say, it shall be well with the righteous Before quoting the opinions of others, I shall point out the true meaning As punishments so severe commonly present to pious minds an exceedingly sharp temptation, and especially since hardly any public calamities occur which do not involve good men along with the bad; so the Prophet — at least, in my opinion — reminds them of the providence of God, which never confounds anything, but even, when there is apparent confusion, never ceases to distinguish between good and bad men.

But there are various ways in which this passage is explained; for some render it, “Say to the righteous man, because he is good, therefore he shall eat the fruit of his hands.” From that interpretation this meaning is obtained: “I wish and command the godly to be of good cheer; for with whatever severity I may punish the crimes of the nation, still it shall be well with the godly.” But a more suitable meaning is this: Say; that is, hold it to be a settled point; for in Scripture to say often means to think, and to be convinced; as David writes, I said, I will take heed to thy ways, (Psa 39:1,) and in a thousand instances of the same kind; so that he does not bid them tell the righteous man, but he bids every man be fully convinced, that happy will be the condition of the righteous man, though he may only appear to be unhappy.

Besides, I consider טוב , ( tob,) to mean a happy and prosperous condition; as in the former verse he employed the word רעה , ( ragnah) with which טוב is now contrasted; and thus I do not think that רעה , ( ragnah,) means wickedness, but a miserable condition. Now since it literally runs, Say to the righteous man, כי טוב : (ki tob,) that it shall be well either the particle כי , ( ki,) has an affirmative sense, as in many other passages, or it appears to be superfluous, though the probability is, that it is intended for confirmation. Surely it shall be well with the righteous man; that is, let every ground of doubt be removed, and let us be fully convinced, that the condition of the righteous man will be most excellent and prosperous. It is difficult to believe this, and therefore it is added, he shall eat the fruit of his doings; that is, he shall not be defrauded of the reward of his good conduct. Others consider to say as meaning to exhort, and render the two words, כי טוב ( ki tob,) that he will do well; but I reject it as a forced interpretation.

Calvin: Isa 3:11

11.Woe unto the wicked! It shall be ill with him. He brings forward this clause as a contrast to the former one; from which it may be easily inferred what was the design of the Prophet, namely, to comfort the godly, and to terrify the wicked by the judgment of God. For when an uncommonly severe calamity occurs, which attacks all without discrimination, we doubt whether it be by the providence of God, or, on the contrary, by blind chance, that the world is governed. On this account godly men fear and dread that the same destruction which overtakes the wicked will ruin them also. Others think that it is of no importance whether a man be good or bad, when they see both classes visited by pestilence, war, famine and other calamities. And hence arises the wicked thought, that there is no difference between the rewards of the good and of the bad; and in the midst of these gloomy thoughts carnal appetites lead many to despair.

Accordingly, the Prophet shows that the judgment of God is right, that men may continue to fear God, and may be aware that those who, in the expectation of escape of punishment, provoke God, will not pass unpunished. He likewise exhorts them to ascribe to God the praise of justice; as if he had said, “Think not that blind chance rules in the world, or that God punishes with blind violence, and without any regard to justice, but hold it as a principle fully settled in your minds, that it shall be well with the righteous man; for God will repay him what he hath promised, and will not disappoint him of his hope. On the other hand, believe that the condition of the wicked man will be most wretched, for he brings on himself the evil which must at length fall on his head.”

By these words the Prophet, at the same time, charges the people with stupidity in not perceiving the judgment of God; for they suffered the punishments of their crimes, and yet hardened themselves under them, as if they had been altogether devoid of feeling. Now there cannot befall us anything worse than that we should be hardened against chastisements, and not perceive that God chastiseth us. When we labor under such stupidity, our case is almost hopeless.

Calvin: Isa 3:12

12.The oppressors of any people are children ⁶⁰ Here also is reproved the madness and sottishness of the people, because they shut their eyes at noon-day. There is nothing which men are more reluctant to allow than to have a yoke laid on them; nor do they willingly submit to be governed by nobles. Feeble and cowardly, therefore, must be the minds of those who obey delicate and effeminate men, and permit themselves to be oppressed by them; nor can it be doubted that God has struck with a spirit of cowardice those who offer their shoulders, like asses, to bear burdens. The power of a tyrant must indeed be endured, even by men of courage; but the reproach which Isaiah brings against the Jews is, that while they obstinately shake off the yoke of God, they are ready to yield abject submission to men, and to perform any services, however shameful or degrading.

For the Jews could not complain that they were compelled by violence, when of their own accord they obeyed those whose authority they would gladly have declined. Hence it is evident that they were struck by the hand of God, and were shaken with terror, so that they had no strength either of body or of mind.

This is also the vengeance which God had formerly threatened by Moses; for the general doctrine of Moses, as we have already said, is continually alluded to by the prophets. ⁶¹ or how was it possible that men who had the power of resistance should of their own accord undergo a slavery from which they would willingly have escaped, had not God deprived them of understanding and forethought that he might in this manner take vengeance on their crimes? Whenever, therefore, anything of this kind shall befall us; let us not imagine that it came by chance. On the contrary, whenever it shall happen that we are governed by men who are of no estimation, and which are more insignificant than children, let us acknowledge the wrath of the Lord, if we do not choose that the Prophet shall charge us with the grossest stupidity.

They who govern thee ⁶² He continues to teach the same doctrine, that when God lets loose the reins against the wicked, so as to disturb everything, he shows that he is highly offended at the Jews; for if they had enjoyed his favor, there was reason to hope that his government would be most holy and blessed. At the same time it is probable that the common herd of men were so foolishly devoted to their rulers, that they revered as oracles both their injunctions and their conduct; and hence arose all the corruption that everywhere prevailed. Since, therefore, the contagion was spreading farther without being perceived by the people, Isaiah cries aloud that they ought to guard against the governors themselves, who corrupt and destroy the people.

Others explain it, they who bless thee; but as the participle which he employs may be taken from ישר , ( yashar,) which signifies to rule, I shall rather adopt that interpretation, for it is more agreeable to the context. ⁶³ I do acknowledge that the false prophets flattered the people, but I see no reason why their flatteries should be mentioned here. But it applies very well to the rulers and heads, that they were the cause of the destruction; for as princes are raised to their office for the sake of the public safety, so no plague is more destructive than when they are bad men, and rule according to their own caprice. He says, therefore, that they who rule are the causes of the evils, and that they corrupt everything, since it was their duty to correct other men, and to point out the way by their own example.

Calvin: Isa 3:13

13.Jehovah standeth up to plead So long as wickedness rages without control, and the Lord sends no relief from on high, we think that he is idle and has forgotten his duty. More especially, when the nobles themselves are spared, he appears to grant them liberty to commit sin, as if they were most sacred persons that must not be touched. Accordingly, after having complained of the princes, he adds that the Lord will do what his authority demands, and will not permit such flagrant crimes to pass unpunished. For there is hardly any conduct more offensive, or more fitted to disturb our minds, than when the worst examples of every sort are publicly exhibited by magistrates, while no man utters a syllable against them, but almost all give their approbation. We then ask, Where is God, whose glory, a great part of which, consisting in authority, is taken away, ought to have been illustriously displayed by men of that rank? Isaiah meets this difficulty by saying, “Though the nation is wicked, yet because the princes themselves are very greatly corrupted, and even pollute the whole nation by their vices, God sits as judge in heaven, and will at length call them to account, and assign to every one his reward.” Although he does not exempt the multitude from guilt, yet that the sources of the evils may be known, he particularly attacks the rulers, and threatens them with the punishment which they deserved.

Calvin: Isa 3:14

14.The Lord will enter into judgement with the ancients of his people Formerly he had erected for God a throne from which he might plead. Now he says that he will enter into judgment. How? with the ancients. There might have been a slight allusion to lawful assemblies, in which older men sit as God’s deputies; but I assent to the opinion more commonly entertained, that God contends against the ancients of his people. This passage, therefore, corresponds to the saying of David,

God will stand in the assembly of the gods (Psa 82:1; ⁶⁴)

that is, though it may now be thought that princes do everything with impunity, and though there be no one to restrain their caprice and their lawless passions, yet one day they will feel that God is above them, and will render an account to him of all their actions

These reproofs, undoubtedly, the judges of that time were very unwilling to hear. They have no wish, and do not think that it is right, that any one should treat them with such sharpness and severity; for they wish that everything should be at their disposal, that their will should be held as a law, and that they should be allowed to do whatever they choose; that all men ought to flatter and applaud them, and to approve of their very worst actions. They think that no man is a judge of their actions, and do not yield subjection to God himself. Since, therefore, they are so unbridled that they neither endure any advices nor any threatening the Prophet summons them to the judgment seat of God.

And with their princes They are honorably described, by way of acknowledgment, as the chosen princes of the people. This also deserves attention; for they thought that, on account of their rank, they enjoyed a kind of privilege which set them free from the restraints of law, and that though heathen kings and princes might give an account of their actions, they, on the contrary, were sacred persons. They thought, therefore, that they were beyond the reach of all reproof, and ought not to be addressed, like heathen men, by threats and terrors. On this account Isaiah expressly declares, that the Lord will not only call to account every kind of princes, but especially the proud hypocrites to whose care he had committed his people.

And you have destroyed the vineyard ⁶⁵ The metaphor of a vine is very common, where a nation, and especially the nation of Israel, is the subject. (Psa 80:8; Jer 2:21.) And by this word the Prophet now shows their crime to be double, because they paid no more regard to the people whom God had loved with extraordinary affection that if they had ruled over a heathen nation. The pronoun you is likewise emphatic; for he addresses the vine-dressers themselves, who, instead of devoting themselves, as they ought to have done, to the cultivation of the vine, devoured it like wild beasts. Accordingly, he represents this to be a great aggravation of their cruelty; for how treacherous was it to destroy what they ought to have preserved and protected? By this comparison the Lord shows how great care he takes of his own people, and how warmly he loves them; not only because the Church is called his vine and inheritance, but by declaring that he will not endure the treachery and wickedness of those who have ruled over it tyrannically.

The spoil of the poor is in your houses He adds one circumstance, by which the other parts of their life might be known, that they had in their houses the prey and spoil of the poor. Now the palace of princes ought to resemble a sanctuary: for they occupy the dwelling place of God, which ought to be sacred to all. It is, therefore, the grossest sacrilege to turn a sanctuary into a den of thieves. He represents still more strongly their criminality by adding of the poor; for it is the most wicked of all acts of cruelty to plunder a poor and needy man, who cannot defend himself, and who ought rather to have been protected.

Calvin: Isa 3:15

15.What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces? He mentions also other particulars, from which it is evident that they ruled in a haughty, cruel and oppressive manner. It was not necessary that the Prophet should describe minutely everything deserving reproof in the princes; for from these few circumstances it is evident with what injustice and cruelty and tyranny they ruled. But to whom shall the poor betake themselves but to the magistrate, who ought to be the father of his country and the protector of the wretched? On this account he employs a vehement interrogation, What? as if he had said, “What effrontery is this! What cruelty and barbarity, to abuse the mean condition of the poor, so as to have no compassion on them!” By two comparisons he describes their cruel oppression mingled with pride.

Saith the Lord Jehovah of hosts That the reproof may have all the weight that it ought to have, he brings forward God as speaking; for there is an implied contrast that these things should not be viewed as coming from the mouth of men, but that the accusation proceeds from God himself, and that he pursues those who are guilty of such injustice, and will at length take vengeance on them. Because those who have been exalted to any kind of honor conduct themselves so haughtily as to disdain every direction and advice, he therefore meets their pride by bringing forward the majesty of God, that they may not venture to despise his earnest and severe threatenings. Yet let us remember that this passage ought not to be understood as if the Prophet were speaking only about the mercy of God; for after having threatened vengeance indiscriminately on all, he particularly mentions those who are their heads, in order to show that no man can escape the arm of God: and here he employs what is called the argument from the greater to the less.” How would the Lord spare the lowest of the people, when he punishes even the princes themselves, because they have destroyed the vineyard?”

Calvin: Isa 3:16

16.Because the daughters of Zion are haughty Next follows another threatening against the ambition, luxury, and pride of women. On these points the Prophet has not followed an exact order, but reproves sometimes one vice and sometimes another, as the subject appears to require, and afterwards sums up what he has said in a few words, as he did in the seventh verse of the first chapter. He therefore pronounces censure on gorgeous robes and superfluous ornaments, which were undoubted proofs of vanity and ostentation. Wherever dress and splendor are carried to excess, there is evidence of ambition, and many vices are usually connected with it; for whence comes luxury in men and women but from pride?

And walk with stretched forth neck First, then, he justly declares pride to be the source of the evil, and points it out by the sign, that is, by their gait; that the women walk with stretched-forth neck For as it is a sign of modesty to have a down-cast look, (as even heathen writers have declared,) so to have excessively holy looks is a sign of insolence; and when a woman lifts up her head it can betoken nothing but pride. The Prophet certainly acts wisely in beginning at the very fountain; for if he had begun by mentioning signs, such as dress, gait, and matters of that sort, it might have been easy to reply that still the mind was pure and upright; and that if their dress was somewhat too elegant and splendid, that was not a sufficient reason for approaching them with such bitter language, and summoning them to the judgement seat of God. Accordingly, in order to meet their unfounded accusations, he lays open the inward disease, which is manifested in the whole of their outward dress.

And wandering eyes ⁶⁶ What he adds about wandering eyes denotes shameless lust, which for the most part is expressed by the eyes; for unchaste eyes are the heralds of an unchaste heart; but the eyes of chaste women are sedate, and not wandering or unsteady.

And make a tinkling with their feet This is a part of the indecent gesture by which wantonness is discovered. But it is not easy to say whether the women wore on their sandals some tinkling ornaments which made a noise as they walked, or whether they imitated the dancing women by a measured step; for the form of dresses since that time has been greatly changed. Yet I readily adopt the interpretation that they made a noise in walking, for this is very plainly expressed by the word employed.

Calvin: Isa 3:17

17.Therefore will the Lord make bald ⁶⁷ the crown of the head Here the particle ו , (vau,) which signifies and, is put for therefore; for he threatens that, since neither gentle advices nor any words can reform them, the Lord will deal with them in a very different manner, and will not only employ sharp and severe language, but will advance in dreadful array, with an armed band, to take vengeance. Accordingly, as they had manifested their obstinacy from head to foot, so he declares that the Lord will exhibit the marks of his vengeance in every part of their body. He therefore begins with the head, where ornament is chiefly bestowed, and afterwards takes notice of the other parts.

It is worthy of notice that the Prophet had good reason for reproving, with so great earnestness and vehemence, the luxury of women; for while they are chargeable with many vices, they are most of all inflamed with mad eagerness to have fine clothes. Covetous as they naturally are, still they spare no expense for dressing in a showy manner, and even use spare diet, and deprive themselves of what nature requires, that their clothes may be more costly and elegant. So grievously are they corrupted by this vice, that it goes beyond every other.

History tells us what vast crowds the women brought together on account of the Oppian Law ⁶⁸ which some wished to maintain, and others to repeal; and that transaction was not conducted with any gravity or moderation in consequence of the crowds of women. But we need not go far to find examples; for they are innumerable in almost every nation, and it is a vice which has been very common in every age. As we are dexterous and sharp-sighted in contriving apologies for defending our luxury and extravagance, the Prophet, on that account, has pointed his finger at the source of all the evils, namely, that mad ambition by which men are hurried along to obtain public notice, and to arrive at eminence above others; for, in order that they may be better known, they wish to outshine their neighbors by the elegance of their dress, that they may draw the eyes of others upon them.

Having pointed to the source of the evil, the Prophet descends to many particulars for the purpose of bringing to public view the fooleries of women, and enumerates a long catalogue of them, to show that, in gathering them together, nothing can exceed the curiosity which dwells in woman. Indeed there is no end to those contrivances; and it was not without reason that the ancients called the collection of a woman’s ornaments a world; ⁶⁹ for if they were collected into one heap, they would be almost as numerous as the parts of the world. On this account the Prophet appears to search the women’s chests, and to bring into public view the gaudy trifles which they have treasured up in them, that their extravagant delight and boasting of these things may render their idleness and folly more evident to all. There is no superfluity, therefore, in this enumeration, though spread out in many words, by which their lawless desires are proved to be insatiable.

As to the particulars, I shall not stay to explain them, especially as the best Hebrew scholars have doubts about some of them, and cannot distinguish with certainty the forms of those ornaments. It is enough if we understand the general import and design of the Prophet; namely, that he heaps up and enumerates these trifles in order that the prodigious variety of them may disclose their luxury and ambition, so as to leave them without any excuse. It would be the height of impudence to allege that the contrivances made by the childish vanity of women, beyond what nature requires, are necessary for protecting the body. How many things are here enumerated which are not demanded by nature or necessity or propriety! What is the use of chains, bracelets, earrings and other things of the same sort? Hence it is plain enough that a superfluous collection of such ornaments admits of no excuse; that it gives evidence of excessive luxury which ought to be suppressed or restrained; and that frequently they are unchaste contrivances for weakening the mind and exciting lust. We need not wonder, therefore, that the Prophet speaks so sharply, and threatens severe punishments, against this vice.

Calvin: Isa 3:24

24.Instead of a sweet smell there shall be stink It is evident that the country here described abounds in aromatic herbs; and there is no reason to doubt that in pleasant smells, as well as in other matters, they were luxurious. We see that those nations which are farthest removed from the east are not prevented either by distance or by expense from indulging in that kind of luxury. What may be expected to happen in those places where they are abundant? That they will excite lust and promote luxury is beyond all doubt He means, therefore, that ointments and sweet smells were abused by them in a variety of ways; for the sinful desires of men are ingenious in their contrivances, and can never be satisfied.

Instead of a girdle a rent Others have rendered it a falling off; because the Lord will ungird them. He intends to contrast things which are exceedingly opposite to each other; that as the women formerly were most carefully girt and adorned when they walked, they shall henceforth be torn and naked. He likewise contrasts baldness with curls; because they arranged their hair not in a modest but an extravagant fashion. Again, a belt is contrasted with sackcloth. Whether it was a belt, or some other kind of binding, it is certain that the Prophet meant a girdle, which was held in high estimation. Again, burning is contrasted with beauty; because fashionable ladies hardly venture to expose themselves to the sun’s rays, for fear of being sunburned; and he tells us that this will happen to them. In short, both men and women are instructed to make a sober use of the gifts of Goal, both in food and in clothing, and in the whole conduct of life. For the Lord cannot endure extravagance, and absolutely must inflict severe punishment on account of it; for it cannot be restrained by a lighter chastisement.

Calvin: Isa 3:25

25.Thy men shall fall by the sword He directs his discourse to Jerusalem and to the whole kingdom of Judah; for, after having demonstrated that the whole body is infected with a plague, and that no part of it is free from disease, and after leaving not even spared the women, he returns to the general doctrine. It would be improper that more than one husband should be assigned to one woman. Besides, what immediately follows applies exclusively to this nation. He particularly describes the punishment, that God will bring down by wars the whole strength of the people.

Calvin: Isa 3:26

26.Her gates shall mourn and lament Hence arises the mourning of the gates, which, he threatens, will take place when they have met with their calamities; for he means, that where there were great crowds and multitudes, nothing but a dismal solitude will be found. We know that at that time public meetings were held at the gates; and, therefore, as the gates sometimes rejoice at the multitude of citizens, so they are said to mourn on account of their frightful desolation. And yet I do not deny that he compares Jerusalem to a woman who is sad, and who bewails her widowhood; for it was customary with mourners to sit on the ground, as that nation was in the habit of using ceremonies and outward signs to a greater degree than would be consistent with our customs. But the sum of the matter is that the city will have lost her inhabitants.

Defender: Isa 3:17

Isa 3:16-24 is a devastating indictment of the wanton behavior of the Jewish women of that day. When the women of a nation become as selfish and immoral as the men, the nation's doom is near."

TSK: Isa 3:6

a man : Isa 4:1; Jdg 11:6-8; Joh 6:15

TSK: Isa 3:7

swear : Heb. lift up the hand, Gen 14:22; Deu 32:40; Rev 10:5, Rev 10:6

healer : Heb. binder up, Isa 58:12; Jer 14:19; Lam 2:13; Hos 5:13, Hos 6:1

neither bread : Princes and great men in the East, as Sir J. Chardin testifies, are obliged to have a great stock of clothes in readiness for presents on all occasions; and a great quantity of provisions for the table is equally necessary (see 1Ki 4:22, 1Ki 4:23. Neh 5:17, Neh 5:18). Hence the person desired to undertake the government, alleges as an excuse that he is not able to support the dignity of his station.

TSK: Isa 3:8

Jerusalem : 2Ch 28:5-7, 2Ch 28:18, 2Ch 33:11, 2Ch 36:17-19; Jer 26:6, Jer 26:18; Lam 5:16, Lam 5:17; Mic 3:12

because : Isa 5:18, Isa 5:19, Isa 57:4; Psa 73:8, Psa 73:9; Eze 8:12, Eze 9:9; Hos 7:16; Mal 3:13-15; Mat 12:36, Mat 12:37; Jud 1:15

to provoke : Isa 65:3-5; 2Ch 33:6, 2Ch 33:7; Eze 8:4-6, Eze 8:17, Eze 8:18; Hab 1:13; 1Co 10:22

TSK: Isa 3:9

The show : Isa 3:16; 1Sa 15:32; 2Ki 9:30; Psa 10:4, Psa 73:6, Psa 73:7; Pro 30:13; Jer 3:3, Jer 6:15; Dan 7:20

and they declare : Gen 13:13, Gen 18:20,Gen 18:21, Gen 19:5-9; Jer 44:16, Jer 44:17; Eze 23:16

Woe : Lam 5:16; Hos 13:9

TSK: Isa 3:10

Say ye : Isa 26:20,Isa 26:21; Ecc 8:12; Jer 15:11; Eze 9:4, Eze 18:9-19; Zep 2:3; Mal 3:18; Rom 2:5-11

they shall eat : Psa 18:23, Psa 18:24, Psa 128:1, Psa 128:2; Gal 6:7, Gal 6:8; Heb 6:10

TSK: Isa 3:11

Woe : Isa 48:22, Isa 57:20,Isa 57:21, Isa 65:13-15, Isa 65:20; Psa 1:3-5, Psa 11:5, Psa 11:6; Ecc 8:13

for the reward : Psa 28:4, Psa 62:12; Pro 1:31; 2Co 5:10; Jam 2:13

given him : Heb. done to him, Psa 120:3, Psa 120:4

TSK: Isa 3:12

children : Isa 3:4; 2Ki 11:1; Nah 3:13

lead thee : or, which call thee blessed, Isa 9:15; Num 6:23-27; Jer 5:31; Mat 15:14

destroy : Heb. swallow up, Mat 23:14

TSK: Isa 3:13

standeth up : Psa 12:5; Pro 22:22, Pro 22:23, Pro 23:10,Pro 23:11; Hos 4:1, Hos 4:2; Mic 6:2

TSK: Isa 3:14

enter : Job 22:4, Job 34:23; Psa 143:2

the ancients : Isa 3:2, Isa 3:3

ye have eaten : or, ye have burnt, Isa 5:7; Job 24:2-7; Jer 5:27; Amo 4:1; Mic 2:2, Mic 6:10; Mat 21:33

TSK: Isa 3:15

What mean : Eze 18:2; Jon 1:6

ye beat : Isa 58:4; Exo 5:14; Amo 2:6, Amo 2:7, Amo 8:4-6; Mic 3:2, Mic 3:3

TSK: Isa 3:16

the daughters : Isa 1:8, Isa 4:4; Mat 21:5; Luk 23:28

are haughty : Isa 24:4, Isa 32:9-11; Pro 16:18, Pro 30:13; Eze 16:49, Eze 16:50; Zep 3:11

wanton eyes : Heb. deceiving with their eyes, Or, as messakkaroth ainayim is rendered in the Targum, ""painting their eyes with stibium"": for sakar is probably the same as the Chaldee sekar or that import.

mincing : or, tripping nicely

and making : The Eastern ladies wear on their ankles large rings to which smaller ones are attached, which make a tinkling sound as they move nimbly.

TSK: Isa 3:17

smite : Lev 13:29, Lev 13:30,Lev 13:43, Lev 13:44; Deu 28:27; Rev 16:2

discover : Heb. made naked, Isa 20:4, Isa 47:2, Isa 47:3; Jer 13:22; Eze 16:36, Eze 16:37, Eze 23:25-29; Mic 1:11; Nah 3:5

TSK: Isa 3:18

tinkling ornaments : Isa 3:16

cauls : or, networks, Shevisim probably the rich embroidered kerchiefs used to bind on their caps on the head, described by Lady M. W. Montague, Let. 32.

round tires : Jdg 8:21 *marg.

TSK: Isa 3:19

chains : or, sweet-balls, Neteephoth earrings or drops; in Arabic, netafaṫ

the bracelets : Gen 24:22, Gen 24:30,Gen 24:53, Gen 38:18, Gen 38:25; Exo 35:22; Num 31:50; Eze 16:11

mufflers : or, spangled ornaments

TSK: Isa 3:20

tablets : Heb. houses of the soul, Probably perfume boxes, as rendered by Bp. Lowth.

the earrings : Lechashim probably amulets. Gen 35:4; Exo 32:2; Eze 16:12; Hos 2:13

TSK: Isa 3:21

rings : Gen 41:42; Est 8:12; Son 5:14; Luk 15:22; Jam 2:2

nose jewels : Gen 24:47; 1Ti 2:9, 1Ti 2:10; 1Pe 3:3, 1Pe 3:4

TSK: Isa 3:22

The changeable suits : Machalatzoth probably loose robes, used according to the weather.

TSK: Isa 3:23

glasses : Exo 38:8

fine linen : Gen 41:42; 1Ch 15:27; Eze 16:10; Luk 16:19; Rev 19:8, Rev 19:14

veils : Gen 24:65; Rth 3:15; Son 5:7

TSK: Isa 3:24

instead : Isa 57:9; Pro 7:17

baldness : Isa 22:12; Eze 7:18; Mic 1:16

a girding : Isa 15:3, Isa 32:9-11; Job 16:15; Jer 4:8, Jer 6:26, Jer 48:37, Jer 49:3; Lam 2:10; Eze 27:31; Joe 1:8; Amo 8:10; Rev 11:3

burning : Isa 4:4; Lev 26:16; Deu 28:22, Deu 32:24; Rev 16:9, Rev 18:9

TSK: Isa 3:25

Thy men : 2Ch 29:9; Jer 11:22, Jer 14:18, Jer 18:21, Jer 19:7, Jer 21:9; Lam 2:21; Amo 9:10

mighty : Heb. might

TSK: Isa 3:26

her gates : Jer 14:2; Lam 1:4

desolate : or, emptied, Heb. cleansed

shall sit : Isa 47:1; Job 2:8, Job 2:13; Lam 2:10; Eze 26:16; Luk 19:44

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Isa 3:6

When a man shall take hold ... - In this verse, and the following verses, the prophet continues to describe the calamitous and ruined state that would come upon the Jews; when there would be such a want of wealth and people, that they would seize upon anyone that they thought able to defend them. The act of "taking hold"here denotes "supplication"and "entreaty,"as when one in danger or distress clings to that which is near, or which may be likely to aid him; compare Isa 4:1; 1Sa 15:27,

His brother - His kinsman, or one of the same tribe and family - claiming protection because they belonged to the same family.

Of the house of his father - Descended from the same paternal ancestors as himself. Probably this refers to one of an ancient and opulent family - a man who had kept himself from the civil broils and tumults of the nation, and who had retained his property safe in the midst of the surrounding desolation. In the previous verse, the prophet had said that one characteristic of the times would be a want of respect for "the aged"and "the honorable."He here says that such would be the distress, that a man would be "compelled"to show respect to rank; he would look to the ancient and wealthy families for protection.

Thou hast clothing - In ancient times wealth consisted very much in changes of garments; and the expression, ‘ thou hast clothing,’ is the same as ‘ you are rich, you are able to assist us;’ see Exo 12:34; Exo 20:26; Gen 45:22; 2Ki 5:5.

And let this ruin ... - This is an expression of entreaty. ‘ Give us assistance, or defense. We commit our ruined and dilapidated affairs to thee, and implore thy help.’ The Septuagint reads this, ‘ and let my food,’ that is, my support, ‘ be under thee’ - do thou furnish me food. There are some other unimportant variations in the ancient versions, but the sense is substantially given in our translation. It is expressive of great distress and anarchy - when there would be no ruler, and every man would seek one for himself. The whole deportment evinced here by the suppliant is one of submission, distress, and humility.

Barnes: Isa 3:7

In that day shall he swear - Hebrew, ישׁא yı̂shā' ‘ Shall he lift up’ - that is, the voice, or the hand. To lift up the hand was one of the modes of taking an oath. Perhaps it means only that he should lift up "the voice"- that is, "should answer;"compare Num 14:1. The Vulgate, the Septuagint, and the Chaldee, read it simply ‘ he shall answer.’

I will not be an healer - Hebrew, ‘ a binder up,’ Isa 1:6. The Vulgate renders it, ‘ I am not a physician.’ The Septuagint and the Chaldee, ‘ I am not sufficient to be a leader.’ The meaning is, that the state of affairs was so ruinous and calamitous that he would not attempt to restore them; as if, in the body, disease should have so far progressed that he would not undertake to restore the person, and have him "die"under his hands, so as to expose himself to the reproach of being an unsuccessfill and unskillful physician.

Is neither bread nor clothing - I am not rich. I have not the means of providing for the needs of the people, or to maintain the rank of a ruler. ‘ It is customary,’ says Sir John Chardin, ‘ to gather together an immense quantity of clothes, for their fashions never alter.’ ‘ The kings of Persia have great wardrobes, where they have always many hundreds of habits ready, designed for presents, and sorted.’ - "Lowth."The description here is one of very great calamity and anarchy. So great would be the ruin and danger, that men would be unwilling to be chosen to the office of princes and rulers, and none could be found who would desire to possess the highest honors of the nation. Generally men "aspire"to office; here they were unwilling, on account of the disordered and ruined state of affairs, even to accept of it.

Barnes: Isa 3:8

For Jerusalem ... - The prophet proceeds to show the cause of this state of things. ‘ These are the words of the prophet, and not of him who was chosen leader.’ - "Jerome."

Is ruined - It would be so ruined, and the prospect of preserving it would be so completely taken away, that no one could be induced to undertake to defend and protect it.

Judah - The kingdom of Judah, of which Jerusalem was the capital; Note Isa 1:1.

Is fallen - Hebrew, "falls;"that is, is about to fall - as a tower or a tree falls to ruin. If the "capital"fell and was ruined, the kingdom would also fall as a matter of course.

Because their tongue ... - This is the "reason"why Judah was ruined. By word and deed - that is, in every way they opposed God. The "tongue"here represents their "language,"their manner of speaking. It was proud, haughty, rebellious, perhaps blasphemous.

To provoke - To irritate; to offend.

The eyes of his glory - This is a Hebrew expression to denote "his glorious eyes."The eye quickly expresses anger or indignation. We perceive these passions in the flashing of the eye sooner than in any other part of the countenance. Hence, to "provoke the eyes,"is an expression signifying simply to excite to anger, or to excite him to punish them. Lowth proposes to render this ‘ to provoke the cloud of his glory’ - referring to the Shekinah or cloud that rested over the ark in the temple. By a slight variation of the Hebrew text, reading ענן ‛ânân instead of עני ‛ēnēy , it may be so read, and the Syriac so translates it: but the change in the Hebrew text does not seem to be authorized.

Barnes: Isa 3:9

The show of their countenance - The word rendered "the show"is probably derived from a word signifying "to know,"or "to recognize,"and here denotes "impudence"or "pride."Septuagint, ‘ The shame of their face.’

Doth witness against them - " Answers"to them; or "responds"to them ( ענתה ‛ân^e tâh ). There is a correspondence between the feeling of the heart and the looks, an "answering"of the countenance to the purposes of the soul that shows their true character, and betrays their plans. The prophet refers here to the great law in physiology that the emotions of the heart will be usually "expressed"in the countenance; and that by the marks of pride, vanity, and malice there depicted, we may judge of the heart; or as it is expressed in our translation, that the expression of the face will "witness"against a wicked man.

They declare ... - By their deeds. Their crimes are open and bold. There is no attempt at concealment.

As Sodom - see Gen 19:5; compare the note at Isa 1:10.

Wo unto their soul - They shall bring woe upon themselves; they deserve punishment. This is an expression denoting the highest abhorrence of their crimes.

