Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 3:1
For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,
1. the Lord, the Lord of hosts ] as in Isa 1:24: the Sovereign, Jehovah of Hosts.
the stay and the staff ] The second word is the fem. form of the first. The conjunction of similar-sounding words (like “bag and baggage” in English) frequently expresses exhaustiveness. The meaning is simply “every kind of prop.” Cf. Nah 2:10; Zep 1:15.
the whole stay water ] This explanation is exceedingly unnatural in view of the enumeration which follows. The clause is probably a marginal gloss (readily suggested by such passages as Lev 26:26; Eze 4:16; Psa 105:16) which has crept into the text.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For – This is a continuation of the previous chapter. The same prophecy is continued, and the force of the argument of the prophet will not be seen unless the chapters are read together; see the Analysis prefixed to Isa. 2. In the close of the second chapter Isa 2:22, the prophet had cautioned his countrymen against confiding in man. In this chapter, a reason is given here why they should cease to do it – to wit, that God would soon take away their kings and princes.
The Lord – ha’adon; see the note at Isa 1:24.
The Lord of hosts – see the note at Isa 1:9. The prophet calls the attention of the Jews particularly to the fact that this was about to be done by Yahweh of hosts – a title which he gives to God when he designs to indicate that that which is to be done implies special strength, power, and majesty. As the work which was now to be done was the removal of the mighty men on which the nation was depending, it is implied that it was a work of power which belonged especially to the God of armies – the Almighty.
Doth take away – Is about to remove. In the Hebrew, the word here is a participle, and does not mark the precise time. It has reference here, however, to the future.
From Jerusalem … – Note Isa 1:1.
The stay – In the Hebrew, the words translated stay and staff are the same, with the exception that the former is in the masculine, and the latter in the feminine gender. The meaning is, that God would remove all kinds of support, or everything on which they relied. The reference is undoubtedly to the princes and mighty men on whose counsels and aid the nation was resting for defense; see Isa 3:2-3.
The whole stay of bread – We use a similar expression when we say that bread is the staff of life. The Hebrews often expressed the same idea, representing the heart in man as being supported or upheld by bread, Gen 18:5 (margin); Jdg 19:5 (margin); Lev 26:26; Psa 105:16.
Stay of water – He would reduce them from their luxuries introduced by commerce Isa. 2 to absolute want. This often occurred in the sieges and wars of the nation; and in the famines which were the consequence of the wars. The reference here is probably to the invasion of the land by Nebuchadnezzar. The famine consequent on that invasion is described in Jer 38:21; Jer 38:9; Lam 4:4 : The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his month for thirst; the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 3:1-3
For behold the Lord . . . doth take away . . . the mighty man.
–
National leaders removed
The Jewish nation, at this time, may be considered as represented by an old building, ready to fall into ruin, to prevent which many props had been added. These supports, on which it leaned, that were derived the authority, the prudence and fortitude of its leading men, God threatens to remove; in consequence of which the State should as certainly become ruinous as a decayed building, when the props on which it rested are taken away. (R. Macculloch.)
The death of the renowned
There is a tendency to trust in the arm of flesh. It would be most wicked if we were ungrateful for our great deliverers, raised up by that God to whom the shield of the earth belongeth; but, at the same time, it must be sinful to trust in them as if they were the authors of all, and, therefore, deserved all the glory.
1. We need the admonition which precedes this text–Cease ye from man (whether prince or senator, soldier or orator, counsellor or captain), whoso breath (whatever his strength or genius, talent or fame) is in his nostrils.
2. There is no such thing as chance; whether it be a hair which falls to the ground, or a sparrow that drops in its weary way across the field, or a prince smitten from his throne, or a dynasty broken–God is in them, giving, permitting, overruling, and sanctifying; it is not the shot or shell, the wave or wind, incident or accident, but God that takes away, and those things which we suppose to have played the principal part, are merely servants sent out by God to lead the soldier from his duty in the field, to receive the crown of glory and war no more.
3. But not only is it the Lord, but He has right and jurisdiction to do so. He not only reigns, but He rules. Unsanctified interpositions of God are the darkest judgments; whilst therefore, we recognise His hand in giving, let us recognise His hand in taking away. A father and his child walk. They pick up a stone with a green substance, which appears worthless, and fit only to be cast away; but they apply the microscope, and this green substance on the stone he finds to be a magnificent though tiny forest. So it is with any fact that occurs. Man looks at it with his own eyes, sees it uninstructive; but when seen in the light of Gods truth, he finds in it what is instructive and suggestive.
4. When God removes from a nation its props, pillars, and supports, He does so to lead that nation to see Himself more clearly and to lean on Him more entirely.
5. The Lord thus takes away in order to teach men impressively this lesson which man is very slow to learn–that death must come upon all. Death enters the cabinets of princes and statesmen, the camp of the hero, and the hut of the peasant, without paying the least respect to rank or royalty. (J. Cumming, D. D.)
The death of statesmen
I. Learn from the death of a great statesman THE WEIGHT OF GOVERNMENT IN A FALLEN WORLD. For when we see the mightiest minds that our country has produced, a Fox, a Pitt, a Liverpool, a Canning, one after another taking the weight of government upon them, and dropping under its weight into the arms of death–can we avoid thinking of the mighty mass of care that has pressed them down?
II. We are taught THE WEAKNESS OF THE SHOULDERS OF MORTAL MEN. However mighty his shoulders may be, he must be a bold man that would venture to take up a burden that has crushed so many: and yet there are many that will venture on it; for there are those who delight in danger, who sport with difficulties, and who delight in doing what no one else can do. And it is well for society that there are men of moral courage. If all preferred the comfort and quiet of domestic life, how could the affairs of government go on? Yet there are some burdens, the weight of which will crush any mind, for the sons of Anak are not omnipotent. And how knows any man how near he is to this point, when he shall be overwhelmed with his own duties, distracted with his own cares, become a prey to the very thing in which he delighted?
III. THE UNCERTAINTY OF ALL HUMAN AFFAIRS. We need to be taught this with a strong hand, for this warm piece of moving clay that is bustling about the earth, ready to drop to pieces every moment, is so swollen with vanity that it would fain fancy it is made of adamant. Therefore God supplies us with strong reasons, at certain seasons, to teach us the contrary.
IV. OUR ABSOLUTE DEPENDENCE ON THE SUPREME GOVERNOR. When we behold the profound counsellor and the mighty orator, and are entranced with their talents and execution, we grow idolatrous, and think these men are more than mortal, and that society could not go on without them; little thinking that He who made them as they are, to be employed as He pleases, and to be laid aside when He pleases, can raise others equally fitted as they are. (Exo 4:11.)
V. Another lesson which we should learn is, THE SACRED DUTY OF PRAYER FOR KINGS AND ALL IN AUTHORITY OVER US. We should make our supplications that councils may be assisted, that the cares of government may not overwhelm and destroy, that there may be a reasonable spirit prevalent in the public, so that it may be rendered less oppressive.
VI. IN YOUR SUPPLICATIONS ESPECIALLY REMEMBER ZION, THE CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD. The Church has been compared to a building, and the world to a scaffold placed around it in order to assist in rearing the edifice.
VII. LEARN TO PREPARE FOR OUR OWN DEATH. (J. Bennett, D. D.)
The death of the renowned excites special attention and interest
In the humble cottage on some mountain slope, in some shaded valley or distant forest, or in the living wilderness of some great city, are the young and the old, the brave and the fair, passing away in unbroken procession to the dust of the sepulchre, and to the destinies of the life to come But the great world without does not regard it. Like the leaves of autumn that strew our pathway, they sink into the grave, and their death is crowded from recollection by the never-ending succession of new events. But when the tall and graceful trees of the forest–the monarchs whose heads towered above the general altitude–are brought down by some resistless blow, their fall is attended with a louder crash, and the earth itself trembles beneath the shock: so, when the men who walk upon the loftier heights of place and power, when those whose intellectual stature as they move along the paths of science, of history, of literature, and of art, renders them preeminent above the general mass, are laid prostrate by the stroke of death, the event impresses itself more vividly upon the minds of men, and calls out from its hidden springs in the heart a profounder sentiment of sorrow. (J. A. Todd.)
The perils of greatness
Every state is set in the midst of danger, as all trees are set in the wind; but the tallest endure the greatest violence of the tempest. (Bishop J. Taylor, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER III
The whole of this chapter, with the first verse of the next, is
a prophecy of those calamities that should be occasioned by the
Babylonish invasion and captivity. These calamities are
represented as so great and so general, that even royal
honours, in such a state, are so far from being desirable, that
hardly any can be got to accept them, 1-7.
This visitation is declared to be the consequence of their
profanity and guilt; for which the prophet farther reproves and
threatens them, 8-15.
Particular amplification of the distress of the delicate and
luxurious daughters of Zion; whose deplorable situation is
finely contrasted with their former prosperity and ease, 16-26.
NOTES ON CHAP. III
Verse 1. The stay and the staff – “Every stay and support”] Hebrew, “the support masculine, and the support feminine:” that is, every kind of support, whether great or small, strong or weak. “Al Kanitz, wal-kanitzah; the wild beasts, male and female. Proverbially applied both to fishing and hunting: i.e., I seized the prey, great or little, good or bad. From hence, as Schultens observes, is explained Isa 3:1, literally, the male and female stay: i.e., the strong and weak, the great and small.” – Chappelow, note on Hariri, Assembly I. Compare Ec 2:8.
The Hebrew words mashen umashenah come from the same root shaan, to lean against, to incline, to support; and here, being masculine and feminine, they may signify all things necessary for the support both of man and woman. My old MS. understands the staff and stay as meaning particular persons, and translates the verse thus: – Lo forsoth, the Lordschip Lord of Hoostis schal don awey fro Jerusalem and fro Juda the stalworth and the stronge.
The two following verses, 2, 3, are very clearly explained by the sacred historian’s account of the event, the captivity of Jehoiachin by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon: “And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths; none remained save the poorest sort of the people of the land,” 2Kg 24:14. Which is supplied by our version.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Behold; look upon it as a thing as certain as if it were already done.
The stay and the staff; all the supports of their state and church. The whole stay of bread, called elsewhere the staff of bread; whereby is understood either,
1. The nourishing power of bread, which wholly depend upon Gods blessing; or rather,
2. Bread itself, as this phrase is understood, Lev 26:26; Psa 105:16; Eze 4:16, and directly explained, Eze 5:16, bread which is the staff of life.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Forcontinuation of Isa2:22.
Lord of hoststhereforeable to do as He says.
dothpresent forfuture, so certain is the accomplishment.
stay . . . staffthesame Hebrew word, the one masculine, the other feminine, anArabic idiom for all kinds of support. What a changefrom the previous luxuries (Isa2:7)! Fulfilled in the siege by Nebuchadnezzar and afterwards byTitus (Jer 37:21; Jer 38:9).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts,…. These titles of Jehovah, expressive of power and authority, are used to show that he is able to execute what he threatens to do; and the word “behold” is prefixed, to excite attention to what is about to be said:
doth take away from Jerusalem, and from Judea; the present tense is used for the future, because of the certainty of what would be done to the Jews, both in city and country; for as in the preceding chapter Isa 2:1 it is foretold what shall befall the antichristian party among the nations of the world, this is a prophecy of the destruction of the Jews by the Romans; at which time there would be a dreadful famine, signified by the taking away
the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water; bread and water being the stay and staff of man’s life, which support and maintain it; and, in case of disobedience, a famine was threatened this people very early, and in much such terms as here,
Le 26:26 and as there was a very sore famine at the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, Jer 52:6 so there was a very dreadful one when the city was besieged by the Romans, as related by Josephus, and predicted by Christ, Mt 24:7.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“For, behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah supporter and means of support, every support of bread and every support of water.” The divine name given here, “The Lord, Jehovah of hosts,” with which Isaiah everywhere introduces the judicial acts of God (cf., Isa 1:24; Isa 10:16, Isa 10:33; Isa 19:4), is a proof that the proclamation of judgment commences afresh here. Trusting in man was the crying sin, more especially of the times of Uzziah-Jotham. The glory of the kingdom at that time carried the wrath of Jehovah within it. The outbreak of that wrath commenced in the time of Ahaz; and even under Hezekiah it was merely suspended, not changed. Isaiah foretells this outbreak of wrath. He describes how Jehovah will lay the Jewish state in ruins, by taking away the main supports of its existence and growth. “Supporter and means of support” ( mash’en and mash’enah ) express, first of all, the general idea. The two nouns, which are only the masculine and feminine forms of one and the same word (compare Mic 2:4; Nah 2:11, and the examples from the Syriac and Arabic in Ewald, 172, c), serve to complete the generalization: fulcra omne genus (props of every kind, omnigena ). They are both technical terms, denoting the prop which a person uses to support anything, whilst mish’an signifies that which yields support; so that the three correspond somewhat to the Latin fulcrum , fultura , fulcimen . Of the various means of support, bread and wine are mentioned first, not in a figurative sense, but as the two indispensable conditions and the lowest basis of human life. Life is supported by bread and water: it walks, as it were, upon the crutch of bread, so that “breaking the staff of bread” (Lev 26:26; Eze 4:16; Eze 5:16; Eze 14:13; Psa 105:16) is equivalent to physical destruction. The destruction of the Jewish state would accordingly be commenced by a removal on the part of Jehovah of all the support afforded by bread and water, i.e., all the stores of both. And this was literally fulfilled, for both in the Chaldean and Roman times Jerusalem perished in the midst of just such terrible famines as are threatened in the curses in Lev 26, and more especially in Deut 28; and in both cases the inhabitants were reduced to such extremities, that women devoured their own children (Lam 2:20; Josephus, Wars of Jews, vi. 3, 3, 4). It is very unjust, therefore, on the part of modern critics, such as Hitzig, Knobel, and Meier, to pronounce Isa 3:1 a gloss, and, in fact, a false one. Gesenius and Umbreit retracted this suspicion. The construction of the v. is just the same as that of Isa 25:6; and it is Isaiah’s custom to explain his own figures, as we have already observed when comparing Isa 1:7. and Isa 1:23 with what preceded them. “Every support of bread and every support of water” are not to be regarded in this case as an explanation of the general idea introduced before, “supporters and means of support,” but simply as the commencement of the detailed expansion of the idea. For the enumeration of the supports which Jehovah would take away is continued in the next two verses.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Judgments Denounced. | B. C. 758. |
1 For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, 2 The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, 3 The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. 4 And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. 5 And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable. 6 When a man shall 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: 7 In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be a healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people. 8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
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 (v. 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, Zech. viii. 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 (Ezek. xvi. 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 (Matt. iv. 4), and then the bread is not nourishing nor the water refreshing, Hag. i. 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, ch. xxv. 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 xii. 17, c. 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, Ps. lxxv. 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! Eccl. x. 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 Judg. ix. 23), which would make them, 1. Injurious and unneighbourly one towards another (v. 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. xix. 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, v. 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, ch. lviii. 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 ( Jas 2:2; Jas 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, Eccl. ix. 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 (v. 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, Matt. xvi. 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 (v. 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. xxv. 6.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
ISAIAH – CHAPTER 3
JUDAH AND JERUSALEM TO BE JUDGED
1. In fulfillment of repeated warning, the Lord withdraws His blessings because of Judah’s sins, (Verse 1; comp. Lev 26:23-26).
