Isaiah 3:1-8

A Coming Leadership Crisis

3:1 Look, the sovereign Lord who commands armies ¹ 

is about to remove from Jerusalem ²  and Judah

every source of security, including ³ 

all the food and water, ⁴ 

3:2 the mighty men and warriors,

judges and prophets,

omen readers and leaders, ⁵ 

3:3 captains of groups of fifty,

the respected citizens, ⁶ 

advisers and those skilled in magical arts, ⁷ 

and those who know incantations.

3:4 The Lord says, ⁸  “I will make youths their officials;

malicious young men ⁹  will rule over them.

3:5 The people will treat each other harshly;

men will oppose each other;

neighbors will fight. ¹⁰ 

Youths will proudly defy the elderly

and riffraff will challenge those who were once respected. ¹¹ 

3:6 Indeed, a man will grab his brother

right in his father’s house ¹²  and say, ¹³ 

‘You own a coat –

you be our leader!

This heap of ruins will be under your control.’ ¹⁴ 

3:7 At that time ¹⁵  the brother will shout, ¹⁶ 

‘I am no doctor, ¹⁷ 

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; ¹⁸ 

they rebel against his royal authority. ¹⁹ 

Isaiah 3:2

3:2 the mighty men and warriors,

judges and prophets,

omen readers and leaders, ²⁰ 

Isaiah 25:4-7

25:4 For you are a protector for the poor,

a protector for the needy in their distress,

a shelter from the rainstorm,

a shade from the heat.

Though the breath of tyrants ²¹  is like a winter rainstorm, ²² 

25:5 like heat ²³  in a dry land,

you humble the boasting foreigners. ²⁴ 

Just as the shadow of a cloud causes the heat to subside, ²⁵ 

so he causes the song of tyrants to cease. ²⁶ 

25:6 The Lord who commands armies will hold a banquet for all the nations on this mountain. ²⁷ 

At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine –

tender meat and choicest wine. ²⁸ 

25:7 On this mountain he will swallow up

the shroud that is over all the peoples, ²⁹ 

the woven covering that is over all the nations; ³⁰ 

Isaiah 25:1

25:1 O Lord, you are my God! ³¹ 

I will exalt you in praise, I will extol your fame. ³² 

For you have done extraordinary things,

and executed plans made long ago exactly as you decreed. ³³ 

Jeremiah 39:4-7

39:4 When King Zedekiah of Judah and all his soldiers saw them, they tried to escape. They departed from the city during the night. They took a path through the king’s garden and passed out through the gate between the two walls. ³⁴  Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. ³⁵  39:5 But the Babylonian ³⁶  army chased after them. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho ³⁷  and captured him. ³⁸  They took him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at Riblah ³⁹  in the territory of Hamath and Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on him there. 39:6 There at Riblah the king of Babylon had Zedekiah’s sons put to death while Zedekiah was forced to watch. The king of Babylon also had all the nobles of Judah put to death. 39:7 Then he had Zedekiah’s eyes put out and had him bound in chains ⁴⁰  to be led off to Babylon.

Jeremiah 52:24-27

52:24 The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers. ⁴¹  52:25 From the city he took an official who was in charge of the soldiers, seven of the king’s advisers who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens ⁴²  for military service, and sixty citizens who were discovered in the middle of the city. 52:26 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 52:27 The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed ⁴³  at Riblah in the territory of Hamath.

So Judah was taken into exile away from its land.

[3:1]  ¹ 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.

[3:1]  ² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:1]  ³ tn Heb “support and support.” The masculine and feminine forms of the noun are placed side-by-side to emphasize completeness. See GKC 394 §122.v.

[3:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “all the support of food, and all the support of water.”

[3:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “elder” (so ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NCV “older leaders.”

[3:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “the ones lifted up with respect to the face.” For another example of the Hebrew idiom, see 2 Kgs 5:1.

[3:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the wise with respect to magic.” On the meaning of חֲרָשִׁים (kharashim, “magic”), see HALOT 358 s.v. III חרשׁ. Some understand here a homonym, meaning “craftsmen.” In this case, one could translate, “skilled craftsmen” (cf. NIV, NASB).

[3:4]  ⁸ tn The words “the Lord says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The prophet speaks in vv. 1-3 (note the third person reference to the Lord in v. 1), but here the Lord himself announces that he will intervene in judgment. It is unclear where the Lord’s words end and the prophet’s pick up again. The prophet is apparently speaking again by v. 8, where the Lord is referred to in the third person. Since vv. 4-7 comprise a thematic unity, the quotation probably extends through v. 7.

[3:4]  ⁹ tn תַעֲלוּלִים (ta’alulim) is often understood as an abstract plural meaning “wantonness, cruelty” (cf. NLT). In this case the chief characteristic of these leaders is substituted for the leaders themselves. However, several translations make the parallelism tighter by emending the form to עוֹלְלִים (’olÿlim, “children”; cf. ESV, NASB, NCV, NIV, NKJV, NRSV). This emendation is unnecessary for at least two reasons. The word in the MT highlights the cruelty or malice of the “leaders” who are left behind in the wake of God’s judgment. The immediate context makes clear the fact that they are mere youths. The coming judgment will sweep away the leaders, leaving a vacuum which will be filled by incompetent, inexperienced youths.