They have rewarded evil ... - They have brought the punishment upon themselves by their own sins.

Barnes: Isa 3:10

Say ye to the righteous - The meaning of this verse and the following is sufficiently plain, though expositors have given some variety of interpretation. They declare a great principle of the divine administration similar to what is stated in Isa 1:19-20. Lowth reads it, ‘ Pronounce ye a blessing on the just; verily good (shall be to him).’

That it shall be well ... - The word rendered ‘ well,’ means ‘ good.’ The sense evidently is, that in the divine administration it shall be well to be righteous. The Septuagint has rendered this in a remarkable manner, connecting it with the previous verse: ‘ Wo unto their soul, for they take evil counsel among themselves, saying, ‘ Let us bind the righteous, for he is troublesome unto us:’ therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their doings.’

They shall eat ... - That is, they shall receive the appropriate "reward"of their works, and that reward shall be happiness. As a farmer who sows his field and cultivates his farm, eats the fruit of his labor, so shall it be with the righteous. A similar expression is found in Pro 1:31 :

Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way,

And be filled with their own devices.

Also Jer 6:19 : ‘ I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thought;’ compare Gal 6:8.

Barnes: Isa 3:11

Wo unto the wicked - To all the wicked - but here having particular reference to the Jews whom Isaiah was addressing.

It shall be ill with him - The word "ill"is the only word here in the original. It is an emphatic mode of speaking - expressing deep abhorrence and suddenness of denunciation. ‘ Woe to the impious! Ill!’

For the reward of his hands - Of his conduct. The hands are the instruments by which we accomplish anything, and hence, they are put for the whole man.

Shall be given him - That is, shall be repaid to him; or he shall be justly recompensed for his crimes. This is the principle on which God rules the world. It shall be well here and hereafter, with those who obey God; it shall be ill here and forever, with those who disobey him.

Barnes: Isa 3:12

As for my people, children are their oppressors - This refers, doubtless, to their civil rulers. They who "ought"to have been their "protectors,"oppressed them by grievous taxes and burdens. But whether this means that the rulers of the people were "literally"minors, or that they were so in "disposition and character,"has been a question. The original word is in the singular number ( מעולל m^e ‛ôlēl ), and means a "child,"or an infant. It may, however, be taken collectively as a noun of multitude, or as denoting more than one. To whom reference is made here cannot easily be determined, but possibly to "Ahaz,"who began to reign when he was twenty years old; 2Ki 16:2. Or it may mean that the "character"of the princes and rulers was that of inexperienced children, unqualified for government.

Are their oppressors - literally, ‘ are their exactors,’ or their "taxers"- the collectors of the revenue.

And women rule over them - This is not to be taken literally, but it means either that the rulers were under the influence of the "harem,"or the females of the court; or that they were effeminate and destitute of vigor and manliness in counsel. The Septuagint and the Chaldee render this verse substantially alike: ‘ Thy exactors strip my people as they who gather the grapes strip the vineyard.’

They which lead thee - Hebrew "They who bless thee, or call thee blessed."(See the margin.) This refers, doubtless, to the public teachers, and the false prophets, who "blessed"or flattered the people, and who promised them safety in their sins.

Cause thee to err - Lead you astray; or lead you into sin and danger.

And destroy - Hebrew "Swallow up."

Barnes: Isa 3:13

The Lord standeth up - To "stand up"may mean the same as to "arise."God would not sit in silence and see their wicked conduct; but he would come forth to inflict on them exemplary and deserved chastisement.

To plead - To "litigate,"to contend with, that is, to condemn, to inflict punishment.

Barnes: Isa 3:14

With the ancients ... - With the old men, the counselors.

Ye have eaten up the vineyard - Hebrew ‘ Ye have burnt up’ - that is, you have oonsumed or destroyed it. By the vineyard is represented the Jewish republic or people; Psa 80:9-13; compare the notes at Isa 5:1-7. The princes and rulers had, by their exactions and oppressions, ruined the people, and destroyed the country.

The spoil of the poor - The "plunder"of the poor; or that which you have taken from the poor by exactions and oppressions. The word "spoil"commonly means the plunder or booty which is obtained in war.

Barnes: Isa 3:15

What mean ye - What is your object? Or, What advantage is it to you? Or, By what right or pretence do you do this?

Beat my people to pieces - That is, that you trample on them; or cruelly oppress them; Psa 94:5.

And grind the faces of the poor - This is an expression also denoting great oppression. It is taken from the act of grinding a substance on a stone until it is worn away and nothing is left. So, by their cruel exactions, by their injustice to the poor, they exhausted their little property until nothing was left. The word "faces"here is synonymous with "persons"- or with the poor themselves. The word "face"is often used in the sense of "person;"Exo 33:14; 2Sa 18:11. A similar description, though in still stronger language, is found in Mic 3:2-3 :

Who pluck off their skin from off them,

And their flesh from off their bones;

Who also eat the flesh of my people,

And flay their skin from off them;

And they break their bones, and chop them in pieces,

As for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

Barnes: Isa 3:16

Moreover, the Lord saith - In the previous parts of this prophecy, the prophet had rebuked the princes, magistrates, and the people generally. In the remainder of this chapter, he reproves with great severity the pride, luxury, and effeminacy of the female part of the Jewish community. Some interpreters have understood this as designed to reprove the pride and luxury of the "cities"and "towns"of Judah, regarded as "daughters of Zion;"see the note at Isa 1:8. But this interpretation is far-fetched and absurd. On this principle everything in the Bible might be turned into allegory.

The daughters of Zion - Jewish females; they who dwelt in "Zion."Perhaps he means particularly those who dwelt in Zion, the capital - or the females connected with the court. It is probable that the prophet here refers to the prosperous reign of Uzziah (2Ch 26:5, ...), when by successful commerce luxury would naturally abound.

Are haughty - Are proud.

And walk with stretched-forth necks - Displaying the neck ostentatiously; elevating or extending it as far as possible. Septuagint, ὑψηλῷ τραχήλῳ hupsēlō trachēlō , with elevated or exalted neck; that is, with that indication of pride and haughtiness which is evinced by a lofty demeanour. ‘ When the females dance (in India), they stretch forth their necks, and hold them away, as if their heads were about to fall from their shoulders.’ - "Roberts."

And wanton eyes - עינים וּמשׁקרות ûm^e shaqerôth ‛ēynāyı̂m . The word שׁקר shâqar usually means "to lie, to deceive,"and may here refer to the art of alluring by a wanton or fascinating glance of the eye. There has been great diversity of opinion about the meaning of this expression. Lowth proposes to read it, ‘ and falsely setting off their eyes with paint,’ in allusion to a custom known to prevail in the East, of coloring the eye-lids with stibium, or the powder of lead ore. This was done the better to exhibit the white of the eye, and was supposed by many to contribute to the healthful action of the eye itself. This practice is known to prevail extensively now; but it is not clear that the prophet here has reference to it. The expression is usually interpreted to mean ‘ deceiving with the eyes,’ that is, "alluring"or "enticing"by the motion of the eyes. The "motion"of the eyes is mentioned Pro 6:13-14 as one mode of "deceiving"a person:

He winketh with his eyes,

He speaketh with his feet,

He teacheth with his fingers;

Frowardness is in his heart,

He deviseth mischief continually.

Compare the notes at Job 42:14. The meaning here, doubtless, is, that they attempted to entice by the "motion"or "glance"of the eye. The Chaldee seems to have understood this of staining the eyes with stibium.

Mincing as they go - Margin, ‘ Tripping nicely;’ that is, walking with an affected gait - a mode which, unhappily, is too well known in all ages to need a more particular description. Roberts, speaking of the dance in India, says, ‘ Some parts of the dance consist of a tripping or mincing step, which they call tatte-tatee. The left foot is put first, and the inside of the right keeps following the heel of the former.’

And making a tinkling with their feet - That is, they adorn themselves with "ankle rings,"and make a tinkling or noise with them to attract attention. The custom of wearing rings on the fingers and wrists has been common every where. In addition to this, Oriental females often wore them on the "ankles"- a custom in itself not more unreasonable or absurd. The custom is mentioned by travelers in Eastern countries in more modern times. Thus, Michaelis says, ‘ In Syria and the neighboring provinces, the more opulent females bind ligaments around their feet, like chains, or bracelets, united by small chains of silver and gold, and exhibit them by their sound as they walk.’ And Pliny ("Nat. Hist.,"lib. xxiii., ch. 12) says, ‘ Silver has succeeded to gold in the luxury of the females who form bracelets for their feet of that, since an ancient custom forbids them to wear gold.’ Frequent mention is made of these ornaments, says Rosenmuller, in the Arabic and Persian poems. Roberts, speaking of the ornaments on the feet of females in India, says, ‘ The first is a large silver curb like that which is attached to a bridle; the second is of the same kind, but surrounded by a great number of small bells; the third resembles a bracelet; and the fourth is a convex hoop, about two inches deep.’

Barnes: Isa 3:17

Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab - There is some diversity of rendering to this expression. The Septuagint reads it: ‘ The Lord will humble the principal daughters of Zion’ - those who belong to the court, or to the families of the princes. The Chaldee, ‘ The Lord will prostrate the glory of the daughters of Zion.’ The Syriac is the same. The Hebrew word שׂפח s'ı̂phach , translated ‘ will smite with a scab,’ means to "make bald,"particularly to make the hair fall off by sickness. Our translation conveys the idea essentially, that is, that God would visit them with disease that would remove the hair which they regarded as so great an ornament, and on which they so much prided themselves. Few things would be so degrading and humiliating as being thus made bald. The description in this verse means, that God would humble and punish them; that they who so adorned themselves, and who were so proud of their ornaments, would be divested of their joyful attire, and be borne naked into captivity in a foreign land.

Barnes: Isa 3:18

In that day - That is, in the time when he would inflict this exemplary punishment on them - probably the calamitous times of the Babylonian captivity.

The Lord will take away - By the agents that he shall choose to employ in this work. - The prophet proceeds to specify the various ornaments that composed the female apparel in his time. It is not easy to describe them particularly, nor is it necessary. The "general"meaning of the passage is plain: and it is clear from this, that they greatly abounded in ornaments.

The bravery - This word "we"apply to valor or courage. The word here used, however, meaus "ornament, adorning,"or "glory."

Of their tinkling ornaments - This is the same word which is used in Isa 3:16, and refers to the chains or clasps with which they ornamented their feet and ankles, and which made a tinkling noise as they walked.

And their cauls - Margin, ‘ net-works.’ The Septuagint is the same. It is commonly supposed to mean "caps of net-work"worn on the head. According to others, the word refers to small "suns"or "spangles"worn on the hair, answering to the following word "moons."‘ The caul is a strap, or girdle, about four inches long, which is placed on the top of the head, and which extends to the brow, in a line with the nose. The one I have examined is made of gold, and has many joints; it contains forty-five rubies, and nine pearls, which give it a net-work appearance.’ - "Roberts."

Their round tires like the moon - Hebrew "moons."This refers to small ornaments in the shape of crescents, or half-moons, commonly worn on the neck. They were also sometimes worn by men, and even by camels; Jdg 8:21 (margin), Jdg 8:26. It is probable that these ornaments might originally have had some reference to the moon as an object of worship, but it does not appear that they were so worn by the females of Judea - They are still worn by the females of Arabia. - "Rosenmuller."Roberts says of such ornaments in India, ‘ The crescent is worn by Parvati and Siva, from whom proceed the lingam, and the principal impurities of the system. No dancing girl is in full dress without her round tires like the moon.’ This ornament is still found under the name of "chumarah."‘ The chumarah, which signifies moon, is a splendid ornament worn by the women of western Asia in front of their head-dresses. It is usually made of gold, set with precious stones and pearls. They are sometimes made of the crescent form, but the most common are such as the engraving represents. They often have Arabic characters inscribed upon them, and sometimes a sentence from the Koran is used by the Mahometan women of Arabia Felix.’

Barnes: Isa 3:19

The chains - Margin, "sweet balls."The word used here is derived from the verb נטף nâṭaph , to drop, to fall in drops, or to distil,"as juice from a plant. Hence, it means that which "resembles drops"- as pearls, or precious stones, used as ornaments for the neck or ears. We retain a similar word as applicable to the ornaments of the ears, by calling them "drops."The Chaldee renders this "chains,"and so also the Vulgate. The Septuagint understands it of a "hanging"or "pendant"ornament - and this is its undoubted meaning - an ornament pendant like gum distilling from a plant. ‘ These consist, first, of one most beautifully worked, with a pendant ornament for the neck; there is also a profusion of others which go round the same part, and rest on the bosom. In making curious chains, the goldsmiths of England do not surpass those of the East.’ - "Roberts."

\tx4410 And the bracelets - For the wrists. The Chaldee translates it, ‘ bracelets for the hands.’ These ornaments were very ancient; see Gen 24:22; Num 31:50. - Mahomet promises to those who shall follow him, gold and silver bracelets. ‘ The bracelets are large ornaments for the wrists, in which are sometimes enclosed small bells.’ - "Roberts."

Mufflers - Margin, "spangled ornaments."The word used here is derived from a verb, "to tremble, to shake"- רעל râ‛al - and the name is given to the ornament, whatever it was, probably from its "tremulous"motion. Perhaps it means a "light, thin veil;"or possibly, as in the margin, spangled ornaments, producing a tremulous, changing aspect. In Zec 7:2, the word is used to denote ‘ trembling’ - giddiness, or intoxication. It was early customary, and is still common in Oriental countries, for the females to wear veils. No female ventures abroad without her veil. That which is supposed to be intended here, is described by the Arabian scholiast Safieri, quoted by Gesenius. It is drawn tight over the upper part of the head, but the part around the eyes is open, and a space left to see through, and the lower part is left loose and flowing, and thus produces the "tremulous"appearance indicated in this place; see the notes and illustrations at Isa 3:24.

Barnes: Isa 3:20

The bonnets - The "tiara, head-dress, or turban."The word comes from the verb "to adorn."The "turban"is almost universally worn in the East. It was worn by the priests, Exo 39:28; by the bridegroom, Isa 61:10; Eze 24:17; and by women. Its form is well known.

And the ornaments for the legs - The word used here is derived from a verb signifying "to walk, to go,"particularly to walk in a stately and formal manner - with a measured step, הצעדות hats^e ‛ādôth , from צעד tsâ‛ad ; and thus refers to a proud and lofty gait. The "ornament"which is here referred to is supposed to have been a short chain extending from one foot to the other, worn by the Eastern women to give them a measured and stately gait. - "Gesenius."This "chain"is supposed to have been attached by hooks or clasps to the ‘ tinkling ornaments’ mentioned in Isa 3:16. Safieri mentions these ornaments, and thus describes them: ‘ The word denotes a small chain, with which females, when they walk, connect their feet, in order to make their steps equal.’ Happily these ornaments are unknown in modern times, at least in Western countries. They are still retained in the East.

And the head-bands - This word means "girdles"of any kind, still commonly worn on the head. A picture in the book illustrates one of the usual forms of the head-band.

And the tablets - The Hebrew is, as in the margin, ‘ the houses of the soul.’ The word translated "soul"means also the "breath;"and hence, as one of its meanings, that which is "breathed,""or which is smelled; "scent; fragrancy, odor."The word "houses"here may denote also "boxes"- as boxes of perfumes. The phrase here means, undoubtedly, "smelling boxes"or "bottles,"containing perfumes or fragrant odors. The word "tablets"has no meaning here.

And the ear-rings - It is by no means certain that the original means ear-rings. The word לחשׁים l^e chāshı̂ym is derived from the verb לחשׁ lâchash signifying "to whisper,"and then "to conjure, to charm"(see the note at Isa 3:3); and here probably denotes precious stones worn by the females as "amulets"or "charms."The word is often used to denote charming "serpents"- from their "hissing"and it has been supposed probable that these amulets were small images of serpents. There is no doubt that such ornaments were worn by Oriental females. ‘ These ornaments seem to have been amulets, often gems and precious stones, or plates of gold and silver, on which certain magic formulas were inscribed, which were worn suspended from the neck or ears by Oriental females.’ - "Gesenius."The following extract will furnish an explanation of these ornaments: ‘ Besides ornamental rings in the nose and the ears, they (Oriental females) wore others round the legs, which made a tinkling as they went.

This custom has also descended to the present times, for Rauwolf met with a number of Arabian women on the Euphrates, whose ankles and wrists were adorned with rings, sometimes a good many together, which, moving up and down as they walked, made a great noise. Chardin attests the existence of the same custom in Persia, in Arabia, and in very hot countries, where they commonly go without stockings, but ascribes the tinkling sound to little bells fastened to those rings. In the East Indies, golden bells adorned the feet and ankles of the ladies from the earliest times; they placed them in the flowing tresses of their hair; they suspended them round their necks, and to the golden rings which they wore on their fingers, to announce their superior rank, and extort the homage which they had a right to expect from the lower orders; and from the banks of the Indus, it is probable the custom was introduced into the other countries of Asia. The Arabian females in Palestine and Syria delight in the same ornaments, and, according to the statements of Dr. Clarke, seem to claim the honor of leading the fashion.’ - ‘ Their bodies are covered with a long blue tunic; upon their heads they wear two handkerchiefs, one as a hood, and the other bound over it, as a fillet across the temples.

Just above the right nostril, they place a small button, sometimes studded with pearl, a piece of glass, or any other glittering substance; this is fastened by a plug, thrust through the cartilage of the nose. Sometimes they have the cartilaginous separation between the nostrils bored for a ring, as large as those ordinarily used in Europe for hanging curtains; and this pendant in the upperlip covers the mouth; so that, in order to eat, it is necessary to raise it. Their faces, hands, and arms are tatooed, and covered with hideous scars; their eyelashes and eyes being always painted, or rather dirtied, with some dingy black or blue powder. Their lips are dyed of a deep and dusky blue, as if they had been eating blackberries. Their teeth are jet black; their nails and fingers brick red; their wrists, as well as their ankles, are laden with large metal cinctures, studded with sharp pyramidical knobs and bits of glass. Very ponderous rings are also placed in their ears.’ - "Paxton."

Barnes: Isa 3:21

The rings - Usually worn on the fingers.

And nose-jewels - The custom of wearing jewels in the "nose"has generally prevailed in savage tribes, and was common, and is still, in Eastern nations - among the Arabians, Persians, etc. Sir John Chardin says, ‘ It is the custom in almost all the East for the women to wear rings in their noses, in the left nostril, which is bored low down in the middle. These rings are of gold, and have commonly two pearls and one ruby between, placed in the ring. I never saw a girl or young woman in Arabia, or in all Persia, who did not wear a ring in this manner in her nostrils.’ - Harmer’ s "Obs.,"iv., p. 318. The picture in the book illustrates the usual form of this ornament in the East.

Barnes: Isa 3:22

The articles which are mentioned in the remaining part of this description, are entire articles of apparel; those which had preceded were chiefly single ornaments.

The changeable suits of apparel - The word which is used here in the original comes from a verb signifying "to pull of"as a shoe; to unclothe one’ s-self; and it here denotes the more "costly"or "valuable"garments, which are not worn on common occasions, and which are "laid aside"in ordinary employments. This does not refer to any "particular"article of dress, but to splendid and costly articles in general. ‘ The Eastern ladies take great pride in having many changes of apparel, because their fashions never alter. Thus the net brocades worn by their grandmothers are equally fashionable for themselves.’ - "Roberts."

And the mantles - From the verb "to cover,"or "to clothe."The word "mantle"does not quite express the force of the original. It means the fuller "tunic"which was worn over the common one, with sleeves, and which reached down to the feet. ‘ A loose robe,’ says Roberts, ‘ which is gracefully crossed on the bosom.’

And the wimples - Our word "wimple"means a "hood,"or "veil,"but this is not the meaning of the Hebrew word in this place. It means a wide, broad garment, which could be thrown over the whole, and in which the individual usually slept. ‘ Probably the fine muslin which is sometimes thrown over the head and body.’ - "Roberts."

And the crisping-pins - This phrase with us would denote "curling-irons."But the Hebrew here denotes a very different article. It means "money-bags,"or "purses."These were often made very large, and were highly ornamented; compare 2Ki 5:23. Frequently they were attached to the girdle.

Barnes: Isa 3:23

The glasses - There is a great variety of opinion about the expression used here. That ancient Jews had "looking-glasses,"or mirrors, is manifest from the account in Exo 38:8. These "mirrors"were made of polished plates of brass. The Vulgate and Chaldee understand this of "mirrors."The Septuagint understands by it a "thin, transparent covering like gauze,"perhaps like silk. The word is derived from the verb "to reveal, to make apparent,"etc., and applies either to mirrors or to a splendid shining garment. It is probable that their excessive vanity was evinced by carrying small mirrors in their hands - that they might examine and adjust their dress as might be necessary. This is now done by females of Eastern nations. Shaw informs us that, ‘ In the Levant, looking-glasses are a part of female dress. The Moorish women in Barabary are so fond of their ornaments, and particularly of their looking-glasses, which they hang upon their breasts, that they will not lay them aside, even when, after the drudgery of the day, they are obliged to go two or three miles with a pitcher or a goat-skin to fetch water.’ - "Burder."In Egypt, the mirror was made of mixed metal, chiefly of copper, and this metal was so highly polished, that in some of the mirrors discovered at Thebes, the luster has been partially restored, though they have been buried in the earth for many centuries. The mirror was nearly round, inserted in a handle of wood, stone, or metal, whose form varied according to the taste of the owner. The picture in the book will give you an idea of the ancient form of the mirror, and will show that they might be easily carried abroad as an ornament in public; compare Wilkinson’ s "Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians,"vol. iii., pp. 384-386.

And the fine linen - Anciently, the most delicate and fine garments were made from linen which was obtained chiefly from Egypt; see the note at Luk 16:19.

And the hoods - Or, "turbans."

And the veils - This does not differ probably from the veils worn now, except that those worn by Eastern females are "large,"and made so as to cover the head and the shoulders, so that they may be drawn closely round the body, and effectually conceal the person; compare Gen 24:65.

Barnes: Isa 3:24

And it shall come to pass - The prophet proceeds to denounce the "judgment"or "punishment"that would come upon them for their pride and vanity. In the calamities that would befall the nation, all their ornaments of pride and vainglory would be stripped off; and instead of them, they would exhibit the marks, and wear the badges of calamity and grief.

Instead of sweet smell - Hebrew בשׂם bôs'em , aromatics, perfumes, spicy fragrance; such as they used on their garments and persons. ‘ No one ever enters a company without being well perfumed; and in addition to various scents and oils, they are adorned with numerous garlands, made of the most odoriferous flowers.’ - "Roberts."‘ The persons of the Assyrian ladies are elegantly clothed and scented with the richest oils and perfumes. When a queen was to be chosen to the king of Persia, instead of Vashti, the virgins collected at Susana, the capital, underwent a purification of twelve months’ duration, to wit: "six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odors."The general use of such precious oil and fragrant perfumes among the ancient Roamns, particularly among the ladies of rank and fashion, may be inferred from these words of Virgil:

Arabrosiaeque comae divinum vertice odorem Spiravere :

AEn . i. 403.

"From her head the ambrosial locks breathed divine fragrance."

Paxton.

A stink - This word properly means the fetor or offensive smell which attends the decomposition of a deceased body. It means that the bodies which they so carefully adorned, and which they so assiduously endeavored to preserve in beauty by unguents and perfumes, would die and turn to corruption.

And instead of a girdle - Girdles were an indispensable part of an Oriental dress. Their garments were loose and flowing, and it became necessary to gird them up when they ran, or danced, or labored.

A rent - There has been a great variety of opinion about the meaning of this word. The most probable signification is that which is derived from a verb meaning "to go around, encompass;"and hence, that it denotes "a cord."Instead of the beautiful girdle with which they girded themselves, there shall be "a cord"- an emblem of poverty, as the poor had nothing else with which to gird up their clothes; a humiliating description of the calamities which were to come upon proud and vain females of the court.

And instead of well-set hair - Hair that was curiously braided and adorned. ‘ No ladies pay more attention to the dressing of the hair than these (the dancing girls of India), for as they never wear caps, they take great delight in this their natural ornament.’ - "Roberts."Miss Pardoe, in ‘ The City of the Sultan,’ says, that after taking a bath, the slaves who attended her spent an hour and a half in dressing and adorning her hair; compare 1Pe 3:3.

Instead of a stomacher - It is not certainly known what is meant by this, but it probably means some sort of "girdle,"or a platted or stiffened ornament worn on the breast. ‘ I once saw a dress beautifully plaited and stiffened for the front, but I do not think it common.’ - "Roberts."

A girding of sackcloth - This is a coarse cloth that was commonly worn in times of affliction, as emblematic of grief; 2Sa 3:31; 1Ki 20:31; 1Ki 21:27; Job 16:15; Isa 32:11.

And burning - The word used here does not occur elsewhere. It seems to denote "a brand, a mark burnt in, a stigma;"perhaps a sun-burned countenance, indicating exposure in the long and wearisome journey of a captivity over burning sands and beneath a scorching sun.

Instead of beauty - Instead of a fair and delicate complexion, cherished and nourished with care. Some of the articles of dress shown in the book exhibit several varieties of the costume of an Oriental female. To what "particular"time the prophet refers in this chapter is not known, perhaps, however, to the captivity at Babylon. To whatever he refers, it is one of the most striking reproofs of vanity and pride, especially the pride of female ornament, any where to be found. And although he had "particular"reference to the Jewish females, yet there is no impropriety in regarding it as applicable to all such ornaments wherever they may be found. They indicate the same state of the heart, and they must meet substantially the same rebuke from God. The body, however delicately pampered and adorned, must become the prey of corruption. ‘ The worm shall feed sweetly on it, and the earth-worm shall be its covering;’ compare Isa 14:2; Job 24:20. The single thought that the body must die - that it must lie and moulder in the grave - should check the love of frivolous adorning, and turn the mind to a far more important matter - the salvation of the soul, which cannot die; to ‘ the ornament of a weak and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price;’ 1Pe 3:4.

Barnes: Isa 3:25

Thy men - This is an address to Jerusalem itself, by a change not uncommon in the writings of Isaiah. In the calamities coming on them, their strong men should be overcome, and fall in battle.

Barnes: Isa 3:26

And her gates - Cities were surrounded with walls, and were entered through gates opening into the principal streets. Those gates became, of course, the places of chief confluence and of business; and the expression here means, that in all the places of confluence, or amidst the assembled people, there should be lamentation on account of the slain in battle, and the loss of their mighty men in war.

And she - Jerusalem is often represented as a female distinguished for beauty. It is here represented as a female sitting in a posture of grief.

Being desolate, shall sit upon the ground - To sit on the ground, or in the dust, was the usual posture of grief and mourning, denoting great depression and humiliation; Lam 2:10; Lam 3:28; Jer 15:17; Job 3:13; Ezr 9:3-5. It is a remarkable coincidence, that in the medals which were made by the Romans to commemorate the captivity of Judea and Jerusalem, Judea is represented under the figure of a female sitting in a posture of grief, under a palm tree, with this inscription - judea capta. The passage here, however, refers not to the captivity by the Romans, but to the first destruction by Nebuchadnezzar. It is a tender and most affecting image of desolation. During the captivity at Babylon, it was completely fulfilled; and for ages since, Judea might be appropriately represented by a captive female sitting pensively on the ground.

Poole: Isa 3:6

A man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father whereas envy ordinarily reigns in near relations, when one brother is advanced far above all the rest.

Thou hast clothing: we are utterly undone, and have neither food nor raiment; but thou hast something yet left to support the dignity which we offer to thee, and to enable thee to execute thine office.

Be thou our ruler: he showeth that misgovernment should cause the dissolution of the government, and that the former governors should be removed either by foreign force, or by domestic insurrection.

Let this ruin be under thine hand to wit, to heal it, as it is explained in the next verse. Undertake the charge of this tottering state.

Poole: Isa 3:7

He shall swear Heb. he shall lift up ; understand either,

1. His voice; he shall cry aloud, to show his earnestness in refusing the offer; or,

2. His hand, which was the usual gesture in swearing, Gen 14:22 Deu 32:40 , &c., to show his resolvedness.

An healer a repairer of the ruins of the state.

In my house is neither bread nor clothing I have not sufficient provisions, either of food or raiment, for my own family; much less, as you falsely suppose, for the discharge of so high a trust.

Poole: Isa 3:8

Of his glorious majesty, whom they ought to reverence and adore.

Poole: Isa 3:9

The show of their countenance doth witness against them their pride, and wantonness, and impiety manifestly shows itself in their very looks and carriages, and will be swift witness against them both before God and men.

They declare their sin they act it publicly, casting off all fear of God, and reverence to men, and they glory in it.

They hide it not as men do who have any remainders of modesty or ingenuity.

They have rewarded i.e. procured a fit recompence for their wickedness, even utter ruin. Or, they have done ; for this word is oft so used, without any signification of a recompence, as Psa 7:4 . They cannot blame me, but themselves; their destruction is wholly from themselves. Compare Hos 13:9 .

Poole: Isa 3:10

Say ye: God hath said it, and doth now by me say it; and you, O ye priests and Levites, say it in your sermons to the people.

They shall eat the fruit of their doings let not them fear, for God will be their safeguard and portion in the common calamity.

Poole: Isa 3:11

Woe unto the wicked! these heavy judgments are designed against them, and shall certainly find them out, though here they be mixed with the righteous.

Poole: Isa 3:12

Women either,

1. Properly so called, by their favour and power with the rulers; or,

2. Weak and effeminate rulers, such being called women both in sacred and profane writings.

They which lead thee thy rulers, civil and ecclesiastical, whose duty it is to show thee the right way. Or, as others, they that bless thee , i.e. thy false prophets, which flatter thee, and speak peace to thee.

Destroy the way of thy paths keep thee from the knowledge or practice of that way which leads to thy salvation, and mislead thee into evil courses, by their wicked counsels or examples.

Poole: Isa 3:13

The Lord standeth up he will shortly and certainly stand up as a judge, to inquire into the cause, and to give sentence.

To judge the people i.e. to defend and deliver them, or to judge for them, as this phrase is oft used.

Poole: Isa 3:14

The ancients the princes or rulers, as it is explained in the next clause, who are oft called elders, because such were commonly and fitly chosen out of those who were ripe in years.

Eaten up destroyed instead of preserving and dressing it, as you should have done.

The vineyard the church and commonwealth of Israel, which is oft called God’ s vineyard, as Psa 80:8,14,15 Isa 5:1 Jer 2:21 , &c., and here the vineyard , by way of eminency; or, the vineyard which was committed to your care to keep.

The spoil of the poor the goods which you have violently taken away from the poor.

Poole: Isa 3:15

What mean ye? what warrant have ye for it? how durst you presume to do it?

Grind or batter , as the word is used, Exo 32:20 ; smite them cruelly: see Isa 58:4 .

Poole: Isa 3:16

The daughters of Zion the women; as hitherto he reproved the men.

Walk with stretched forth necks affecting stateliness, Psa 75:5 , and to seem tall.

Wanton eyes or, as others, twinkling with their eyes in a lascivious manner.

Walking and mincing as they go after the manner of loose and wanton persons. Making a tinkling with their feet, by some ornaments which they wore upon their shoes.

Poole: Isa 3:17

Will smite with a scab the crown of the head will by sending scabs, or by other ways, take off the hair of their head, which is a woman’ s glory, 1Co 11:15 , and which doubtless ministered to their pride and wantonness. Others render it, he will make bald , &c. Discover their secret parts, by giving her into the power of those enemies that shall either strip her of all her raiments, not leaving her sufficient to cover her nakedness; or otherwise abuse her by such immodest and contemptuous actions. Compare Isa 47:3 Eze 16:37 23:10,26 .

Poole: Isa 3:18

Cauls: as for this and the other Hebrew words here following, I judge it unnecessary and improper to trouble the English reader with the differing interpretations given of them by learned men, which the curious may find in my Latin Synopsis. It is agreed by all that they were ornaments used by that people in those times, and made fuel to their lusts. And it is of no concernment to the direction, either of our faith or manners, exactly to understand the nature and differences of them. And therefore I shall take them as they are in our translation.

Round tires like the moon there were in ancient time, and at this day there are, some jewels or other ornaments worn which carry a manifest resemblance to the moon or half moon. Compare Jud 8:21,26 .

Poole: Isa 3:20

The bonnets: these were ornaments to cover the head, common both to men, as Exo 39:28 , and to women, as here.