a. He takes away physical necessities which they have too long taken for granted, (Verse 1; Isa 5:13; Isa 9:20; Eze 4:16-17).
b. He also takes away their leaders and counsellors, judges and defenders, prophets and honorable men – all who might be expected to exercise wisdom and prudence, (Verse 2-3; Isa 9:13-15; 2Ki 24:14; Eze 17:12-13).
2. The result of God’s action is a state of anarchy and confusion, (Verse 4-7; Mic 7:3-6; Jer 9:3-8).
a. Children are exalted to rule in a time of severe oppression, (Verse 4, 12; Ecc 10:16).
b. The young treat their elders maliciously for their own pleasure.
c. The pride of the base humiliates the honorable.
d. No one can be found who is able to restore order, provide the basic needs of the nation and be a healer of their divinely inflicted wounds, (comp. Hos 5:13-14).
3. The ruin of Jerusalem, as the fall of Judah, is not without cause, (Isa 1:7; Isa 6:11).
a. Their words and deeds have been stout against the Lord, (Isa 9:17; Isa 59:1-3; comp. Mal 3:13).
b. They have so provoked Him to Anger that the searching, piercing brilliancy of His glorious eye is against them, (Verse 8; Isa 65:3-7; Jer 32:27-35; Jer 44:2-8).
4. No longer trying to hide their sin, they display it as proudly as Sodom, (comp. Isa 1:10; Gen 13:13).
5. By such shamelessness they have dealt woeful misery unto themselves, (Pro 8:36; Pro 15:32; Rom 6:23).
6. The righteous have no cause to be afraid, for God will reward them with the fruit of their labors, (Isa 54:17; comp. Deu 28:1-14).
7. But, woe to the wicked! they will reap as they have sown, (Isa 65:6-7; comp. Deu 28:15-68; Gal 6:7-8).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. For, behold. We stated, a little before, that this is the same subject which the Prophet began to treat towards the close of the former chapter; for he warns the Jews that their wealth, however great it may be, will be of no avail to prevent the wrath of God, which, when it has once been kindled, will burn up all their defenses. Hence it follows that they are chargeable with excessive madness, when, in order to drive away their alarm, they heap up their forces, strength, and warlike accoutrements, consultations, armor, abundant supply of provisions, and other resources.
The demonstrative particle הנה, ( hinneth,) “behold,” is employed not only to denote certainty, but to express the shortness of time, as if Isaiah caused wicked men to be eye-witnesses of the event; for it frequently happens that they who do not venture openly to ridicule the judgments of God pass them by, as if they did not at all relate to them, or were still at a great distance. “What is that to us?” say they; “Or, if they shall ever happen, why should we be miserable before the time? Will it not be time enough to think of those calamities when they actually befall us?” Since, therefore, wicked men, in order to set at naught the judgments of God, dig for themselves lurking-places of this description, on this account the Prophet presses them more closely and earnestly, that they may not imagine that the hand of God is distant, or vainly expect that it will be relaxed.
The Lord Jehovah of hosts will take away from Jerusalem. 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. First, the Prophet threatens that the Jews will have the whole produce of the harvest taken from them, so that they will perish through famine. Immediately afterwards he speaks in the same manner about military guards, and all that relates to the good order of the state. Hence we may infer that the Jews boasted of the prosperity which they at that time enjoyed, so as to entertain a foolish belief that they were protected against every danger. But Isaiah threatens that not only the whole country, but Jerusalem herself, which was the invincible fortress of the nation, will be exposed to God’s chastisements; as if he had said, “The wrath of God will not only fall on every part of the body, but will pierce the very heart.”
The power and the strength. (49) As to the words ומשענה משען, ( mashgnen umashgnenah) which differ only in this respect, that one is in the masculine, and the other in the feminine genders, I have no doubt that the Prophet intended by this change to express more fully the certainty that supports of every kind would be broken; and therefore I have translated them the power and the strength (50) I do not agree with those interpreters who view it as referring to the persons of men, for it more appropriately denotes all supports, whatever may be their nature.
Still it is doubtful whether the Prophet limits it to food, or extends it to all other kinds of support, which he mentions immediately afterwards. But it is natural to suppose that by משען ומשענה, ( mashgnen umashgnenah) is included generally everything that is necessary to sustain the order of the city or of the people; and next that, for the sake of explanation, he enumerates some particulars. The first clause therefore means, “God will take away every help and assistance by which you think that you are upheld, so that nothing whatever may be left to support you.”
Next, he adds, what will be their want and nakedness; and he begins, as we have said, with food and nourishment, which hold the first rank in sustaining the life of men. Now there are two ways in which God takes away the strength of bread and water; either when he deprives us of victuals, or when he takes from them the power of nourishing us; for unless God impart to our food a hidden power, the greatest abundance of it that we may possess will do us no good. (Lev 26:26.) Hence in another passage God is said to break the staff of bread (Eze 4:16,) when the bakers deliver the bread by weight, and yet it does not yield satisfaction. And this comparison ought to be carefully observed, in order to inform us that, even though the belly be will filled, we shall always be hungry, there being nothing but the secret blessing of God that can feed or support us.
Though the hunger which the Prophet threatens in this passage may be understood to mean that the fields will be unproductive, or, that God will take away from the Jews every kind of food, yet, since the Prophets are generally accustomed to borrow their forms of expression from the law, this interpretation will apply very well. For he might simply have said, “I will take away the bread and wine;” but he expresses something more secret when he speaks of the support of bread and water; as if he had said that, though the people be not reduced to famine, yet God will make them, even while they are rioting in gluttony, to pine with hunger; for when the blessing of God is withdrawn, all its usefulness will vanish away. We may sum it up in this manner, that the people will have no food to strengthen them; either because they will not have bread and water, or, if they have, will derive no advantage from them.
(49) “Heb, ‘the support masculine and the support feminine,’ that is, every kind of support, whether great or small, strong or weak. Al kenitz, wal kanitzan; the wild beast, male and female: proverbially applied both to fishing and hunting; that is, I seized the prey, great or little, good or bad. From hence, as Schultens observes, is explained Isa 3:1, literally, the male and female stay; that is, the strong and weak, the great and small.” Chappelow, quoted by Lowth.
(50) Calvin has imitated the Hebrew phrase by the rendering vigorem et vim ; employing two words, of which one is in the masculine and the other in the feminine gender, and both begin with the same letter, while each of them denotes strength. Our English version has imitated the alliteration by stay and the staff — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE DEATH OF STATESMEN
(Funeral Sermon for the Right Hon. George Canning.)
Isa. 3:1; Isa. 3:3. For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the counsellor, and the eloquent orator.
By the death of a great statesman at the head of a government, we are reminded.
I. Of the weight of government in a fallen world. It is a burden that has crushed many, and has brought them to an untimely grave.
II. Of the weakness of the shoulders of mortal men. The government of a single country, especially in troublous times, has proved a burden too great for the courage and the endurance of the strongest of men.
III. Of the uncertainty of all human affairs. Often does the statesman think of the uncertainty of arriving at the object of his ambition, but seldom of the uncertainty of his remaining there, except when he recollects how many are struggling to replace him. Little does he think of another foe, who lurks behind, and who in some unexpected moment will hush his eloquent tongue, and turn his fertile brain to dust.
IV. Of our absolute dependence on the Supreme Governor. We are apt to think that it is on the profound counsellor and mighty orator that the nations welfare depends, and to think little of Him who made them what they are, to be employed as He pleases, laid aside when He pleases, and replaced if He pleases, by others as richly endowed.
V. Of the necessity of personal preparation for death [541]J. Bennett, D.D., The British Pulpit, i. 297304.
[541] So live, that, when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, that moves
To that mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not like the quarry slave at night
Scourged to his dungeon; but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.Bryant.
NATIONAL GREATNESS
Isa. 3:1-8. For, behold, &c.
I. The elements of national greatness are intellectual and moral, rather than material. A nation may have the staff of bread and the stay of water, but lacking the persons enumerated in Isa. 3:2-3, it cannot be a great nation. While, therefore, it is reasonable to put forth efforts to increase the material resources of the nation, we should be more concerned to improve the producers than the produce.
II. For the supply and continuance of these supreme elements of national greatness, we are absolutely dependent upon God. Well to remember that for all material blessings we are absolutely dependent upon Him. The moral value of a bad harvest is often great; it reminds us that, do what the most skilful agriculturists may, it is God that giveth the increase. Not less dependent are we upon Him for the men without whom no nation can be great. Wise statesmen, skilful inventors, eloquent orators, &c., are very special gifts of God; such men cannot be manufactured.
III. These essential elements of national greatness God will take away from those nations that are regardless of His goodness and defiant of His authority (Isa. 3:1; Isa. 3:8). National sins bring on national judgments. No national judgment is more severe or prolific of disasters than the removal or denial of great leaders.
IV. Not only can God abase the greatest nation, but He can reduce it to depths of humiliation which beforehand it would have regarded as inconceivable. See through what stages of national sorrow and shame the prophet declared that Israel should be led.
(1.) The diminution of its material resources and the removal of all its leaders of society (Isa. 3:1-3).
(2.) The government entrusted to weak and childish rulers (Isa. 3:4).
(3.) Social anarchy (Isa. 3:5).
(4.) Social degradation so extreme, that men are solicited to rule merely because they have a little wealth (Isa. 3:6).
(5.) The last stage of national degradationits supreme places of authority have become so contemptible and perilous that no one can be induced to fill them (Isa. 3:7).
These considerations concern us individually. The nation is but an aggregate of individuals; and what they are, it is. Hence it behoves us
1. To strive after personal holiness. This seems a very small remedy for national evils. But it is only by each man adopting it that the nation can be made religious. If each drop in the ocean could eliminate the salt with which it is charged, the ocean would become fresh. Besides, by our example we may stimulate others to personal reforms, and they again others.
2. To entreat God to deal with us as a nation in the way of mercy, and not of judgment (Psa. 103:10). There is a mighty power in intercessory prayer.
3. Diligently to promote all moral and social reforms. We must labour as well as pray. A Christian man will assist in all political reforms, because it is the will of God that righteousness should prevail in all things. But much more interested will he be in all movements and institutions having for their end the intellectual and moral advancement of the people: the school, the temperance society, better dwellings for the working classes, the diffusion of a pure literature, &c.
4. To put forth constant efforts to bring and keep our fellow-countrymen under the influence of the Gospel. Of all regenerative and conservative influences the Gospel is the most active and powerful. A nation composed entirely of genuine Christians would be at once the most happy, prosperous, and powerful the world has ever seen. The direct and short way to exalt Great Britain is to strive to lead all our countrymen to the knowledge and service of Christ. This is a work, not for ministers only, but for the whole Church. There would be more happy Christians if there were more working Christians. It is not the running brooks, but the standing pools, that become stagnant.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER THREE
3.
THE VENGEANCE UPON DECADENCE Isa. 3:1 to Isa. 4:1
a. THE WEALTHY
TEXT: Isa. 3:1-15
1
For, behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah stay and staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water;
2
the mighty man, and the man of war; the judge, and the prophet, and the diviner, and the elder;
3
the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counsellor, and the expert artificer, and the skillful enchanter.
