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 inclusioaround 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.47They 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).