The tablets Heb. the houses of the soul, or of life, or of breath ; whereby he seems to mean boxes of excellent perfumes, which are of great efficacy to revive our drooping spirits, and to that end are oft applied to such as are ready to faint away.

Poole: Isa 3:21

Which were fastened to the head, and hung down upon the forehead to the beginning of the nose; of which see Gen 24:22,47 Jud 8:24 , &c.

Poole: Isa 3:22

Of silver or gold, either used to curl the hair, or rather fastened and worn in the hair; which custom is not altogether disused at this day.

Poole: Isa 3:23

The glasses the looking-glasses, as we call them, though in truth they were not made of glass, but of bright and burnished brass.

Poole: Isa 3:24

Instead of sweet smell those perfumes mentioned Isa 3:20 ,

there shall be stink from their scabs, mentioned Isa 3:17 , or from other ill usages of their enemies.

Instead of a girdle which were fine and costly, and useful to gird their garments about them,

a rent either the rending of their garments for grief; or torn and tattered garments, not sufficient to cover their bodies.

Burning by the heat of the sun, to which they are now commonly exposed, from which they used formerly to guard themselves with great care.

Poole: Isa 3:26

Her gates the gates of Zion or Jerusalem, which, by a figure very usual in sacred Scripture and all authors, are said to lament, to imply the great desolation of the place, that there should be no people to go out and come in by the gates, or to meet together in the gates, as they used to do. Shall sit upon the ground, like a mournful woman bewailing the loss of her husband and children.

Haydock: Isa 3:6

Garment. They were ready to follow any, who was not quite destitute, like themselves, Jeremias xxxix. 10. ---

Ruin. Fallen people.

Haydock: Isa 3:7

Clothing. The indigent were excluded from dignities, for fear lest they should seek to enrich themselves by unjustifiable means, Exodus xviii. 22. (Plut.[Plutarch?] in Sol.) (Pliny, [Natural History?] xvi. 19.) (Calmet)

Haydock: Isa 3:8

For. The prophet tells what will happen. (Menochius) ---

And their. Septuagint, "are sinful, disbelieving what regards the Lord. Wherefore now their glory is brought low." (Haydock) ---

They must have followed a very different Hebrew copy from ours. (Calmet)

Haydock: Isa 3:9

Shew, ( agnitio. ) "Knowledge." (Worthington) ---

Impudence, &c. (Calmet) ---

Hacurath (Haydock) occurs no where else. (Calmet) ---

From their countenance we may judge that they are proud, &c. (Menochius)

Haydock: Isa 3:10

Well. Jeremias (xxxix. 11.) was treated by the enemy with great respect. Septuagint, "having said, let us bind the just man, for he is troublesome, (Haydock) or displeasing (Calmet) to us. Hence they," &c. (Haydock) (Wisdom ii. 12.) Many of the Fathers quote it thus. But our version agrees well with the original, as Isaias joins consoling predictions with those which are of a distressing nature. (Calmet) ---

Yet the Septuagint seem to have thrown light on the Hebrew by supplying an omission from the book of Wisdom. (Houbigant) ---

Thus all must be explained of the wicked, whose malice shall be punished. ---

He shall. St. Jerome and all versions read, "they shall eat the fruit of their doings, or devices." Fructum adinventionum suarum comedent. (Haydock) ---

All who hear of this must applaud the just God for acting well in their punishment. According to the Septuagint, Christ and his adversaries are clearly pointed out. (Calmet)

Haydock: Isa 3:12

Women. "Let no women be our senate, as the impious Porphyrius objects." The scribes and Pharisees sought for lucre and pleasure. The teacher approved by the Church must excite tears and not laughter; he must correct sinners, and pronounce no one blessed. (St. Jerome) (Haydock) ---

The last kings of Juda were real tyrants, and weak as women. (Calmet) ---

Blessed. Protestants' marginal note, and the text has, "lead thee."

Haydock: Isa 3:16

Pace. Protestants, "and making a tinkling with their feet," (Haydock) by means of little rings round their legs. (Calmet) Stridore ad se juvenes vocat. (St. Jerome, ep. xlvii.) ---

The daughters of Sion, denote all the cities and villages which were defaced by the Chaldeans, and still more by the Romans, forty years after Christ. (St. Jerome) (Worthington)

Haydock: Isa 3:17

Bald. Like slaves, Deuteronomy xxi. 12. ---

Hair. Hebrew and Septuagint, "shame."

Haydock: Isa 3:18

Of shoes. Hebrew, "gold tissue," Psalm xliv. 14. This term occurs no where else, and many of these superfluous ornaments are not well known. But we may conclude that they are pernicious to a state, and hateful to God. (Calmet) ---

Decorem....invitatorem libidinis scimus. (Tertullian, cult.)

Haydock: Isa 3:24

Stench. The Jews are noted on this account, as if in consequence of this curse, or of their being confined to prisons, &c. Fœtentium Judזorum et tumultuantium sזpe tזdio percitus. ---

M. Aurelius "was often weary of the stinking and seditious Jews." (Marcellin ii.)

Haydock: Isa 3:25

Fairest. They shall not be spared. (Calmet) ---

"As they have perished by their beauty, their fairest," &c. (Chaldean)

Haydock: Isa 3:26

Ground. The posture of captives, Lamentations i. 1.

Gill: Isa 3:6

When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father,.... One of the same country, kindred, and family; for only one of their brethren, and not a stranger, might rule over them, Deu 17:15 this taking hold of him may design not so much a literal taking hold of his person, his hand or garment, much less using any forcible measures with him; though indeed the Jews would have took Christ by force, who was one of their brethren, and would have made him a temporal king, which he refused, as this man did here spoken of, Joh 6:15 but rather an importunate desire and entreaty, urging him, as follows,

saying, thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler; that is, he had good and rich clothing, fit for a ruler or civil magistrate to appear in, which everyone had not, and some scarce any in those troublesome times:

and let this ruin be under thy hand; that is, let thy care, concern, and business, be to raise up the almost ruined state of the city and nation; and let thy hand be under it, to support and maintain it. The Targum is,

"and this power shall be under thy hand;''

thou shalt have power and government over the nation, and the honour and greatness which belong unto it, and all shall be subject unto thee. The Septuagint renders it, "let my meat be under thee", or "from thee", as the Arabic version.

Gill: Isa 3:7

In that day shall he swear,.... Or "lift up", that is, his hand ^e, which was a gesture used in swearing, and therefore is so rendered; the meaning is, that he shall at once immediately give an answer, and for the solemn confirmation of it shall say an oath with it, saying,

I will not be a healer, or "a binder"; that is, of wounds, of political wounds, made in the nation, and which were incurable. See Isa 1:6 for the meaning is, that he neither was fit to be, nor could he be, a healer of the distempered state of the nation, it was so desperately bad. The Targum is,

"I am not fit to be a head or governor;''

and so Kimchi explains it of a governor, who, he says, is so called, because he binds and imprisons those that transgress his commands; and to this sense Jarchi and Abarbinel:

for in my house is neither bread nor clothing; not a sufficiency of either to support such grandeur and dignity; not enough to keep a proper table, and a suitable equipage:

make me not a ruler of the people; this shows that the state of the nation must be very bad indeed, that men, who are naturally ambitious of power and honour, should refuse government when offered to them.

Gill: Isa 3:8

For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen, This is a reason given why the government of them is refused; they were fallen into such a ruinous condition, that there was no probability of recovering them. And the reason of this their fall and ruin is,

because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord; against the Lord Jesus Christ, whom they reproached and vilified as an impostor, a blasphemer, and a seditious person; and whom they spit upon, buffeted, scourged, and crucified:

to provoke the eyes of his glory; whose glory, as seen by some in the days of his humiliation, was as the glory of the only begotten of the Father; and, upon his ascension, he was crowned with glory and honour: and as his eyes saw, as well as his ears heard, all their blasphemy and wickedness; so they refusing to have him to reign over them, he was provoked to come in his kingdom with power, and cause his wrath to fall upon them to the uttermost, in the destruction of their country, city, and temple.

Gill: Isa 3:9

The shew of their countenance doth witness against them,.... The word translated "shew" is only used in this place. Some derive it from נכר, "to know", in the conjugations Piel and Hiphil; and render it, "the knowledge of their countenance" ^f; that is, that which may be known by their countenances; the countenance oftentimes shows what is in the heart, the cruel disposition of the mind, the pride and vanity of it, the uncleanness and lasciviousness that is in it; to this our version agrees, and which is confirmed by the Chaldee paraphrase,

"the knowledge of their countenance in judgment doth testify against them;''

as they appear there, so it may be judged of them; their guilt flies in their face, and fills them with shame and confusion; and so the Septuagint and Arabic versions render it, "the shame of their face"; but others derive it from הכר, which has the signification of hardness in the Arabic language, and as it is thought by some to have in Job 19:3 and render it, "the hardness of their countenance"; so R. Joseph Kimchi, and others ^g, meaning their impudence ^h; not only their words and actions, but their impudent looks, show what they are; which agrees with what follows:

and they declare their sin as Sodom, and

hide it not; commit it openly, without fear or shame; glory in it, and boast of it, as the Jews did in their crucifixion of Christ, and their evil treatment of him:

woe to their soul, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves; they have brought upon themselves, soul and body, the just recompence of reward; they have been the cause of their own ruin, and have wronged their own souls.

Gill: Isa 3:10

Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him,.... The Lord always has some righteous ones, in the worst of times, whom he can and does distinguish, single out, and take care of; and it is his will that they should be comforted by his prophets and ministers, who seem to be the persons to whom these words are directed, lest they should be distressed with what is said unto, and what they see is coming upon, the world, or upon a nation in general: and it will be, and is well with such, when calamities are on a nation, in a time of famine, war, or pestilence, under any affliction whatever at death, and at judgment, and to all eternity; the Lord has the highest regard for them; Christ's righteousness, by which they are denominated righteous, secures them from wrath, and entitles them to glory; they are blessed now, and will be happy hereafter. So the Targum,

"say ye to the righteous, ye are blessed,''

pronounce them such as they are: some render it, "say to the righteous, that he do good" ⁱ; exhort him, excite and encourage him, to it; such who have believed in Christ for righteousness ought to be careful to maintain good works: others, "say to the righteous", own him, speak well of him, "for it is good"; or say to him, "that he is good" ^k, a happy man. The Septuagint and Arabic versions, very foreign from the text, and sense of it, render the words, "saying, let us bind the just man, for he is unprofitable to us"; as if they were the words of the wicked Jews, respecting Christ, the just One, so called sarcastically by them: and the reason of the righteous man's happiness follows:

for they shall eat the fruit of their doings: both of what Christ has done for them, as their Head and representative, by whose righteousness they are justified; and of what they have done themselves, under the influence of his Spirit and grace; which being done from a principle of grace, are rewarded with a reward of grace, and not of debt; such enjoy a peace of conscience now, which is the work and effect of righteousness, and shall receive the reward of the inheritance, which is not of the law, but by promise, and of faith, and so by grace.

Gill: Isa 3:11

Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him,.... In time, and to eternity, in times of public calamity, and under all afflictions, and adverse dispensations of Providence; he has no God to go to; all that befalls him is in wrath; at death he is driven away in his wickedness; at judgment he will be bid to depart as cursed, and his portion will be in the lake of fire, with devils and damned spirits for ever. Some ^l render it, "woe to the wicked, evil"; or who is evil, who is exceedingly bad, a very great sinner, the chief of sinners, such as the Sodomites were, sinners before the Lord exceedingly, Gen 13:13 to whom these men are compared, Isa 3:9. So the Targum,

"woe to the ungodly, whose works are evil:''

the Jews, as they distinguish between a good man and a righteous man, so between a wicked man and an evil man; there are, say they ^m, a righteous good man, and a righteous man that is not good; but he that is good to God, and good to men, he is a righteous good man; he that is good to God, and not good to men, he is a righteous man, that is not good; and there are a wicked evil man, and a wicked man that is not evil; he that is evil to God, and evil to men, he is a wicked evil man; he that is evil to God, and not evil to men, he is a wicked man that is not evil. See Rom 5:7.

for the reward of his hands shall be given him; in righteous judgment, in strict justice, as a just recompense of reward; nor shall he have reason to complain of unrighteousness in God.

Gill: Isa 3:12

As for my people, children are their oppressors,.... Or rulers; for נוגש, in the Ethiopic language, signifies a king: or "exactors", as in Isa 60:17 princes are so called, because they exact tribute of their subjects, and sometimes in a tyrannical and oppressive manner, and so get the name of oppressors. The sense is the same with Isa 3:4. The words may be rendered, "as for my people, everyone of their governors, is a child" ⁿ; not in age, but in understanding:

and women rule over them, or "over him" ^o; either over the people of Israel, as Alexandra before Hyrcanus, and Helena queen of the Adiabenes; or over the child their governor, as women had great influence over their husbands, the governors of Judea, in those times, as Herodias, Bernice, and Drusilla; or it may be understood of men, weak, effeminate, and given to pleasure:

O my people, they which lead thee: as the former may design their political governors, this their ecclesiastic rulers, who were to direct and lead them in the paths of religion and truth. Some render the words, "who praise thee", as the Targum; "or bless you", or "call you blessed", as the Septuagint and Arabic versions, though guilty of the most flagitious crimes:

cause thee to err, or wander from the way of God's commandments,

and destroy the way of the paths, by turning them out of the right way; by enjoining them the traditions of the elders; by taking away the key of knowledge from them, and not suffering them to go into the kingdom of heaven, or attend the ministry of the Gospel and ordinances; as did the Scribes and Pharisees, who were blind leaders of the blind.

Gill: Isa 3:13

The Lord standeth up to plead,.... His own cause, or the cause of his son against the Jews that rejected him, and the Scribes and Pharisees that led them to an ill opinion of him:

and standeth to judge the people. Both expressions show indignation and resentment; he rises up out of his place, and stands up in defence of his cause, and avenges himself on a wicked and ungrateful people: it seems to have reference to the judgments of God on the people of the Jews, the tribes of Israel.

Gill: Isa 3:14

The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof,.... Both civil and ecclesiastical; the princes, chief priests, and elders of the people, who set themselves and took counsel together against the Lord and his Christ; would not suffer the people to be gathered to him; sought his life, and at last took it away.

For ye have eaten up the vineyard, or burnt it ^p; the house of Israel, and of Judah compared to a vineyard, in a following chapter; and so the Targum,

"ye have oppressed my people;''

these are the husbandmen our Lord speaks of, that beat the servants that were sent for the fruits of the vineyard, and at last killed the heir, Mat 21:34.

The spoil of the poor is in your houses; the Pharisees devoured widows' houses, and filled their own, with the spoil of them, Mat 23:14.

Gill: Isa 3:15

What mean ye, that ye beat my people to pieces,.... Reduce them to the utmost poverty; so the Targum,

"wherefore do ye impoverish my people?''

as they did by exacting tithes of all that they possessed; by requiring large sums for their long prayers; and by various traditions they enjoined them to observe:

and grind the faces of the poor? either by smiting them on the cheek, as Christ, who became poor for our sakes, was smitten by them; or by bringing them into such low circumstances, by their exorbitant demands, that they had not sufficiency of food to eat; by which means their faces became pale, thin, and meagre:

saith the Lord God of Hosts: who saw all their actions, and was able to plead his people's cause, and take vengeance on their oppressors.

Gill: Isa 3:16

Moreover the Lord saith, because the daughters of Zion are haughty,.... The wives or daughters of the rulers, princes, or elders; these were "high", affected to look high and tall, and therefore stretched out their necks, and walked on tiptoes; or "were lifted up" with pride, which is the root and source of all the vanity expressed in their gesture and ornaments.

And walk with stretched forth necks or "throats"; looking high, and above others, and upon them with contempt and disdain; this is a sign of pride; see Psa 75:5,

and wanton eyes; either winking with their eyes to others to follow them to their houses, as Kimchi interprets it; so Jarchi thinks it is expressive of their looks, as we, of wanton looks; and the Septuagint render it, "with winking of eyes"; so the Syriac and Arabic versions, or painting their eyes; so the Targum,

"they walk with their eyes painted,''

as Jezebel painted her face, 2Ki 9:30 סיקרא, in the Talmudic language, is used ^q for vermilion, or red lead, with which they painted their eyes, as they did also with צדידא, ^r black lead.

Walking and mincing as they go: jumping and dancing as children in the streets; or using the like gesture as those who beat upon a drum; or walking in even paces, in a soft and delicate manner; all which senses Kimchi ^s observes in the word. The whole is rendered by the Septuagint, "and in the walk of their feet", or as they walk "together, drawing their coats" upon the ground after them, which makes a noise. The Targum is, "with hair rolled up", bound up and plaited.

And making a tinkling with their feet; having a sort of bells hanging on them, as Kimchi thinks, which made a noise as they went. Of the word here used, and the sense of it; see Gill on Isa 3:18. The Targum renders it, "provoking with their feet"; either the lust of men; or the anger of the Lord, as the Syriac version; the Septuagint and Arabic versions, "playing with the feet".

Gill: Isa 3:17

Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion,.... This is opposed to the lifting up of their heads in that haughty manner they did, and to the binding, and plaiting, and curling of their hair, which now will fall off, through the scab or leprosy upon them, or must be obliged to be shaven off.

And the Lord will discover their secret parts; the Vulgate Latin renders it, "their hair", which is their glory, 1Co 11:6. The Targum is, "and the Lord shall take away their glory". The Syriac and Arabic versions render it "their sex", that which distinguishes their sex; of which Aben Ezra and Kimchi interpret it; than which nothing could be more distressing and intolerable, being worse than baldness of the head, and yet common with captives; and the Septuagint render it "their habit": the meaning is, they shall be stripped of their fine apparel, and be clothed in rags, so that their nakedness shall be seen. An enumeration of the several particulars follows.

Gill: Isa 3:18

In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet,.... With which they made a tinkling as they went, Isa 3:16 it being about the shoe, and made a noise; or seeing the word used signifies "stocks", and is so rendered Pro 7:22, it may design some sort of attire about the feet, as golden chains, as the Talmudists say ^t, which being fastened to both, directed their motion in walking, and prevented them taking too large steps: or rather these may intend some ornaments of the feet, used by the eastern nations; which, according to Golius, as related by De Dieu on the place, were plates of gold, one or two fingers broad, and sometimes four, which were put about the ankles of infants of rich families; not to make a tinkling, nor to direct their walk, but for ornament, and to distinguish them from the meaner sort. The Targum renders it, "the ornament of the shoes"; these were put about the place where the shoes were tied; and in the Talmud ^u the word is explained by קורדיקייה, "shoes"; which the gloss interprets of wooden shoes: the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, are, "the ornament of their clothing"; as if this was the general name for the particulars that follow:

and their cauls: the attire of the head, of network: the word is used in the Misnah ^v for the ornament of cauls; which was, as one of their commentators ^w says, a picture made upon the caul for ornament; it was placed upon the forehead, and reached from ear to ear; and it was made by itself, so that it might be removed, and put upon another caul. Under these cauls they plaited their hair; hence the Septuagint render the word "the plaiting and the curls"; and to the same purpose the Syriac and Arabic versions.

And their round tires like the moon; these were not tires for the head, as our version suggests; much less were they clasps, buckles, or strings for the shoes, in the form of a half moon; such as were the "lunuloe" which the Roman senators had on their feet, to distinguish them from the common people; and were used by Evander and the Arcadians, to show that they sprung from the moon; which custom the noblemen of Rome followed; and some say ^x they put them under their feet, see Rev 12:1 but these were ornaments wore about the necks, such as those which were found upon the necks of the kings of Midian, and even upon the necks of their camels, Jdg 8:21 where the same word is used as here; they were no other than bracelets, necklaces, or golden chains, in the form of the moon; and the word is in the Talmud ^y rendered עונקייה, "chains". See also footnote ^z.

Gill: Isa 3:19

The chains,.... According to Kimchi and R. Levi ben Gersom on Jdg 8:26 these were drop bottles, or vessels of gold, in which were put stacte or balsam; and the former says here, they were such in which balsam was put, and women hung about their necks; though, he observes, some interpret them of chains, which were made of small stones of bdellium; hence pure bdellium is called in the Arabic tongue אלנטף; and so Jarchi renders the word "chains"; and they are called by this name, because they hang about the neck, and drop upon the breast, and are in the form of precious stones, bored and strung:

and the bracelets; hand bracelets, according to the Targum; such as Abraham's servant gave to Rebekah, Gen 24:22,

and the mufflers; these were veils which covered the whole face, excepting the eyes, the same that we call masks: it is said ^a of the Arabian women, that they went out רעולות; that is, as Bartenora explains it, they were veiled about the head, so that the whole face was covered, excepting their eyes; though Maimonides interprets them of little bells, which the Arabian women went out with; the Targum here explains the word by "women's veils"; though some think only the "spangles" which were on them are meant, so called from their trembling and shaking motion.

Gill: Isa 3:20

The bonnets,.... This word is used sometimes for the tire of the heads of men, Eze 24:17 and even for the bonnets of the priests, Exo 39:28. The Targum renders the word "crowns"; the Jewish women wore golden crowns on their heads, in the form of the city of Jerusalem, with which they might not go out on a sabbath day ^b:

and the ornaments of the legs; and so the Targum,

"the chains or bracelets of the feet;''

with which Jarchi and Kimchi agree; but the word is used for a bracelet on the arm in 2Sa 1:10 and Aben Ezra so interprets it here:

and the headbands: the, word is rendered "attire" in Jer 2:32 according to Jarchi, they were short binders with which the hair was bound up, and some of them were wrought with gold; but with Aben Ezra they were binders about the neck or throat:

and the tablets; in the Hebrew text, "the houses of the soul" ^c; and were, as Aben Ezra, Jarchi, and Kimchi think, ornaments which women hung between their breasts on the heart, or over against it; they seem rather to be smelling bottles, as the Vulgate Latin version renders the words, which they carried in their bosoms to refresh the spirits, and fetch back the soul or breath when fainting and almost gone; the Targum renders it "earrings", by which we render the following:

and the earrings; so Jarchi and Kimchi, who suggest they are so called because the ear is the place where whispering and muttering is used, which this word has the signification of; but, according to Aben Ezra, they were writings written in gold, and silver, by way of enchantment or charm; and the Arabic version renders the word, "boxes of amulets" or "charms"; the word signifies enchantments, see Psa 58:5.

Gill: Isa 3:21

The rings,.... On their finger, as Aben Ezra observes:

and nose jewels; the same with the jewels on the forehead or nose, Eze 16:12 not that they hung upon the nose, but were fastened upon the forehead, and hung down to the nose, see Gen 24:22; an allusion to this is in Pro 11:22 though Austin says it was a custom of the women of Mauritania to put jewels in their nose; and which is still kept in Persia, Arabia, and other countries, as travellers affirm.

Gill: Isa 3:22

The changeable suits of apparel,.... To put on and off upon occasion; Kimchi says they were beautiful garments, and so they stand opposed to filthy ones, Zec 3:3.

and the mantles: or "cloaks", as the Targum; Jarchi translates the word by "bedclothes", or coverings for the bed, such as tapestry, rugs, quilts, &c. which were worked with purple; hence the Septuagint makes use of words to express it by of such a signification:

and the wimples; according to Jarchi, these were "towels" or linen cloths, with which they wiped their hands; but, according to Kimchi, they were "veils" with which women covered themselves; and so the word is rendered in Rth 3:15 and elsewhere ^d he observes, that some interpret it of "gloves"; some think "aprons" are meant: our English word "wimples" comes from the Dutch word "wimpel", a muffler, or plaited linen cloth, which nuns wear to cover their necks and breasts; the word is also used for a streamer or flag:

and the crisping pins: with which they used to part their hair, and curl their locks, and keep them so: according to Kimchi, they were "purses"; and such made of silk, and wrought with gold and silver, may very well be reckoned among the ornaments of women; and the word is rendered "bags" in 2Ki 5:23 some think needle cases are meant; the word by which the Targum explains it seems to design "hooks" or "clasps", with which women clasped their garments, that they might be kept close about them.

Gill: Isa 3:23

The glasses,.... Looking glasses, by which they dressed themselves, see Exo 38:8 and so Kimchi explains the word; but elsewhere ^e he says it signifies thin garments, so called because the flesh is seen through them, being so exceeding thin; which sense is favoured by the Septuagint version, which renders it by τα διαφανη λακωνικα, garments which the Lacedemonians wore, which were so thin and transparent, that the naked body might be seen through them:

and the fine linen; of which several of their garments and ornaments were made, and particularly their veils, with which they veiled themselves, as Jarchi observes:

and the hoods; the word is used for a diadem and mitre, Isa 62:3 the Targum renders it "crowns"; and such the Jewish women wore; see Gill on Isa 3:20 and particularly newly married women ^f:

and the veils; so the word is rendered in Son 5:7 with which women covered their heads, either through modesty, or as a token of subjection to their husbands, see Gen 24:65 but, according to the Targum and Kimchi, these were thin garments which women wore in summertime; Jarchi says they are the same which the French call "fermelan", and are of gold, which they put about the cloak the woman is covered with; perhaps they were a sort of umbrellas, to keep off the heat of the sun.

Gill: Isa 3:24

And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be a stink,.... Instead of "spice", or in the place where they put spices, carried musk, or had their smelling bottles, of precious and aromatic ointment, balsam, and myrrh, and such like things ^g, namely, in their bosoms, there should be a "stink" or putrefaction, arising from ulcers and diseases of the body, Zec 14:12 the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, render it "dust"; or this may refer to the anointing of their hair with ointment of myrrh and other things, which gave an agreeable scent; but instead of this there would be a scab, giving an ill scent, Isa 3:17.

and instead of a girdle a rent; such as is made in times of mourning and distress, or by the enemy. The Septuagint and Arabic versions render it, a "rope"; instead of fine curious girdles, wrought with gold and silver, they should have nothing but a rope about their loins. The Targum is,

"in the place where they bind the girdles, shall be marks of smiting;''

stripes, cuts, see Isa 10:34 as either by blows from the enemy, by whom they should be taken, or by the hand of God, being smitten with sores and ulcers, so that they should not be able to bear girdles upon them; or "holes", in their clothes or skin:

and instead of well set hair baldness; instead of plaited hair, and curled locks, kept in order, there would be scabs, ulcers, leprosy, or such diseases as would cause the hair to fall off, and leave a baldness. The Septuagint and Arabic versions render it, "instead of the golden ornament of the head, thou shall have baldness for thy works"; and the Syriac version, "instead of gems, incisions":

and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; the word for a "stomacher" is only used in this place; according to Kimchi, it signifies a very broad girdle; but Aben Ezra says it was a thin garment embroidered, which was put over all the rest of the clothes; perhaps something like a "mantelet". The Septuagint version renders it, "instead of the garment worked with purple"; and so the Syriac version, "instead of their hyacinths, or purples"; and the Arabic version, "instead of thy silken garment thou shall be girt with sackcloth"; which was usually done in times of distress and mourning:

and burning instead of beauty; either through the scorching beams of the sun, being stripped of their hoods and veils; or rather this is to be understood of carbuncles, and such like hot burning ulcers in their faces, which once were beautiful, and they prided themselves in; though the Hebrew word כי seems rather to be a preposition than a noun; so Jarchi, whose note is,

"for this is fit to be unto them instead of beauty, with which they have prided themselves,''

or have lifted up themselves; and so in his gloss upon the Talmud ^h, where this clause, with the context, is cited and paraphrased,

"for all these things shall come unto thee instead of thy beauty;''

and this clause may be read in connection with the following, "because of beauty", or "instead of beauty, thy men shall fall", &c. and so the Targum,

"this vengeance shall be taken on them, because they have committed fornication in their beauty; thy beautiful men shall be killed by the sword.''

The Syriac version is, "because their beauty shall be corrupted", and those versions which seem to have left out this clause, yet retain something of it in the beginning of the next verse Isa 3:25. The Vulgate Latin version is, "thy most beautiful men also shall fall by the sword". The Septuagint and Arabic versions begin it thus, "and thy beautiful son, whom thou lovest, shall fall by the sword".

Gill: Isa 3:25

Thy men shall fall by the sword,.... Of the Romans; which would be a punishment to the women for their pride and luxury, being deprived thereby of their husbands:

and thy mighty in the war; of Vespasian and Titus, and which the Jews ⁱ call פולמוס של אספסינוס, "the war of Vespasian": in which great multitudes of men, even of mighty men, were slain.

Gill: Isa 3:26

And her gates shall lament and mourn,.... These being utterly destroyed; or there being none to pass through them, meaning the gates of the city of Jerusalem:

and she being desolate; clear of inhabitants, quite emptied, and exhausted of men; being laid even with the ground, and her children within her, Luk 19:44.

shall sit upon the ground; being levelled with it, and not one stone cast upon another; alluding to the posture of mourners, Job 2:13. Our countryman, Mr. Gregory ^k, thinks that the device of the coin of the emperor Vespasian, in the reverse of it, upon taking Judea, which was a woman sitting on the ground, leaning back, to a palm tree, with this inscription, "Judea Capta", was contrived out of this prophecy; and that he was helped to it by Josephus, the Jew, then in his court. The whole prophecy had its accomplishment, not in the Babylonish captivity, as Jarchi suggests, much less in the times of Ahaz, as Kimchi and Abarbinal suppose, but in the times of Jerusalem's destruction by the Romans.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Isa 3:6

¹ tn Heb “[in] the house of his father” (so ASV); NIV “at his father’s home.”

² tn The words “and say” are supplied for stylistic reasons.

³ tn Heb “your hand”; NASB “under your charge.”

sn The man’s motives are selfish. He tells his brother to assume leadership because he thinks he has some wealth to give away.

NET Notes: Isa 3:7

¹ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

² tn Heb “he will lift up [his voice].”

³ tn Heb “wrapper [of wounds]”; KJV, ASV, NRSV “healer.”

NET Notes: Isa 3:8

¹ tn Heb “for their tongue and their deeds [are] to the Lord.”

² tn Heb “to rebel [against] the eyes of his majesty.” The word כָּבוֹד (kavod) frequently refers to the Lord’s royal splendor that is an outward manifestation of his authority as king.

NET Notes: Isa 3:9

¹ sn This refers to their proud, arrogant demeanor.

² tn Heb “answers against them”; NRSV “bears witness against them.”

³ tn Heb “their sin, like Sodom, they declare, they do not conceal [it].”

⁴ tn Heb “woe to their soul.”

NET Notes: Isa 3:10

¹ tn Or “the righteous” (KJV, NASB, NIV, TEV); NLT “those who are godly.”

² tn Heb “that it is good.”

³ tn Heb “for the fruit of their deeds they will eat.”

NET Notes: Isa 3:11

¹ tn Heb “for the work of his hands will be done to him.”

NET Notes: Isa 3:12

¹ sn This may refer to the prophet or to the Lord.

² tc The Hebrew text appears to read literally, “My people, his oppressors, he deals severely, and women rule over them.” The correct text and precise meaning of the verse are debated. The translation above assumes (1) an emendation of נֹגְשָׂיו (nogÿsayv, “his oppressors”) to נֹגְשִׂים (nogÿshim, “oppressors”) by moving the mem (ם) on the following form to the end of the word and dropping the vav (ו) as virtually dittographic; (2) an emendation of מְעוֹלֵל (mÿ’olel, a singular participle that does not agree with the preceding plural subject) to עֹלְלוּ (’olÿlu), a third plural Poel perfect from עָלַל (’alal, “deal severely”; note that the following form begins with a vav [ו]; the text may be haplographic or misdivided); and (3) an emendation (with support from the LXX) of נָשִׁים (nashim, “women”) to נֹשִׁים (noshim, “creditors”; a participle from נָשַׁא, nasa’). Another option is to emend מְעוֹלֵל to עוֹלְלִים (’olÿlim, “children”) and read, “My people’s oppressors are children; women rule over them.” In this case the point is the same as in v. 4; the leadership void left by the judgment will be filled by those incompetent to lead the community – children and women. (The text reflects the ancient Israelite patriarchal mindset.)

³ tn Heb “and the way of your paths they confuse.” The verb בָּלַע (bala’, “confuse”; HALOT 135 s.v. I בלע) is a homonym of the more common בָּלַע (“swallow”; see HALOT 134 s.v. בלע).

NET Notes: Isa 3:13

¹ tc The Hebrew text has “nations,” but the preceding and following contexts make it clear that the Lord is judging his covenant people. עָמִים (’amim) should be changed (with support from the LXX) to עמו. The final mem (ם) on the form in the Hebrew is either dittographic or enclitic. When the mem was added or read as a plural ending, the vav (ו) was then misread as a yod (י).