4
And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.
5
And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor: the child shall behave himself proudly against the old man, and the base against the honorable.
6
When a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand;
7
in that day shall he lift up his voice, saying, I will not be a healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: ye shall not make me ruler of the people.
8
For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against Jehovah, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
9
The show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have done evil unto themselves.
10
Say ye of the righteous, that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
11
Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him; for what his hands have done shall be done unto him.
12
As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they that lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.
13
Jehovah standeth up to contend, and standeth to judge the peoples.
14
Jehovah will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and the princes thereof; It is ye that have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses:
15
what mean ye that ye crush my people, and grind the face of the poor? saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.
QUERIES
a.
What is the meaning of babes ruling over them?
b.
Why did they not hide their sin?
c.
How were children their oppressors?
PARAPHRASE
The Lord of Hosts is about to cut off Jerusalems and Judahs food and water supplies; He is about to kill her leaders; He will destroy her armies, judges, prophets, elders, army officers, businessmen, lawyers, expert craftsmen and magicians. Israels kings will be immature boys and they will rule like capricious children. And the worst sort of anarchy will prevaileveryone stepping on someone else, neighbors fighting neighbors, youths revolting against authority, criminals sneering at honorable men. The days will be characterized by such widespread poverty, ruin and destitution, that when men find one of their brethren who seems to be prosperous they will try to force him to be their king, saying, you have extra clothing, so you be our king and take care of this mess we are all in. He will reply, Absolutely not! I do not want any part of leadership in such a state of affairs as these. Judahs civil government will be in utter ruin because its people have spoken against all that God stands for and have acted in the same way. They have refused to worship Him; they have exhibited their brazen rebellion before the eyes of His glorious presence. The evil thoughts of their heart they brazenly manifest in their facial expressions. And they boast about their sins being as bad as those of Sodomthey show no shame about it at all. How utterly horrible! They have sealed their own doom! Still, all will be well for the godly man. Tell him that he will be rewarded with goodness because he has done goodness. But say to the wicked, Your doom is certain! You too shall be rewarded according to what you have doneevil! O My people! Can you not see what fools your rulers are? They are as weak and vacillating as women. They are as foolish and capricious as little children, playing at being king. True leaders? No, misleaders! They are leading you down the path of evil unto destruction. Look! The Lord is standing upHe is preparing to act as Prosecutor and Judgeto convict and sentence. First to feel the wrath of his judgment will be the elders and the princes, for they have defrauded the poor. They have grown prosperous with the properties they have extorted from the helpless poor. They have literally consumed the poor. How dare you grind My people by your greedy oppression into nothingness. You press them and squeeze them until there is nothing left of them. This is the accusation of the Lord God of Hosts!
COMMENTS
Isa. 3:1-4 RUINED GOVERNMENT. Every necessity will be taken away from Jerusalem and Judah. Every stay and staff. Bread and water are essential for physical life, but they would disappear when God stepped forth to judge the land for its sins. Civil and cultural stay and staff (perhaps even more necessary than bread and water) would also be taken away. Every form of authority would disappear:
a.
mighty manhero; man of valor already tested in battle
b.
man of warcommon soldier; lower in rank than mighty man
c.
judgecivil officer who arbitrated civil cases
d.
prophetone who delivered Gods revelation to the people (with the prophet gone would come a famine of hearing the words of the Lord . . . Cf. Amo. 8:11)
e.
divinernot a legitimate support, but one depended upon, nevertheless, by the people. The entire present order of things, the Judean way of life was to be changed radically.
f.
captain of fiftydesignates a particular officer (Cf. 2Ki. 1:9; Exo. 18:25; 1Sa. 8:12).
g.
honorable menfavored personsthose who had the favor of the king, probably occupied positions of responsibility
h.
counsellorone who served the public in counseling
i.
expert artificerone who is wise or skillful with respect to arts (Cf. 2Ki. 24:14 ff; Jer. 24:1; Jer. 29:2).
j.
skillful enchanterone who whispered or muttered magical formulas; not a legitimate office
In the place of experienced and sagacious adult authorities, God would cause children and babes (literally: puerilities) to rule over them. Incompetent, inexperienced, childish, brat-like rulers would be substituted for Jerusalem and Judah. A whole line of youthful kings followed Hezekiah. After him, only one was 25 years of age (the legal age of a Jew was 30):
Jehoahaz
23 yrs. old; 2Ki. 23:31
Amon
22 yrs. old; 2Ki. 21:19
Zedekaih
21 yrs. old; 2Ki. 24:18
Jehoiachim
18 yrs. old; 2Ki. 24:8
Mannasseh
12 yrs. old; 2Ki. 21:1
Josiah
8 yrs. old; 2Ki. 22:1
It is the hotheadedness, the over-confidence, and the recklessness of youth that is stressed here. The lack of maturity in judgment and decision would be the ruin of the nation. As an Arabian writer said, A blow in the face by an axe is easier to take than the rule of a boy. Young writes: When respect for age goes, moral anarchy is at hand . . . Respect for old age had been coupled in the law with the fear of God (Lev. 19:32). When all authority passes, respect for age also passes. One evidence of the degeneration of a government and people is seen in the manner in which the aged are treated. The N.T. clearly teaches Christians to respect the authority of age (especially of those appointed elders and overseers of the Lords church) (Cf. 1Ti. 3:1-13; 1Ti. 5:1-24; 2Ti. 3:2; Tit. 3:1 ff; Heb. 13:7; Heb. 13:17; 1Pe. 5:5; Eph. 6:1-4; Col. 3:20, etc.). The childish vexation of Ahab, king of Israel, because he could not have Naboths vineyard, (Cf. 1Ki. 21:1 ff) is a pointed example of what type of rulers would soon come to Judah because of their sin, (Cf. Ecc. 10:5-7; Ecc. 10:16-17).
Isa. 3:5-7 RESULTING CHAOS. Social chaos is inevitable. Oppression by one another (everyman did that which was right in his own eyes, for there was no king in Israel [Jdg. 17:6, etc.]), is the certain result of such moral anarchy. The spirit of Rehoboam (rebellion) would take precedence over the spirit of Solomon (wise judgment) and the result would be rashness, recklessness and failure. Those who should occupy a place of subserviency arrogate to themselves places of power. Men will seek to appoint rulers on the mere basis of possessing a few garments. The extremely critical condition of Judah appears in this prophecy. Anyone who possesses extra clothing will be accosted and forced to try to rescue the nation from civil economic and international ruin. The one accosted will vehemently refuse the pressure. In the first place he does not consider himself to possess the means necessary to alleviate the existing conditions; and in the second place he considers the circumstances impossiblethe ruined nation beyond all helpand he does not want the responsibility. He refuses to be a healer because Judah is beyond being healed. It is indeed tragic, in nation or church, that conditions can become so calamitous that a righteous man will refuse to undertake the responsibilities of leadership !
Isa. 3:8-12 THE REASONTHE PEOPLE. In word and in deed-speaking and acting in rebellion against the Lord. It is not out of ignorance they have sinned! It is deliberate sin. They have done it knowing full well the eyes of the Lord of Glory are upon ittheir brazenness is like that of Sodom. They boast of their sin (Cf. Jud. 1:8-16; 2Pe. 2:1-22; 2Ti. 4:3-4; Rom. 1:32).
By such blatant disregard of the moral and spiritual government of God, they have earned for themselves the consequences of moral and spiritual anarchy. They have cut off their noses to spite their faces. They have done evil to themselves! If man and his universe is to be governed by any moral principles of right and wrong at all, then wrong must be punished. Anyone who deliberately does wrong deserves punishment, he deserves the fruit of his doings.
But God is not unjust or unmerciful to forget the intentions and deeds of the righteous. God is fair! God is merciful! If a man is righteous of heart (wanting to do right) and righteous of deed (doing rightthough sometimes sinning ignorantly), God will reward that man with the fruit of his doings, (Cf. Mat. 25:31-46). Gods judgment is not indiscriminateHe judges omnisciently as well as omnipotently.
Those who were supposed to lead the people were oppressing them and leading them into abject slavery, morally and politically. Their rulers were capricious as children and vacillating as women. They lacked the stability that grown men naturally had.
Isa. 3:13-15 RESPONSE OF JEHOVAH. It is not merely with foreign nations they shall have to contendAlmighty God, the Lord of Hosts, arises to contend with this people. The great sin of the time was oppression of the poor by the rich. God is represented as the advocate and helper for the cause of the downtrodden. He enters into judgment with the leaders and elders of Judah and accuses them of having oppressed and defrauded His people (Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah, accuses the rich of skinning the poor alive!). Such sin exemplifies precisely the injustice, greed, and irresponsibility of the rich and ruling and is a perfect example of the cruelty which God hates. The rich and ruling had devoured for themselves what did not belong to themGods own people (vineyard). When the prophets came to warn them to leave the harvest of Gods vineyard to Him, they killed the prophets. And when the Heir (the Son) came, they killed him (Cf. Luk. 20:9-18). How brazen could they behow did they dare to mistreat the precious heritage of the Almighty God?
QUIZ
1.
Why mention the taking away of bread and water only?
2.
What is a mighty man and an expert artificer?
3.
What is meant by saying that children and babes would rule Judah?
4.
Why seek a man with clothing to be ruler?
5.
Why would such a man refuse to rule?
6.
Why mention the righteous here?
7.
Did women actually rule over the nation of Judah at this time? What does Isa. 3:12 mean?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
III.
(1) For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem . . .From the general picture of the state of Judah as a whole, of the storm of Divine wrath bursting over the whole land, Isaiah turns to the Holy City itself, and draws the picture of what he saw there of evil, of that which would be seen before long as the punishment of the evil.
The stay and the staff . . .In the existing Hebrew text the words receive an immediate interpretation, as meaning the two chief supports of lifebread and water. So we have the staff of bread in Lev. 26:26; Psa. 105:16; Eze. 4:16; Eze. 5:16. Possibly, however, the interpretation is of the nature of a marginal gloss, which has found its way into the text, and the stay and staff (in the Hebrew the latter word is the feminine form of the former) are really identified with the pillars of the state, the great women as well as the great men who are named afterwards. On the other hand, Isa. 3:7 implies the pressure of famine, and the prophet may have intended to paint the complete failure of all resources, both material and political.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1-7. Cease ye from man is now the order.
For behold Attention is challenged.
The Lord ( Ha-Adon.) “The Lord” as sovereign.
The Lord of hosts The self-existent God, the revealed God; God, as it were, rallying all his forces of angels and subordinate agencies of whatever kind for such is virtually the meaning of “Jehovah of hosts.”
Doth take away Is taking, or is about to take, away.
Stay staff Both nearly the same word, but of different genders, the one masculine, the other feminine. Together they mean every kind of support on which they had depended. God was the true “stay “and “staff.” Isa 10:20; Isa 50:10.
Bread water Judah’s spiritual food here symbolized. Civil prosperity depends on this. Isa 3:9-10; Isa 3:16-18. The “stay” and “staff” are now particularized.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
All that Jerusalem/Judah Depend On Is To Be Taken Away So That Society Will Disintegrate Towards Even More Evil ( Isa 3:1-9 a).
Having covered world judgment Isaiah now brings it home to the local situation. He points out that things are about to go from bad to worse in Judah and Jerusalem even in the near future, and that days of disaster are coming on them which will result in loss of leadership, removal of those who are the stays of society, and the general disintegration of authority, and of society, with life reaching rock bottom. Men will long for leadership and will not be able to find it. There will be no one to rely on. And all because they have forsaken Yahweh. That is why things are looking dismal for them.
Isa 3:1-3
‘For, behold, the Lord, Yahweh of hosts,
Is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah,
Stay and staff,
The whole stay of bread,
And the whole stay 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 honourable man,
And the counsellor, and the clever craftsman,
and the skilful spiritist.’
From final judgment Isaiah moves back to present judgment. All earthly things that Jerusalem/Judah rely on are to be taken away by their Sovereign Lord, Yahweh of hosts (for, whatever the secondary cause, and these were the very types removed into exile, it will be Yahweh Who has done it). The whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water is possibly figurative for the people on whom they depend as described in Isa 3:2, seen as essential to survival. They are seen as like life’s essentials. Or it may signify the loss of the actual basic things of life, the very bread and water which are essential for life, the very basic stuff on which they rely (see Isa 3:7-8). Both would be true.
Note how those described are leaders whom the people will themselves come across. The military protectors, the judges, those who give guidance, including the professional prophets, the local rulers, and those involved in magic, diviners, fortune tellers, seekers to the dead, and the like. The mention of the latter reveals the true state of Jerusalem. They are no longer looking to Yahweh but to the occult.
It was such leaders that were taken into captivity from Samaria in 722 BC, and if that had already happened Isaiah may well have had that in mind as an example. The same will one day happen to Judah and Jerusalem if they do not mend their ways.
Isa 3:4
‘And I will give children to be their princes,
And the ruthless (or ‘babes’) will rule over them.’
This may signify that their wise rulers will die leaving the country literally ruled by children overseen by regents, or alternatively that their princes will begin to behave like children in their behaviour and decisions (compare Isa 3:12). Most probably the latter. The word translated ‘ruthless’ is of uncertain meaning. The parallel suggests babes, but the root suggests ruthlessness. Either way the point is that leadership will be undependable, and even bad, and certainly not wise.