[3:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “man against man, and a man against his neighbor.”

[3:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and those lightly esteemed those who are respected.” The verb רָהַב (rahav) does double duty in the parallelism.

[3:6]  ¹² tn Heb “[in] the house of his father” (so ASV); NIV “at his father’s home.”

[3:6]  ¹³ tn The words “and say” are supplied for stylistic reasons.

[3:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “your hand”; NASB “under your charge.”

[3:7]  ¹⁵ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[3:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “he will lift up [his voice].”

[3:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “wrapper [of wounds]”; KJV, ASV, NRSV “healer.”

[3:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “for their tongue and their deeds [are] to the Lord.”

[3:8]  ¹⁹ 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.

[3:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “elder” (so ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NCV “older leaders.”

[25:4]  ²¹ tn Or perhaps, “the violent”; NIV, NRSV “the ruthless.”

[25:4]  ²² tc The Hebrew text has, “like a rainstorm of a wall,” which might be interpreted to mean, “like a rainstorm battering against a wall.” The translation assumes an emendation of קִיר (qir, “wall”) to קֹר (qor, “cold, winter”; cf. Gen 8:22). See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:457, n. 6, for discussion.

[25:5]  ²³ tn Or “drought” (TEV).

[25:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the tumult of foreigners.”

[25:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “[like] heat in the shadow of a cloud.”

[25:5]  ²⁶ tn The translation assumes that the verb יַעֲנֶה (ya’aneh) is a Hiphil imperfect from עָנָה (’anah, “be afflicted, humiliated”). In this context with “song” as object it means to “quiet” (see HALOT 853-54 s.v. II ענה). Some prefer to emend the form to the second person singular, so that it will agree with the second person verb earlier in the verse. BDB 776 s.v. III עָנָה Qal.1 understands the form as Qal, with “song” as subject, in which case one might translate “the song of tyrants will be silent.” An emendation of the form to a Niphal (יֵעָנֶה, ye’aneh) would yield the same translation.

[25:6]  ²⁷ sn That is, Mount Zion (see 24:23); cf. TEV; NLT “In Jerusalem.”

[25:6]  ²⁸ tn Heb “And the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts] will make for all the nations on this mountain a banquet of meats, a banquet of wine dregs, meats filled with marrow, dregs that are filtered.”

[25:7]  ²⁹ tn The Hebrew text reads, “the face of the shroud, the shroud over all the nations.” Some emend the second הַלּוֹט (hallot) to a passive participle הַלּוּט (hallut, “that is wrapped”).

[25:7]  ³⁰ sn The point of the imagery is unclear. Perhaps the shroud/covering referred to was associated with death in some way (see v. 8).

[25:1]  ³¹ sn The prophet speaks here as one who has observed the coming judgment of the proud.

[25:1]  ³² tn Heb “name.” See the note at 24:15.

[25:1]  ³³ tn Heb “plans from long ago [in] faithfulness, trustworthiness.” The feminine noun אֱמוּנָה (’emunah, “faithfulness”) and masculine noun אֹמֶן (’omen, “trustworthiness”), both of which are derived from the root אָמַן (’aman), are juxtaposed to emphasize the basic idea conveyed by the synonyms. Here they describe the absolute reliability of the divine plans.

[39:4]  ³⁴ sn The king’s garden is mentioned again in Neh 3:15 in conjunction with the pool of Siloam and the stairs that go down from the city of David. This would have been in the southern part of the city near the Tyropean Valley which agrees with the reference to the “two walls” which were probably the walls on the eastern and western hills.

[39:4]  ³⁵ sn Heb “toward the Arabah.” The Arabah was the rift valley north and south of the Dead Sea. Here the intention was undoubtedly to escape across the Jordan to Moab or Ammon. It appears from 40:14; 41:15 that the Ammonites were known to harbor fugitives from the Babylonians.

[39:5]  ³⁶ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[39:5]  ³⁷ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[39:5]  ³⁸ sn 2 Kgs 25:5 and Jer 52:8 mention that the soldiers all scattered from him. That is why the text focuses on Zedekiah here.

[39:5]  ³⁹ sn Riblah was a strategic town on the Orontes River in Syria. It was at a crossing of the major roads between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Pharaoh Necho had earlier received Jehoahaz there and put him in chains (2 Kgs 23:33) prior to taking him captive to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar had set up his base camp for conducting his campaigns against the Palestinian states there and was now sitting in judgment on prisoners brought to him.

[39:7]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “fetters of bronze.” The more generic “chains” is used in the translation because “fetters” is a word unfamiliar to most modern readers.

[52:24]  ⁴¹ sn See the note at Jer 35:4.

[52:25]  ⁴² tn Heb “men, from the people of the land” (also later in this verse).

[52:27]  ⁴³ tn Heb “struck them down and killed them.”