NET Notes: Isa 3:14

¹ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

² tn The pronominal element is masculine plural; the leaders are addressed.

³ tn The verb בָּעַר (ba’ar, “graze, ruin”; HALOT 146 s.v. II בער) is a homonym of the more common בָּעַר (ba’ar, “burn”; see HALOT 145 s.v. I בער).

⁴ sn The vineyard is a metaphor for the nation here. See 5:1-7.

⁵ tn Heb “the plunder of the poor [is] in your houses” (so NASB).

NET Notes: Isa 3:15

¹ sn The rhetorical question expresses the Lord’s outrage at what the leaders have done to the poor. He finds it almost unbelievable that they would have the audacity to treat his people in this manner.

² tn Heb “the master, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].” On the title “the Lord who commands armies,” see the note at 1:9.

sn The use of this title, which also appears in v. 1, forms an inclusio around vv. 1-15. The speech begins and ends with a reference to “the master, the Lord who commands armies.”

NET Notes: Isa 3:16

¹ tn Heb “daughters” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV).

² tn Heb “with an outstretched neck.” They proudly hold their heads high so that others can see the jewelry around their necks.

³ tn Heb “walking and skipping, they walk.”

⁴ tn Heb “and with their feet they jingle.”

NET Notes: Isa 3:17

¹ tn In the Hebrew text vv. 16-17 and one long sentence, “Because the daughters of Zion are proud and walk…, the sovereign master will afflict….” In v. 17 the Lord refers to himself in the third person.

² tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in v. 18 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

³ tn Heb “the daughters of Zion.”

⁴ tn Or “a scab” (KJV, ASV); NIV, NCV, CEV “sores.”

⁵ tn The precise meaning of this line is unclear because of the presence of the rare word פֹּת (pot). Since the verb in the line means “lay bare, make naked,” some take פֹּת as a reference to the genitals (cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV, CEV). (In 1 Kgs 7:50 a noun פֹּת appears, with the apparent meaning “socket.”) J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:139, n. 2), basing his argument on alleged Akkadian evidence and the parallelism of the verse, takes פֹּת as “forehead.”

NET Notes: Isa 3:18

¹ sn The translation assumes that the direct quotation ends with v. 17. The introductory formula “in that day” and the shift from a poetic to prosaic style indicate that a new speech unit begins in v. 18.

² tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

³ tn Or “the beauty of [their] ankle jewelry.”

NET Notes: Isa 3:20

¹ tn Heb “houses of breath.” HALOT 124 s.v. בַּיִת defines them as “scent-bottles”; cf. NAB, NRSV “perfume boxes.”

NET Notes: Isa 3:23

¹ tn The precise meaning of many of the words in this list is uncertain.

sn The rhetorical purpose for such a lengthy list is to impress on the audience the guilt of these women with their proud, materialistic attitude, whose husbands and fathers have profited at the expense of the poor.

NET Notes: Isa 3:24

¹ tn Heb “and it will be in place of spices there will be a stench.” The nouns for “spices” and “stench” are right next to each other in the MT for emphatic contrast. The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

NET Notes: Isa 3:25

¹ tn The pronoun is feminine singular, suggesting personified Zion, as representative of its women, is the addressee. The reference to “her gates’ in v. 26 makes this identification almost certain.

² tn Heb “your strength in battle.” The verb in the first clause provides the verbal idea for the second clause.

NET Notes: Isa 3:26

¹ tn Heb “she will be empty, on the ground she will sit.” Jerusalem is personified as a destitute woman who sits mourning the empty city.

Geneva Bible: Isa 3:6

When a man shall ^{( f )} take hold of his brother of the house of his father, [saying], Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and [let] this ruin [be] under thy hand:

^{( f )} He shows that this plague will be so horrible that contrary to the common manner of men, who by nature are ambitious, no one will be found able or willing to be their governor.

Geneva Bible: Isa 3:7

In that day shall he ^{( g )} swear, saying, I will not be an healer; for in my house [is] neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people.

^{( g )} Fear will cause him to forswear himself, rather than to take such a dangerous charge upon himself.

Geneva Bible: Isa 3:9

The ^{( h )} show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide [it] not. Woe to their soul! for they have rewarded evil to themselves.

^{( h )} When God examines their deed on which they now set an impudent face, he will find the mark of their impiety in their forehead.

Geneva Bible: Isa 3:10

^{( i )} Say ye to the righteous, that [it shall be] well [with him]: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.

^{( i )} You that are godly be assured that God will defend you in the midst of these troubles.

Geneva Bible: Isa 3:12

[As for] my people, ^{( k )} children [are] their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they who lead thee cause [thee] to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.

^{( k )} Because the wicked people were more addicted to their princes than to the commandments of God, he shows that he would give them such princes, by whom they would have no help, but that they would be manifest tokens of his wrath, because they would be fools and effeminate.

Geneva Bible: Isa 3:14

The LORD will enter into judgment with the ^{( l )} elders of his people, and with their princes: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor [is] in your houses.

^{( l )} Meaning that the rulers and governors had destroyed his Church and not preserved it, according to their duty.

Geneva Bible: Isa 3:15

What mean ye [that] ye beat my people to pieces, ^{( m )} and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

^{( m )} That is, you show all cruelty against them.

Geneva Bible: Isa 3:16

Moreover the LORD saith, ^{( n )} Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with ^{( o )} extended necks and ^{( p )} wanton eyes, walking and ^{( q )} mincing [as] they go, and making a ^{( r )} tinkling with their feet:

^{( n )} He means the people because of the arrogancy and pride of their women who gave themselves to all wantonness and dissolution.

^{( o )} Which declared their pride.

^{( p )} As a sign that they were not chaste.

^{( q )} Which showed their wantonness.

^{( r )} They delighted then in slippers that creaked or had little plates sewn on them which tinkled as they went.

Geneva Bible: Isa 3:23

The mirrors, and the fine linen, and the turbans, and the ^{( s )} veils.

^{( s )} In rehearsing all these things particularly he shows the lightness and vanity of such as cannot be content with comely apparel according to their degree.

Geneva Bible: Isa 3:25

Thy men shall fall by the ^{( t )} sword, and thy mighty in the war.

^{( t )} Meaning that God will not only punish the women but their husbands who have permitted this dissoluteness and also the commonwealth which has not remedied it.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Isa 3:1-26

1 The great calamities which come by sin.

10 The different reward of the righteous and wicked.

12 The oppression and covetousness of the rulers.

16 The judgments which shall be for the pride of the women.

25 The general desolation.

MHCC: Isa 3:1-9

God was about to deprive Judah of every stay and support. The city and the land were to be made desolate, because their words and works had been rebellious against the Lord; even at his holy temple. If men do not stay themselves upon God, he will soon remove all other supports, and then they must sink. Christ is the Bread of life and the Water of life; if he be our Stay, we shall find that is a good part not to be taken away, Joh 6:27. Here note, 1. That the condition of sinners is exceedingly woful. 2. It is the soul that is damaged by sin. 3. Whatever evil befalls sinners, be sure that they bring it on themselves.

MHCC: Isa 3:10-15

The rule was certain; however there might be national prosperity or trouble, it would be well with the righteous and ill with the wicked. Blessed be God, there is abundant encouragement to the righteous to trust in him, and for sinners to repent and return to him. It was time for the Lord to show his might. He will call men to a strict account for all the wealth and power intrusted to and abused by them. If it is sinful to disregard the necessities of the poor, how odious and wicked a part do they act, who bring men into poverty, and then oppress them!

MHCC: Isa 3:16-26

The prophet reproves and warns the daughters of Zion of the sufferings coming upon them. Let them know that God notices the folly and vanity of proud women, even of their dress. The punishments threatened answered the sin. Loathsome diseases often are the just punishment of pride. It is not material to ask what sort of ornaments they wore; many of these things, if they had not been in fashion, would have been ridiculed then as now. Their fashions differed much from those of our times, but human nature is the same. Wasting time and money, to the neglect of piety, charity, and even of justice, displease the Lord. Many professors at the present day, seem to think there is no harm in worldly finery; but were it not a great evil, would the Holy Spirit have taught the prophet to expose it so fully? The Jews being overcome, Jerusalem would be levelled with the ground; which is represented under the idea of a desolate female seated upon the earth. And when the Romans had destroyed Jerusalem, they struck a medal, on which was represented a woman sitting on the ground in a posture of grief. If sin be harboured within the walls, lamentation and mourning are near the gates.

Matthew Henry: Isa 3:1-8

The prophet, in the close of the foregoing chapter, had given a necessary caution to all not to put confidence in man, or any creature; he had also given a general reason for that caution, taken from the frailty of human life and the vanity and weakness of human powers. Here he gives a particular reason for it - God was now about to ruin all their creature-confidences, so that they should meet with nothing but disappointments in all their expectations from them (Isa 3:1): The stay and the staff shall be taken away, all their supports, of what kind soever, all the things they trusted to and looked for help and relief from. Their church and kingdom had now grown old and were going to decay, and they were (after the manner of aged men, Zec 8:4) leaning on a staff: now God threatens to take away their staff, and then they must fall of course, to take away the stays of both the city and the country, of Jerusalem and of Judah, which are indeed stays to one another, and, if one fail, the other feels from it. He that does this is the Lord, the Lord of hosts - Adon, the Lord that is himself the stay or foundation; if that stay depart, all other stays certainly break under us, for he is the strength of them all. He that is the Lord, the ruler, that has authority to do it, and the Lord of hosts, that has the ability to do it, he shall take away the stay and the staff. St. Jerome refers this to the sensible decay of the Jewish nation after they had crucified our Saviour, Rom 11:9, Rom 11:10. I rather take it as a warning to all nations not to provoke God; for if they make him their enemy, he can and will thus make them miserable. Let us view the particulars.

I. Was their plenty a support to them? It is so to any people; bread is the staff of life: but God can take away the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water; and it is just with him to do so when fulness of bread becomes an iniquity (Eze 16:49), and that which was given to be provision for the life is made provision for the lusts. He can take away the bread and the water by withholding the rain, Deu 28:23, Deu 28:24. Or, if he allow them, he can take away the stay of bread and the stay of water by withholding his blessing, by which man lives, and not by bread only, and which is the staff of bread (Mat 4:4.), and then the bread is not nourishing nor the water refreshing, Hag 1:6. Christ is the bread of life and the water of life; if he be our stay, we shall find that this is a good part not to be taken away, Joh 4:14; Joh 6:27.

II. Was their army a support to them - their generals, and commanders, and military men? These shall be taken away, either cut off by the sword or so discouraged with the defeats they meet with that they shall throw up their commissions and resolve to act no more; or they shall be disabled by sickness, or dispirited, so as to be unfit for business; The mighty men, and the man of war, and even the inferior officer, the captain of fifty, shall be removed. It bodes ill with a people when their valiant men are lost. Let not the strong man therefore glory in his strength, nor any people trust too much to their mighty men; but let the strong people glorify God and the city of the terrible nations fear him, who can make them weak and despicable, Isa 25:3.

III. Were their ministers of state a support to them - their learned men, their politicians, their clergy, their wits and virtuoso? These also should be taken away - the judges, who were skilled in the laws, and expert in administering justice, - the prophets, whom they used to consult in difficult cases, - the prudent, who were celebrated as men of sense and sagacity above all others and were assistants to the judges, the diviners (so the word is), those who used unlawful arts, who, though rotten stays, yet were stayed on, (but it may be taken, as we read it, in a good sense), - the ancients, elders in age, in office, - the honourable man, the gravity of whose aspect commands reverence and whose age and experience make him fit to be a counsellor. Trade is one great support to a nation, even manufactures and handicraft trades; and therefore, when the whole stay is broken, the cunning artificer too shall be taken away; and the last is the eloquent orator, the man skilful of speech, who in some cases may do good service, though he be none of the prudent or the ancient, by putting the sense of others in good language. Moses cannot speak well, but Aaron can. God threatens to take these away, that is, 1. To disable them for the service of their country, making judges fools, taking away the speech of the trusty and the understanding of the aged, Job 12:17, etc. Every creature is that to us which God makes it to be; and we cannot be sure that those who have been serviceable to us shall always be so. 2. To put an end to their days; for the reason why princes are not to be trusted in is because their breath goeth forth, Psa 146:3, Psa 146:4. Note, The removal of useful men by death, in the midst of their usefulness, is a very threatening symptom to any people.

IV. Was their government a support to them? It ought to have been so; it is the business of the sovereign to bear up the pillars of the land, Psa 75:3. But it is here threatened that this stay should fail them. When the mighty men and the prudent are removed children shall be their princes - children in age, who must be under tutors and governors, who will be clashing with one another and making a prey of the young king and his kingdom-children in understanding and disposition, childish men, such as are babes in knowledge, no more fit to rule than a child in the cradle. These shall rule over them, with all the folly, fickleness, and frowardness, of a child. And woe unto thee, O land! when thy king is such a one! Ecc 10:16.

V. Was the union of the subjects among themselves, their good order and the good understanding and correspondence that they kept with one another, a stay to them? Where this is the case a people may do better for it, though their princes be not such as they should be; but it is here threatened that God would send an evil spirit among them too (as Jdg 9:23), which would make them, 1. Injurious and unneighbourly one towards another (Isa 3:5): " The people shall be oppressed every one by his neighbour, "and their princes, being children, will take no care to restrain the oppressors or relieve the oppressed, nor is it to any purpose to appeal to them (which is a temptation to every man to be his own avenger), and therefore they bite and devour one another and will soon be consumed one of another. Then homo homini lupus - man becomes a wolf to man; jusque datum sceleri - wickedness receives the stamp of law; nec hospes ab hospite tutus - the guest and the host are in danger from each other. 2. Insolent and disorderly towards their superiors. It is as ill an omen to a people as can be when the rising generation among them are generally untractable, rude, and ungovernable, when the child behaves himself proudly against the ancient, whereas he should rise up before the hoary head and honour the face of the old man, Lev 19:32. When young people are conceited and pert, and behave scornfully towards their superiors, their conduct is not only a reproach to themselves, but of ill consequence to the public; it slackens the reins of government and weakens the hands that hold them. It is likewise ill with a people when persons of honour cannot support their authority, but are affronted by the base and beggarly, when judges are insulted and their powers set at defiance by the mob. Those have a great deal to answer for who do this.

VI. It is some stay, some support, to hope that, though matters may be now ill-managed, yet other may be raised up, who may manage better? Yet this expectation also shall be frustrated, for the case shall be so desperate that no man of sense or substance will meddle with it.

1. The government shall go a begging, Isa 3:6. Here, (1.) It is taken for granted that there is no way of redressing all these grievances, and bringing things into order again, but by good magistrates, who shall be invested with power by common consent, and shall exert that power for the good of the community. And it is probable that this was, in many places, the true origin of government; men found it necessary to unite in a subjection to one who was thought fit for such a trust, in order to the welfare and safety of them all, being aware that they must either be ruled or ruined. Here therefore is the original contract: " Be thou our ruler, and we will be subject to thee, and let this ruin be under thy hand, to be repaired and restored, and then to be preserved and established, and the interests of it advanced, Isa 58:12. Take care to protect us by the sword of war from being injured from abroad, and by the sword of justice from being injurious to another, and we will bear faith and true allegiance to thee."(2.) The case is represented as very deplorable, and things as having come to a sad pass; for, [1.] Children being their princes, every man will think himself fit to prescribe who shall be a magistrate, and will be for preferring his own relations; whereas, if the princes were as they should be, it would be left entirely to them to nominate the rulers, as it ought to be. [2.] Men will find themselves under a necessity even of forcing power into the hands of those that are thought to be fit for it: A man shall take hold by violence of one to make him a ruler, perceiving him ready to resist the motion: nay, he shall urge it upon his brother; whereas, commonly, men are not willing that their equals should be their superiors, witness the envy of Joseph's brethren. [3.] It will be looked upon as ground sufficient for the preferring of a man to be a ruler that he has clothing better than his neighbours - a very poor qualification to recommend a man to a place of trust in the government. It was a sign that the country was much impoverished when it was a rare thing to find a man that had good clothes, or could afford to buy himself an alderman's gown or a judge's robes; and it was proof enough that the people were very unthinking when they had so much respect to a man in gay clothing, with a gold ring (Jam 2:2, Jam 2:3), that, for the sake thereof, they would make him their ruler. It would have been some sense to have said, "Thou hast wisdom, integrity, experience; be thou our ruler."But it was a jest to say, Thou hast clothing; be thou our ruler. A poor wise man, though in vile raiment, delivered a city, Ecc 9:15. We may allude to this to show how desperate the case of fallen man was when our Lord Jesus was pleased to become our brother, and, though he was not courted, offered himself to be our ruler and Saviour, and to take this ruin under his hand.

2. Those who are thus pressed to come into office will swear themselves off, because, though they are taken to be men of some substance, yet they know themselves unable to bear the charges of the office and to answer the expectations of those that choose them (Isa 3:7): He shall swear (shall lift up the hand, the ancient ceremony used in taking the oath) I will not be a healer; make not me a ruler. Note, Rulers must be healers, and good rulers will be so; they must study to unite their subjects, and not to widen the differences that are among them. Those only are fit for government that are of a meek, quiet, healing, spirit. They must also heal the wounds that are given to any of the interests of their people, by suitable applications. But why will he not be a ruler? Because in my house is neither bread nor clothing. (1.) If he said true, it was a sign that men's estates were sadly ruined when even those who made the best appearance really wanted necessaries - a common case, and a piteous one. Some who, having lived fashionably, are willing to put the best side outwards, are yet, if the truth were known, in great straits, and go with heavy hearts for want of bread and clothing. (2.) If he did not speak truth, it was a sign that men's consciences were sadly debauched, when, to avoid the expense of an office, they would load themselves with the guilt of perjury, and (which is the greatest madness in the world) would damn their souls to save their money, Mat 16:26. (3.) However it was, it was a sign that the case of the nation was very bad when nobody was willing to accept a place in the government of it, as despairing to have either credit or profit by it, which are the two things aimed at in men's common ambition of preferment.

3. The reason why God brought things to this sad pass, even among his own people (which is given either by the prophet or by him that refused to be a ruler); it was not for want of good will to his country, but because he saw the case desperate and past relief, and it would be to no purpose to attempt it (Isa 3:8): Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen; and they may thank themselves. They have brought their destruction upon their own heads, for their tongue and their doings are against the Lord; in word and action they broke the law of God and therein designed an affront to him; they wilfully intended to offend him, in contempt of his authority and defiance of his justice. Their tongue was against the Lord, for they contradicted his prophets; and their doings were no better, for they acted as they talked. It was an aggravation of their sin that God's eye was upon them, and that his glory was manifested among them; but they provoked him to his face, as if the more they knew of his glory the greater pride they took in slighting it, and turning it into shame. And this, this, is it for which Jerusalem is ruined. Note, The ruin both of persons and people is owing to their sins. If they did not provoke God, he would do them no hurt, Jer 25:6.

Matthew Henry: Isa 3:9-15

Here God proceeds in his controversy with his people. Observe,

I. The ground of his controversy. It was for sin that God contended with them; if they vex themselves, let them look a little further and they will see that they must thank themselves: Woe unto their souls! For they have rewarded evil unto themselves. Alas for their souls! (so it may be read, in a way of lamentation), for they have procured evil to themselves, Isa 3:9. Note, The condition of sinners is woeful and very deplorable. Note, also, It is the soul that is damaged and endangered by sin. Sinners may prosper in their outward estates, and yet at the same time there may be a woe to their souls. Note, further, Whatever evils befals sinners it is of their own procuring, Jer 2:19. That which is here charged upon then is, 1. That the shame which should have restrained them from their sins was quite thrown off and they had grown impudent, Isa 3:9. This hardens men against repentance, and ripens them for ruin, as much as anything: The show of their countenance doth witness against them that their minds are vain, and lewd, and malicious; their eyes declare plainly that they cannot cease from sin, 2Pe 2:14. One may look them in the face and guess at the desperate wickedness that there is in their hearts: They declare their sin as Sodom, so impetuous, so imperious, are their lusts, and so impatient of the least check, and so perfectly are all the remaining sparks of virtue extinguished in them. The Sodomites declared their sin, not only by the exceeding greatness of it (Gen 13:13), so that it cried to heaven (Gen 18:20), but by their shameless owning of that which was most shameful (Gen 19:5); and thus Judah and Jerusalem did: they were so far from hiding it that they gloried in it, in the bold attempts they made upon virtue, and the victory they gained over their own convictions. They had a whore's forehead (Jer 3:3) and could not blush, Jer 6:15. Note, Those that have grown impudent in sin are ripe for ruin. Those that are past shame (we say) are past grace, and then past hope. 2. That their guides, who should direct them in the right way, put them out of the way (Isa 3:12): " Those who lead thee (the princes, priests, and prophets) mislead thee; they cause thee to err. "Either they preached to them that which was false and corrupt, or, if they preached that which was true and good, they contradicted it by their practices, and the people would soon follow a bad example than a good exhortation. Thus they destroyed the ways of their paths, pulling down with one hand what they built up with the other. Que te beatificant - Those that call thee blessed cause thee to err; so some read it. Their priests applauded them, as if nothing were amiss among them, cried Peace, peace, to them, as if they were in no danger; and thus they caused them to go on in their errors. 3. That their judges, who should have patronized and protected the oppressed, were themselves the greatest oppressors, Isa 3:14, Isa 3:15. The elders of the people, and the princes, who had learning and could not but know better things, who had great estates and were not under the temptation of necessity to encroach upon those about them, and who were men of honour and should have scorned to do a base thing, yet they have eaten up the vineyard. God's vineyard, which they were appointed to be the dressers and keepers of, they burnt (so the word signifies); they did as ill by it as its worst enemies could do, Psa 80:16. Or the vineyards of the poor they wrested out of their possession, as Jezebel did Naboth's, or devoured the fruits of them, fed their lusts with that which should have been the necessary food of indigent families; the spoil of the poor was hoarded up in their houses; when God came to search for stolen goods there he found it, and it was a witness against them. It was to be had, and they might have made restitution, but would not. God reasons with these great men (Isa 3:15): " What mean you, that you beat my people into pieces? What cause have you for it? What good does it do you?"Or, "What hurt have they done you? Do you think you had power given you for such a purpose as this?"Note, There is nothing more unaccountable, and yet nothing which must more certainly be accounted for, than the injuries and abuses that are done to God's people by their persecutors and oppressors. " You grind the faces of the poor; you put them to as much pain and terror as if they were ground in a mill, and as certainly reduce them to dust by one act of oppression after another."Or, "Their faces are bruised and crushed with the blows you have given them; you have not only ruined their estates, but have given them personal abuses."Our Lord Jesus was smitten on the face, Mat 26:67.

II. The management of this controversy. 1. God himself is the prosecutor (Isa 3:13): The Lord stands up to plead, or he sets himself to debate the matter, and he stands to judge the people, to judge for those that were oppressed and abused; and he will enter into judgment with the princes, Isa 3:14. Note, The greatest of men cannot exempt or secure themselves from the scrutiny and sentence of God's judgment, nor demur to the jurisdiction of the court of heaven. 2. The indictment is proved by the notorious evidence of the fact: "Look upon the oppressors, and the show of their countenance witnesses against them (Isa 3:9); look upon the oppressed, and you see how their faces are battered and abused,"Isa 3:15. 3. The controversy is already begun in the change of the ministry. To punish those that had abused their power to bad purposes God sets those over them that had not sense to use their power to any good purposes: Children are their oppressors, and women rule over them (Isa 3:12), men that have as weak judgments and strong passions as women and children: this was their sin, that their rulers were such, and it became a judgment upon them.

III. The distinction that shall be made between particular persons, in the prosecution of this controversy (Isa 3:10, Isa 3:11): Say to the righteous, It shall be well with thee. Woe to the wicked; it shall be ill with him. He had said (Isa 3:9), they have rewarded evil to themselves, in proof of which he here shows that God will render to every man according to his works. Had they been righteous, it would have been well with them; but, if it be ill with them, it is because they are wicked and will be so. Thus God stated the matter to Cain, to convince him that he had no reason to be angry, Gen 4:7. Or it may be taken thus: God is threatening national judgments, which will ruin the public interests. Now, 1. Some good people might fear that they should be involved in that ruin, and therefore God bids the prophets comfort them against those fears: "Whatever becomes of the unrighteous nation, let the righteous man know that he shall not be lost in the crowd of sinners; the Judge of all the earth will not slay the righteous with the wicked (Gen 18:25); no, assure him, in God's name, that it shall be well with him. The property of the trouble shall be altered to him, and he shall be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger. He shall have divine supports and comforts, which shall abound as afflictions abound, and so it shall be well with him."When the whole stay of bread is taken away, yet in the day of famine the righteous shall be satisfied; they shall eat the fruit of their doings - they shall have the testimony of their consciences for them that they kept themselves pure from the common iniquity, and therefore the common calamity is not the same thing to them that it is to others; they brought no fuel to the flame, and therefore are not themselves fuel for it. 2. Some wicked people might hope that they should escape that ruin, and therefore God bids the prophets shake their vain hopes: " Woe to the wicked; it shall be ill with him, Isa 3:11. To him the judgments shall have sting, and there shall be wormwood and gall in the affliction and misery. "There is a woe to wicked people, and, though they may think to shelter themselves from public judgments, yet it shall be ill with them; it will grow worse and worse with them if they repent not, and the worst of all will be at last; for the reward of their hands shall be given them, in the day when every man shall receive according to the things done in the body.

Matthew Henry: Isa 3:16-26

The prophet's business was to show all sorts of people what they had contributed to the national guilt and what share they must expect in the national judgments that were coming. Here he reproves and warns the daughters of Zion, tells the ladies of their faults; and Moses, in the law, having denounced God's wrath against the tender and delicate woman (the prophets being a comment upon the law, Deu 28:56), he here tells them how they shall smart by the calamities that are coming upon them. Observe,

I. The sin charged upon the daughters of Zion, Isa 3:16. The prophet expressly vouches God's authority for what he said. lest it should be thought it was unbecoming in him to take notice of such things, and should be resented by the ladies: The Lord saith it. "Whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, let them know that God takes notice of, and is much displeased with, the folly and vanity of proud women, and his law takes cognizance even of their dress."Two things that here stand indicted for - haughtiness and wantonness, directly contrary to that modesty, shamefacedness, and sobriety, with which women ought to adorn themselves, 1Ti 2:9. They discovered the disposition of their mind by their gait and gesture, and the lightness of their carriage. They are haughty, for they walk with stretched-forth necks, that they may seem tall, or, as thinking nobody good enough to speak to them or to receive a look or a smile from them. Their eyes are wanton, deceiving (so the word is); with their amorous glances they draw men into their snares. They affect a formal starched way of going, that people may look at them, and admire them, and know they have been at the dancing-school, and have learned the minuet-step. They go mincing, or nicely tripping, not willing to set so much as the sole of their foot to the ground, for tenderness and delicacy. They make a tinkling with their feet, having, as some think, chains, or little bells, upon their shoes, that made a noise: they go as if they were fettered (so some read it), like a horse tramelled, that he may learn to pace. Thus Agag came delicately, 1Sa 15:32. Such a nice affected mien is not only a force upon that which is natural, and ridiculous before men, men of sense; but as it is an evidence of a vain mind, it is offensive to God. And two things aggravated it here: 1. That these were the daughters of Zion, the holy mountain, who should have behaved with the gravity that becomes women professing godliness. 2. That it should seem, by the connexion, they were the wives and daughters of the princes who spoiled and oppressed the poor (Isa 3:14, Isa 3:15) that they might maintain the pride and luxury of their families.

II. The punishments threatened for this sin; and they answer the sin as face answers to face in a glass, Isa 3:17, Isa 3:18. 1. They walked with stretched-forth necks, but God will smite with a scab the crown of their head, which shall lower their crests, and make them ashamed to show their heads, being obliged by it to cut off their hair. Note, Loathsome diseases are often sent as the just punishment of pride, and are sometimes the immediate effect of lewdness, the flesh and the body being consumed by it. 2. They cared not what they laid out in furnishing themselves with great variety of fine clothes; but God will reduce them to such poverty and distress that they shall not have clothes sufficient to cover their nakedness, but their uncomeliness shall be exposed through their rags. 3. They were extremely fond and proud of their ornaments; but God will strip them of those ornaments, when their houses shall be plundered, their treasures rifled, and they themselves led into captivity. The prophet here specifies many of the ornaments which they used as particularly as if he had been the keeper of their wardrobe or had attended them in their dressing-room. It is not at all material to enquire what sort of ornaments these respectively were and whether the translations rightly express the original words; perhaps 100 years hence the names of some of the ornaments that are now in use in our own land will be as little understood as some of those here mentioned now are. Fashions alter, and so do the names of them; and yet the mention of them is not in vain, but is designed to expose the folly of the daughters of Zion; for, (1.) Many of these things, we may suppose, were very odd and ridiculous, and, if they had not been in fashion, would have been hooted at. They were fitter to be toys for children to play with than ornaments for grown people to go to Mount Zion in. (2.) Those things that were decent and convenient, as the linen, the hoods, and the veils, needed not be provided in such abundance and variety. It is necessary to have apparel and proper that all should have it according to their rank; but what occasion was there for so many changeable suits of apparel (Isa 3:22), that they might not be seen two days together in the same suit? "They must have (as the homily against excess of apparel speaks) one gown for the day, another for the night - one long, another short - one for the working day, another for the holy-day - one of this colour, another of that colour - one of cloth, another of silk or damask - one dress afore dinner, another after - one of the Spanish fashion, another Turkey - and never content with sufficient."All this, as it is an evidence of pride and vain curiosity, so must needs spend a great deal in gratifying a base lust that ought to be laid out in works of piety and charity; and it is well if poor tenants be not racked, or poor creditors defrauded to support it. (3.) The enumeration of these things intimates what care they were in about them, how much their hearts were upon them, what an exact account they kept of them, how nice and critical they were about them, how insatiable their desire was of them, and how much of their comfort was bound up in them. A maid could forget none of these ornaments, though they were ever so many (Jer 2:32), but they would report them as readily, and talk of them with as much pleasure, as if they had been things of the greatest moment. The prophet did not speak of these things as in themselves sinful (they might lawfully be had and used), but as things which they were proud of and should therefore be deprived of.

III. They were very nice and curious about their clothes; but God would make those bodies of theirs, which were at such expense to beautify and make easy, a reproach and burden to them (Isa 3:24): Instead of sweet smell (those tablets, or boxes, of perfume, houses of the soul or breath, as they are called, Isa 3:20, margin ) there shall be stink, garments grown filthy with being long worn, or from some loathsome disease or plasters for the cure of it. Instead of a rich embroidered girdle used to make the clothes sit tight, there shall be a rent, a rending of the clothes for grief, or old rotten clothes rent into rags. Instead of well-set hair, curiously plaited and powdered, there shall be baldness, the hair being plucked off or shaven, as was usual in times of great affliction (Isa 15:2; Jer 16:6), or in great servitude, Eze 29:18. Instead of a stomacher, or a scarf or sash, there shall be a girding of sackcloth, in token of deep humiliation; and burning instead of beauty. Those that had a good complexion, and were proud of it, when they are carried into captivity shall be tanned and sun-burnt; and it is observed that the best faces are soonest injured by the weather. From all this let us learn, 1. Not to be nice and curious about our apparel, not to affect that which is gay and costly, nor to be proud of it. 2. Not to be secure in the enjoyment of any of the delights of sense, because we know not how soon we may be stripped of them, nor what straits we may be reduced to.

IV. They designed by these ornaments to charm the gentlemen, and win their affections (Pro 7:16, Pro 7:17), but there shall be none to be charmed by them (Isa 3:25): Thy men shall fall by the sword, and the mighty in the war, The fire shall consume them, and then the maidens shall not be given in marriage; as it is, Psa 78:63. When the sword comes with commission the mighty commonly fall first by it, because they are most forward to venture. And, when Zion's guards are cut off, no marvel that Zion's gates lament and mourn (Isa 3:26), the enemies having made themselves masters of them; and the city itself, being desolate, being emptied or swept, shall sit upon the ground like a disconsolate widow. If sin be harboured within the walls, lamentation and mourning are near the gates.