Isa 3:5
‘And the people will be oppressed,
Every one by another,
And everyone by his neighbour.
The child will behave himself arrogantly against the elder,
And the base against the honourable.’
The fabric of society is about to disintegrate. People will be free to behave as they like, oppressing each other. Children will run wild, and children and base, unworthy people will be able to flout those worthy of authority. Life will become undisciplined and uncertain.
Isa 3:6
‘When a man takes hold of his brother in the house of his father, and says, “You have clothing. You be our ruler and let this ruin be under your hand.” In that day he will lift up his voice and say, “I will not be the one who binds up, for in my house is neither bread nor clothing. You shall not make me a ruler of the people.” ’
Wherever the people turn to find someone to take the responsibility of leadership, those called on will find any excuse to decline. They will claim not to be qualified.
‘You have clothing.’ That is ‘you wear the kind of clothes which indicate that you are of leadership potential’, that is, those of the elder or favoured brother or of the more sophisticated. Or it may suggest that so low have things become that fine clothes are themselves to be seen as a sufficient recommendation for leadership. They indicate that at least this man has something to distinguish him, some measure of success, a sad way of selecting a leader but necessary because there is no other.
‘This ruin’. They recognise the state that things have come to. The man is to rule over a ruin.
The reply, a mere excuse, is that he does not have the qualifications or resources for the task. He is no better than anyone else. It is not his position to make things right, ‘to heal’. Nor does he have the resources to give the people what they need. He has no bread or clothing to dispense.
Thus all confidence in themselves will be lost. Their proud boasting will be no more. Alternately the reference to ‘neither bread nor clothing’ may have in mind conditions of extreme poverty where he himself is destitute.
Isa 3:8
‘For Jerusalem is ruined,
And Judah is fallen,
Because their tongue and their doings are against Yahweh,
To provoke the eyes of his glory (his glorious eyes).’
Ruin is coming on Jerusalem and Judah, and all because they have turned away from Yahweh, a condition revealed by their words (their tongue) and their behaviour. They continually speak and act in such a way as to provoke Yahweh in His glory, and judgment must necessarily follow.
‘The eyes of His glory.’ His full glory may not yet have been revealed (Isa 2:21) but His eyes see them, and they are eyes which look out from the glory of what He is. Thus His ‘glorious’ eyes are provoked.
Isa 3:9
‘What their faces reveal witnesses against them,
And they declare their sin like Sodom.
They do not hide it.’
The faces and behaviour of the people give them away completely. They do not even try to hide it. They have sinned so much that they openly reveal what they are by the evil and selfish look stamped on their faces, a look which they then carry out into practise, just as Sodom had, and they are simply bringing woe on themselves, and rewarding themselves with evil. The principle established here is that it is the nature of society with weak leadership to disintegrate towards evil and selfishness. And this is what has come on them because of their failure to look constantly to God. Men tend to get the leadership that they deserve.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 3:8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
Isa 3:8
1. Uzziah – Eleventh king of Judah 809-8 to 757-6 B.C., reigned 52 years.
2. Jotham – Twelfth king of Judah, 758 – 741 B.C., reigned 16 years.
3. Ahaz – Thirteenth king of Judah, 741-726 B.C., reigned about 16 years.
4. Hezekiah – Fourteenth king of Judah, 726 – 701 B.C., reigned 25 years.
Isa 3:24 And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.
Isa 3:24
1. “stink” – Sitting on a dung heap like Job.
2. “a rent” – Renting mantle.
3. “baldness” – Shaving head.
4. “a girding of sackcloth” – Putting on sack cloth.
5. “burning” – Dusting oneself with ashes.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Prophecies Against Israel Isa 1:2 to Isa 12:6 contains a collection of prophecies against the nation of Israel. The phrase, “for all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still,” is repeated five times within this passage of Scripture (Isa 5:25; Isa 9:12; Isa 9:17; Isa 9:21; Isa 10:4).
Also found within this first major section of Isaiah are three prophecies of the Messiah’s birth. These prophecies reflect three characteristics of the Messiah. He will be born of a virgin as the Son of God dwelling with mankind (Isa 7:14-15). He will rule over Israel in the Davidic lineage (Isa 9:6-7). He will come from the seed of David and be anointed as was David (Isa 11:1-5).
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
God’s Threat of Punishment
v. 1. For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, v. 2. the mighty man and the man of war, v. 3. the captain of fifty, v. 4. And I will give children to be their princes, v. 5. And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor, v. 6. When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, v. 7. in that day shall he, v. 8. For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen, v. 9. The show of their countenance, v. 10. Say ye to the righteous, v. 11. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Isa 3:1-7
GOD‘S JUDGMENT UPON JERUSALEM. The general denunciations against Israel of the two preceding chapters are here turned especially against Jerusalem. God will deprive her of all her superior and more honorable classes (Isa 3:1-3); and will give her “children” for her rulers (Isa 3:4). There will be continued oppression, and the rise of an insolent and undutiful spirit (Isa 3:5). Those fit to bear rule will refuse to do so (Isa 3:6, Isa 3:7).
Isa 3:1
The Lord, the Lord of hosts (see note on Isa 1:24). The stay and the staff; rather, stay and staff. Neither word has the article. The latter is the feminine form of the former; and the intention is to announce that all support of every kind is about to be withdrawn. The whole stay of bread of water. Mr. Cheyne agrees with Hitzig and Knobel that this clause is probably a gloss on the text, subsequently introduced into it, and a gloss which (lid not proceed from a very enlightened commentator. The “stay” and “staff” intended are certainly not, literal “bread” and “water,” but the powerful and respectable classes enumerated in the two following verses. If the words are Isaiah’s, he must have intended them to be taken metaphorically.
Isa 3:2
The mighty man, and the man of war; or, hero and warrior. The first rank is given to those distinguished in war, as being held in the highest esteem, and perhaps as actually, under the coming circumstances, the men of most importance to the country. It is thus implied, as later (Isa 3:25, Isa 3:26) it is expressly taught, that the impending visitation will be a terrible invasion. The judge, and the prophet; literally, judge and prophet. The judge holds his place as one of the highest officers of the state (see Isa 1:26); the prophet holds a lower position than might have been expected, on account of the writer’s humility. The prudent; rather, the diviner, as the word is translated in Deu 18:14; 1Sa 6:2; Isa 44:25; Jer 27:9; Jer 29:8; Eze 13:9; Mic 3:7; Zec 10:2; or soothsayer, as in Jos 13:22. Isaiah arranges the classes, not so much according to the order in which he values them, as to that in which they were valued by the people. The ancient; i.e. “the elder,” as the word is translated commonly. The “elders” had an ascertained position in the state under the monarchy (2Sa 5:3; 2Sa 19:11; 1Ki 8:1; 1Ki 20:7; 2Ki 6:32, etc.).
Isa 3:3
The captain of fifty. “Captains of fifties” were scarcely at this period “civil officers” (Cheyne). They represent simply the lowest grade of officers in the army (2Ki 1:9, 2Ki 1:11, 2Ki 1:13). Honorable. The same expression is used again in Isa 9:15. It occurs also in 2Ki 5:1-27. I and Job 22:8. The cunning artificer. “All the craftsmen and smiths” in Jerusalem were carried away by Nebuchadnezzar in the captivity of Jehoiachin (2Ki 24:14; cf. Jer 24:1). They were among the most valuable of the population, in time of war no less than of peace, since on them depended the construction and repair of the military engines which were regarded as of so much importance (2Ch 26:15). The eloquent orator; rather, the expert enchanter (comp. Ecc 10:11; Jer 8:17).
Isa 3:4
I will give children to be their princes; rather, youths than “children.” The extreme youth of the later kings of Judah at the date of their accession is very remarkable. After Hezekiah, only one was as much as twenty-five years old when he came to the throne. Jehoahaz was twenty-three (2Ki 23:31); Amon, twenty-two (2Ki 21:19); Zedekiah twenty-one (2Ki 24:18); Jehoiachin, eighteen (2Ki 24:8); Manasseh, twelve (2Ki 21:1); and Josiah eight (2Ki 22:1). Thus this prophecy was fulfilled to the letter. And babes shall rule over them; literally, puerilities shall rule over them; i.e. the youths shall behave in a childish way.
Isa 3:5
And the people shall be oppressed, etc.; rather, shall oppress each man his fellow, and each man his companion. This would be no new thing (see Isa 1:17, Isa 1:21, Isa 1:23), but perhaps might be more widely spread, having passed from the upper classes to the lower ones, as is usual with vices. The child; rather, the youth. Shall behave himself proudly; or, insolently. The respect for age inculcated by the Law (Le 19:32) shall disappear. Youths shall set at naught the counsel of the aged. The spirit of Rehoboam shall prevail over that of Solomon, with the usual resultrashness, recklessness, and failure. And the base, etc. Respect for station shall likewise disappear. The dregs of the people shall grow insolent towards those above them in the social scale; and thus the old social order shall be inverted.
Isa 3:6
When a man shall take hold of his brother. A new departure. In the general anarchy described (Isa 3:4, Isa 3:5) it will be felt that something must be done. A man will take hold of his brother (i.e. his fellow) in his (i.e. the latter’s) father’s house, where he lives in seclusion, and say to him, “Thou hast clothing”, “thou must be our ruler; let this ruin” (i.e. “this ruined state”) “be under thy band.” This ruin; literally, this stumbling-block (see Zep 1:3; and compare the uniform translation of the kindred noun mikshol (Le 19:14; Psa 119:165; Isa 57:14; Jer 6:21; Ezekiel 52:20; Eze 7:10, etc.). The Jewish community is meant, which was full of stumbling itself, and might well cause all those to stumble who came into contact with it.
Isa 3:7
In that day shall he swear; or, lift up his voicespeaking with emotion (Kay). I will not be an healer; literally, a binder-up (comp. Isa 1:6); “I will not undertake to heal the calamities of the state.” In my house is neither bread nor clothing; i.e. “I am not a wealthy man; I have no stores laid up; I am quite unfit to be the people’s ruler.” Make me not; or, ye shall not make me. The decently clad man entirely declines to be advanced to the helm of the state.
Isa 3:8-26
THE CAUSE OF THE JUDGMENT SHOWN TO BE THE SINS OF JERUSALEM.
1. The sins of the men. (Isa 3:8-15). These are declared to be partly sins of speech, but mainly sins of act (Isa 3:8). Of sins of speech the only one specified is the open and shameless declaration of their wickedness (Isa 3:9). Under the head of sins of act are enumerated
(1) childishness and effeminacy;
(2) irreligion and leading people away from God (Isa 3:12);
(3) oppression of the poor and afflicted (Isa 3:14, Isa 3:15).
The enumeration of the sins is mixed with exhortation and comment in such a way as to give rise to the conjecture that we have here, not the original prophecy as the author penned it, but a later “summary” of several prophetical discourses, which summary itself is “a little fragmentary” (Cheyne).
Isa 3:8
Jerusalem is ruined; or, has come to ruinthe “perfect of prophetic certainty” (Cheyne)(comp. Amo 5:2, “The virgin of Israel is fallen“). Their tongue and their doings. Sins of the tongue are denounced in the Old Testament as well as in the New, though not, perhaps, so frequently (see Exo 20:7; Exo 21:17; Exo 22:28; Exo 23:1, Exo 23:2; Psa 31:18; Psa 94:4, etc.). To provoke the eyes of his glory. This is an unusual metaphor. God’s glory seems here to be identified with himself, as being of his very essence; and thus “provoking the eyes of his glory” is simply provoking him to look on them with anger.
Isa 3:9
The show of their countenance doth witness against them. This is not in itself a sin, but it is a sign of frequent and habitual sin. Vice, long indulged in, stamps its mark upon the countenance, giving men what is called “a bad expression”a guilty and hardened look. It does not require a skilled physiognomist to detect at a glance the habitual criminal or sensualist. They declare their sin as Sodom. Not only does their countenance betray them, but, like the Sodomites (Gen 19:5, Gen 19:9), they boldly and impudently declare their wicked purposes beforehand, and make no attempt at concealment. Hypocrisy has been said to be the homage that vice pays to virtue. Where there is none, where vice has ceased to shroud or veil itself, a very advanced stage of wickedness has been reached. They have rewarded evil unto themselves. They have “received in themselves the recompense of their error which was meet” (Rom 1:27). Their sins have at once marred their countenance and injured their moral nature.
Isa 3:10
Say ye to the righteous. The mention of the fact that the men of Jerusalem have permanently injured their moral natures by sin, and thus “rewarded evil to themselves,” leads the prophet to declare at this point, parenthetically, the general law, which extends alike to the evil and the goodthat men receive in themselves the recompense of their deeds. The righteous raise their moral nature, become better, and, in becoming better, become happier. “It is well with them, for of the fruit of their doings they eat.” The wicked deprave and corrupt themselves, lower their moral nature, become worse than they were, and, in becoming worse, become more miserable. “Woe unto them! with them it is ill; for the achievement of their hands is given them.”
Isa 3:12
As for my people. Return is now made to the sins of the dwellers in Jerusalem, and the first thing noted is that the people suffer from the childishness and effeminacy of their rulers. The rulers are called “oppressors” by the way here, the sin of oppression being dwelt on later (Isa 3:14, Isa 3:15). Here the emphatic words are “children,” “women.” Children (see Isa 3:4). The rulers are “children,” or rather “babes”foolish, capricious, cowardly. It is not clear that any prince in particular is meant; rather, by the plural form, the upper class generally seems to be intended, as in Isa 1:10, Isa 1:17, Isa 1:23, etc. Women; comp. Herod; 8.88, where Xerxes says that “his men have shown themselves women, and his women men;” and see also Virg; ‘AEneid ‘
“O vere Phrygia, neque enim Phryges.”
The rulers were womanly, i.e. weak, wavering, timid, impulsive, passionate, and are therefore called actual “women.” There is no allusion to female sovereigns. They which lead thee cause thee to err; or, they which direct thee lead thee astray. Professing to point out the right path, they led men away from it. Destroy the way; literally, swallow it up, or obliterate it.
Isa 3:13
The Lord standeth up to plead. The great sin of the time was oppression of the poor by the rich, and especially by the rulers (Isa 1:15, Isa 1:17, Isa 1:21). In noticing this, the prophet, to give more weight to his denunciation, introduces Jehovah as standing up, and coming forward on the popular side, to plead the people’s cause, and remonstrate with their oppressors. There is great force in this sudden entrance on the scene of Jehovah himself, as Pleader and Judge. And judge the people; rather, the peoples. Primarily, Israel is God’s care; but he does not stop at this point. All the nations of the earth are also under his protection.
Isa 3:14
The ancients the princes. These were the chief oppressors. They delivered the judgments, and it was by them that justice was perverted. Jehovah therefore enters specially into judgment with them. For ye have eaten up; rather, So ye have eaten up. Jehovah is supposed to address the unjust judges. He reproaches them with having “eaten up,” or rather “scorched up,” his vineyard, i.e. Israel (comp. Isa 5:1-7), and taxes them with having still their ill-gotten gains in their houses. “So ye,” he says, “have thus actedye whose duty it was to have acted so differently.”
Isa 3:15
What mean ye? i.e. “What has come over you?” or “What strange perversity has possessed yon?” (Kay). That ye beat my people to pieces, etc. The strongest possible expressions are used to mark God’s abhorrence of the oppression to which the poor were subjected. Under the Law, he constituted himself the champion of such persons (see Exo 22:22-24).
2. The sins of the women. (Isa 3:16-26.) These may be summed up under the three heads of pride, wanton manners (Isa 3:16), and love of dress and ornament (Isa 3:18-23). It was natural that, with increased commerce (2Ki 14:22; Isa 2:16) and more frequent communication with foreign nations, such as Assyria (2Ki 16:7-10) and Babylon (2Ki 20:12, 2Ki 20:13), there should be an increase of luxury, and quite in accordance with Eastern ideas that the luxury should particularly show itself in the dress and adornment of the women. The Egyptian remains show an advanced state of luxury among the women at a time anterior to Moses; and in Assyria, though the evidence is less abundant, we find also indications of a similar kind. The Jews, whose regard for their women was high, are not likely to have been behindhand in the gallantry which shows itself in heaping ornament and the newest appliances of civilization on the weaker sex.
Isa 3:16
The daughters of Zion. It is over-fanciful to go beyond the plain meaning of the words here, and suppose allegory. “The daughters of Zion” are the female inhabitants of Jerusalem. Are haughty; or, proudlike the men (Isa 2:11, Isa 2:12, Isa 2:17). Walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes. Mr. Cheyne translates, “ogling eyes.” Both actions indicate the desire to attract men’s attention, and are shameless and immodest. Walking and mincing as they go; i.e. taking short steps in an affectedly childish way. Making a tinkling with their feet. This meaning is generally accepted, though not very certain. It has been suggested that the anklets which they wore (Isa 3:18) had silver bells attached to them.
Isa 3:17
Therefore the Lord will smite with a seal. Thus destroying their beauty by producing baldness (comp. Isa 3:24; and for the meaning “smite with a scab,” see Le Isa 13:2; Isa 14:1-32 :56).
Isa 3:18
The bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet; rather, of their anklets. Anklets were worn by the Egyptian women from the time of the twelfth dynasty. They were, in general, plain rings of metal, but appear to have been sometimes set with precious stones. No bells appear attached to any; but bells were known in Assyria from the time of Sennacherib. Their cauls; margin, networks. The marginal rendering is probably correct (comp. LXX; ). Network caps to contain the hair seem to be intended (so Kimchi, Saadiah, Jarchi, Rosenmller, Kay). Mr. Cheyne prefers “wreaths worn round the forehead, reaching from one ear to the other.” Round tires like the moon; rather, crescents. Flat ornaments in metal, like a young moon, generally worn suspended round the neck (see Jdg 8:26, where the same word occurs).
Isa 3:19
The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers; rather, the ear-drops, and the armlets, and the veils. Earrings were worn from very ancient times by both the Assyrians and the Egyptians. The ring had frequently a pendant hanging from it. Men wore armlets in Assyria, and both men and women in Egypt (Lepsius, ‘Denktamer,’ pt. 3. pl. 1). Yells have always been regarded in the East as almost a necessary part of female attire.
Isa 3:20
The bonnets; rather, the headgear. It is quite uncertain what this was, since we have no representations of Hebrew women. Egyptian women commonly wore a mere fillet with pendant ends. The Hebrew word here employed is used in Exodus of the head-dress of the priests (Exo 39:28). The ornaments of the legs. These are explained as chains connecting the two anklets together. The head-bands, and the tablets, and the ear-rings; rather, the girdles, and the scent-bottles, and the amulets. Scent-bottles and jars for holding sweet-smelling unguents are among the most frequent toilette articles recovered from Egyptian tombs and Assyrian palaces. Amulets have been worn in the East from very ancient times, and are still trusted in as much as ever. They frequently take the form of ornaments.
Isa 3:21
The rings; literally, seal-rings, or signet-rings. Such were known in Egypt from the time of Joseph (Gen 41:42), and probably earlier. It would seem from the present passage that their use was not confined to men. Nose-jewels. Actual nose-rings are not represented in any of the ancient remains; and the use of them seems to be confined to very barbarous communities. Probably the “nose-jewels” here mentioned were ornaments depending from the forehead and touching the upper part of the nose,
Isa 3:22
The changeable suite of apparel; rather, the festival robes (Revised Version), or the full-dress suits; i.e. those worn upon grand occasions, and then put off and set aside. The mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping-pins; rather, the upper petticoats, the wraps, and the purses. An inner and an outer tunic or petticoat were commonly worn by females of the higher class in the East. The inner tunic was a simple linen vest; but the outer was generally of a better material, and richly ornamented. Outside this, a sort of wrap, or cloak, was worn occasionally (see Rth 3:15). Purses were, no doubt, carried by wealthy persons of both sexes; but their mention in this list does not seem very appropriate. Perhaps toilet-bags of some kind or other are intended (see 2Ki 5:23).
Isa 3:23
The glasses; rather, the mirrors. In ancient times these were not made of glass, but of some metal which took a high polish. Most commonly, the material seems to have been bronze. Many such mirrors have been found in Egypt, a few in Assyria, in Etruria a considerable number. They are of small size, intended to be carried in the hand, and have for that purpose a metal or a wooden handle, which is sometimes highly artistic. The fine linen; rather, the muslin robes. Sedin, the Hebrew word used, is probably a corruption or analogue of sin-don, the Greek name for Indian fabrics. It is only used here and in Jdg 14:12, Jdg 14:13; Pro 31:24. The hoods, and the vails; or, the turbans and the scarfs. The word translated” hood” is nearly the same as that which designates the head-dress of the high priest in Exodus (Exo 28:4, Exo 28:37, Exo 28:39; Exo 29:6, etc.) and Leviticus (Le Lev 8:9; Lev 16:4), which seems to have been a “turban” (see note on Exo 28:4). The other word, here translated “vail,” occurs only in this place and So Lev 5:7. Its exact meaning is uncertain; but it can scarcely be a veil; since “veils” have been already mentioned (Lev 5:19).
Isa 3:24
Instead of sweet smell; literally, spice (comp. Exo 35:28; 1Ki 10:10, etc.). Stink; rather, rottenness, as translated in Isa 5:24 (compare the cognate verb in Le 26:39). Instead of a girdle a rent. So Lowth and Kay; but most moderns prefer the meaning given by the Septuagint and Vulgate, “instead of a girdle, a rope.” The word used occurs only in this place. Instead of well-set hair baldness (compare above, Isa 5:17). By “well-set hair” seems to be meant “hair arranged with such exactness and order as to look like a work of art.” The exact arrangement of the hair is very remarkable, both in the Egyptian and the Assyrian sculptures. Instead of such elaborate attempts to improve their looks, the daughters of Jerusalem would soon pluck their hair out by the roots, or shave it off, in mourning. A girding of sackcloth (comp. Gen 37:34; 2Sa 3:31, etc.; and for the adoption of the custom by women, see 2Sa 21:10; Joe 1:8). Burning instead of beauty. This meaning is now generally acknowledged, the sense of “burning” being borne out by the cognate verb used in Pro 6:28; Isa 43:2, and the cognate noun used in Exo 21:25. The” burning” intended is probably branding by a barbarous enemy.
Isa 3:25
Thy men; rather, thy people; i.e. the inhabitants of Jerusalem generally. Note here the first distinct statement that the coming visitation will be one of war.
Isa 3:26
Her gates. The sudden change of person is common in Oriental poetry. Shall lament and mourn. On account of their destruction, which would be very complete (see Lam 1:4; Lam 2:9; Neh 1:3; Neh 2:13). Conquerors could not do more than break breaches in the walls of a town, but they carefully destroyed the gates. Being desolate; or, emptiedplundered of everything, and so far “cleansed” from her abominations. Shall sit upon the ground. In deep grief (see Job 2:13; and comp. Isa 47:1; Lam 2:10). So in the coin of Vespasian, the captive Judah (Judea capta) sits upon the ground.
HOMILETICS
Isa 3:1-7
Many steps in the decay of states.
Ruin does not often come on states at once, even when God has determined on it. There are many steps in the fall of a great nation.
I. CESSATION OF A SUCCESSION OF GREAT AND WISE MEN. (Isa 3:2, Isa 3:3.) One of the first marks of decay is a falling off in this succession. When the intervals between one great man and another lengthen; when wise men, capable of giving the state good counsel, grow rare; when mediocrity everywhere prevails, and no one steps forth conspicuous by marked superiority to his fellows;then it may at once be proclaimed that decline has set in, and that the nation is verging towards its fall. The great and the wise are the salt which preserve society from corruption. Without them all goes wrong; the pulse of the national life slackens, energy disappears, foreign aggression is weakly resisted, a general debilitation becomes apparent in every part and function of the body politic. No state can long resist the insidious malady, which, like atrophy or anaemia, steals gradually over the entire frame, exhausting it and bringing about its dissolution.
II. ACTIVE FOLLY IN THE RULERS. (Isa 3:4.) When the great and the wise fail, government necessarily falls into the hands of the incompetent. If not “children” in age, they will be “babes” in respect of policy and statecraft. So long, however, as they are willing to follow the traditions of the past, to work upon well-known lines, and carry out established practices, no very great harm can arise. But they are seldom content for many years to act thus. A childish desire seizes them to attract attention, to exhibit their power. Hence they plunge into active follies, wild schemes of aggression and conquest, or imprudent and unsuitable alliances, as that of Ahaz with Tiglath-Pileser (2Ch 28:16, 2Ch 28:20). The state is brought into difficulties and entanglements, and the wisdom is wanting that should have seen a way out of them. One embarrassment follows another. Unexpected circumstances arise, and it is not perceived how they should be met. The unwisdom of the good is perhaps as fatal as the folly of the wicked (e.g. Josiah’s uncalled-for resistance of Pharaoh-Nechoh, 2Ki 23:29), and leads to great disasters. Meanwhile other causes are at work, which advance the general confusion and accelerate the final catastrophe.
III. DEVELOPMENT OF SELFISHNESS AMONG THE PEOPLE. (Isa 3:5.) Society is based upon the principles of justice and mutual good will. While states prosper, it requires no extraordinary virtue in men to deal justly by their neighbors, and act towards them in a friendly spirit. But when the times are out of joint, when there is general impoverishment and distress, it is no longer easy to be amicable or even just. “Every man for himself!” becomes the cry; the spirit of selfishness is evoked and runs riot; “the people” (no longer the “rulers” or the “judges,” Isa 1:10, Isa 1:23) “oppress every one another, and every one his neighbor” (Isa 3:5). This indulgence of the selfish spirit acts as a solventloosens the bonds which have hitherto held society together, and goes far to reduce the united mass, in whose union was its strength, to a congeries of atoms.
IV. CESSATION OF RESPECT FOR AGE OR SOCIAL RANK. (Isa 3:5.) The disintegration of society tends to place all the atoms upon a par. While the social order was maintained, and the whole society felt itself one, the parts knew their need one of the other, and recognized their respective positions of inferiority and superiority. But with the loosening of the social ties comes naturally a general self-assertion. In a physical chaos atoms are of equal value, and why not in a disintegrated society? Hence the young in such a state throw off their allegiance to the old; even sons cease to respect or obey their fathers, and daughters their mothers. The humbler classes of toilers for daily bread no longer look up to their more favored brethren, but rather view them with jealousy and hatred. Class is alienated from class, and the tendency to a complete dissolution of society aggravated.