Keil-Delitzsch: Isa 3:6-7

At length there would be no authorities left; even the desire to rule would die out: for despotism is sure to be followed by mob-rule, and mob-rule by anarchy in the most literal sense. The distress would become so great, that whoever had a coat (cloak), so as to be able to clothe himself at all decently, would be asked to undertake the government. "When a man shall take hold of his brother in his father's house, Thou hast a coat, thou shalt be our ruler, and take this ruin under thy hand; he will cry out in that day, I do not want to be a surgeon; there is neither bread nor coat in my house: ye cannot make me the ruler of the people." "his father's house" - this is not an unmeaning trait in the picture of misery. The population would have become so thin and dispirited through hunger, that with a little energy it would be possible to decide within the narrow circle of a family who should be ruler, and to give effect to the decision. "In his father's house:" Beth âbiv is an acc. loci . The father's house is the place where brother meets with brother; and one breaks out with the urgent petition contained in the words, which follow without the introductory "saying"(cf., Isa 14:8, Isa 14:16, and Isa 22:16; Isa 33:14). לכה for לך with He otians , a form rarely met with (vid., Gen 27:37). תּהיה , which would be written תּהי before the predicate, is jussive in meaning, though not in form. "This ruin:" m acshelah is used in Zep 1:3 for that which occasions a person's fall; here it signifies what has been overthrown; and as C âshal itself, which means not only to stumble, strip, or slide, but also to fall in consequence of some force applied from without, is not used in connection with falling buildings, it must be introduced here with an allusion to the prosopopeia which follows in Isa 3:8. The man who was distinguished above all others, or at any rate above many others, by the fact that he could still dress himself decently (even if it were only in a blouse), should be made supreme ruler or dictator (cf., kâtzin , Jdg 11:6); and the state which lay so miserably in ruins should be under his hand, i.e., his direction, protection, and care (2Ki 8:20; Gen 41:35, cf., Isa 16:9, where the plural is used instead of the ordinary singular yâd .) The apodosis to the protasis introduced with C hi as a particle of time ( when ) commences in Isa 3:7. The answer given by the brother to the earnest petition is introduced with "he will raise (viz., his voice, Isa 24:14) in that day, saying." It is given in this circumstantial manner because it is a solemn protest. He does not want to be a C hobēsh , i.e., a binder , namely of the broken arms, and bones, and ribs of the ruined state (Isa 30:26; Isa 1:6; Isa 61:1). The expression ehyeh implies that he does not like it, because he is conscious of his inability. He has not confidence enough in himself, and the assumption that he has a coat is a false cone: he not only has no coat at home (we must remember that the conversation is supposed to take place in his father's house), but he has not any bread; so that it is utterly impossible for a naked, starving man like him to do what is suggested ("in my house,"ubebethi with a Vav of causal connection: Ges. 155, 1, c ).

Keil-Delitzsch: Isa 3:8

The prophet then proceeds, in Isa 3:8-12, to describe this deep, tragical misery as a just retribution. "For Jerusalem is ruined and Judah fallen; because their tongue and their doings (are) against Jehovah, to defy the eyes of His glory." Jerusalem as a city is feminine, according to the usual personification; Judah as a people is regarded as masculine.

(Note: As a rule, the name of a people (apart from the personification of the people as beth , a house) is only used as a feminine, when the name of the land stands for the nation itself (see Gesenius, Lehrbegr. p. 469).)

The two preterites C âs'lah and nâphal express the general fact, which occasioned such scenes of misery as the one just described. The second clause, beginning with "because"( C hi ) , is a substantive clause, and attributes the coming judgment not to future sin, but to sin already existing. "Again Jehovah:" אל is used to denote a hostile attitude, as in Isa 2:4; Gen 4:8; Num 32:14; Jos 10:6. The capital and the land are against Jehovah both in word and deed, "to defy the eyes of His glory"(lamroth ‛ēnē C hebodo ). עני is equivalent to עיני ; and lamroth is a syncopated hiphil , as in Isa 23:11, and like the niphal in Isa 1:12 : we find the same form of the same word in Psa 78:17. The kal m ârâh , which is also frequently construed with the accusative, signifies to thrust away in a refractory manner; the hiphil himrâh , to treat refractorily, literally to set one's self rigidly in opposition, obniti ; mar , stringere , to draw tightly, with which unquestionably the meaning bitter as an astringent is connected, though it does not follow that m ârâh , himrâh , and hemar (Exo 23:21) can be rendered παραπικραίνειν , as they have been in the Septuagint, since the idea of opposing, resisting, fighting in opposition, is implied in all these roots, with distinct reference to the primary meaning. The Lamed is a shorter expression instead of למען , which is the term generally employed in such circumstances (Amo 2:7; Jer 7:18; Jer 32:29). But what does the prophet mean by "the eyes of His glory?"Knobel's assertion, that C hâbod is used here for the religious glory, i.e., the holiness of God, is a very strange one, since the C hâbod of God is invariably the fiery, bright doxa which reveals Him as the Holy One. but his remark does not meet the question, inasmuch as it does not settle the point in dispute, whether the expression "the eyes of His glory"implies that the glory itself has eyes, or the glory is a quality of the eyes. The construction is certainly not a different one from "the arm of His glory"in Isa 52:10, so that it is to be taken as an attribute. But this suggests the further question, what does the prophet mean by the glory-eyes or glorious eyes of Jehovah? If we were to say the eyes of Jehovah are His knowledge of the world, it would be impossible to understand how they could be called holy, still less how they could be called glorious. This abstract explanation of the anthropomorphisms cannot be sustained. The state of the case is rather the following. The glory ( C hâbod ) of God is that eternal and glorious morphē which His holy nature assumes, and which men must picture to themselves anthropomorphically, because they cannot imagine anything superior to the human form. In this glorious form Jehovah looks upon His people with eyes of glory. His pure but yet jealous love, His holy love which breaks out in wrath against all who meet it with hatred instead of with love, is reflected therein.

Keil-Delitzsch: Isa 3:9

But Israel, instead of walking in the consciousness of being a constant and favourite object of these majestic, earnestly admonishing eyes, was diligently engaged in bidding them defiance both in word and deed, not even hiding its sin from fear of them, but exposing them to view in the most shameless manner. - "The look of their faces testifies against them, and their sin they make known like Sodom, without concealing it: woe to their soul! for they do themselves harm." In any case, the prophet refers to the impudence with which their enmity against God was shamelessly stamped upon their faces, without even the self-condemnation which leads in other cases to a diligent concealment of the sin. But we cannot follow Luzzatto and Jos. Kimchi, who take haccârath as used directly for azzuth (impudence), inasmuch as the Arabic hakara (hakir‛a ), to which Kimchi appeals, signifies to be astonished and to stare (see at Job 19:3). And in this case there would be nothing strange in the substantive form, which would be a piel formation like בּלּהה חטּאה . But it may be a hiphil formation (Ewald, §156, a ); and this is incomparably the more probable of the two, as hiccir panim is a very common phrase. It signifies to look earnestly, keenly, or inquiringly in the face of a person, to fix the eye upon him; and, when used of a judge, to take the part of a person, by favouring him unjustly (Deu 1:17; Deu 16:19). But this latter idea, viz., "their acceptance of the person, or partiality"(according to Pro 24:23; Pro 28:21), is inadmissible here, for the simple reason that the passage refers to the whole nation, and not particularly to the judges. "The look of their faces"(haccârath p'nēhem ) is to be understood in an objective sense, viz., the appearance ( τὸ εἶδος , Luk 9:29), like the agnitio of Jerome, id quo se agnoscendum dat vultus eorum . This was probably the expression commonly employed in Hebrew for what we designate by a very inappropriate foreign word, viz., physiognomy, i.e., the expression of the face which reveals the state of the mind. This expression of their countenance testified against them (anah b' , as in Isa 59:12), for it was the disturbed and distorted image of their sin, which not only could not be hidden, but did not even wish to be; in a word, of their azzuth (Ecc 8:1). And it did not even rest with this open though silent display: they spoken openly of their sin (higgid in its simplest meaning, palam facere , from nâgad , nagâda , to be open, evident) without making any secret of it, like the Sodomites, who publicly proclaimed their fleshly lusts (Gen 19). Jerusalem was spiritually Sodom, as the prophet called it in Isa 1:10. By such barefaced sinning they did themselves harm (gâmal , lit., to finish, then to carry out, to show practically).

(Note: It may now be accepted as an established fact, that the verb gâmal is connected with the Arabic 'gamala , to collect together, 'gamula , to be perfect, kamala , kamula id ., and gâmar , to finish (see Hupfeld on Psa 7:5, and Fürst, Heb. Lex. ).)

Keil-Delitzsch: Isa 3:10-11

The prophet's meaning is evident enough. But inasmuch as it is the curse of sin to distort the knowledge of what is most obvious and self-evident, and even to take it entirely away, the prophet dwells still longer upon the fact that all sinning is self-destruction and self-murder, placing this general truth against its opposite in a palillogical Johannic way, and calling out to his contemporaries in Isa 3:10, Isa 3:11 : "Say of the righteous, that it is well with him; for they will enjoy the fruit of their doings. Woe to the wicked! it is ill; for what his hands have wrought will be done to him." We cannot adopt the rendering "Praise the righteous,"proposed by Vitringa and other modern commentators; for although âmar is sometimes construed with the accusative of the object (Psa 40:11; Psa 145:6, Psa 145:11), it never means to praise, but to declare (even in Psa 40:11). We have here what was noticed from Gen 1:4 onwards - namely, the obvious antiptôsis or antiphonêsis in the verbs ראה (cf., Isa 22:9; Exo 2:2), ידע (1Ki 5:17), and אמר (like λέγειν , Joh 9:9): dicite justum quod bonus = dicite justum esse bonum (Ewald, §336, b ). The object of sight, knowledge, or speech, is first of all mentioned in the most general manner; then follows the qualification, or more precise definition. טוב , and in Isa 3:11 רע ( רע without the pause), might both of them be the third pers. pret. of the verbs, employed in a neuter sense: the former signifying, it is well, viz., with him (as in Deu 5:30; Jer 22:15-16); the latter, it is bad (as in Psa 106:32). But it is evident from Jer 44:17 that הוּא טוב and הוּא רע may be used in the sense of καλῶς ( κακῶς ) ἔχει , and that the two expressions are here thought of in this way, so that there is no לו to be supplied in either case. The form of the first favours this; and in the second the accentuation fluctuates between אוי tiphchah לרשׁע munach , and the former with m erka , the latter tiphchah . At the same time, the latter mode of accentuation, which is favourable to the personal rendering of רע , is supported by editions of some worth, such as Brescia 1494, Pesaro 1516, Venice 1515, 1521, and is justly preferred by Luzzatto and Bär. The summary assertions, The righteous is well, the wicked ill, are both sustained by their eventual fate, in the light of which the previous misfortune of the righteous appears as good fortune, and the previous good fortune of the wicked as misfortune. With an allusion to this great difference in their eventual fate, the word "say,"which belongs to both clauses, summons to an acknowledgment of the good fortune of the one and the misfortune of the other. O that Judah and Jerusalem would acknowledge their to their own salvation before it was too late! For the state of the poor nation was already miserable enough, and very near to destruction.

Keil-Delitzsch: Isa 3:12

"My people, its oppressors are boys, and women rule over it; my people, thy leaders are misleaders, who swallow up the way of thy paths." It is not probable that m e‛olel signifies maltreaters or triflers, by the side of the parallel nâshim ; moreover, the idea of despotic treatment is already contained in nogesaiv . We expect to find children where there are women. And this is one meaning of m e‛olel . It does not mean a suckling, however, as Ewald supposes (§160, a ), more especially as it occurs in connection with yonek (Jer 44:7; Lam 2:11), and therefore cannot have precisely the same meaning; but, like עולל and עולל (the former of which may be contracted from m eolēl ), it refers to the boy as playful and wanton ( Lascivum , protervum ). Böttcher renders it correctly, pueri , lusores , though m eolēl is not in itself a collective form, as he supposes; but the singular is used collectively, or perhaps better still, the predicate is intended to apply to every individual included in the plural notion of the subject (compare Isa 16:8; Isa 20:4, and Ges. §146, 4): the oppressors of the people, every one without exception, were (even though advanced in years) mere boys or youths in their mode of thinking and acting, and made all subject to them the football of their capricious humour. Here again the person of the king is allowed to fall into the background. but the female rule, referred to afterwards, points us to the court. And this must really have been the case when Ahaz, a young rake, came to the throne at the age of twenty (according to the lxx twenty-five), possibly towards the close of the reign of Jotham. With the deepest anguish the prophet repeats the expression "my people,"as he passes in his address to his people from the rulers to the preachers: for the m eassherim or leaders are prophets (Mic 3:5); but what prophets! Instead of leading the people in a straight path, they lead them astray (Isa 9:15, cf., 2Ki 21:9). This they did, as we may gather from the history of this crowd of prophets, either by acting in subservience to the ungodly interests of the court with dynastic or demagogical servility, or by flattering the worst desires of the people. Thus the way of the path of the people, i.e., the highway or road by whose ramifying paths the people were to reach the appointed goal, had been swallowed up by them, i.e., taken away from the sight and feet of the people, so that they could not find it and walk therein (cf., Isa 25:7-8, where the verb is used in another connection). What is swallowed up is invisible, has disappeared, without a grace being left behind. The same idea is applied in Job 39:27 to a galloping horse, which is said to swallow the road, inasmuch as it leaves piece after piece behind it in its rapid course. It is stated here with regard to the prophets, that they swallow up the road appointed by Jehovah, as the one in which His people were to walk, just as a criminal swallows a piece of paper which bears witness against him, and so hides it in his own stomach. Thus the way of salvation pointed out by the law was no longer to be either heard of or seen. The prophets, who ought to have preached it, said m um , m um , and kept it swallowed. It had completely perished, as it were, in the erroneous preaching of the false prophets.

Keil-Delitzsch: Isa 3:13

This was how it stood. There was but little to be expected from the exhortations of the prophet; so that he had to come back again and again to the proclamation of judgment. The judgment of the world comes again before his mind. - "Jehovah has appeared to plead, and stands up to judge the nations." When Jehovah, weary with His long-suffering, rises up from His heavenly throne, this is described as "standing up"( kum , Isa 2:19, Isa 2:21; Isa 33:10); and when He assumes the judgment-seat in the sight of all the world, this is called "sitting down"( yashab , Psa 9:5, Joe 3:12); when, having come down from heaven (Mic 1:2.), He comes forward as accuser, this is called "standing"( nizzab or amad , Psa 82:1 : amad is coming forward and standing, as the opposite of sitting; nizzab , standing, with the subordinate idea of being firm, resolute, ready). This pleading ( ribh , Jer 25:31) is also judging ( din ), because His accusation, which is incontrovertible, contains the sentence in itself; and His sentence, which executes itself irresistibly, is of itself the infliction of punishment. Thus does he stand in the midst of the nations at once accuser, judge, and executioner (Psa 7:8). But among the nations it is more especially against Israel that He contends; and in Israel it is more especially against the leaders of the poor misguided and neglected people that He sets Himself.

Keil-Delitzsch: Isa 3:14-15

"Jehovah will proceed to judgment with the elders of His people, and its princes. And ye, ye have eaten up the vineyard; prey of the suffering is in your houses. What mean ye that ye crush my people, and grind the face of the suffering? Thus saith the Lord Jehovah of hosts." The words of God Himself commence with "and ye" ( v'attem ). The sentence to which this ( et vos = at vos ) is the antithesis is wanting, just as in Psa 2:6, where the words of God commence with "and I"( va'ani , et ego = ast ego ). the tacit clause may easily be supplied, viz., I have set you over my vineyard, but he have consumed the vineyard. The only question is, whether the sentence is to be regarded as suppressed by Jehovah Himself, or by the prophet. Most certainly by Jehovah Himself. The majesty with which He appeared before the rulers of His people as, even without words, a practical and undeniable proof that their majesty was only a shadow of His, and their office His trust. But their office consisted in the fact that Jehovah had committed His people to their care. The vineyard of Jehovah was His people - a self-evident figure, which the prophet dresses up in the form of a parable in chapter 5. Jehovah had appointed them as gardeners and keepers of this vineyard, but they themselves have become the very beasts that they ought to have warded off. בּער is applied to the beasts which completely devour the blades of a corn-field or the grapes of a vineyard (Exo 22:4). This change was perfectly obvious. The possessions stolen from their unhappy countrymen, which were still in their houses, were the tangible proof of their plundering of the vineyard. "The suffering:"ani ( depressus , the crushed) is introduced as explanatory of haccerem , the prey, because depression and misery were the ordinary fate of the congregation which God called His vineyard. It was ecclesia pressa , but woe to the oppressors! In the question "what mean ye?"( m allâcem ) the madness and wickedness of their deeds are implied. מה and לכ ם are fused into one word here, as if it were a prefix (as in Exo 4:2; Eze 8:6; Mal 1:13; vid., Ges. §20, 2). The Keri helps to make it clear by resolving the c hethibh . The word m allâcem ought, strictly speaking, to be followed by c hi : "What is there to you that ye crush my people?"as in Isa 22:1, Isa 22:16; but the words rush forwards (as in Jon 1:6), because they are an explosion of wrath. For this reason the expressions relating to the behaviour of the rulers are the strongest that can possibly be employed. דּכּא (crush) is also to be met with in Pro 22:22; but "grind the face"(tâchan p'ne ) is a strong metaphor without a parallel. The former signifies "to pound,"the latter "to grind,"as the millstone grinds the corn. They grind the faces of those who are already bowed down, thrusting them back with such unmerciful severity, that they stand as it were annihilated, and their faces become as white as flour, or as the Germans would say, cheese-white, chalk-white, as pale as death, from oppression and despair. Thus the language supplied to a certain extent appropriate figures, with which to describe the conduct of the rulers of Israel; but it contained no words that could exhaust the immeasurable wickedness of their conduct: hence the magnitude of their sin is set before them in the form of a question, "What is to you?"i.e., What indescribable wickedness is this which you are committing? The prophet hears this said by Jehovah, the majestic Judge, whom he here describes as Adonai Elohim Zebaoth (according to the Masoretic pointing). This triplex name of God, which we find in the prophetic books, viz., frequently in Amos and also in Jer 2:19, occurs for the first time in the Elohistic Psalm, Psa 69:7. This scene of judgment is indeed depicted throughout in the colours of the Psalms, and more especially recals the (Elohistic) Psalm of Asaph (Psa 82:1-8).

Keil-Delitzsch: Isa 3:16-17

But notwithstanding the dramatic vividness with which the prophet pictures to himself this scene of judgment, he is obliged to break off at the very beginning of his description, because another word of Jehovah comes upon him. This applies to the women of Jerusalem, whose authority, at the time when Isaiah prophesied, was no less influential than that of their husbands who had forgotten their calling. "Jehovah hath spoken: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk about with extended throat, and blinking with the eyes, walk about with tripping gait, and tinkle with their foot-ornaments: the Lord of all makes the crown of the daughters of Zion scabbed, and Jehovah will uncover their shame." Their inward pride (gâbah , as in Eze 16:50; cf., Zep 3:11) shows itself outwardly. They walk with extended throat, i.e., bending the neck back, trying to make themselves taller than they are, because they think themselves so great. The Keri substitutes the more usual form, נטוּית ; but Isaiah in all probability intentionally made use of the rarer and ruder form netuvoth , since such a form really existed (1Sa 25:18), as well as the singular nâtu for nâtui (Job 15:22; Job 41:25 : Ges. §75, Anm. 5). They also went winking the eyes ( mesakkeroth , for which we frequently find the erratum mesakkeroth ), i.e., casting voluptuous and amatory glances with affected innocence ( νεύματα ὀφθαλμῶν , lxx). "Winking:" sâkar is not used in the sense of fucare (Targ. b. Sabbath 62 b , Jome 9 b , Luther) - which is all the more inappropriate, because blackening the eyelids with powder of antimony was regarded in the East of the Old Testament as indispensable to female beauty - but in the sense of nictare (lxx, Vulg., Syr., syn. remaz , cf., sekar , Syr. to squint; Targ. = shâzaph , Job 20:9). Compare also the talmud ic saying: God did not create woman out of Adam's ear, that she might be no eavesdropper (tsaithânith ), nor out of Adam's eyes, that she might be no winker (sakrânith ).

(Note: Also b. Sota 47b: "Since women have multiplied with extended necks and winking eyes, the number of cases has also multiplied in which it has been necessary to resort to the curse water (Num 5:18)."In fact, this increased to such an extent, that Johanan ben Zakkai, the pupil of Hillel, abolished the ordeal (divine-verdict) of the Sota (the woman suspected of adultery) altogether. The people of his time were altogether an adulterous generation.)

The third was, that they walked incedendo et trepidando . The second inf. abs. is in this case, as in most others, the one which gives the distinct tone, whilst the other serves to keep before the eye the occurrence indicated in its finite verb (Ges. §131, 3). They walk about tripping (tâphop , a wide-spread onomato-poetic word), i.e., taking short steps, just putting the heel of one foot against the toe of the other (as the Talmud explains it). Luther renders it, "they walk along and waggle"( schwânzen , i.e., Clunibus agitatis ). The rendering is suitable, but incorrect. They could only take short steps, because of the chains by which the costly foot-rings (achâsim ) worn above their ankles were connected together. These chains, which were probably ornamented with bells, as is sometimes the case now in the East, they used to tinkle as they walked: they made an ankle-tinkling with their feet, setting their feet down in such a manner that these ankle-rings knocked against each other. The writing beraglēhem (masc.) for beraglēhen (fem.) is probably not an unintentional synallage gen .: they were not modest virgines , but cold, masculine viragines , so that they themselves were a synallage generis . Nevertheless they tripped along. Tripping is a child's step. Nevertheless they tripped along. Tripping is a child's step. Although well versed in sin and old in years, the women of Jerusalem tried to maintain a youthful, childlike appearance. They therefore tripped along with short, childish steps. The women of the Mohammedan East still take pleasure in such coquettish tinklings, although they are forbidden by the Koran, just as the women of Jerusalem did in the days of Isaiah. The attractive influence of natural charms, especially when heightened by luxurious art, is very great; but the prophet is blind to all this splendour, and seeing nothing but the corruption within, foretells to these rich and distinguished women a foul and by no means aesthetic fate. The Sovereign Ruler of all would smite the crown of their head, from which long hair was now flowing, with scab ( v'sippach , a progressive preterite with Vav apodosis , a denom. verb from sappachath , the scurf which adheres to the skin: see at Hab 2:15); and Jehovah would uncover their nakedness, by giving them up to violation and abuse at the hands of coarse and barbarous foes - the greatest possible disgrace in the eyes of a woman, who covers herself as carefully as she can in the presence of any stranger (Isa 47:3; Nah 3:5; Jer 13:22; Eze 16:37).

Keil-Delitzsch: Isa 3:18-23

The prophet then proceeds to describe still further how the Lord would take away the whole of their toilet as plunder. "On that day the Lord will put away the show of the ankle-clasps, and of the head-bands, and of the crescents; the ear-rings, and the arm-chains, and the light veils; the diadems, and the stepping-chains, and the girdles, and the smelling-bottles, and the amulets; the finger-rings, and the nose-rings; the gala-dresses, and the sleeve-frocks, and the wrappers, and the pockets; the hand-mirrors, and the Sindu-cloths, and the turbans, and the gauze mantles." The fullest explanation of all these articles of female attire is to be found in N. W. Schröder's work, entitled Commentarius de vestitu mulierum Hebraearum ad Jes . Isa 3:16-24, Ludg. Bat av 1745 (a quarto volume), and in that of Ant. Theod. Hartmann, consisting of three oc tavo volumes, and entitled Die Hebräerin am Putztische und als Braut (The Jewess at the Toilet-table, and as Bride, 1809-10); to which we may also add, Saalschütz, Archaeologie , chapter iii., where he treats of the dresses of men and women. It was not usually Isaiah's custom to enter into such minute particulars. Of all the prophets, Ezekiel was the one most addicted to this, as we may see, for example, from Ezek 16. And even in other prophecies against the women we find nothing of the kind again (Isa 32:9.; Amo 4:1.). But in this instance, the enumeration of the female ornaments is connected with that of the state props in Isa 3:1-3, and that of the lofty and exalted in Isa 2:13-16, so as to form a trilogy, and has its own special explanation in that boundless love of ornament which had become prevalent in the time of Uzziah-Jotham. It was the prophet's intention to produce a ludicrous, but yet serious impression, as to the immeasurable luxury which really existed; and in the prophetic address, his design throughout is to bring out the glaring contrast between the titanic, massive, worldly glory, in all its varied forms, and that true, spiritual, and majestically simple glory, whose reality is manifested from within outwards. In fact, the theme of the whole address is the way of universal judgment leading on from the false glory to the true. The general idea of tiphereth (show: rendered "bravery"in Eng. ver.) which stands at the head and includes the whole, points to the contrast presented by a totally different tiphereth which follows in Isa 4:2. In explaining each particular word, we must be content with what is most necessary, and comparatively the most certain. "Ankle-clasps" (acâsim ): these were rings of gold, silver, or ivory, worn round the ankles; hence the denom. verb ( icces ) in Isa 3:16, to make a tinkling sound with these rings. "Head-bands," or "frontlets" ( shebisim , from shâbas = shâbatz : plectere ), were plaited bands of gold or silver thread worn below the hair-net, and reaching from one ear to the other. There is some force, however, in the explanation which has been very commonly adopted since the time of Schröder, namely, that they were sun-like balls (= shemisim ), which were worn as ornaments round the neck, from the Arabic ‛sumeisa ( ‛subeisa ), a little sun. The "crescents" ( saharonim ) were little pendants of this kind, fastened round the neck and hanging down upon the breast (in Jdg 8:21 we meet with them as ornaments hung round the camels' necks). Such ornaments are still worn by Arabian girls, who generally have several different kinds of them; the hilâl , or new moon, being a symbol of increasing good fortune, and as such the most approved charm against the evil eye. "Ear-rings" ( netiphoth , ear-drops): we meet with these in Jdg 8:26, as an ornament worn by Midianitish kings. Hence the Arabic munattafe , a woman adorned with ear-rings. "Arm-chains:" sheroth , from shâra , to twist. According to the Targum, these were chains worn upon the arm, or spangles upon the wrist, answering to the spangles upon the ankles. "Fluttering veils" (re'âloth , from râ'al , to hang loose): these were more expensive than the ordinary veils worn by girls, which were called tza'iph .

"Diadems"( pe'erim ) are only mentioned in other parts of the Scriptures as being worn by men (e.g., by priests, bride-grooms, or persons of high rank). "Stepping-chains:" tze'âdoth , from tze'âdah , a step; hence the chain worn to shorten and give elegance to the step. "Girdles:" kisshurim , from kâshar ( Cingere ), dress girdles, such as were worn by brides upon their wedding-day (compare Jer 2:32 with Isa 49:18); the word is erroneously rendered hair-pins ( kalmasmezayyah ) in the Targum. "Smelling-bottles:" botte hannephesh , holders of scent ( nephesh , the breath of an aroma). "Amulets:" lechashim (from lâchash , to work by incantations), gems or metal plates with an inscription upon them, which were worn as a protection as well as an ornament. "Finger-rings:" tabbâ'oth , from tâba , to impress or seal, signet-rings worn upon the finger, corresponding to the C hothâm worn by men upon the breast suspended by a cord. "Nose-rings" ( nizmê hâaph ) were fastened in the central division of the nose, and hung down over the mouth: they have been ornaments in common use in the East from the time of the patriarchs (Gen 24:22) down to the present day. "Gala-dresses" ( m achalâtsoth ) are dresses not usually worn, but taken off when at home. "Sleeve-frocks" ( m a'atâphâh ): the second tunic, worn above the ordinary one, the Roman stola . "Wrappers" ( m itpâchoth , from tâphach , expandere ), broad cloths wrapped round the body, such as Ruth wore when she crept in to Boaz in her best attire (Rth 3:15). "Pockets" ( Charitim ) were for holding money (2Ki 5:23), which was generally carried by men in the girdle, or in a purse ( Cis ). "Hand-mirrors" ( gilyonim ): the Septuagint renders this διαφανῆ λακωνικὰ , sc. ἱμάτια , Lacedaemonian gauze or transparent dresses, which showed the nakedness rather than concealed it (from gâlâh , retegere ); but the better rendering is mirrors with handles, polished metal plates (from gâlâh , polire ), as gillâyon is used elsewhere to signify a smooth table. "Sindu-cloths" (sedinim ), veils or coverings of the finest linen, viz., of Sindu or Hindu cloth ( σινδόνες ) - Sindu , the land of Indus, being the earlier name of India.

(Note: The Mishna ( Kelim xxiv 13) mentions three different sedinin : night dresses, curtains, and embroidery. The sindon is frequently referred to as a covering wrapped round the person; and in b . Menachoth 41 a , it is stated that the sindom is the summer dress, the sarbal (cloak) the winter dress, which may help to explain Mar 14:51-52.)

"Turbans" (tseniphoth , from tsânaph , Convolvere ), the head-dress composed of twisted cloths of different colours. "Gauze mantles" (redidim , from râdad , extendere , tenuem facere ), delicate veil-like mantles thrown over the rest of the clothes. Stockings and handkerchiefs are not mentioned: the former were first introduced into Hither Asia from Media long after Isaiah's time, and a Jerusalem lady no more thought of suing the latter than a Grecian or Roman lady did. Even the veil (burko ) now commonly worn, which conceals the whole of the face with the exception of the eyes, did not form part of the attire of an Israelitish woman in the olden time.

(Note: Rashi, however, makes a different statement ( Sabbath 65 a ), viz., that "Israelitish women in Arabia go out with veils which conceal the face, and those in Media with their mantles fastened about the mouth.")

The prophet enumerates twenty-one different ornaments: three sevens of a very bad kind, especially for the husbands of these state-dolls. There is no particular order observed in the enumeration, either from head to foot, or from the inner to the outer clothing; but they are arranged as much ad libitum as the dress itself.

Keil-Delitzsch: Isa 3:24

When Jehovah took away all this glory, with which the women of Jerusalem were adorned, they would be turned into wretched-looking prisoners, disfigured by ill-treatment and dirt. - "And instead of balmy scent there will be mouldiness, and instead of the sash a rope, and instead of artistic ringlets a baldness, and instead of the dress-cloak a frock of sackcloth, branding instead of beauty." Mouldiness , or mother ( mak , as in Isa 5:24, the dust of things that have moulded away), with which they would be covered, and which they would be obliged to breathe, would take the place of the bosem , i.e., the scent of the balsam shrub (bâsâm ), and of sweet-scented pomade in general; and nipâh that of the beautifully embroidered girdle (Pro 31:24). The meaning of this word is neither "a wound,"as the Targums and Talmud render it, nor "rags,"as given by Knobel, ed. 1 (from nâkaph , percutere , perforare ), but the rope thrown over them as prisoners (from kâphâh = kâvâh , Contorquere : lxx, Vulg., Syr.).

(Note: Credner ( Joel , p. 147) renders the word "tatters,"from nâkaph , to rub in pieces; but the word has no such meaning, whereas the meaning vulnus , lit., percussio , is admissible (see at Job 19:26), but does not suit the antithesis. Luzzatto connects it with n'kaph , to bind (from which the makkeph derives its name), and understands it as referring to the dressing applied to wounds, to lint into which the girdle was torn. The most plausible derivation is from kâphâh , which is really employed in post-biblical usage to signify not only to congeal and wrinkle, but also to thicken ( Sabbath 21 a , l'hakpoth : "Make the wick thicker, that it may burn the brighter"). It is probably radically akin to the Arabic nukbe (explained in Lamachzari as equivalent to the Persian mijân -bend , a girdle), which is apparently used to denote the coarse girdle worn by peasants or by Arab women of the wandering tribes, resembling a rope of goat's hair, as distinguished from the artistic and costly girdle worn by women of the upper classes in the towns.)

Baldness takes the place of artistic ringlets ( מקשׁה מעשׂה , not מעשׂה , so that it is in apposition: cf., Isa 30:20; Ges. §113; Ewald, §287, b ). The reference is not to golden ornaments for the head, as the Sept. rendering gives it, although m iksheh is used elsewhere to signify embossed or carved work in metal or wood; but here we are evidently to understand by the "artificial twists"either curls made with the curling-tongs, or the hair plaited and twisted up in knots, which they would be obliged to cut off in accordance with the mourning customs (Isa 15:2; Isa 22:12), or which would fall off in consequence of grief. A frock of sackcloth ( m achagoreth sak ), i.e., a smock of coarse haircloth worn next to the skin, such as Layard found depicted upon a bas-relief at Kouyunjik, would take the place of the pethigil , i.e., the dress-cloak (either from pâthag , to be wide or full, with the substantive termination ı̄l , or else composed of pethi , breadth, and gil , festive rejoicing); and branding the place of beauty . Branding ( C i = C evi , from C âvâh , καἰειν ), the mark burnt upon the forehead by their conquerors: C i is a substantive,

(Note: It is so understood in b. Sabbath 62 b , with an allusion to the proverb, "The end of beauty is burning"(viz., inflammation). In Arabia, the application of the C ey with a red-hot iron ( m ikwâh ) plays a very important part in the medical treatment of both man and beast. You meet with many men who have been burned not only on their legs and arms, but in their faces as well, and, as a rule, the finest horses are disfigured by the C ey . - Wetzstein.)

not a particle, as the Targum and others render it, and as the m akkeph might make it appear. There is something very effective in the inverted order of the words in the last clause of the five. In this five-fold reverse would shame and mourning take the place of proud, voluptuous rejoicing.