V. NEGLECT OF THEIR CIVIL DUTIES ON THE PART OF THE WELL–TO–DO CLASSES. (Isa 3:6, Isa 3:7.) Noblesse oblige. In a distracted state of society, it is especially incumbent on those whose means place them beyond the reach of want, and allow them ample leisure, to come to the relief of their neighbors by undertaking those civil duties and offices on which the welfare of the body politic depends. But it is exactly at such times that we find this class of persons most inclined to ignore this obligation, and withdraw wholly from political life (Isa 3:7). Some, like Plato, justify themselves under the plea that nothing can be done to save society, and that they may be excused for taking refuge under the first shelter that offers while the storm rages and exhausts itself. Others plead the vulgarizing effect of active political life, and claim the right of keeping their superfine humanity free from the smears and stains which mixture with the crowd would bring upon it. On one excuse or another, or not infrequently without condescending to make any excuse, the upper classes in a distracted state stand aloof, neglect their civil duties, and refuse all the calls that are made on them to come to the rescue, and do their best to save the “ruin” that is tottering to its fall.
Isa 3:9-11
The law of retributive justice not mechanical, but moral.
The doctrine of future rewards and punishments is sometimes preached in a way that is, if not offensive, at any rate unsatisfactory. God is made to deal with men as not even judicious parents would deal with their childrenviz, for so much obedience, so much bestowal of pleasure or indulgence; for so much disobedience, an equal award of pain and punishment. But this is certainly not the doctrine of Holy Scripture. Scripture represents the reward of well-doing as “eternal life,” and this “eternal life” is the vigorous energy of all that is good in the man himself, sustained and strengthened by the Spirit of Christ in the soul, and accompanied by happy feelings of love and trust and thankfulness. “Eternal life” begins in this world, and is only carried out to perfection in the next. It is, in the main, a state of feeling-consciousness of being at one with God, consciousness of communion with him. It admits, no doubt, of exaltation from without, as here by the special shedding of Divine influences upon the soul, and hereafter by the transcendent blessing of the beatific vision; but it is principally in the man himself. It is a condition of mind, not a set of external circumstances. And so with ill-doing and its consequence, “eternal death.” Men make their own misery by their deeds. They “receive within themselves the recompense of their errors.” They mar their moral nature; they refuse to hold communion with God; and then, thrown back upon themselves, and having nothing within them pleasing to contemplate or to be conscious of, they find themselves wretchedthey have created their own hell.
Isa 3:16-24
The share which women have in producing the ruin of a nation.
The influence of women upon men was intended to be helpful (Gen 2:20), purifying, and refining. Woman is naturally more pure than man, more modest, more retiring, more instinctively right in her moral judgments. Good women exercise an extraordinary influence over the best men, who continually consult them in the most difficult crises of politics and diplomacy. They read men far better than men read one another, and are excellent counselors on many of the most important occasions. But as the power for good which they wield is great, so is their power for evil. Corruptio optimi pessima. Bad women are far worse than the worst men; and the ruin of a state is always partly, sometimes mainly, caused by its women. The sins of women chiefly noted by Isaiah in this passage are:
1. The vanity and love of admiration which show themselves in excessive attention to dress and ornament.
2. The wantonness and immodesty which sometimes characterize their conduct.
3. The pride and haughtiness which under certain circumstances they display. All these are corrupting influences in a state, and help forward its decay and ruin.
I. VANITY AND LOVE OF ADMIRATION, AS SHOWN IN EXCESSIVE ATTENTION TO DRESS AND ORNAMENT. The desire to please is not in itself wrong, and attention to dress within certain limits is to be commended. A woman does not prove herself perfectly virtuous by being a sloven. But there is an attention to such matters and a quasi-devotion to them which is plainly excessive, and which has often the most injurious consequences. A tone of frivolity is engendered by much consideration of matters so trivial, which unfits a woman for dealing with the difficult problems of life and action. The management of her household and the training of her children, which are the principal duties, at any rate, of married women, are apt to be neglected by the woman of fashion, who dresses five times a day, and passes half her time at her toilet-table. Serious inroads are made upon a husband’s means, sometimes to the extent of actual ruin, by the extravagance of those who cannot bear to see any one better dressed than themselves. Selfishness, worldliness, littleness, are impressed on the character, all higher aims being set aside, and nothing sought but the admiration of the other sex.
II. WANTONNESS AND IMMODESTY often follow on the love of admiration and grow out of it. A woman who courts admiration forgets the reserve which becomes her sex, and is tempted to enhance her charms by an indecorous display of them. Once let the limits of modesty be overstepped, and one defense falls after another. Facilis descensus Averni. Wanton glances (verse 16) are succeeded by immodest words, and these lead on to immodest deeds; and at last every barrier is thrown down, and the world sees a Messalina or a Lucrezia Borgia. General immodesty in the women of a state is of infrequent occurrence; but where it occurs, is an almost certain indication of approaching social dissolution. The most flagrant instance is that of Rome. There, from the time of the establishment of the empire, the disorders of married and domestic life were excessive. “A kind of rivalry in impurity grew up between the two sexes; and there were more seducers than seduced of the female sex”. “In Rome the women, deprived of all moral support, became just what the men made them, and so sank with them incessantly deeper and deeper”. Historians generally, ascribe the fall of the Roman empire to no cause more than to the corruption of the Roman women.
III. PRIDE AND HAUGHTINESS are not natural vices of women; but, when developed, they attain vast proportions, and lead on to great calamlties. Jezebel and Athaliah in Old Testament history, Amestris and Parysatis in Persian, Tanaquil in Roman, are examples of the power of women for evil, when they step out of their sphere, assume to direct the policy of states, dispense life and death, and lord it over the people of a kingdom. In such cases their haughtiness outdoes that of men, and provokes a more intense feeling of dissatisfaction and resentment. Revolution often follows, or in any case disaffection towards the government; and an additional element of danger is introduced, which becomes fatal under certain circumstances. Altogether, it would seem that women have quite as much influence as men towards producing the ruin of states, and are quite as responsible for political catastrophes.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Verses 1-7
A picture of anarchy.
The words carry on the sense of the closing saying of the preceding paragraph, “Cease ye from man.”
I. THE RULERS OF THE PEOPLE REMOVED. Government is one of the necessities of human life. Hence the rulers are spoken of as “staff and stay, staff of bread and staff of water.” Even bad rulers are better than none, so that they may be described as main props or supports of life. In the same way says Ezekiel, “I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem” (Eze 4:16; Eze 5:16). To see how truly good government may be thus described, let us remember that, by timely and wise legislation, bread and other necessaries of life have been cheapened and secured to the people. With good government men may be well fed and prosperous even in unkindly lands, while through evil government once fertile plains (like the Roman Campagna) have become wastes.
II. THE NERVE AND STRENGTH OF THE NATION BROKEN. A nation needs heroes, men of courage for the battle-field. It needs men of discretion and integrity for the seat of justice and the bar. It needs men of religious faith and insight as prophets and teachers; and in every department, military, civil, ecclesiastical, scientific, there is a constant demand for able and honest men. There is to be a dearth of them in Jerusalem. The false leaders to whom the people have looked up, the idol-prophets and the magicians, are to be taken away along with the true. “Children” and “baby-boys,” the prophet caustically says, shall become the princes and rulers of the nation. Ahaz was quite a young man; his “weakness of character and foolish humors would have been quite sufficient, in the sixteen years of his reign, to put the whole kingdom out of joint.” The picture may remind us that men of intelligence and virtue are the great necessity in every time. If in the state statesmen are not being bred, and in the Church weak and illiterate men swarm, it is a sign of most certain moral weakness and decay.
III. ANARCHY THE RESULT.
1. In private life. Good neighborhood is broken up, for it must rest on the common recognition of law and custom; and what if these be subverted? Age and rank no longer command respect. The beardless boy affronts the hoary head, the churl would level the gently born with himself. Nothing is more odious than the leveling temper of troublous times; for the fine gradations of rank are part essentially of a system of higher culture.
2. In public life. So extreme is the need of guidance and rule, that private proposals will be made to almost any seeming respectable man to take up the reins of government. But none will be found willing to govern “these ruins,” or to be chief of so mere a rabble. We may use the picture as an allegory of the soul. When sin has set our being at variance with itself, and all our confidence and self has failed, we may be glad to find any yoke that we may creep beneath. Yet this may be denied. Those who, in the rebellion of lust and self-will, have sought to be “lords of themselves,” may find a heritage of woe entailed. “The soul would never rule. It would be first in all things; but this attained, commanding for commanding sickens it.”J.
Isa 3:8-15
The reasons of judgment.
In man’s sufferings they must own they are subject to the reasonable rule of him who is eternal Reason.
I. ANTAGONISM TO THE DIVINE RULE. In word and deed.
1. In current talk, writing, speechifying, it is difficult to detect where the falsehood lies. It consists in the suppression of certain important sides of truth, and in putting forward interested, partial views of things. The literature of a people cannot be sound, if it be sunk in greed of gold and luxury as Judah had been. The hollowness consists in the reference of everything to a low standard of value. Not until a great preacher, prophet, or writera Savonarola, a Latimer, a Carlylearises to shed the splendor of eternal truth upon our ways, do we discover how false and mean they have been.
2. We find we have “provoked the eyes of God’s majesty” by our way of life. What hard-heartedness and brazen defiance of humanity and morality is brought to light from time to time, when some reformer directs attention to an abuse! Men cynically “make fortunes” out of the flesh and blood of their fellow-creatures. Have not in our time the cries of factory children, and over-toiled seamstresses, and drowning sailors, and “gutter children” gone up into the cars of the Lord of hosts? Isaiah is modern as well as ancient, for the Word he delivers is eternal.
II. THE NEMESIS OF EVIL, THE RECOMPENSE OF GOOD.
1. Wickedness is suicidal. “Woe to their soul, for to themselves they did evil!” Here lights the deepest curse, here rankles at last the arrow; in the soul! Dante sees in hell (c. 12.), in three circles, those who have wronged their neighbor, their God, and themselves. But every species of wrong works out its woe in self.
“Man can do violence
To himself and his own blessings; and for this
He in the second round must aye deplore
With unavailing penitence his crime.
Whoe’er deprives himself of life and light,
In reckless banishment his talent wastes,
And sorrows there where he should dwell in joy.”
Men may afford the loss of property, of a limb, of health; but not of love, not of the soul. The denial of love, or the waste of it, means the loss of the soul.
2. Goodness is self-rewarding. Often is the good man compared to a tree, bringing forth fruit by a law of nature, according to its kind and in its season. There is strict and beautiful sequence in life and character. No curse, no blessing, “causeless comes.” The bitter fruit we bring forth comes from interference with the Divine nature God has given us. It is said that wanton Arabs sometimes
“Foil a dwarf palm
Of bearing its own proper wine and oil,
By grafting into it the stranger-vine,
Which sucks its heart out, sly and serpentine,
Till forth one vine-palm fastens to the root,
And red drops moisten the insipid fruit.”
Such is sin and sin’s result on the being; a parody and mockery of that sound and true life so beautifully presented under the image of a tree in the first psalm.
III. MISRULE. There has been weakness and effeminacy in high places. And this is often more mischievous than strong and open violence. A vast growth of vicious and interested passions springs up in the neighborhood of a weak court. It is the opportunity for many bad men to exert their ambition. A powerful will generally works some good at the head of affairs, even though its wielder be not a good man. But feebleness is always baneful in public life. Everything is uncertain when the purpose is vacillating, and no settled principle exists. The feeble ruler will be swayed by every gust of caprice, by every personal influence that attacks his ear, every passion that enslaves his heart. Several of our kingsJohn, Richard II; the Charleseshave been examples of this. The country may be compared to a beautiful vineyard which the rulers have been appointed to keep (Isa 5:1-7). They have trampled it down and despoiled it, and have “ground the sufferers’ faces.” The image is taken from the mill, where a substance is worn down until nothing is left. The contemporary prophet Micah uses still stronger language (Mic 3:2, Mic 3:3). The rulers flay the people, and cutting them in pieces, cast them, as it were, into a caldron. Unhappily this picture has its counterpart today in many Eastern lands. The women of the harem practically rule and devour the people in their greed. Personally, the description may be applied. God has entrusted to each of us a garden or vineyard to keep. Diligence and faithfulness will have their reward. For sloth, neglect, waste, and abuse, God will enter into judgment with us.J.
Verse 16-Isa 4:1
The women of Jerusalem.
The habits and the morale in general of the court and the aristocracy are a sure index of the state of the nation. Fashion guides, but is in a measure controlled by the general opinion. Wanton pride and luxury in high places bespeak a general want of moral tone.
I. THEIR PRIDE. The picture is minute and scathingly satirical. The daughters of Zion walk with “necks held up.”
II. THEIR LASCIVIOUSNESS. The “rolling eyes” are often mentioned as characteristic of Aphrodite or Ashtoreth, the unchaste goddess of sensual love.