Keil-Delitzsch: Isa 3:25

The prophet now passes over to a direct address to Jerusalem itself, since the "daughters of Zion"and the daughter of Zion in her present degenerate condition. The daughter of Zion loses her sons, and consequently the daughters of Zion their husbands. - "Thy men will fall by the sword, and thy might in war." The plural m ethim (the singular of which only occurs in the form m ethu , with the connecting vowel ū as a component part of the proper names) is used as a prose word in the Pentateuch; but in the later literature it is a poetic archaism. "Thy might" is used interchangeably with "thy men,"the possessors of the might being really intended, like robur and robora in Latin (compare Jer 49:35).

Keil-Delitzsch: Isa 3:26

What the prophet here foretells to the daughter of Zion he sees in Isa 3:26 fulfilled upon her: "Then will her gates lament and mourn, and desolate is she, sits down upon the ground." The gates, where the husbands of the daughters of Zion, who have now fallen in war, sued at one time to gather together in such numbers, are turned into a state of desolation, in which they may, as it were, be heard complaining, and seen to mourn (Isa 14:31; Jer 14:2; Lam 1:4); and the daughter of Zion herself is utterly vacated, thoroughly emptied, completely deprived of all her former population; and in this state of the most mournful widowhood or orphanage, brought down from her lofty seat (Isa 47:1) and princely glory (Jer 13:18), she sits down upon the ground, just as Judaea is represented as doing upon Roman medals that were struck after the destruction of Jerusalem, where she is introduced as a woman thoroughly broken down, and sitting under a palm-tree in an attitude of despair, with a warrior standing in front of her, the inscription upon the medal being Judaea capta , or devicta . The Septuagint rendering is quite in accordance with the sense, viz., καὶ καταλειφθἠση μ όνη καὶ εἰς την̀ γῆν ἐδαφισθήση (cf., Luk 19:44), except that תּשׁב is not the second person, but the third, and נקּתה the third pers. pret. niph . for נקּתה - a pausal form which is frequently met with in connection with the smaller distinctive accents, such as silluk and athnach (here it occurs with tiphchah , as, for example, in Amo 3:8). The clause "sits down upon the ground"is appended ἀσυνδἔτως - a frequent construction in cases where one of two verbs defines the other in a manner which is generally expressed adverbially (vid., 1Ch 13:2, and the inverted order of the words in Jer 4:5; cf., Isa 12:6): Zion sits upon the earth in a state of utter depopulation.

Constable: Isa 1:1--5:30

I. introduction chs. 1--5

The relationship of chapters 1-5 to Isaiah's call in chapter 6 is problematic. Do the first five chapters describe the prophet's ministry before he received his call--is the order chronological--or do they constitute an introduction to the anthology of prophecies that follow Isaiah's call--is the order literary? The commentators take both views. My preference is to view these prophecies not necessarily as the first ones Isaiah delivered in his ministry but as those he placed here to form an introduction to his whole book. They present in a succinct way the problem that the rest of the book solves. Isaiah's call (ch. 6) is the most concise statement of the solution, and the chapters after that one spell it out in more detail. Probably Isaiah, or whoever arranged these prophecies in their final form, put these prophecies here to set before the reader the situation facing Israel that Isaiah addressed in the rest of the book.

Constable: Isa 2:1--4:6

B. The problem with Israel chs. 2-4

This second major segment of the introduction to the book (chs. 1-5) contrasts what God intended Israel to be (2:1-5) with what she was (2:6-4:1) and what God will make of her in the future (4:2-6). Thus the progress of thought is from the ideal to the real and back to the ideal.

Constable: Isa 2:5--4:2

2. God's discipline of Israel 2:5-4:1

In contrast to the hopeful tone of the sections that precede and follow it, this one is hopeless. In contrast to the dignity of humanity there, Isaiah presented its folly here.

Constable: Isa 3:1--4:2

The folly of trusting in people 3:1-4:1

This section gives particular examples of the general statements that precede. Isaiah's point was that depending on people will not yield the glorious destiny of Israel depicted in 2:1-4. The prophet used imagery to make his point rather than logical argumentation.

Constable: Isa 3:1-15

Dearth of leadership 3:1-15

The emphasis in this pericope is on the lack of qualified leaders and the consequent collapse of society that would result because God's people put their trust in people rather than in Him. The name "the Lord [sovereign] God of hosts [the almighty]" forms an inclusio around this section (vv. 1, 15).

"To make great men the source of a nation's greatness is always to end up with a dearth of great men. Unless the greatness comes from within the community itself, a condition which is ultimately the result of trust in God, no great leaders will rise from it. Instead, the leaders will merely reflect the spiritual poverty of the community."⁴⁴

3:1 "For" ties this section to the argument of 2:6-22. "Behold" introduces a threat commonly in prophetic material. The multiple names of God again hint at judgment to come (cf. 1:24; 10:16, 33; 19:4). God was going to remove what was essential from Judah and Jerusalem. "Supply" and "support" are masculine and feminine forms of the same word in Hebrew, meaning a staff, suggesting that every type of support will be removed. The figures of bread and water stand for food and drink--famine will come--but in a larger sense these things also represent all that is essential to the nation.

3:2-3 The Lord would remove the leading men in the military, political, religious, and commercial spheres of life. These were people the Israelites depended on. This happened when the Babylonians conquered the city and the land (cf. 2 Kings 24:14) and earlier when the Assyrians defeated Israel.

3:4-5 This lack of leadership would result in incompetent individuals seeking and gaining positions of authority (cf. Lev. 19:32; 1 Kings 3:7). Wicked King Manasseh began ruling over Judah when he was only 12, and Kings Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, who followed him later, proved capricious.

"Good government is one of God's best gifts to a sinful race. How great then is the sin of those who refuse to concern themselves with their responsibilities as citizens of the state!"⁴⁵

3:6-7 Things would become so bad that the possession of a mere coat (an outer garment) would lead others to thrust its owner into leadership despite his protestations. Any type of superiority will seem like an indication that the possessor can provide desperately needed authority and power. Yet the chosen leader will refuse to take responsibility, even lying about his resources, because what he would rule is only a ruin and because he knows he lacks the qualifications to lead.

"Isaiah is in reality describing a breakdown in national character and seriousness; the spirit which treats national welfare, politics and leadership as a joke."⁴⁶

People should not try to compel a person who is unqualified to run for office.

Note the stages in Israel's degradation that verses 1-7 trace. Good leaders disappear (vv. 1-3), and immature, capricious leaders (v. 4) who begin to oppress the populace (v. 5) take their place. Society becomes divided as age gaps open up and respect for the respectable breaks down (v. 5). Unqualified people get pressed into leadership, and a spirit of despair dominates elections (vv. 6-7).

3:8 The reason for these conditions is that Israel was already defying Yahweh by depending on humans rather than on Him.

3:9 Instead of bowing before Yahweh's glorious face, the Israelites were with brazen faces rebelling against Him, as the people of Sodom did. So it would go hard for them. "Woe" is an interjection of threat or distress.⁴⁷ They had brought the judgment of God on themselves by their pride.

3:10-11 The faithful minority, however, would not simply get lost in the judgment of the unfaithful majority, but the Lord would remember them and send them good. Sin does bring its own wages (Rom. 6:23). Here the long term blessing of the righteous contrasts with the short term blasting of the unrighteous. There were these two groups among God's chosen people then as there are now. The faithful frequently suffer along with the unfaithful, but their ultimate ends are very different (cf. Rev. 2:10-11).

3:12 Isaiah personally bemoaned the plight of the people who had already begun to experience the frustration of incompetent leaders and who would have to endure still more of the same. In his day women did not have the educational advantages that men enjoyed and so were less fit to lead than men. Children, of course, because of their age lack the experience, perspective, and wisdom needed to lead adults. Unqualified leaders were leading the people astray and giving them confusing directions concerning God's will.

"God's peculiar gift to his people through history lay in furnishing inspired leaders. Now these will be withdrawn."⁴⁸

3:13-15 Yahweh is the ultimate judge of His people, and He would contend with His human representatives who used their positions to fatten themselves rather than feeding their people (cf. Zech. 11:1-17). Their possessions witnessed to their stealing from their neighbors. The vineyard is a common figure for Israel (cf. 5:1, 7; Ps. 80:8-18; Jer. 2:21; 12:10; Ezek. 15:6-8; Hos. 10:1). The people belonged to the Lord, not these abusing leaders who crushed them and ground them down to get out of them as much as they could for themselves (cf. Lev. 19:9-10; Deut. 24:20-21).

Constable: Isa 3:16--4:2

Death of liberty 3:16-4:1

The Lord's condemnation of His people continues, but there is a change in focus. In verses 1-5 it was the male leaders who received criticism, but in this section the female citizens are more prominent. Undoubtedly what the Lord said about these women was true of them as females, but we should not limit their indictment to females alone. Men have been just as guilty of these sins as women, though in Isaiah's day they were more blatant among some women. The whole nation of Judah was guilty, not just the men.

3:16-17 Pride led these ladies to walk with their noses in the air assuming superiority over others and to use their eyes to draw men to themselves. They took small steps to give the appearance of humility and drew attention even to their feet. Everything they did was designed to attract attention.

"Wherever dress and splendour are carried to excess, there is evidence of ambition, and many vices are usually connected with it; for whence comes luxury in men and women but from pride?"⁴⁹

God would humble them by making the hair that they loved so much a patch of scabs and the foreheads they decorated so carefully bare. Having delighted in immodest exposure, God gave them over to it (cf. Rom. 1). He did not condemn their luxurious lifestyle but their arrogant spirit, which their lifestyle demonstrated.

3:18-23 The Lord proceeded to condemn 21 other personal decorations that evidenced pride many of which were popular in Isaiah's day and some of which are still popular now. Again, these things are not wrong in themselves, but they may assume too much importance in a person's life.

3:24 Disgrace would result from trusting self rather than God. These five exchanges and more took place when God humbled Israel in exile. They all represent the results of divine judgment for self-exaltation.

3:25-26 The woman in view is Jerusalem personified. She is seen as having lost her providers and defenders and all on whom she depended. She is utterly without joy and alone.

"There is extant a coin from [the time of the Roman emperor] Vespasian which pictures the conquered Jerusalem as a dejected woman sitting under a palm tree, a soldier standing before her, and which bears the inscription Judaea capta, or devicta. Jerusalem alone."⁵⁰

4:1 This verse brings to a high point the horrors that were to come. War has always resulted in the decimation of the male population.⁵¹ So many men would die in Israel that women would be desperate for male companionship and support. They would be willing to humiliate themselves to escape the reproach of being unmarried and childless Long gone is the hope to gain a man through seduction of the eyes (cf. 3:16). Now even begging and pleading would be ineffective. Women providing their own food and clothing is the reverse of God's intention in marriage (cf. Exod. 21:10). Likewise women taking men's places and leading them, as Eve led Adam (Gen. 3), illustrates a desperate situation.

"Here is the final end of our desire to avoid dependence. We will become dependent in the most degrading and disadvantageous ways."⁵²

All this will happen on "that day" (3:7, 18; 4:1), namely, when God judges His people for trusting in other human beings and themselves rather than Him. Many of the judgments prophesied in this section took place during the Babylonian Captivity, and during the Assyrian Captivity of the Northern Kingdom, but "that day" also anticipates Tribulation times.

Guzik: Isa 3:1-26

Isaiah 3 - The Sins of Judah

A. Profile of a society under judgment.

1. (1-7) Shortages of food, water, and competent leaders.

For behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stock and the store, the whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water; the mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, and the diviner and the elder; the captain of fifty and the honorable man, the counselor and the skillful artisan, and the expert enchanter. "I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. The people will be oppressed, every one by another and every one by his neighbor; the child will be insolent toward the elder, and the base toward the honorable." When a man takes hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, "You have clothing; you be our ruler, and let these ruins be under your power," In that day he will protest, saying, "I cannot cure your ills, for in my house is neither food nor clothing; do not make me a ruler of the people."

a. For behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stock and the store: God's judgment on Judah, at this point, includes taking away their food (stock and the store) and water.

i. Isaiah 3:1 is a good example of the way two Hebrew words, each translated Lord may be used. In this verse, the first time Lord is used, it translates the Hebrew word adonai, which means "master, owner, sovereign." It is a broad word that can be applied to a human master as well as the Lord GOD, the ultimate Master. The second time LORD is used, and is printed in small capitals, it translates the Hebrew word Yahweh, which is the sacred name of the Triune God. So, it may be that the Hebrew Bible could use the phrase adonai Yahweh, which could be translated into English as Lord LORD, but actually means "Master Yahweh." That phrase appears more than 300 times in the Old Testament. Most of the time, the phrase is translated Lord GOD in the New King James Version.

ii. The specific phrase here - the Lord, the LORD of hosts - is used more than 15 times in the Old Testament, and often by Isaiah (Isaiah 1:24, 3:1, 3:15, 10:23-24, 10:33, 19:4, 22:5, 22:12, 22:14-15, and 28:22). It emphasizes the majesty and power of God, because the idea behind LORD of hosts is that God is "Commander in Chief" of heaven's armies.

iii. So when it is "The Master of All, Yahweh of Heaven's Armies" (the Lord, the LORD of hosts) who has taken food and water from Jerusalem and from Judah, they do well to repent and get right with Him. "This is also the reason why he calls God the Lord and Jehovah of hosts, that the majesty of God may terrify their drowsy and sluggish minds; for God has no need of titles, but our ignorance and stupidity must be aroused by perceiving his glory." (Calvin)

b. The judgment is worse than just taking away food and water. God also brought judgment on Jerusalem and Judah by depriving them of godly, competent leaders on every level: the mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, and the diviner and the elder; the captain of fifty and the honorable man, the counselor and the skillful artisan, and the expert enchanter. Instead of wise, competent leaders, God will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

i. The eventual fulfillment of this prophecy is found in 2 Kings 24:14: Also he carried into captivity all Jerusalem: all the captains and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land.

ii. But this principle of God's judgment endures to this day. One way God may bring judgment on a nation is to curse them with incompetent, ungodly leaders. Often, this is the simplest avenue of judgment: giving people what their wicked hearts desire. This crisis of leadership can happen even in economically prosperous times (Isaiah 2:7 is part of this same prophecy). The terrible effect of this judgment of God, the granting of incompetent and ungodly leaders, may not be immediately seen, but it will be certainly seen, apart from the repentance of a nation and the mercy of God.

c. Because of this ungodly, incompetent leadership, the people will be oppressed, and there will be a breakdown of order in society (The child will be insolent toward the elder, and the base toward the honorable).

i. "For there is hardly any conduct more offensive, or more fitted to disturb our minds, than when the worst examples of every sort are publicly exhibited by magistrates, while no man utters a syllable against them, but almost all give their approbation." (Calvin)

d. Things will become so bad, that in the minds of the people, the smallest achievements will qualify a man for leadership: You have clothing, you be our ruler, and let these ruins be under your hand. Yet, even such a man will not want to lead: In that day, he will protest, saying, "I cannot cure your ills . . . do not make me a ruler of the people."

i. "It is astonishing how realistically the prophet is here able to describe the consequences of a total collapse of the state. Anyone who remembers the months that followed May 1945 in Germany will have the sensation in reading this passage of being carried right back to these days." (Kaiser, cited in Grogan)

2. (8-12) Why Judah is ripe for judgment.

For Jerusalem stumbled, and Judah is fallen, because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of His glory. The look on their countenance witnesses against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought evil upon themselves. "Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him. As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths."

a. Jerusalem and Judah have sinned in what they say and in what they do: their tongues and their doings are against the LORD. In fact, what they say and what they do provoke the eyes of His glory.

i. It is much easier to think that what we do is offensive to God, than to think that what we say can provoke the eyes of His glory. But we are commanded to glorify God by what we say just as much as by what we do. Jesus said, For every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. (Matthew 12:36-37)

b. The look on their countenance witnesses against them: The very look on their faces is evidence of their guilt. Either they have smirk of the reprobate, or the downcast gaze of those under conviction.

i. "Impure propensities are particularly legible in the eyes: whoever has beheld the face of a debauchee or a prostitute knows this; of these it may be said, they wish to appear what they really are. They glory in their iniquity. This is the highest pitch of ungodliness." (Clarke)

c. And they declare their sin as Sodom; they do not hide it: Their sin is openly displayed, and there have no sense of shame. The cultural dynamic in Isaiah's day was probably much the same as in our time. In the name of "frankness" and "honesty" and "let's not be hypocrites," all kinds of sin is approved, and no one is "allowed" to proclaim a standard unless they live up to it perfectly.

i. Outward decency is important. It is important to not talk about many sins, even though they exist, and sometimes touch the church. It is through these means that God's people declare a standard, even though they or the world do not perfectly measure up to a standard. Ephesians 5:12 matters here: For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.

ii. One of the most destructive lies of our time is that it is wrong or hypocritical to have a standard that we don't live up to. No one has always told the truth, yet it is right and good to teach our children, "Don't lie." It would be wrong, and destructive, for someone to answer, "You can't tell your child not to lie. You have lied in the past. You are a hypocrite." This attitude in our society translates into a certain result: a wholesale lowering of standards. Also, the charge of hypocrisy is false. It is not hypocritical to promote a standard you don't perfectly meet. Hypocrisy is when you pretend to keep the standard when you do not, or think it is fine for you to not keep the standard, when you think others should.

iii. "The maintenance of external decency is at least some evidence of a conscience not altogether seared." (Jennings)

c. Woe to their soul! For they have brought evil upon themselves: God did not have to do anything unique or special to bring this judgment on Jerusalem and Judah. All He had to do was leave them alone, and allow them to have brought evil upon themselves.

i. When the LORD gives a nation the leadership they desire and deserve, it is either a blessing or a curse. In Judah's case in the time of Isaiah, it was a curse. In the United States at the end of the 20 ^th Century, it is a curse.

d. Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings: even in the midst of judgment, God knows how to bless and protect His people. Sometimes this is only seen in the perspective of eternity, but God assures us that the righteous will never share the same fate as the wicked. Abraham knew this principle well when he said to the LORD, "Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25)

e. They shall eat the fruit of their doings . . . for the reward of his hands shall be given him: God will give both the righteous and the wicked the reward they deserve. For the righteous, this is a comfort, for the wicked, it is a curse.

i. Spurgeon on Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him: "It shall be ill with the wicked, and let no present appearance lead you to doubt it . . . The eyes that never weep for sin here will weep in awful anguish for ever . . . It will be a profitable thing for thee to feel the wrath of God heavy on thy spirit now, for if not, it will crush thee, crush thee down and down without hope, world without end. It shall be ill with you."

f. As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them: Again, the LORD both declares and bemoans His judgment on Judah, that they have been given incompetent and ungodly leadership. Those who lead you cause you err, and destroy the way of your paths.

i. Women rule over them: this was seen as a curse, not a blessing. Certainly, God may raise up particular women at particular times to be leaders in different spheres. Deborah (Judges 4-5) and Esther are examples of this. But this entirely different than a society where, in general, women rule over them. Such a society is cursed, not blessed.

B. God's case against Judah.

1. (13-15) Their ill treatment of the poor.

The LORD stands up to plead, and stands to judge the people. The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders of His people and His princes: "For you have eaten up the vineyard; the plunder of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing My people and grinding the faces of the poor?" says the Lord GOD of hosts.

a. The LORD stands up to plead, and stands to judge the people: Here, the LORD is both a prosecutor (stands up to plead) and a judge against Judah. When you are in court, and the prosecutor and the judge are the same person, you know you are going to be found guilty!

b. The plunder of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing My people, and grinding the faces of the poor? God's charge against the elders and the princes of Israel is not that they have failed to help the poor. That would be bad in itself. But far worse than that, they have robbed the poor, and taken advantage of their poverty to enrich themselves.

2. (16-23) The sinful women of Judah, and the judgment of the LORD against them.

Moreover the LORD says: "Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, making a jingling with their feet, therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will uncover their secret parts." In that day the Lord will take away the finery: The jingling anklets, the scarves, and the crescents; the pendants, the bracelets, and the veils; the headdresses, the leg ornaments, and the headbands; the perfume boxes, the charms, and the rings; the nose jewels, the festal apparel, and the mantles; the outer garments, the purses, and the mirrors; the fine linen, the turbans, and the robes.

a. The daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks: The women of Judah were proud. They were taken with themselves, and loved to consider themselves better than others (are haughty).

i. This proud heart was the basis for the rest of the sin among the daughters of Zion. "To meet their unfounded accusations, he lays open the inward disease, which is manifested in the whole of their outward dress." (Calvin)

ii. In contrast, women of God are called to in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself (Philippians 2:3).

b. Wanton eyes: The women of Judah were sexually seductive and promiscuous. They wanted to behold and attract what was sexually impure.

i. "What he adds about wandering eyes denotes shameless lust, which for the most part is expressed by the eyes; for unchaste eyes are the heralds of an unchaste heart; but the eyes of chaste women are sedate, and not wandering or unsteady." (Calvin)

ii. In contrast, women of God are called to be discreet and chaste (Titus 2:5).

c. Walking and mincing as they go, making a jingling with their feet: The women of Judah were obsessed with finery, luxury, and "accessories." They devoted far too much of their lives to their appearance and their image.

i. For emphasis, the prophet declares a list of the "accessories" and luxury items the women of Judah longed for and devoted too much of their lives to: The jingling anklets, the scarves, and the crescents; the pendants, the bracelets, and the veils; the headdresses, the leg ornaments, and the headbands; the perfume boxes, the charms, and the rings; the nose jewels, the festal apparel, and the mantles; the outer garments, the purses, and the mirrors; the fine linen, the turbans, and the robes. Sounds like they had some pretty good malls in Jerusalem!

ii. This love of finery, luxury, and the obtaining of it all is not unique to women. Many men have a problem with it also. But it is definitely a problem among many women. A 1992 story in the Los Angeles Times told about Michelle, a successful writer and editor, who feared the day her husband might discover her secret stash of credit cards, her secret post office box or the other tricks she used to hide how much money she spent shopping for herself. "I make as much money as my husband . . . If I want a $500 suit from Ann Taylor, I deserve it and don't want to be hassled about it. So the easiest thing to do is lie," she explained. Last year, when her husband forced her to destroy one of her credit cards, Michelle went out and got a new one without telling him. "I do live in fear. If he discovers this new VISA, he'll kill me."

iii. In the same article, a school teacher explained more: "Men just don't understand that shopping is our drug of choice," she joked, even while admitting that some months her salary goes exclusively to paying the minimum balance on her credit cards. "Walking through the door of South Coast Plaza is like walking though the gates of heaven. God made car trunks for women to hide shopping bags in." A young professional named Mary explained: "Shopping is my recreation. It's my way of pampering myself. When you walk into [a mall] and you see all the stores, it's like something takes over and you get caught up in it."

iv. "It is worthy of notice that the Prophet had good reason for reproving, with so great earnestness and vehemence, the luxury of women; for while they are chargeable with many vices, they are most of all inflamed with mad eagerness to have fine clothes. Covetous as they naturally are, still they spare no expense for dressing in a showy manner, and even use spare diet, and deprive themselves of what nature requires, that their clothes may be more costly and elegant. So grievously are they corrupted by this vice, that it goes beyond every other." (Calvin)

v. "Nothing can exceed the curiosity which dwells in woman. Indeed there is no end to those contrivances; and it was not without reason that the ancients called the collection of a woman's ornaments a world; for if they were collected into one heap, they would be almost as numerous as the parts of the world." (Calvin)

vi. In contrast, women of God are commanded: Do not let your adornment be merely outward; arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel; rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. (1 Peter 3:3-4)

d. Their obsession with their appearance, their love of luxury, and their promiscuity made the daughters of Zion ripe for judgment: Therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will uncover their secret parts. Their "crown" will be a scab, and instead of being beautifully adorned, they will be exposed and humiliated. Also, the Lord will take away the finery.

i. In Isaiah's time, these judgments were connected with the coming invasions. Because of scarcity and disease, the haughty daughters of Zion would be sick and diseased. They would be raped and humiliated. And all their wonderful "accessories" would be taken away.

ii. Because of their role in the nurture of children, it is important that women of God live and think like women of God. When the women of a culture become degenerate, then the hope for the next generation is gone. But when the women of a culture turn to the LORD and His ways, there is great hope for the future.

iii. "In short, both men and women are instructed to make a sober use of the gifts of God, both in food and in clothing, and in the whole conduct of life. For the Lord cannot endure extravagance, and absolutely must inflict severe punishment on account of it; for it cannot be restrained by a lighter chastisement." (Calvin)

3. (24-26) More of the judgment of the LORD on the sinful daughters of Zion.

And so it shall be: Instead of a sweet smell there will be a stench; instead of a sash, a rope; instead of well-set hair, baldness; instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth; and branding instead of beauty. Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty in the war. Her gates shall lament and mourn, and she being desolate shall sit on the ground.

a. Instead of . . . Instead of . . . Instead of . . . Instead of . . . instead of: The LORD will replace their finery with the marks of captivity and humiliation. They will live the stench, the baldness, the branding and the general deprivation of captivity.

i. Do we realize how quickly God can take it all away? How much more reason to honor God with what we have, instead of indulging ourselves.

ii. "Now there cannot befall us anything worse than that we should be hardened against chastisements, and not perceive that God chastiseth us. When we labour under such stupidity, our case is almost hopeless." (Calvin)

b. Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty in the war: without doubt, one reason the daughters of Zion loved all the luxury and finery was because it made them more attractive to men. They felt they could "get" men that way. But their ungodly love of luxury and finery resulted in the loss of their men.

c. She being desolate shall sit on the ground: A Roman medal, struck after Jerusalem's fall, shows a Jewish woman being desolate, sitting under a palm tree next to a Roman soldier.

© 2001 David Guzik - No distribution beyond personal use without permission

Introduction / Outline

JFB: Isaiah (Book Introduction)

ISAIAH, son of Amoz (not Amos); contemporary of Jonah, Amos, Hosea, in Israel, but younger than they; and of Micah, in Judah. His call to a higher degree of the prophetic office (Isa 6:1-13) is assigned to the last year of Uzziah, that is, 754 B.C. The first through fifth chapters belong to the closing years of that reign; not, as some think, to Jotham's reign: in the reign of the latter he seems to have exercised his office only orally, and not to have left any record of his prophecies because they were not intended for all ages. The first through fifth and sixth chapters are all that was designed for the Church universal of the prophecies of the first twenty years of his office. New historical epochs, such as occurred in the reigns of Ahaz and Hezekiah, when the affairs of Israel became interwoven with those of the Asiatic empires, are marked by prophetic writings. The prophets had now to interpret the judgments of the Lord, so as to make the people conscious of His punitive justice, as also of His mercy. Isa. 7:1-10:4 belong to the reign of Ahaz. The thirty-sixth through thirty-ninth chapters are historical, reaching to the fifteenth year of Hezekiah; probably the tenth through twelfth chapters and all from the thirteenth through twenty-sixth chapters, inclusive, belong to the same reign; the historical section being appended to facilitate the right understanding of these prophecies; thus we have Isaiah's office extending from about 760 to 713 B.C., forty-seven years. Tradition (Talmud) represents him as having been sawn asunder by Manasseh with a wooden saw, for having said that he had seen Jehovah (Exo 33:20; 2Ki 21:16; Heb 11:37). 2Ch 32:32 seems to imply that Isaiah survived Hezekiah; but "first and last" is not added, as in 2Ch 26:22, which makes it possible that his history of Hezekiah was only carried up to a certain point. The second part, the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters, containing complaints of gross idolatry, needs not to be restricted to Manasseh's reign, but is applicable to previous reigns. At the accession of Manasseh, Isaiah would be eighty-four; and if he prophesied for eight years afterwards, he must have endured martyrdom at ninety-two; so Hosea prophesied for sixty years. And Eastern tradition reports that he lived to one hundred and twenty. The conclusive argument against the tradition is that, according to the inscription, all Isaiah's prophecies are included in the time from Uzziah to Hezekiah; and the internal evidence accords with this.

His WIFE is called the prophetess [Isa 8:3], that is, endowed, as Miriam, with a prophetic gift.

His CHILDREN were considered by him as not belonging merely to himself; in their names, Shearjashub, "the remnant shall return" [Isa 7:3, Margin], and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, "speeding to the spoil, he hasteth to the prey" [Isa 8:1, Margin], the two chief points of his prophecies are intimated to the people, the judgments of the Lord on the people and the world, and yet His mercy to the elect.

His GARMENT of sackcloth (Isa 20:2), too, was a silent preaching by fact; he appears as the embodiment of that repentance which he taught.

His HISTORICAL WORKS.--History, as written by the prophets, is retroverted prophecy. As the past and future alike proceed from the essence of God, an inspired insight into the past implies an insight into the future, and vice versa. Hence most of the Old Testament histories are written by prophets and are classed with their writings; the Chronicles being not so classed, cannot have been written by them, but are taken from historical monographs of theirs; for example, Isaiah's life of Uzziah, 2Ch 26:22; also of Hezekiah, 2Ch 32:32; of these latter all that was important for all ages has been preserved to us, while the rest, which was local and temporary, has been lost.

The INSCRIPTION (Isa 1:1) applies to the whole book and implies that Isaiah is the author of the second part (the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters), as well as of the first. Nor do the words, "concerning Judah and Jerusalem" [Isa 1:1], oppose the idea that the inscription applies to the whole; for whatever he says against other nations, he says on account of their relation to Judah. So the inscription of Amos, "concerning Israel" [Amo 1:1], though several prophecies follow against foreign nations. EWALD maintains that the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters, though spurious, were subjoined to the previous portion, in order to preserve the former. But it is untrue that the first portion is unconnected with those chapters. The former ends with the Babylonian exile (Isa 39:6), the latter begins with the coming redemption from it. The portion, the fortieth through forty-sixth chapters, has no heading of its own, a proof that it is closely connected with what precedes, and falls under the general heading in Isa 1:1. JOSEPHUS (The Antiquities of the Jews, 11. 1, sec. 1, 2) says that Cyrus was induced by the prophecies of Isaiah (Isa 44:28; Isa 45:1, Isa 45:13) to aid the Jews in returning and rebuilding the temple Ezr 1:1-11 confirms this; Cyrus in his edict there plainly refers to the prophecies in the second portion, which assign the kingdoms to him from Jehovah, and the duty of rebuilding the temple. Probably he took from them his historical name Cyrus (Coresh). Moreover, subsequent prophets imitate this second portion, which EWALD assigns to later times; for example, compare Jer. 50:1-51:64 with Isaiah's predictions against Babylon [Isa. 13:1-14:23]. "The Holy One of Israel," occurring but three times elsewhere in the Old Testament [2Ki 19:22; Psa 78:41; Psa 89:18; Jer 50:29; Jer 51:5], is a favorite expression in the second, as in the first portion of Isaiah: it expresses God's covenant faithfulness in fulfilling the promises therein: Jeremiah borrows the expression from him. Also Ecclesiasticus 48:22-25 ("comforted"), quotes Isa 40:1 as Isaiah's. Luk 4:17 quotes Isa 61:1-2 as Isaiah's, and as read as such by Jesus Christ in the synagogue.

The DEFINITENESS of the prophecies is striking: As in the second portion of isaiah, so in Mic 4:8-10, the Babylonian exile, and the deliverance from it, are foretold a hundred fifty years before any hostilities had arisen between Babylon and Judah. On the other hand, all the prophets who foretell the Assyrian invasion coincide in stating, that Judah should be delivered from it, not by Egyptian aid, but directly by the Lord. Again Jeremiah, in the height of the Chaldean prosperity, foretold its conquest by the Medes, who should enter Babylon through the dry bed of the Euphrates on a night of general revelry. No human calculation could have discovered these facts. EICHORN terms these prophecies "veiled historical descriptions," recognizing in spite of himself that they are more than general poetical fancies. The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah was certainly written ages before the Messiah, yet it minutely portrays His sufferings: these cannot be Jewish inventions, for the Jews looked for a reigning, not a suffering, Messiah.