III. THEIR FINERY AND LUXURY. A complete catalogue of articles of personal adornment is given. The instinct for dress and decoration, so strong in women and so graceful if followed with moderation, easily passes beyond the bounds, and becomes an offence and vice.
IV. THE REVERSE OF THE PICTURE. The perfumes will be exchanged for a stench, the waistband for the rough cord of poverty, the abundance of flowing hair will be replaced by repulsive baldness. “A brand instead of beauty!” Their husbands will fall in the war. There will be melancholy groups gathering at the public place, the gates; and in vain will they, once lapped in luxury, seek the protection and the honor of the marriage state (cf. 1Co 7:36). One of our poets has called up the picture of Venice and her women in old days of mirth and folly, which may be compared.
“As for Venice and her people, merely born to bloom and drop,
Here on earth they bore their fruitagemirth and folly were the crop.
What of soul was left, I wonder, when the kissing had to stop?
Dust and ashes!”
Only the “sweet and virtuous soul” can give to woman an immortal charm, and ensure her from corrupting and being corrupted.J.
HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM
Isa 3:9
The revealings of the face.
“The show of their countenance doth witness against them.” We are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Just as the countenance reveals the state of our physical health, so do thought and character manifest themselves in the face. All our nature, with its complexity of being, has yet a subtle and mysterious oneness, and the tone of the mind and the inclination of the heart are made manifest, not alone in speech, but in look and gesture and manner. In the simple language of the holy Book, there is a show of the countenance.
I. MEN CANNOT PREVENT SELF–REVEALING. As the New Testament says, “They that be otherwise cannot be hid.” There is no concealment in nature. The hidden seed springs up even in the cleft of a rock. There is always some damaging witness waiting for an evil man. As the snow reveals the footsteps of the beast of prey, as the wind of the desert drifts the sand from the body that is buried in it, so sin will surely be found out. A bad man’s face is a tell-tale of levity and scorn and shame. If God is not in the heart, the light of his presence will not be in the countenance.
II. MEN CANNOT LONG ACT A PART. Nature is against insincerity. You cannot forge her handwriting. You cannot make your artificial rock so that it shall remain unknown beside hers. No. And it is so with voice and face. Hypocrisy drops unconsciously its mask. The same words are spoken differently by sincere and insincere men. We read of hollow laughter. So there is hollow exhortation which does not exercise inspiration over our hearts. So men cannot twist their countenances into false witnessing. There is a blatant iniquity about the wicked which cannot be concealed by long effort. “They declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not.”
III. MEN CANNOT AVERT PUNISHMENT. “Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.” They create their own inquisition-chamber. Memory is their misery. No theories of unaccountability can live. Excuses there are none. The conscience tears them to pieces like a spider’s web. Life is personal and accountable. We all feel that. “Say ye to the righteous, it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.” Reward, then, is not always blessing; it is harvest of golden sheaves or gathered tares, according to our planting. Verily a light from within fills the countenance even of godly men. The prayer is fulfilled. “Cause thy face to shine upon us.” “Who is the Health of my countenance, and my God”W.M.S.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Isa 3:1-8
National and spiritual anarchy.
We have a vivid picture here of
I. NATIONAL ANARCHY.
1. Its cause is found in national rebellion against its rightful Lord. “Their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory” (Isa 3:8). Sin, both in word and deed, draws down the righteous indignation of God, and, under his just administration, the penalty of iniquity is paid.
2. Its signs are seen in:
(1) The loss of all fitting leaders (Isa 3:1-3). Those who constituted “the stay and the staff” are no longer found in positions of authority; those capable of ruling, those qualified to direct and to advise, those who have learnt political sagacity by long experience,these are not to be obtained; they have been deported, or they have withdrawn, or they are no more trained.
(2) The consequent elevation of the incapable (Isa 3:4). Those hold the high offices of state who are utterly incompetent to fill the lasts they have accepted.
(3) The presence of injustice and confusion (Isa 3:5). Instead of all doing that which is conscientious and right as between man and man, every one seeks to overreach his neighbor; fraud and violence are the rule rather than the exception; and instead of the natural subordination of the younger to the elder, there is insolence and presumption.
(4) The absence of unselfish patriotism (Isa 3:6, Isa 3:7). They who are in a position to render help refuse to do so, untruly and unworthily excusing themselves.
3. Its issue. (Isa 3:8.) “Jerusalem is being ruined (is ruined); Judah is falling (is fallen).” Bad as things are, they are not at their very worst; there remains a darker and sadder catastrophe yet to complete the destruction; and that, viz. dreary exile for the people and depopulation for the land, will soon arrive.
II. SPIRITUAL ANARCHY. We trace the same cause here as in the case of the ruined nation.
1. Its cause is in rebellion against God, and his consequent high displeasure showing itself in just and appropriate penalty (Isa 3:8).
2. Its signs are found in:
(1) The dethronement of the soul’s true authorities: conscience, which directs us what we ought to do; reason, which leads us in the path in which it is wise to walk; pure affection, which draws us toward the objects we do well to love (Isa 3:1-3). When sin does its work within, these powers which were meant to rule are supplanted by unworthy rivals.
(2) The enthronement of the unfitting (Isa 3:4). As unsuited to govern a human soul are the rude, uncultured appetites and passions of our lower nature as are “children” and babes to rule over the great affairs of state.
(3) Internal struggle and insubordination (Isa 3:5). The animal appetites asserting themselves unduly and violently against spiritual aspirations and holy principles, and doing them dishonor.
(4) Appeal, without response, to our better nature (Isa 3:6, Isa 3:7). It is one of the last stages in spiritual demoralization when an earnest, strenuous challenge is made to that which is left in the soul of the heavenly and Divine, and it makes no response, or none, but a miserable resort to that which is false. There is little hope left then; the last sparks are expiring:
3. Its issue. (Isa 3:8.) A human spirit in such a state is hastening fast to utter and irretrievable ruin. It is in the very act of falling; it is coming to the ground, to be utterly humiliated and broken. It may be perhaps that on earth a soul is never in such complete ruin but that it may be repaired. Yet there are those who have fallen into such disorder that it may be said that the last destruction overhangs them. To such the Master’s warning words may well be uttered (see Luk 17:31, Luk 17:32); for they must flee for their life, not losing a moment in starting, nor looking behind them when on their way.C.
Isa 3:9-11
The path of sin and the rest of righteousness.
I. THAT SIN CANNOT BE CONCEALED. “The show of their countenance doth witness against them” (Isa 3:9). Whether Isaiah’s words point to the unconscious revelation of sin is uncertain, but they clearly suggest the fact. The evil that is in men’s hearts is shown in their countenance, whether they wish to conceal it or whether they take a shameful pride in it. The thoughts that flit through the mind, the passions that burn within the soul, the sins that defile the inward man, are written, line by line, on the visage, and “may be known and read of all men.” Are there not those whom we have to look upon in the inter, course of life “whose eyes are full of adultery,” or whose cheeks are stained with intoxication, or whose features are drawn together with cruelty; those who, instead of “bearing in their body the marks of the Lord Jesus, “carry with them the signs of Satan’s service? It is a fact which may well make the guilty wince and hesitate before they continue, that, by the operation of God’s righteous laws, the sin which at the beginning they would fain hide in the depths of their own soul, will at length be written on the tablet of the body, and “the show of their countenance will witness against them.”
II. THAT SIN, IN ITS LATER STAGES, SCORNS TO BE SCREENED FROM VIEW. “They declare their sin they hide it not” (verse 9). In the further stages of iniquity there is no attempt, for there is no desire, to hide the wrong thing from view. Shame gradually declines until it passes away, and in its place there grows up a horrible pride in sin. Men come to gloat over that from which they ought to shrink with utmost sense of humiliation; they “glory in their shame” (Php 3:19). This is eminently true of acts of rapacity and fraud; it also applies to sins of direct ungodliness and of self-indulgence.
III. THAT SIN IS ALWAYS WORKING TOWARDS RUIN. “Woe unto their soul; they have rewarded evil unto themselves” (verse 9). “Woe unto the wicked,” etc. (verse 11). Sin sometimes prospers long; the “sinner may do evil a hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely we know that it shall not be well with the wicked” (Ecc 8:12, Ecc 8:13). Nor is it well when the end comes (see Psa 73:1-20).
1. Sin tends to temporal ill-being, to penury, to sickness, to early death.
2. Sin tends to isolation, to the withdrawal of confidence and affection on the part of the good and worthy, to dishonor, and even degradation.
3. Sin must inevitably lead to spiritual deterioration and, if it be persisted in, to spiritual death. “The wages of sin is death.”
4. Sin finally conducts to condemnation and exile from the home of God. Alas! for the soul that is impenitent, that seeks not Divine mercy, that does not return on its way to the living God and to his righteousness. There is a world of meaning in that one small word which constitutes here such a significant sentence “ill.”
IV. THAT RIGHTEOUSNESS MAY REST SECURE IN HOPE. (Verse 10.) It may seem ill to the righteous; “weeping may endure for a night.” He may find himself inclined to sigh, “All these things are against me” (Gen 42:36). But “unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness.” The converse of all that applies to the ungodly is true of the godly. Righteousness
(1) tends to prosperity here;
(2) begets trust and love;
(3) results in moral excellencythe good man finds that honesty, purity, truthfulness, sobriety, kindness, etc; issue in spiritual increase, in a harvest of inward good, and he “eats the fruit of his doings;”
(4) conducts at last to the heavenly land, where he who does the will of God “is recompensed at the resurrection of the just.”C.
Isa 3:12-15
Penalty, natural and supernatural.
We learn
I. THAT THE NATURAL RESULT OF FOLLY IS TO BE GOVERNED BY THOSE WHO HAVE NO RIGHT TO RULE.
1. The nation suffers this penalty. As with Judah now (Isa 3:12), so with each and every country in its turn and in its way. Unmanliness, frivolity, wickedness among the people, will be reflected in the sovereign power. A nation that lives supremely for material enrichment, or for military conquest, or for pleasurable excitement, must expect to see upon the thronein the governmentmen who will represent their evil genius, who will pamper their evil tastes, who will “cause them to err” more wildly, and “destroy them in the way of thy paths.” Action and reaction are here as everywhere; the folly of the people expresses itself in the weakness and perversity of the ruler, and these qualities on his part tell in their time and measure upon them.
2. The Church endures the same evil. Unspirituality, discord, unbelief, laxity in the Christian community, will certainly issue in a degenerate ecclesiastical authority, and the ruler, using or abusing his opportunity, will lead astray and destroy.
3. The individual finds the same natural law operating on him and on his life. By his folly he allows passions instead of principles, impulses instead of convictions, men instead of God, to be his rulers, his “oppressors;” and these cause him to err; they pervert the way of his paths.
II. THAT THEY WHO ARE GUILTY OF MISRULE AND PERVERSITY MUST LOOK FOR THE RIGHTEOUS VISITATION OF GOD. (Isa 3:13-15.) “The Lord standeth up to plead,” “to judge the people.” He confronts and confounds those who have wronged and oppressed his people. If the usurper, the tyrant, the oppressor, the debauchee, the misleader of the nation (the Church), should not meet with the resentment and feel the blows of those whom he has wronged, he must lay his account with the facts that God takes note of all that passes in our human communities, that he holds those who are in power responsible for the effects of their administration, that he regards with severest indignation those who abuse their trust, that he will visit them in his own time and way, here or hereafter, with proofs of his Divine displeasure.C.
Isa 3:16-26
The vanity of vanity.
The graphic pen of the prophet brings before us the thoughts
I. THAT THE LAST AND SADDEST SYMPTOM OF NATIONAL DECLINE IS FOUND IN WOMANLY FOLLY. “Moreover the daughters of Zion,” etc. (Isa 3:16). Corruption may have spread far and done much evil work in the community, but there is hope for the city or the Church so long as the wives and the mothers, the daughters and the sisters, retain their moral and spiritual integrity. When that is gone all is gone. Purity and worth find their last retreat under the domestic roof; if they be driven thence they are doomed to die, and with them perish the prospects of the land.
II. THAT PRIDE AND VANITY IN WOMAN ARE OFFENSIVE IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. His prophet here condemns them “because they are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks” (Isa 3:16); he also describes, evidently in the spirit of strong reprobation, the various articles and instruments of vanity (Isa 3:18-23). Here are denounced the two sins of pride and vanitythe overweening estimate of self, and the foolish desire to excite the attention and the passing admiration of others. To be blind to our own defects and, at the same time, to magnify our own excellences, thus gaining and exhibiting a sense of our own goodness and importance quite beyond the measure of our deserts,such pride is hateful to God (Psa 18:27; Psa 101:5; Pro 6:17; 1Pe 5:5). And vanity is nearly as offensive as pride. To be studying, by every art, to attract the notice of our fellows, and to be peevishly, nervously anxious to secure their praise, instead of seeking first the approval of God and then the commendation of our own conscience,this is sinful in the sight of the holy and the true One. We may safely say
III. THAT THESE ARE NOT ONLY HEINOUS OFFENCES AGAINST GOD, BUT PITIABLE MISTAKES IN THE SIGHT OF MAN.
1. Those who assume a worth to which they are not entitled, and hence walk arrogantly before the world, do not receive the tribute of honor which they claim; they only excite derision and contempt.
2. They who, by meretricious ornamentations of their person or their style, endeavor to draw to themselves admiring observation, only succeed in provoking the smile of pity or disdain.