Rationalists are so far right that THE PROPHECIES ARE ON A GENERAL BASIS whereby they are distinguished from soothsaying. They rest on the essential idea of God. The prophets, penetrated by this inner knowledge of His character, became conscious of the eternal laws by which the world is governed: that sin is man's ruin, and must be followed by judgment, but that God's covenant mercy to His elect is unchangeable. Without prophetism, the elect remnant would have decreased, and even God's judgments would have missed their end, by not being recognized as such: they would have been unmeaning, isolated facts. Babylon was in Isaiah's days under Assyria; it had tried a revolt unsuccessfully: but the elements of its subsequent success and greatness were then existing. The Holy Ghost enlightened his natural powers to discern this its rise; and his spiritual faculties, to foresee its fall, the sure consequence, in God's eternal law, of the pride which pagan success generates--and also Judah's restoration, as the covenant-people, with whom God, according to His essential character, would not be wroth for ever. True conversion is the prophet's grand remedy against all evils: in this alone consists his politics. Rebuke, threatening, and promise, regularly succeed one another. The idea at the basis of all is in Isa 26:7-9; Lev 10:3; Amo 3:2.

The USE OF THE PRESENT AND PRETERITE in prophecy is no proof that the author is later than Isaiah. For seers view the future as present, and indicate what is ideally past, not really past; seeing things in the light of God, who "calls the things that are not as though they were." Moreover, as in looking from a height on a landscape, hills seem close together which are really wide apart, so, in events foretold, the order, succession, and grouping are presented, but the intervals of time are overlooked. The time, however, is sometimes marked (Jer 25:12; Dan 9:26). Thus the deliverance from Babylon, and that effected by Messiah, are in rapid transition grouped together by THE LAW OF PROPHETIC SUGGESTION; yet no prophet so confounds the two as to make Messiah the leader of Israel from Babylon. To the prophet there was probably no double sense; but to his spiritual eye the two events, though distinct, lay so near, and were so analogous, that he could not separate them in description without unfaithfulness to the picture presented before him. The more remote and antitypical event, however, namely, Messiah's coming, is that to which he always hastens, and which he describes with far more minuteness than he does the nearer type; for example, Cyrus (compare Isa 45:1 with Isa 53:1-12). In some cases he takes his stand in the midst of events between, for example, the humiliation of Jesus Christ, which he views as past, and His glorification, as yet to come, using the future tense as to the latter (compare Isa 53:4-9 with Isa 53:10-12). Marks of the time of events are given sparingly in the prophets: yet, as to Messiah, definitely enough to create the general expectation of Him at the time that He was in fact born.

The CHALDÆISMS alleged against the genuineness of the second portion of Isaiah, are found more in the first and undoubted portion. They occur in all the Old Testament, especially in the poetical parts, which prefer unusual expressions, and are due to the fact that the patriarchs were surrounded by Chaldee-speaking people; and in Isaiah's time a few Chaldee words had crept in from abroad.

His SYMBOLS are few and simple, and his poetical images correct; in the prophets, during and after the exile, the reverse holds good; Haggai and Malachi are not exceptions; for, though void of bold images, their style, unlike Isaiah's, rises little above prose: a clear proof that our Isaiah was long before the exile.

Of VISIONS, strictly so called, he has but one, that in the sixth chapter; even it is more simple than those in later prophets. But he often gives SIGNS, that is, a present fact as pledge of the more distant future; God condescending to the feebleness of man (Isa 7:14; Isa 37:30; Isa 38:7).

The VARIETIES IN HIS STYLE do not prove spuriousness, but that he varied his style with his subject. The second portion is not so much addressed to his contemporaries, as to the future people of the Lord, the elect remnant, purified by the previous judgments. Hence its tenderness of style, and frequent repetitions (Isa 40:1): for comforting exhortation uses many words; so also the many epithets added to the name of God, intended as stays whereon faith may rest for comfort, so as not to despair. In both portions alike there are peculiarities characteristic of Isaiah; for example, "to be called" equivalent to to be: the repetition of the same words, instead of synonyms, in the parallel members of verses; the interspersing of his prophecies with hymns: "the remnant of olive trees," &c., for the remnant of people who have escaped God's judgments. Also compare Isa 65:25 with Isa 11:6.

The CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT favors the opinion that Isaiah himself collected his prophecies into the volume; not Hezekiah's men, as the Talmud guesses from Pro 25:1. All the portions, the dates of which can be ascertained, stand in the right place, except a few instances, where prophecies of similar contents are placed together: with the termination of the Assyrian invasion (the thirty-sixth through thirty-ninth chapters) terminated the public life of Isaiah. The second part is his prophetic legacy to the small band of the faithful, analogous to the last speeches of Moses and of Jesus Christ to His chosen disciples.

The EXPECTATION OF MESSIAH is so strong in Isaiah, that JEROME To Paulinus calls his book not a prophecy, but the gospel: "He is not so much a prophet as an evangelist." Messiah was already shadowed forth in Gen 49:10, as the Shiloh, or tranquillizer; also in Psalms 2, 45, 72, 110. Isaiah brings it out more definitely; and, whereas they dwelt on His kingly office, Isaiah develops most His priestly and prophetic office; the hundred tenth Psalm also had set forth His priesthood, but His kingly rather than, as Isaiah, His suffering, priesthood. The latter is especially dwelt on in the second part, addressed to the faithful elect; whereas the first part, addressed to the whole people, dwells on Messiah's glory, the antidote to the fears which then filled the people, and the assurance that the kingdom of God, then represented by Judah, would not be overwhelmed by the surrounding nations.

His STYLE (HENGSTENBERG, Christology of the Old Testament,) is simple and sublime; in imagery, intermediate between the poverty of Jeremiah and the exuberance of Ezekiel. He shows his command of it in varying it to suit his subject.

The FORM is mostly that of Hebrew poetical parallelism, with, however, a freedom unshackled by undue restrictions.

JUDAH, the less apostate people, rather than Israel, was the subject of his prophecies: his residence was mostly at Jerusalem. On his praises, see Ecclesiasticus 48:22-25. Christ and the apostles quote no prophet so frequently.

JFB: Isaiah (Outline)

• PARABLE OF JEHOVAH'S VINEYARD. (Isa. 5:1-30)
• SIX DISTINCT WOES AGAINST CRIMES. (Isa. 5:8-23) (Lev 25:13; Mic 2:2). The jubilee restoration of possessions was intended as a guard against avarice.
• VISION OF JEHOVAH IN HIS TEMPLE. (Isa 6:1-13)
• PREDICTION OF THE ILL SUCCESS OF THE SYRO-ISRAELITISH INVASION OF JUDAH--AHAZ'S ALLIANCE WITH ASSYRIA, AND ITS FATAL RESULTS TO JUDEA--YET THE CERTAINTY OF FINAL PRESERVATION AND OF THE COMING OF MESSIAH. (Isa. 7:1-9:7)
• FATAL CONSEQUENCES OF AHAZ' ASSYRIAN POLICY. (Isa 7:17-25)
• THE COMING DESOLATE STATE OF THE LAND OWING TO THE ASSYRIANS AND EGYPTIANS. (Isa 7:21-25)
• CONTINUATION OF THE PROPHECY IN THE EIGHTH CHAPTER. (Isa 9:1-7)
• PROPHECY AS TO THE TEN TRIBES. (Isa. 9:8-10:4) Heading of the prophecy; (Isa 9:8-12), the first strophe.
• THANKSGIVING HYMN OF THE RESTORED AND CONVERTED JEWS. (Isa 12:1-6)
• THE THIRTEENTH THROUGH TWENTY-THIRD CHAPTERS CONTAIN PROPHECIES AS TO FOREIGN NATIONS.--THE THIRTEENTH, FOURTEENTH, AND TWENTY-SEVENTH CHAPTERS AS TO BABYLON AND ASSYRIA. (Isa. 13:1-22)
• CONFIRMATION OF THIS BY THE HEREFORETOLD DESTRUCTION OF THE ASSYRIANS UNDER SENNACHERIB. (Isa 14:24-27)
• A CHORUS OF JEWS EXPRESS THEIR JOYFUL SURPRISE AT BABYLON'S DOWNFALL. (Isa 14:4-8)
• THE SCENE CHANGES FROM EARTH TO HELL. (Isa 14:9-11)
• THE JEWS ADDRESS HIM AGAIN AS A FALLEN ONCE-BRIGHT STAR. (Isa 14:12-15)
• THE PASSERS-BY CONTEMPLATE WITH ASTONISHMENT THE BODY OF THE KING OF BABYLON CAST OUT, INSTEAD OF LYING IN A SPLENDID MAUSOLEUM, AND CAN HARDLY BELIEVE THEIR SENSES THAT IT IS HE. (Isa 14:16-20)
• GOD'S DETERMINATION TO DESTROY BABYLON. (Isa 14:21-23)
• A FRAGMENT AS TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ASSYRIANS UNDER SENNACHERIB. (Isa 14:24-27) In this verse the Lord's thought (purpose) stands in antithesis to the Assyrians' thoughts (Isa 10:7). (See Isa 46:10-11; 1Sa 15:29; Mal 3:6).
• PROPHECY AGAINST PHILISTIA. (Isa 14:28-32)
• THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CHAPTERS FORM ONE PROPHECY ON MOAB. (Isa 15:1-9)
• CONTINUATION OF THE PROPHECY AS TO MOAB. (Isa 16:1-14)
• CONTINUATION OF THE SUBJECT OF THE NINETEENTH CHAPTER, BUT AT A LATER DATE. CAPTIVITY OF EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. (Isa 20:1-6)
• REPETITION OF THE ASSURANCE GIVEN IN THE THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CHAPTERS TO THE JEWS ABOUT TO BE CAPTIVES IN BABYLON, THAT THEIR ENEMY SHOULD BE DESTROYED AND THEY BE DELIVERED. (Isa 21:1-10)
• A PROPHECY TO THE IDUMEANS WHO TAUNTED THE AFFLICTED JEWS IN THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY. (Isa 21:11-12)
• PROPHECY THAT ARABIA WOULD BE OVERRUN BY A FOREIGN FOE WITHIN A YEAR. (Isa 21:13-17)
• PROPHECY AS TO AN ATTACK ON JERUSALEM. (Isa 22:1-14)
• PROPHECY THAT SHEBNA SHOULD BE DEPOSED FROM BEING PREFECT OF THE PALACE, AND ELIAKIM PROMOTED TO THE OFFICE. (Isa 22:15-25)
• PROPHECY RESPECTING TYRE. (Isa. 23:1-18)
• THE LAST TIMES OF THE WORLD IN GENERAL, AND OF JUDAH AND THE CHURCH IN PARTICULAR. (Isa. 24:1-23)
• CONTINUATION OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH CHAPTER. THANKSGIVING FOR THE OVERTHROW OF THE APOSTATE FACTION, AND THE SETTING UP OF JEHOVAH'S THRONE ON ZION. (Isa 25:1-12)
• CONNECTED WITH THE TWENTY-FOURTH AND TWENTY-FIFTH CHAPTERS. SONG OF PRAISE OF ISRAEL AFTER BEING RESTORED TO THEIR OWN LAND. (Isa. 26:1-21)
• CONTINUATION OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH, TWENTY-FIFTH, AND TWENTY-SIXTH CHAPTERS. (Isa 27:1-13)
• COMING INVASION OF JERUSALEM: ITS FAILURE: UNBELIEF OF THE JEWS. (Isa. 29:1-24)
• THE THIRTIETH THROUGH THIRTY-SECOND CHAPTERS REFER PROBABLY TO THE SUMMER OF 714 B.C., AS THE TWENTY-NINTH CHAPTER TO THE PASSOVER OF THAT YEAR. (Isa. 30:1-32)
• THE CHIEF STRENGTH OF THE EGYPTIAN ARMIES LAY IN THEIR CAVALRY. (Isa 31:1-9)
• MESSIAH'S KINGDOM; DESOLATIONS, TO BE SUCCEEDED BY LASTING PEACE, THE SPIRIT HAVING BEEN POURED OUT. (Isa. 32:1-20)
• JUDGMENT ON IDUMEA. (Isa. 34:1-17) All creation is summoned to hear God's judgments (Eze 6:3; Deu 32:1; Psa 50:4; Mic 6:1-2), for they set forth His glory, which is the end of creation (Rev 15:3; Rev 4:11).
• CONTINUATION OF THE PROPHECY IN THE THIRTY-FOURTH CHAPTER. (Isa 35:1-10)
• SENNACHERIB'S INVASION; BLASPHEMOUS SOLICITATIONS; HEZEKIAH IS TOLD OF THEM. (Isa. 36:1-22)
• CONTINUATION OF THE NARRATIVE IN THE THIRTY-SIXTH CHAPTER. (Isa. 37:1-38)
• HEZEKIAH'S SICKNESS; PERHAPS CONNECTED WITH THE PLAGUE OR BLAST WHEREBY THE ASSYRIAN ARMY HAD BEEN DESTROYED. (Isa. 38:1-22)
• HEZEKIAH'S ERROR IN THE DISPLAY OF HIS RICHES TO THE BABYLONIAN AMBASSADOR. (Isa 39:1-8)
• SECOND PART OF THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. (Isa. 40:1-31)
• ADDITIONAL REASONS WHY THE JEWS SHOULD PLACE CONFIDENCE IN GOD'S PROMISES OF DELIVERING THEM; HE WILL RAISE UP A PRINCE AS THEIR DELIVERER, WHEREAS THE IDOLS COULD NOT DELIVER THE HEATHEN NATIONS FROM THAT PRINCE. (Isa. 41:1-29) (Zec 2:13). God is about to argue the case; therefore let the nations listen in reverential silence. Compare Gen 28:16-17, as to the spirit in which we ought to behave before God.
• MESSIAH THE ANTITYPE OF CYRUS. (Isa. 42:1-25)
• CONTINUATION OF THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER. (Isa. 44:1-28)
• BABYLON'S IDOLS COULD NOT SAVE THEMSELVES, MUCH LESS HER. BUT GOD CAN AND WILL SAVE ISRAEL: CYRUS IS HIS INSTRUMENT. (Isa 46:1-13)
• THE DESTRUCTION OF BABYLON IS REPRESENTED UNDER THE IMAGE OF A ROYAL VIRGIN BROUGHT DOWN IN A MOMENT FROM HER MAGNIFICENT THRONE TO THE EXTREME OF DEGRADATION. (Isa. 47:1-15)
• THE THINGS THAT BEFALL BABYLON JEHOVAH PREDICTED LONG BEFORE, LEST ISRAEL SHOULD ATTRIBUTE THEM, IN ITS "OBSTINATE" PERVERSITY, TO STRANGE GODS. (Isa 48:1-5). (Isa. 48:1-22)
• SIMILAR TO CHAPTER 42. (Isa 49:1-9). (Isa. 49:1-26)
• THE JUDGMENTS ON ISRAEL WERE PROVOKED BY THEIR CRIMES, YET THEY ARE NOT FINALLY CAST OFF BY GOD. (Isa 50:1-11)
• ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE FAITHFUL REMNANT OF ISRAEL TO TRUST IN GOD FOR DELIVERANCE, BOTH FROM THEIR LONG BABYLONIAN EXILE, AND FROM THEIR PRESENT DISPERSION. (Isa. 51:1-23)
• FIRST THROUGH THIRTEEN VERSES CONNECTED WITH FIFTY-FIRST CHAPTER. (Isa. 52:1-15)
• MAN'S UNBELIEF: MESSIAH'S VICARIOUS SUFFERINGS, AND FINAL TRIUMPH FOR MAN. (Isa 53:1-12)
• THE FRUIT OF MESSIAH'S SUFFERINGS, AND OF ISRAEL'S FINAL PENITENCE AT HER PAST UNBELIEF (Isa 53:6): HER JOYFUL RESTORATION AND ENLARGEMENT BY JEHOVAH, WHOSE WRATH WAS MOMENTARY, BUT HIS KINDNESS EVERLASTING. (Isa. 54:1-17)
• THE CALL OF THE GENTILE WORLD TO FAITH THE RESULT OF GOD'S GRACE TO THE JEWS FIRST. (Isa 55:1-13)
• THE PREPARATION NEEDED ON THE PART OF THOSE WHO WISH TO BE ADMITTED TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD. (Isa 56:1-12)
• THE PEACEFUL DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS FEW: THE UNGODLINESS OF THE MANY: A BELIEVING REMNANT SHALL SURVIVE THE GENERAL JUDGMENTS OF THE NATION, AND BE RESTORED BY HIM WHO CREATES PEACE. (Isa. 57:1-21)
• REPROOF OF THE JEWS FOR THEIR DEPENDENCE ON MERE OUTWARD FORMS OF WORSHIP. (Isa 58:1-14)
• THE PEOPLE'S SIN THE CAUSE OF JUDGMENTS: THEY AT LAST OWN IT THEMSELVES: THE REDEEMER'S FUTURE INTERPOSITION IN THEIR EXTREMITY. (Isa. 59:1-21)
• ISRAEL'S GLORY AFTER HER AFFLICTION. (Isa. 60:1-22)
• MESSIAH'S OFFICES: RESTORATION OF ISRAEL. (Isa 61:1-11)
• INTERCESSORY PRAYERS FOR ZION'S RESTORATION, ACCOMPANYING GOD'S PROMISES OF IT, AS THE APPOINTED MEANS OF ACCOMPLISHING IT. (Isa 62:1-12)
• MESSIAH COMING AS THE AVENGER, IN ANSWER TO HIS PEOPLE'S PRAYERS. (Isa. 63:1-19)
• TRANSITION FROM COMPLAINT TO PRAYER. (Isa 64:1-12)
• GOD'S REPLY IN JUSTIFICATION OF HIS DEALINGS WITH ISRAEL. (Isa. 65:1-25)
• THE HUMBLE COMFORTED, THE UNGODLY CONDEMNED, AT THE LORD'S APPEARING: JERUSALEM MADE A JOY ON EARTH. (Isa. 66:1-24)

TSK: Isaiah (Book Introduction)

Isaiah has, with singular propriety, been denominated the Evangelical Prophet, on account of the number and variety of his prophecies concerning the advent and character, the ministry and preaching, the sufferings and death, and the extensive and permanent kingdom of the Messiah. So explicit and determinate are his predictions, as well as so numerous, that he seems to speak rather of things past than of events yet future; and he may be rather called an evangelist than a prophet. Though later critics, especially those on the continent, have expended much labour and learning in order to rob the prophet of his title; yet no one, whose mind is unprejudiced, can be at a loss in applying select portions of these prophecies to the mission and character of Jesus Christ, and to the events in his history which they are cited to illustrate by the sacred writers of the New Testament. In fact, his prophecies concerning the Messiah seem almost to anticipate the Gospel history; so clearly do they predict his Divine character. (Compare Isa 7:14 with Mat 1:18-23, and Luk 1:27-35; see Isa 6:1-13; Isa 9:6; Isa 35:4; Isa 40:5, Isa 40:9, Isa 40:19; Isa 42:6-8; compare Isa 61:1, with Luk 4:18; see Isa 62:11; Isa 63:1-4); his miracles (Isa 35:5, Isa 35:6); his peculiar character and virtues (Isa 11:2, Isa 11:3; Isa 40:11; Isa 43:1-3); his rejection (Compare Isa 6:9-12 with Mar 13:14; see Isa 7:14, Isa 7:15; Isa 53:3); his sufferings for our sins (Isa 50:6; Isa 53:4-11); his death and burial (Isa 53:8, Isa 53:9); his victory over death (Isa 25:8; Isa 53:10, Isa 53:12); his final glory (Isa 49:7, Isa 49:22, 33; Isa 52:13-15; Isa 53:4, Isa 53:5); and the establishment, increase, and perfection of his kingdom (Isa 2:2-4; Isa 9:2, Isa 9:7; Isa 11:4-10; Isa 16:5; Isa 29:18-24; Isa 32:1; Isa 40:4, Isa 40:5; Isa 42:4; Isa 46:13; Isa 49:9-13; Isa 51:3-6; Isa 53:6-10; Isa 55:1-3; Isa 59:16-21; 60; Isa 61:1-5; Isa 65:25); each specifically pointed out, and pourtrayed with the most striking and discriminating characters. It is impossible, indeed, to reflect on these, and on the whole chain of his illustrious prophecies, and not be sensible that they furnish the most incontestable evidence in support of Christianity. The style of Isaiah has been universally admired as the most perfect model of elegance and sublimity; and as distinguished for all the magnificence, and for all the sweetness of the Hebrew language.

TSK: Isaiah 3 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

Isa 3:1, The great calamities which come by sin; Isa 3:10, The different reward of the righteous and wicked; Isa 3:12, The oppression and covetousness of the rulers; Isa 3:16, The judgments which shall be for the pride of the women; Isa 3:25, The general desolation.

Poole: Isaiah (Book Introduction)

THE ARGUMENT

THE teachers of the ancient church were of two sorts:

1. Ordinary, the priests and Levites.

2. Extraordinary, the prophets. These were immediately called by God, and inspired, as with other singular gifts and graces, so particularly with a supernatural knowledge of Divine mysteries, and of future things, and invested by God with an authority superior not only to the ordinary teachers of the church, but in some sort even to the civil powers of the nation. These holy prophets, whose writings are contained in the sacred Scripture, are sixteen. Of these Isaiah is first in place, and, as may seem probable, in time also. But undoubtedly he was contemporary with Hosea, whom others suppose to have been before him. Compare Isa 1:1 , with Hos 1:1 . The Jews tell us that he was of the blood royal of Judah, which is uncertain. But undoubtedly he was the prince of all the prophets, whether we consider the great extent and variety of his prophecies, the excellency and sublimity of those mysteries which were revealed to him and by him, the majesty and elegancy of his style, or the incomparable liveliness and power of his sermons. He doth so evidently and fully describe the person, and offices, and sufferings, and kingdom of Christ, that some of the ancients called him the fifth evangelist. And it is observed, that there are more testimonies and quotations in the New Testament taken out of Isaiah than out of all the other prophets.

Poole: Isaiah 3 (Chapter Introduction)

CHAPTER 3 .

Great confusion on both people and rulers for their sin and impudence in it, Isa 3:1-9 . Peace to the righteous, and misery to the wicked, Isa 3:10,11 . The oppression and covetousness of the rulers, Isa 3:12-15 . The pride of women, and its judgments, Isa 3:16-26 .

MHCC: Isaiah (Book Introduction)

Isaiah prophesied in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. He has been well called the evangelical prophet, on account of his numerous and full prophesies concerning the coming and character, the ministry and preaching, the sufferings and death of the Messiah, and the extent and continuance of his kingdom. Under the veil of the deliverance from Babylon, Isaiah points to a much greater deliverance, which was to be effected by the Messiah; and seldom does he mention the one, without alluding at the same time to the other; nay, he is often so much enraptured with the prospect of the more distant deliverance, as to lose sight of that which was nearer, and to dwell on the Messiah's person, office, character, and kingdom.

MHCC: Isaiah 3 (Chapter Introduction)

(Isa 3:1-9) The calamities about to come upon the land.

(Isa 3:10-15) The wickedness of the people.

(Isa 3:16-26) The distress of the proud, luxurious women of Zion.

Matthew Henry: Isaiah (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of The Book of the Prophet Isaiah

Prophet is a title that sounds very great to those that understand it, though, in the eye of the world, many of those that were dignified with it appeared very mean. A prophet is one that has a great intimacy with Heaven and a great interest there, and consequently a commanding authority upon earth. Prophecy is put for all divine revelation (2Pe 1:20, 2Pe 1:21), because that was most commonly by dreams, voices, or visions, communicated to prophets first, and by them to the children of men, Num 12:6. Once indeed God himself spoke to all the thousands of Israel from the top of Mount Sinai; but the effect was so intolerably dreadful that they entreated God would for the future speak to them as he had done before, by men like themselves, whose terror should not make them afraid, nor their hands be heavy upon them, Job 33:7. God approved the motion ( they have well said, says he, Deu 5:27, Deu 5:28), and the matter was then settled by consent of parties, that we must never expect to hear from God any more in that way, but by prophets, who received their instructions immediately from God, with a charge to deliver them to his church. Before the sacred canon of the Old Testament began to be written there were prophets, who were instead of Bibles to the church. Our Saviour seems to reckon Abel among the prophets, Mat 23:31, Mat 23:35. Enoch was a prophet; and by him that was first in prediction which is to be last in execution - the judgment of the great day. Jud 1:14, Behold, the Lord comes with his holy myriads. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. God said of Abraham, He is a prophet, Gen 20:7. Jacob foretold things to come, Gen 49:1. Nay, all the patriarchs are called prophets. Psa 105:15, Do my prophets no harm. Moses was, beyond all comparison, the most illustrious of all the Old Testament prophets, for with him the Lord spoke face to face, Deu 34:10. He was the first writing prophet, and by his hand the first foundations of holy writ were laid. Even those that were called to be his assistants in the government had the spirit of prophecy, such a plentiful effusion was there of that spirit at that time, Num 11:25. But after the death of Moses, for some ages, the Spirit of the Lord appeared and acted in the church of Israel more as a martial spirit than as a spirit of prophecy, and inspired men more for acting than speaking. I mean in the time of the judges. We find the Spirit of the Lord coming upon Othniel, Gideon, Samson, and others, for the service of their country, with their swords, not with their pens. Messages were then sent from heaven by angels, as to Gideon and Manoah, and to the people, Jdg 2:1. In all the book of judges there is never once mention of a prophet, only Deborah is called a prophetess. Then the word of the Lord was precious; there was no open vision, 1Sa 3:1. They had the law of Moses, recently written; let them study that. But in Samuel prophecy revived, and in him a famous epocha, or period of the church began, a time of great light in a constant uninterrupted succession of prophets, till some time after the captivity, when the canon of the Old Testament was completed in Malachi, and then prophecy ceased for nearly 400 years, till the coming of the great prophet and his forerunner. Some prophets were divinely inspired to write the histories of the church. But they did not put their names to their writings; they only referred for proof to the authentic records of those times, which were known to be drawn up by prophets, as Gad, Iddo, etc. David and others were prophets, to write sacred songs for the use of the church. After them we often read of prophets sent on particular errands, and raised up for special public services, among whom the most famous were Elijah and Elisha in the kingdom of Israel. But none of these put their prophecies in writing, nor have we any remains of them but some fragments in the histories of their times; there was nothing of their own writing (that I remember) but one epistle of Elijah's, 2Ch 21:12. But towards the latter end of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, it pleased God to direct his servants the prophets to write and publish some of their sermons, or abstracts of them. The dates of many of their prophecies are uncertain, but the earliest of them was in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and Jeroboam the second, his contemporary, king of Israel, about 200 years before the captivity, and not long after Joash had slain Zechariah the son of Jehoiada in the courts of the temple. If they begin to murder the prophets, yet they shall not murder their prophecies; these shall remain as witnesses against them. Hosea was the first of the writing prophets; and Joel, Amos, and Obadiah, published their prophecies about the same time. Isaiah began some time after, and not long; but his prophecy is placed first, because it is the largest of them all, and has most in it of him to whom all the prophets bore witness; and indeed so much of Christ that he is justly styled the Evangelical Prophet, and, by some of the ancients, a fifth Evangelist. We shall have the general title of this book (Isa 1:1) and therefore shall here only observe some things,

I. Concerning the prophet himself. He was (if we may believe the tradition of the Jews) of the royal family, his father being (they say) brother to king Uzziah. He was certainly much at court, especially in Hezekiah's time, as we find in his story, to which many think it is owing that his style is more curious and polite than that of some other of the prophets, and, in some places, exceedingly lofty and soaring. The Spirit of God sometimes served his own purpose by the particular genius of the prophet; for prophets were not speaking trumpets, through which the Spirit spoke, but speaking men, by whom the Spirit spoke, making use of their natural powers, in respect both of light and flame, and advancing them above themselves.

II. Concerning the prophecy. It is transcendently excellent and useful; it was so to the church of God then, serving for conviction of sin, direction in duty, and consolation in trouble. Two great distresses of the church are here referred to, and comfort prescribed in reference to them, that by Sennacherib's invasion, which happened in his own time, and that of the captivity in Babylon, which happened long after; and in the supports and encouragements laid up for each of these times of need we find abundance of the grace of the gospel. There are not so many quotations in the gospels out of any, perhaps not out of all, the prophecies of the Old Testament, as out of this; nor such express testimonies concerning Christ, witness that of his being born of a virgin (ch. 7) and that of his sufferings, Isa 53:1-12. The beginning of this book abounds most with reproofs for sin and threatenings of judgment; the latter end of it is full of wood words and comfortable words. This method the Spirit of Christ took formerly in the prophets and does still, first to convince and then to comfort; and those that would be blessed with the comforts must submit to the convictions. Doubtless Isaiah preached many sermons, and delivered many messages to the people, which are not written in this book, as Christ did; and probably these sermons were delivered more largely and fully than they are here related, but so much is left on record as Infinite Wisdom thought fit to convey to us on whom the ends of the world have come; and these prophecies, as well as the histories of Christ, are written that we might believe on the name of the Son of God, and that, believing, we might have life through his name; for to us is the gospel here preached as well as unto those that lived then, and more clearly. O that it may be mixed with faith!

Matthew Henry: Isaiah 3 (Chapter Introduction)

The prophet, in this chapter, goes on to foretel the desolations that were coming upon Judah and Jerusalem for their sins, both that by the Babylonians and that which completed their ruin by the Romans, with some of the grounds of God's controversy with them. God threatens, I. To deprive them of all the supports both of their life and of their government (Isa 3:1-3). II. To leave them to fall into confusion and disorder (Isa 3:4, Isa 3:5, Isa 3:12). III. To deny them the blessing of magistracy (Isa 3:6-8). IV. To strip the daughters of Zion of their ornaments (Isa 3:17-24). V. To lay all waste by the sword of war (Isa 3:25, Isa 3:26). The sins that provoked God to deal thus with them were, 1. Their defiance of God (Isa 3:8). 2. Their impudence (Isa 3:9). 3. The abuse of power to oppression and tyranny (Isa 3:12-15). 4. The pride of the daughters of Zion (Isa 3:16). In the midst of the chapter the prophet is directed how to address particular persons. (1.) To assure good people that it should be well with them, notwithstanding those general calamities (Isa 3:10). (2.) To assure wicked people that, however God might, in judgment, remember mercy, yet it should go ill with them (Isa 3:11). O that the nations of the earth, at this day, would hearken to rebukes and warnings which this chapter gives!

Constable: Isaiah (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Title and writer

The title of this book of the Bible, as is true of the other prophetical books, comes from its writer. The book claims to have come from Isaiah (1:1; 2:1; 7:3; 13:1; 20:2; 37:2, 6, 21; 38:1, 4, 21; 39:3, 5, 8), and Jesus Christ and the apostles quoted him as being the writer at least 21 times, more often than they quoted all the other writing prophets combined.¹ The name of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, is the only one connected with the book in any of the Hebrew manuscripts or ancient versions. Josephus, the Jewish historian who wrote at the end of the first century A.D., believed that Isaiah wrote this book. He said that Cyrus read the prophecies that Isaiah had written about him and wished to fulfill them.²

There is no record of any serious scholar doubting the Isaianic authorship of the entire book before the twelfth century when Ibn Ezra, a Jewish commentator, did so. With the rise of rationalism, however, some German scholars took the lead in questioning it in the late eighteenth century. They claimed that the basis for their new view was the differences in style, content, and emphases in the various parts of the prophecy. Many scholars have noted that it is not really the text itself that argues for multiple authorship as much as the presence of predictive prophecy in chapters 40-66, which antisupernaturalistic critics try to explain away.³ At first, there seemed to these critics to have been two writers whose respective emphases on judgment in chapters 1-39 and consolation in chapters 40-66 pointed to two separate writers, Isaiah and "Deutero-Isaiah." With further study, a theory of three writers ("Trito-Isaiah") emerged because of the differences between chapters 40-55 and 56-66. These critics sensed addresses to three different historical settings in these three parts of the book: Isaiah's lifetime (ca. 739-701 B.C.; chs. 1-39), the Babylonian exile (ca. 605-539 B.C.; chs. 40-55), and the return (ca. 539-400 B.C.; chs. 56-66).⁴

"Along with what is known as the JEDP theory of the origins of the Pentateuch, the belief in the multiple authorship of the book of Isaiah is one of the most generally accepted dogmas of biblical higher criticism today."⁵

However, internal and external evidence points to the unity of authorship. The title for God, "holy one of Israel," which reflects the deep impression that Isaiah's vision in chapter 6 made on him, occurs 12 times in chapters 1-39 and 14 times in chapters 40-66 but only seven times elsewhere in the entire Old Testament. Other key phrases, passages, words, themes, and motifs likewise appear in both parts of the book. Jewish tradition uniformly attributed the entire book to Isaiah as did Christian tradition until the eighteenth century. The Isaiah Dead Sea Scroll, the oldest copy of Isaiah that we have, dating from the second century B.C., has chapter 40 beginning in the same column in which chapter 39 ends.⁶

Isaiah was arguably the greatest of four prophets who lived and wrote toward the end of the eighth century. Amos and Hosea ministered in the northern kingdom of Israel at this time, and Micah and Isaiah served in Judah.⁷ Isaiah's name, "The Lord (Yahweh) is salvation," meaning the Lord is the source of salvation, symbolized his message.

". . . in that one name is compressed the whole contents of the book!"⁸

Isaiah lived in Jerusalem, and that capital city features prominently in his prophecies. His easy access to the court and Judah's kings, revealed in his book, suggests that he ministered to the kings of Judah and may have had royal blood in his veins. Jewish tradition made him the cousin of King Uzziah. His communication gifts and his political connections, whatever those may have been, gave him an opportunity to reach the whole nation of Judah. The prophet was married and had at least two sons to whom he gave names that also summarized major themes of his prophecies (8:18): Shearjashub (a remnant shall return, 7:3), and Maher-shalal-hash-baz (hastening to the spoil, 8:3).

Isaiah received his call to prophetic ministry in the year that King Uzziah died (740 B.C.; ch. 6). He responded enthusiastically to this privilege even though he knew from the outset that his ministry would be fruitless and discouraging (6:9-13). His wife was a prophetess (8:3) probably in the sense that she was married to a prophet; we have no record that she prophesied herself. Isaiah also trained a group of disciples who gathered around him (8:16). His vision of God, which he received at the beginning of his ministry, profoundly influenced Isaiah's whole view of life as well as his prophecies, as is clear from what he wrote.⁹

The prophet had a very broad appreciation of the political situation in which he lived. He demonstrated awareness of all the nations around his homeland. Judah and Jerusalem were the focal points of his prophecies, but he saw God's will for them down the corridors of time as well as in his own day. He saw that the kingdom that God would establish through His Messiah would include all people. He was a true patriot who denounced evils in his land as well as giving credit where that was due. He condemned religious cults yet remained neutral politically. His understanding of theology was profound. He set forth the wonder and grandeur of Yahweh more ably than any other biblical writer. As a writer, Isaiah is without a peer among the Old Testament prophets. He was a poetic artist who employed a large vocabulary and many literary devices to express his thoughts beautifully and powerfully. Most of his prophecies appear to have been messages that he delivered, which means that he was probably also a powerful orator.

There is no historical record of Isaiah's death. Jewish tradition held that he suffered martyrdom under King Manasseh (697-642 B.C.) because of his prophesying. The early church father Justin Martyr (ca. A.D. 150) wrote that the Jews sawed him to death with a wooden saw (cf. Heb. 11:37).¹⁰ Another ancient source says he took refuge in a hollow tree, but his persecutors discovered and extracted him. This may account for the unusual method of his execution.

Historical Background and Date

Isaiah ministered during the reigns of four Judean kings (1:1): Uzziah (792-740 B.C.), Jotham (750-732 B.C.), Ahaz (735-715 B.C.), and Hezekiah (715-686 B.C.).¹¹ The prophet began his ministry in the year that King Uzziah (or Azariah) died, namely, 740 or 739 B.C. (6:1).

During Uzziah's reign Judah enjoyed peace because of her surrounding nations' lack of antagonism and hostility. However, in 745 B.C. Tiglath-pileser III mounted the throne of Assyria and began to expand his empire. His three successors (Shalmaneser V, Sargon II, and Sennacherib) proved equally ambitious. Aram (Syria) and Israel (Ephraim) felt the pressure of Assyrian expansion before Judah did, but in King Ahaz's reign Judah had to make a crucial decision regarding her relationship to Assyria. Isaiah played a major role in that decision.

A second major crisis arose during the reign of King Hezekiah. By this time Babylon had defeated Assyria, and it was also expanding aggressively in Judah's direction. Again Isaiah played a major part in the decision about how Judah would respond to this threat.

". . . Isaiah exercised his prophetic ministry at a time of unique significance, a time in which it was of utmost importance to realize that salvation could not be obtained by reliance upon man but only from God Himself. For Israel it was the central or pivotal point of history between Moses and Christ. The old world was passing and an entirely new order of things was beginning to make its appearance. Where would Israel stand in that new world? Would she be the true theocracy, the light to lighten the Gentiles, or would she fall into the shadow by turning for help to the nations which were about her?"¹²

Sennacherib outlived Hezekiah, who died in 686 B.C., and Isaiah recorded the death of Sennacherib in 681 B.C. (37:38). Just how long the prophet ministered after that event is impossible to determine, but he must have prophesied for at least 60 years. However the bulk of the material in his book derives from the first 50 of those years (ca. 740-690 B.C.).

Important dates for Isaiah
Years	Events
745	Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria begins his reign
740	Uzziah of Judah dies; Isaiah begins his ministry
735	Ahaz of Judah begins his co-regency with Jotham; Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Aramea ally against Assyria
733-32	Tiglath-pileser invades Aramea and Israel
732	Damascus falls; Pekah and Rezin die; Jotham dies
727	Tiglath-pileser dies
722	Samaria falls; Shalmaneser V of Assyria dies and Sargon II begins to reign
715	Ahaz dies and Hezekiah begins his reign
711	Sargon attacks Ashdod and returns to Assyria
710	Sargon attacks Babylon
705	Sargon dies
701	Sennacherib of Assyria defeats Egypt at Eltekah and departs from Jerusalem; Merodach-baladan of Babylon sends messengers to visit Hezekiah
697	Manasseh of Judah begins his co-regency
690	Tirhakah of Egypt begins his reign
689	Sennacherib of Assyria defeats Babylon
686	Hezekiah dies
681	Sennacherib of Assyria dies and Esarhaddon begins to reign
671	Esarhaddon imports foreigners into Israel and defeats Egypt
612	Nineveh falls to Babylon
609	Nabopolassar of Babylon defeats Assyria and Assyria falls
605	Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeats Egypt at Carchemish; first deportation of Judahites to Babylon
597	Second deportation of Judahites to Babylon
586	Jerusalem falls to Nebuchadnezzar
559	Cyrus II of Persia begins to reign
539	Cyrus overthrows Babylon
538	Cyrus issues his decree allowing Jews to return to Palestine
530	Cyrus dies
518	Darius Hystaspes of Persia destroys Babylon

Audience and purpose

Isaiah ministered and wrote to the people of Jerusalem and Judah. His task was to explain to these chosen people that the old world order was passing away and that the new order, controlled by Gentile world empires that sought to swallow Judah up, required a new commitment to trust and obey Yahweh as His servant. The Assyrian threat called for this new dedication. This was a theological even more than a historical and political crisis for Judah. It raised many questions that Isaiah addressed.

"Is God truly the Sovereign of history if the godless nations are stronger than God's nation? Does might make right? What is the role of God's people in the world? Does divine judgment mean divine rejection? What is the nature of trust? What is the future of the Davidic monarchy? Are not the idols stronger than God and therefore superior to him?"¹³

The far-reaching nature of these questions called for reference to the future, which Isaiah revealed from the Lord. The Northern Kingdom had made the wrong commitment, which Amos announced, but the Southern Kingdom still had an opportunity to trust Yahweh and live.

"Stated briefly, the purpose of Isaiah is to display God's glory and holiness through His judgment of sin and His deliverance and blessing of a righteous remnant."¹⁴

Theology

The Book of Isaiah, the third longest book in the Bible after Psalms and Jeremiah, deals with as broad a range of theology as any book in the Old Testament. In this respect it is similar to Romans. However, there are four primary doctrines, all arising out of the prophet's personal experience with God in his call (ch. 6), that receive the most emphasis. These are God, man and the world, sin, and redemption.

Isaiah presented God as great, transcendently separate, authoritative, omnipotent, majestic, holy, and morally and ethically perfect. In contrast, he described sarcastically the stupidity of idolatry. God creates history as well as the cosmos, and He has a special relationship with Israel among the nations. The adjective "holy" (Heb. qadosh) describes God 33 times in Isaiah and only 26 times in the rest of the Old Testament. It is the primary attribute of God that this prophet stressed.

Isaiah showed the tremendous value that God places on humanity and the world but also the folly of pride and unbelief. Assuming pretensions to significance leads to insignificance for the creation, but giving true significance to God results in glory for humanity and the world. As all the other eighth-century prophets, Isaiah condemned injustice.

Sin is rebellion for Isaiah that springs from pride. The book begins and ends on this note (1:2; 66:24). All the evil in the world results from man's refusal to accept Yahweh's lordship. The prophet repeatedly showed how foolish such rebellion is. It not only affects man himself but also his environment. God's response to sin is judgment if people continue to rebel against Him, but He responds with redemption if they abandon self-trust and depend on Him. Sin calls for repentance, and forgiveness for the penitent is available.

God's judgment, the outworking of the personal rage of offended deity, takes many forms: natural disaster, military defeat, and disease being a few, but they all come from God's hand ultimately. The means of salvation can only be through God's activity. Substitutionary atonement makes possible God's announcement of pardon and redemption. This redemption comes through the promised Messiah ultimately, the Lord's anointed king. The goal of redemption is not just deliverance from sin's guilt but the sharing of God's character and fellowship. Salvation could only come to God's people as they accepted the role of servant. Deliverance cannot come to man through his own effort, but he must look to God alone for it. His emphasis on salvation has earned Isaiah the title of evangelist of the Old Testament.

Isaiah is strongly eschatological. In many passages the prophet dealt with the future destiny of Israel and the Gentiles. He wrote more than any other prophet of the great kingdom into which the Israelites would enter under Messiah's rule.

"We stand precisely on 56:1, looking back to the work of the Servant (now fulfilled in the person, life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus) and looking forward to the coming of the Anointed Conqueror."¹⁵

Isaiah's emphasis on the coming Messiah is second only to the Psalms in the Old Testament in terms of its fullness and variety. God revealed more about the coming Messiah to Isaiah than He did to any other Old Testament character. Messianic themes in Isaiah include the branch, the stone (refuge), light, child, king, and especially servant. In some of the passages in Isaiah, Israel is the servant of the Lord that is in view, in others the faithful remnant in Israel is the servant, and in still others a future individual, the Messiah, must be in view. As Matthew clarified, Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of what God intended the Israelites to be (Matt. 2:15; cf. Hos. 11:1-2).

"What is the overarching theme of OT theology? Perhaps it is the covenant. Here in Isaiah, God's special relationship with Israel is presupposed throughout. Perhaps it is the kingdom of God. The whole structure of the book brings out the implications of God's sovereign control of things in the interests of his kingdom. Perhaps it is promise and fulfillment. Here we see time and again the word of divine authority being fulfilled and further fulfillment thereby pledged. Perhaps it is simply God himself, Israel's Holy One. This book is one long exposition of the implications--for Israel and the world--of who and what he is. So this great prophecy--its whole structure unified by its teaching about the Holy One of Israel, who is true to his word, faithful to his covenant, and pursues the establishment of his kingdom--is a classic disclosure of the very heart of the OT faith."¹⁶

"The theological message of the book may be summarized as follows: The Lord will fulfill His ideal for Israel by purifying His people through judgment and then restoring them to a renewed covenantal relationship. He will establish Jerusalem (Zion) as the center of His worldwide kingdom and reconcile once hostile nations to Himself."¹⁷

Genre and interpretation

The book is a compilation of the visions that Isaiah received from the Lord. He presented this revelation as messages and compiled them into their present form. His disciples may have put finishing touches on the collection under divine inspiration. Most of the book is poetic in form, the prophet having been lifted up in his spirit as he beheld and recorded what God revealed to him. Much of the content is eschatological and therefore prophetic, though most of the ministry of the prophets, including Isaiah, was forth telling rather than foretelling. Much of what is eschatological is also apocalyptic, dealing with the final climax of history in the future. These portions bear the marks of that type of literature: symbols, analogies, and various figures of speech.¹⁸

Students of Isaiah have difficulty understanding the eschatological portions of the book. Some believe that we should look for a literal fulfillment of everything predicted. Others believe that when Isaiah spoke of Israel and Jerusalem he was referring to the church. More literal interpretation results in a premillennial understanding of prophecy whereas spiritualization results in an amillennial or postmillennial understanding. The problem with taking every prophecy literally is that in many places the prophet used metaphors and other figures of speech to describe his meaning; what he wrote does not describe exactly what he meant. The problem with spiritualizing all the prophecies is that the New Testament teaches that Israel will have a future in God's plans as Israel (Rom. 11:26-27). The church will not replace Israel though the church does participate in some of the blessing promised to Israel. The most satisfying position, for me, is to interpret Isaiah as literally as seems legitimate in view of other divine revelation while at the same time remembering that some of what appears to be literal description may in fact be metaphorical. This is the approach taken by most premillennialists.

"Surely God may be expected to have one basic meaning in what he says. This is true, but just as human speech, especially when it is poetical, may suggest further levels of significance beyond the meaning conveyed by the passage in its context, so may the Word of God."¹⁹

Structure

Occasional time references scattered throughout the book indicate that Isaiah arranged his prophecies in a basically chronological order (cf. 6:1; 7:1; 14:28; 20:1; 36:1; 37:38). However, they are not completely chronological. More fundamentally, Isaiah arranged his prophecies as an anthology in harmony with a unifying principle. That organizing principle seems to be that God's people should view all of life in the light of God's reality and should therefore orient themselves to Him appropriately, namely, as His servants.

Isaiah built a huge mosaic out of his prophecies and used pre-exilic material to serve pre-exilic, exilic, post-exilic, and eschatological ends. It is not unreasonable to assume that after Isaiah had completed what we now have in chapters 1-39 he received new revelations from God along a different line that led him to adopt the somewhat different style that is characteristic of the last part of the book. The first part deals primarily with the threat of Assyria and the second (chs. 40-66) with that of Babylonia, with chapters 36-39 forming a transition. Chapters 1-5 are an introduction to the whole collection of messages. Chapters 6 and 53 are the key chapters because they provide the most concise answers to the great questions raised in the book. The book contains many extended doublets: repetition of the same truth in the same consecutive steps.

Message²⁰

In contrast to the New Testament prophets, Isaiah had very little to say about an individual's relationship with God. His concern was more the relationship of God's people as a whole to the Lord, specifically the nation of Israel's relationship to God. This is true of most of the Old Testament writing prophets. Isaiah focused on Israel's past, her present, her near future, and her distant future. He also gave considerable attention to the fate of the Gentile nations.

In the first section of the book, Isaiah insists that judgment is necessary before there can be peace. He was not referring to judgment beyond this life, judgment when we die. He was dealing with judgment here and now, repentance and divine intervention. Peace on earth requires repentance and divine intervention.

In the last section of the book, Isaiah also stressed the importance of righteousness before there can be peace, righteousness here and now before there can be peace on earth in the future. Thus this emphasis on righteousness and peace acts as bookends and frames the content of Isaiah's prophecies.

The great value of Isaiah is its revelation of the throne of God. This book clarifies the principles by which God rules the universe. In chapter six, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on His throne. This vision of God impacted the rest of Isaiah's ministry and the rest of his book. In chapter 53, the prophet revealed the Servant of the Lord in whom and through whom God reigns. Isaiah balanced the transcendence of God with the immanence of God. These great revelations of Isaiah come together in the Revelation of John, 5:6: "And I saw between the throne and the elders a Lamb standing." Revelation gives more revelation along the same lines that Isaiah gave earlier. God reigns through people, especially one crucial person. Isaiah had much to say about the coming Messiah throughout this book.

Isaiah lived the early part of his life under the reign of King Uzziah. Uzziah was a good king, and he provided stability for the kingdom of Judah. But when Uzziah died, everyone had questions about the direction Judah would go. It was in the year that King Uzziah died that Isaiah saw his vision of the throne in heaven (6:1). He realized in a deeper way than ever before that the true king of Judah was Yahweh and that Yahweh was still firmly on His throne.

There are two things that mark God's throne: government and grace. Isaiah's contemporaries needed a deeper appreciation of God's government and His grace, and so do all the readers of this book. The fact that Yahweh rules and that He rules graciously were truths that were very familiar to God's people in Isaiah's time. In fact, when Isaiah spoke of God's government and His grace the Israelites mocked him for presenting such a simple message. Their taste ran to the more esoteric, and Isaiah's repetition of basic truth bored them. God told his prophet to expect rejection, and that proved to be Israel's characteristic response to Isaiah's ministry.

We also need a reminder of the basic principles of God's government and His grace. It is not because they are unknown to us but because people do not heed these truths that they are so needful today.

Let's consider first what Isaiah revealed about the government of God.

There are three principles by which God governs. These are holiness, righteousness, and justice. Holiness is the inspiration, righteousness the activity, and justice the result of God's government.

The most outstanding characteristic of God that this book reveals is His holiness. The title "the Holy One of Israel" was Isaiah's hallmark. The angelic beings that Isaiah saw assembled around God's heavenly throne ascribed perfect holiness to Him: "Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of Hosts" (6:3). The holiness of God describes His "otherliness" from all His creation. God is different in His essence; He is spirit, whereas the creation is material. He is also different in His morality; He is absolutely upright, in contrast to the creation that has suffered from the Fall and its contacts with sin. When Isaiah saw the Lord, in chapter 6, what impressed him was his own uncleanness and the uncleanness of his people. All of God's government, how He governs, derives from His holiness. His holiness inspires all His government.

Because God is holy, He always does what is right. Conduct issues from and reflects character. Because God is holy in His character, He conducts Himself in righteousness. He always does what is right. There is a strong emphasis on righteousness in Isaiah, God's righteousness and the need for human righteousness. Isaiah's emphasis on righteousness is one of the reasons his book has been called the Romans of the Old Testament.

The result of righteous conduct is justice. God deals with His own people and all other people in justice. A holy God can do nothing else. He will do what is fair, what is straight, what is proper. We can see the justice of God in God's call to His people to reason with Him (1:18). Because God is just, sin inevitably brings punishment. Much of this prophecy is designed to help the people of God know how to avoid sin and its punishment and how to manage sin and its punishment. Justice in interpersonal and international affairs is an important motif in Isaiah.

Whereas the principles of God's government are holiness, righteousness, and justice, the methods by which He governs are revelation, explanation, and prediction.

According to Isaiah, the outstanding characteristic of God that distinguishes Him from all false gods (idols) is that He has revealed Himself; He has spoken. Isaiah referred to three primary revelations of God to humankind: general revelation, special revelation, and incarnate revelation. God has built a revelation of Himself into His creation so that everyone can see that a true God does exist (cf. Rom. 1). Second, He revealed His will as well as His existence. The revelation of His will came to the Israelites through what God taught them, the Torah (instruction). This revelation is what we have in Scripture, and it came to Israel for Israel to share with the world for the world's blessing, not to hoard to herself for her own blessing. Third, God revealed Himself through a person: the Messiah, the Servant of the Lord, the Divine Warrior. The revelation of how God would deal with the sin problem came through this person. Isaiah reveals that God would deliver Israel from destruction, from captivity, and from sin. He would make her in the future the servant of His that He always intended her to be but which she failed to become because of her sin.

God went beyond just giving revelations, however. He also provided explanations. This was one of the major ministries of the prophets in general and of Isaiah in particular. God explained through Isaiah why the Israelites and their neighbor nations were experiencing what they were going through. He gave these explanations so they could learn from their past, walk in His ways in the present, and enjoy His blessings in the future. God explained that He not only had the ability to save Israel, but He also had the desire to do so.

Not only did God explain the past, He also predicted the future. He did this to prove that He is the only true God. In order to predict the future accurately, one must be able to control the future. Yahweh is the only true God. He is the only God who can create history in time as well as creating the material world in space. His ability to predict the future is the great testimony to His unique sovereignty. The outstanding predictions in this book concern those whom God would anoint for special ministries in the future. These individuals were Cyrus, who would be Israel's redeemer from Babylon's captivity, and the Servant, who would be Israel's redeemer from sin's captivity. The exodus motif is strong throughout Isaiah looking back to the Exodus from Egypt and forward to future exoduses.

The characteristics of God's government as revealed in Isaiah are also three: patience, persistence, and power.

God deals with people patiently. He allows them the opportunity to repent and to return to Himself. There is much emphasis in this book on the importance of returning to God. God had been very patient with Judah, but the day of His patience would end, so she needed to repent while there was still opportunity. The day of salvation would not last forever.

Second, God deals with people persistently. He does not disregard people's sin after a time, but He always deals with it righteously. Likewise He persists in blessing those who faithfully follow Him even though they live among a nation of apostates. God has a plan for Israel as a nation, and He also had a plan for the faithful among the apostates in the nation. His faithfulness to His promises is the mainspring that keeps the hands of His providence moving persistently.

Third, God ever demonstrates His supernatural power. What is natural does not bind Him. He can and does intervene to provide power that overcomes His sinful people and holds them in captivity. The expectation of more exoduses is strong throughout this book. Isaiah's audience looked forward to captivity in Babylon, but beyond that there was the promise of liberation, and beyond that there was the promise of liberation from sin. Fire is a fitting symbol of all these characteristics of God's government. It consumes patiently, it persists until it has run its full course, and it has great power. Isaiah pictured Yahweh as a consuming fire in relation to His people as well as in relation to unbelieving nations.

Parallel to these emphases on the government of God is an equally strong emphasis on the grace of God in Isaiah.

Along with the holiness, righteousness, and justice of God, we have an equally strong emphasis on the love, mercy, and goodness of God. Isaiah wrote that God's children had rebelled against Him. His wife had been unfaithful to Him. Those He had chosen to bless uniquely among all the nations of the earth had grieved His Holy Spirit. The breaking heart of God is as clear a revelation in Isaiah as are the broken commandments of God.

Similarly, God's revelations, His explanations, and His predictions arise out of His mercy. God has revealed Himself in nature so everyone can enter into relationship with a gracious God. He has explained Himself so His people can understand His dealings with them as being gracious. He has predicted the future so everyone will appreciate that His plans for humanity are gracious plans involving redemption from captivity and sin.

God's grace is the reason He is patient with people. His grace is the inspiration for His persistence with people. And His grace is the passion of His power on behalf of people. In short, all the outstanding characteristics of God in Isaiah trace back to His goodness. The Servant Songs, particularly the third one (52:13-53:12), overflow with the grace of God for His helpless and hopeless people. He is the key to their justification, sanctification, and glorification. Note again the similarity with Romans.

The living message of this book is that acknowledgment of God's sovereign rule is the key to successful human life on every level: individually, nationally, and historically. The only hope for human failure caused by enslavement to sin is divine redemption that a God of grace provides. God is not only able but also willing to save.

To enjoy the benefits of God's grace, people must submit to His government. To submit to His government, they must receive the benefits of His grace. Israel failed to enjoy the benefits of God's grace because she failed to submit to His rule. She failed to submit to His rule because she failed to trust His grace. God brings us into right relationship with His government through His grace. In order to enjoy the benefits of His grace, we must submit to His government. Both government and grace find their source in Yahweh and their expression in Jesus Christ.

Constable: Isaiah (Outline)

Outline

I. Introduction chs. 1-5

A. Israel's condition and God's solution ch. 1

1. The title of the book 1:1

2. Israel's condition 1:2-9

3. God's solution 1:10-20

4. Israel's response 1:21-31

B. The problem with Israel chs. 2-4

1. God's desire for Israel 2:1-4

2. God's discipline of Israel 2:5-4:1

3. God's determination for Israel 4:2-6

C. The analogy of wild grapes ch. 5

1. The song of the vineyard 5:1-7

2. The wildness of the grapes 5:8-25

3. The coming destruction 5:26-30

II. Isaiah's vision of God ch. 6

A. The prophet's vision 6:1-8

B. The prophet's commission 6:9-13

III. Israel's crisis of faith chs. 7-39

A. The choice between trusting God or Assyria chs. 7-12

1. Signs of God's presence 7:1-9:7

2. Measurement by God's standards 9:8-10:4

3. Hope of God's deliverance 10:5-11:16

4. Trust in God's favor ch. 12

B. God's sovereignty over the nations chs. 13-35

1. Divine judgments on the nations chs. 13-23

2. Divine victory over the nations chs. 24-27

3. The folly of trusting the nations chs. 28-33

4. The consequences of Israel's trust chs. 34-35

C. Tests of Israel's trust chs. 36-39

1. The Assyrian threat chs. 36-37

2. The Babylonian threat chs. 38-39

IV. Israel's calling in the world chs. 40-55

A. God's grace to Israel chs. 40-48

1. The Lord of the servant ch. 40

2. The servant of the Lord chs. 41:1-44:22

3. The Lord's redemption of His servant chs. 44:23-47:15

4. The servant's attention to her Lord ch. 48

B. God's atonement for Israel chs. 49-55

1. Anticipation of salvation 49:1-52:12

2. Announcement of salvation 52:13-53:12

3. Invitation to salvation chs. 54-55

V. Israel's future transformation chs. 56-66

A. Recognition of human inability chs. 56-59

1. The need for humility and holiness chs. 56-57

2. The relationship of righteousness and ritual chs. 58-59

B. Revelation of future glory chs. 60-62

1. Israel among the nations ch. 60

2. Israel under the Lord chs. 61-62

C. Recognition of divine ability chs. 63-66

1. God's faithfulness in spite of Israel's unfaithfulness 63:1-65:16

2. The culmination of Israel's future 65:17-66:24

Constable: Isaiah

Isaiah

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Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

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Haydock: Isaiah (Book Introduction)

THE PROPHECY OF ISAIAS.

INTRODUCTION.

This inspired writer is called by the Holy Ghost, (Ecclesiasticus xlviii. 25.) the great prophet; from the greatness of his prophetic spirit, by which he hath foretold, so long before, and in so clear a manner, the coming of Christ, the mysteries of our redemption, the calling of the Gentiles, and the glorious establishment, and perpeutal flourishing of the Church of Christ: insomuch that he seems to have been rather an evangelist than a prophet. His very name is not without mystery: for Isaias in Hebrew signifies the salvation of the Lord, or, Jesus is the Lord. He was, according to the tradition of the Hebrews, of the blood royal of the kings of Juda; an after a most holy life, ended his days by a glorious martyrdom; being sawed in two, at the command of his wicked son-in-law, king Manasses, for reproving his evil ways. (Challoner) --- He began to prophesy ten years before the foundation of Rome, and the ruin of Ninive. His style is suitable to his high birth. He may be called the prophet of the mercies of the Lord. Under the figure of the return from captivity, he foretells the redemption of mankind (Calmet) with such perspicuity, that he might seem to be an evangelist. (St. Jerome)

Gill: Isaiah (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH

This book is called, in the New Testament, sometimes "the Book of the Words of the Prophet Esaias", Luk 3:4 sometimes only the "Prophet Esaias", Act 8:28 and sometimes, as here, the "Book of the Prophet Esaias", Luk 4:17. In the Syriac version the title is, "the Prophecy of Isaiah the Son of Amos": and in the Arabic version, "the Beginning of the Prophecy of Isaiah the Prophet". It stands first of all the prophets; though the order of the prophets, according to the Jews ^a, is, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the twelve. But it is here placed first, not because Isaiah prophesied before the other prophets; for Joel, Jonah, Hosea, and Amos, begun before him, namely, in or before the days of Jeroboam the Second; but because of the excellency of the matter contained in it. Isaiah is called by Ben Syra ^b the great prophet, and by Eusebius ^c the greatest of the prophets; and Jerom ^d a says, he should rather be called an evangelist than a prophet, since he seems rather to write a history of things past, than to prophesy of things to come; yea, he styles him an apostle, as well as an evangelist ^e: and certain it is that no one writes so fully and clearly of the person, offices, grace, and kingdom of Christ; of his incarnation and birth of a virgin; of his sufferings and death, and the glory that should follow, as he does. John, the forerunner of Christ, began his ministry with a passage out of him concerning himself, Mat 3:3. Our Lord preached his first sermon at Nazareth out of this book, Luk 4:17 and it was in this the eunuch was reading when Philip came up to him, who from the same Scripture preached to him Christ, Act 8:28. And there are more citations in the New Testament made out of this prophecy than any other book, excepting the book of Psalms, as Musculus observes. To which may be added, as another reason, the elegance and sublimity of his style in which he exceeds the greatest of orators, Demosthenes among the Greeks, and Tully among the Romans; and this is observed both by Jews and Christians. Abarbinel ^f says, that the purity, and elegance of his diction is like that of kings and counsellors, who speak more purely and elegantly than other men: hence their Rabbins, he says, compare Isaiah to a citizen, and Ezekiel to a countryman. And Jerom ^g observes, that Isaiah is so eloquent and polite, that there is nothing of rusticity in his language; and that his style is so florid, that a translation cannot preserve it. Moreover, another reason of this book being placed first may be the bulk of it; it being larger, and containing more chapters, than any of the greater prophets, and almost as many as all the lesser prophets put together. That Isaiah was the writer of this book is not to be questioned; many of the prophecies in it are by name ascribed to him, Mat 13:14 though some others might be the compilers of it, collect his prophecies, and digest them in order: so the Jews say ^h, that Hezekiah and his company wrote Isaiah, &c. At what time, and in whose days he prophesied, may be learnt from Isa 1:1 by which it appears that he prophesied long, and lived to a good old age. He began to prophesy about A. M. 3236, and about seven hundred and seventy years before Christ. Abulpharagius, an Arabic writer, says ⁱ, he lived an hundred and twenty years, eighty five of which he prophesied. It is a generally received tradition with the Jews, that he lived to the time of Manasseh, and that he was sawn asunder by him; and which has been embraced by the ancient Christian writers, and is thought to be referred to in Heb 11:37. See Gill on Heb 11:37. But Aben Ezra on Isa 1:1 observes, that had he lived to the time of Manasseh, it would have been written, and is of opinion that he died in Hezekiah's time. According to the Cippi Hebraici ^k, he was buried at Tekoah, over whose grave a beautiful monument was erected; though Epiphanius ^l, or the author of the Lives of the Prophets that go by his name, says he was buried under the oak of Rogel, near the fountain of Siloam; and it is a tradition with the Syriac writers, that his body lay hid in the waters of Siloah; See Gill on Joh 5:4 but these are things not to be depended on; and alike fabulous are all other writings ascribed to him, besides this prophecy; as what are called the ascension of Isaiah, the vision of Isaiah, and the conference of Isaiah. This book contains some things historical, but chiefly prophetic; of which some relate to the punishment of the Jews, and other nations; but for the most part are evangelical, and concern the kingdom and grace of Christ; of which some are delivered out more clearly and perspicuously, and others more obscurely, under the type of the deliverance of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity.

Gill: Isaiah 3 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 3

In this chapter the Jews are threatened with various calamities, on account of their sins, which would issue in their entire ruin and destruction. They are threatened with a famine, Isa 3:1 with a removal of useful men in church and state, and in common life, Isa 3:2 with ignorant and effeminate governors; the consequences of which would be oppression and insolence, Isa 3:4 yea, that such would be their state and condition, that men, though naturally ambitious of honour, would refuse to have the government of them, Isa 3:6 the reasons of these calamities, and of this ruin and fall of them, are their evil words and actions against the Lord, which were highly provoking to him; and their impudence in sinning like Sodom, which was to their own harm, Isa 3:8 yet, in the midst of all this, it is the will of God that the righteous should be told it shall be well with them, with the reason of it; when it shall be ill with the wicked, as a just recompence of reward, Isa 3:10 the errors and mistakes of the people are attributed to their childish and effeminate governors, Isa 3:12 wherefore the Lord determines to plead their cause, and contend with their elders and rulers, because they had spoiled and devoured the poor, Isa 3:13 and particularly the women are threatened, for their pride and luxury, to have their ornaments taken from them, which are particularly mentioned, Isa 3:16 and the chapter is concluded with a prophecy, that their mighty men should perish by the sword in war, and the city should be desolate, Isa 3:25.