IV. THAT FRIVOLITY IN MAN OR WOMAN WILL MEET ITS DOOM IN THE DAY OF DIVINE PENALTY. (Isa 3:24-26.) This will involve:
1. The removal of the sources of frivolous delight. These “the Lord will take away” (Isa 3:18). For how brief a day do the pleasures of sense last! How soon the sun goes down on the trivialities and temporalities with which the sons and daughters of men amuse themselves and waste their time!
2. A visitation answering to the folly (Isa 3:24). Sin finds itself paid in its own coin.
3. The sorrow which comes with a sense of desolation (Isa 3:26). The “arm of flesh” will fail; the human admiration and attention will soon pass. And if the esteem of the wise and the favor of God have been unsought, there is nothing left; everything is in ruins.C.
Isa 3:1
The mission of famines.
The words “stay and staff“ are by the prophet referred to the two necessaries of life, bread and water. The judgments of God, in the older time, often came in the form of famine and drought; famine as the result of the drought. It was necessary, and it still is necessary, that men should be made to feel their entire dependence upon God for little things as well as great, for common everyday necessities as well as for special days’ gifts and mercies. The necessaries of every day seem to be our right; famine-times remind us that they are always direct Fatherly providings. Entering into covenant with Noah, God promised that “while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease, “But the promise concerned the earth as a whole, and cannot be applied to particular portions of it. Seeding time has always been kept; harvesting work has always been done. Where man has not come to aid the operations of nature, God has provided seeding times and seeding ways for himself. In desert districts, where tribes wander, and corn cannot be grown, God makes two plants grow freely, whose fruitage is a harvest of necessaries for the people. Local and temporary failures there have been; but they have been due to special causes acting but locally over certain districts; terrible oftentimes for the sufferings they cause, when men are isolated from their fellows, but ameliorated when men dwell together in brotherhood, and the overplus of one land can be used to supply the deficiencies of another. The chief causes of harvest failure are lack of rain, destruction of growing crops by caterpillar and locust, and war which prevents the proper seeding of the fields. A special cause of famine in Egypt was the failure of the Nile-flood.
I. GOD USES FAMINE TO KEEP UP MEN‘S DEPENDENCE ON HIM. A tale is told of a widow woman who had lived for many years rent free in a cottage, through the good will and kindly arrangement of the owner. She lived in it so long that she came to think the place was her own, and quite forgot her dependent condition; so far forgot herself, indeed, as to send a message to her landlord threatening to leave the house if some repairs were not at once attended to. It might have been good for the poor woman to let her feel homeless for a while, so that she might learn to value her mercies. But we, like her, are in great danger of presuming on the goodness of God. We also get the feeling of a right to the things which God freely and graciously bestows. We call them ours. And then the temporary loss of them wakens us to thought; humbles us in the dust; calls upon us to look on the fields, and say, “They are God’s, not ours;” and on the sunny skies and genial rain, and say, “They are God’s, not ours.” “Every good gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.”
II. GOD USES FAMINE AS AN AGENT FOR PUNISHMENT. NO man is able to say of any particular famine, it must be a punishment; but we have a perfect right to say, famine may be a punishment. When God would visit David’s sin in numbering the people for his own vain-glorious purposes, he offered him a choice which included” seven years of famine for thy land.” In the reign of Ahab the violent adoption of Baalism was visited by a terrible famine for the humbling of the willful king. And still we must keep hold of this truthall outward calamities may be visitations of Divine wrath. It settles nothing to say that pestilence follows on man’s disobedience of sanitary laws; and famine results from deficient government and hindered commerce; and wars spring out of national ambitions. That is all quite true, but we thus deal only with “second causes.” God is still the First Cause. We, at least, will not push God out of the world he has made. We will trace his working everywhere. And just as we know he orders our personal circumstances so that they shall be chastisement and correction for our personal mistakes, willfulnesses, and transgressions, so we will be sure that the sins of cities, communities, and nations bring judgments and corrections by public calamities; famine may be the hand of the Almighty raised to smite and humble sinful peoples.
III. GOD USES FAMINE TO KNIT THE LANDS IN BROTHERHOOD. In the older times of famine in Egypt, other nations and tribes were compelled to visit that land to secure their supplies of food, and so everybody became interested in the preservation of peace and kindly relations. The common distress made even hostile tribes forget their enmities. In the present day it is essential to the well-being of every nation that universal peace should be preserved. Every country is interested in keeping a free way for the world’s ships over the oceans. War is a calamity. The strong men who are slaughtered on battle-fields, ought to be toiling at the harvests, growing the world’s food, carrying it from laud to land, or making the things which should supply the world’s ever-varying and multiplied needs. We are dependent, as nations, on one another, and our mutual dependence ought to culture a spirit of brotherhood. England cannot grow from her soil, as at present cultivated, the supply of all her people’s needs. Heavily laden grain-ships bring the bounty of other lands for our relief week by week throughout the year; and so intercourse is maintained. We get to know and respect each other; we even, in a sense, sit down at each other’s tables; we eat bread and salt together, and so are bound to one another in eternal amity, as are the desert tribes. We eat bread from America, and Russia, and Hungary, and Egypt, and other parts, and at the common feast we cultivate the common brotherhood. And it may be further said, nothing binds men together and breaks down prejudices and enmities like a common trouble. How we are drawn together when a common woe lies upon our town, or upon the community to which we belong! Mutual sympathy and mutual sacrifice make us feel that God has “made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth;” and that brothers of the one family, whose Head is the everlasting Father, may well be brotherly and kind. In conclusion, gathering up what has been illustrated and enforced, it may be shown that
(1) famine makes a public testimony for the one, living God;
(2) famine, reaching to affect all classes, makes this testimony everywhere; and
(3) famine becomes everywhere a test of characters and beliefs.R.T.
Isa 3:4
The evil of childish rulers.
“Babes shall rule over them.” No greater calamity can come on a nation than the succession of mere children to the throne, and government by regency and party. Ahaz ascended the throne at the age of twenty (2Ch 28:1). Manasseh at age of twelve; Josiah at age of eight (2Ch 33:1; 2Ch 34:1). The evil was, of course, exaggerated in Eastern countries, where kings are irresponsible despots. “In an Eastern monarchy the rule of a young king, rash and without experience, guided by counselors like himself, was naturally regarded as the greatest of evils, and the history of Rehoboam had impressed this truth on the mind of every Israelite.” “Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child” (Ecc 10:16). When the strong men and wise men are removed by disease and calamity, weaklings get into office and place of authority, and surely create fresh evils by their incapacity.
I. THE EVIL OF RULERS WHO ARE CHILDREN IN AGE. Such, being unable to decide and act for themselves, are dependent on court advisers; so there is every opportunity for court intrigue, rivalry of parties, and the sacrifice of national interests to party advantage. Under weak governments class is set against class. Illustrate the petulance of boys in the exercise of assumed authority. It comes out even in their play. In old times young kings were under the supreme influence of the queen-mother, and she might be a Jezebel or an Athaliah. The most anxious times of English history are times of regency.
II. THE EVIL OF RULERS WHO ARE CHILDREN IN UNDERSTANDING. Such as Rehoboam. The evil is qualified in constitutional countries; but even in them the king gives tone to society. It has often been a consequence of war that a land has been left to the government of the incompetent. Corruption at court has sometimes led the best men to retire from the government. Under such inefficient rule, in an Eastern kingdom, all is chaotic and anarchic; there is a condition which can only be fittingly represented by the Turkey or Egypt of our own times. Apply to the small kingdoms of
(1) society,
(2) friendship,
(3) families, and urge the importance, to the well-being of a nation, of manly men, and manly, strong, wisely ruling fathers.R.T.
Isa 3:8
The secret of national ruin.
“Their tongue and their doings are against the Lord.” This is given distinctly as the reason and the explanation of the ruin of Judah. The prophet goes right past all accidents and all national events, and fixes on the moral cause of the ruin. A nation is bad at the core when it can doubt and dishonor God; and no such nation can stand long. God will surely arise to vindicate himself and to shake terribly the earth. Isaiah uses a singular figure: “To provoke the eyes of his glory.” The offence which willfulness and iniquity give to the holiness of God is compared to the sensitiveness of the human eye. Matthew Henry says, “In word and action they brake the Law of God, and therein designed an affront to him; they willfully 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.”
I. REBELLIOUS SPEECH A CORRUPTING FORCE. Apply to boastful, self-conceited speech; the speech of the masterful and ambitious man. Apply to the influence of the infidel lecturer, or infidel literature, The young especially are carried away by it to self-indulgence, and find in it excuse for vicious practices. Infidelity never lays foundations for virtue to build on. It is ever the substratum of vice. Illustrate from the French Revolution.
II. REBELLIOUS DEEDS A CALL FOR JUDGMENT. The bad deeds are the proper fruitage of bad speech. Illustrate by the evil work of the demagogue. Break down the sacred restraints of faith in God, and evils rush in like a flood. When man feels free to do what he likes, his likes are sure to be bad ones. Impress that no account of a man’s ruin, or a nation’s ruin, will suffice which deals only with his circumstances. Nobody was ever ruined by accident. Man’s tongue and doings will always provide the explanation of his extreme calamities.R.T.
Isa 3:10, Isa 3:11
Messages to the righteous and the wicked.
These verses are parenthetical. “They assert the doctrine of ‘future rewards and punishment’ in a spiritual and not a mechanical sense. Good deeds ripen into happiness, as evil deeds into misery” (Cheyne). The point of impression may be stated thus
I. TO THE RIGHTEOUSGOD‘S JUDGMENTS ARE NOT INDISCRIMINATE.
II. TO THE WICKEDGOD‘S JUDGMENTS ARE INEVITABLE. “The pious are graciously assured, that in the worst of times, and under the most trying circumstances, God will be their Friend and Rewarder; while the ungodly are equally assured that they shall suffer merited punishment’ (Henderson). Compare the Divine pleadings with Cain (Gen 4:7), and Abraham’s pleading over guilty Sodom (Gen 18:25). See Asaph’s perplexity because it was so often ill with the righteous, and well with the wicked (Psa 73:1-28.). How can God answer those who, looking cursorily upon life, say that the earthly lot of the righteous and of the wicked is very much the same? His answer may be set forth under the following divisions.
1. God cares for the righteous, and has some kind purpose towards them in letting them suffer.
2. The righteous should be willing to accept of a share of suffering, which aims at the correction and salvation of the many.
3. God keeps the conscience of the righteous quiet under suffering, and so he does not feel its real bitterness.
4. God can keep the righteous from sharing suffering if it pleases him so to do, just as he saved Israel in Goshen from the plagues that smote the rest of Egypt. To the wicked God’s judgments have a bitter sting, for they are conscious of the connection between their sins and their judgments, unless conscience is utterly dead, and then there must come for them an awful day of awakening. And if the wicked do escape calamities here, there is the inevitable day coming when he must receive “according to the deeds done in his body.”R.T.
Isa 3:15
Grinding the faces of the poor.
Two figures are here employed: “Beat my people to pieces;” “Grind the faces of the poor.” One of these may help to the understanding of the other. Both deal with the tyrannies of masters, and may be illustrated by the cruel treatment of slaves in the old slave-holding times. J.A. Alexander explains the figures thus: “Crush my people is a common figure for severe oppression (Job 5:4; Pro 22:22). Grind the faces upon the ground, by trampling on their prostrate bodies, is also another strong figure for contemptuous and oppressive violence.” Ewald thinks blows or wounds in the face may be referred to. The figure may be taken from the threshing-sled, a cart without wheels, having pieces of flint and iron on the under side, which was drawn by oxen over the heap of wheat, grinding the grains. So the exactions and forced labors to which the poor were subject was making lines and furrows in their faces by their grinding influence. The figure may be illustrated by the condition of the wretched fellahin in Egypt, who are ground with taxation until life has, become a burden. Matthew Henry gives two suggestions by way of explanation. “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.” “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.” Roberts gives specimens of similar proverbial expressions current in India. “Ah! my lord, do not thus crush my face. Alas I alas! my nose and other features will soon be rubbed away. Is my face to be made quite fiat with grinding?” “That head man has been grinding the faces of all his people.” The opposite figure to this is to “smooth the face,” meaning to “court or flatter.”
I. MAN‘S CRUELTY TO THE POOR. Illustrate the condition of poor people in Eastern lands. They are the first to suffer in times of national calamity, pestilence, famine, or war. The selfishness induced by national distress is seen in the neglect and ill treatment of the poor. Weak governments make cruel exactions from the poor. Lordly and rich men too often crush the poor. Slave countries have awful records of cruelty to the slave poor. Forced labor has, in many lands, embittered the lot of the poor. Now the evil is rather selfish neglect than open cruelty. Rich and poor are separated by wide class distinctions, and the poor are too often left in their misery to perish.
II. GOD‘S CARE FOR, THE POOR. Seen in his counsels respecting the treatment of them, in his own wondrous ways of providing for them, and in the relation of his manifested Son to them. Of him this was the characteristic, “Blessed are the poor;” “To the poor the gospel is preached.”
III. MAN‘S CONCERN FOR THE POOR WHEN HE BECOMES GOD–LIKE. Then he strives to feel as Christ felt, and to act as Christ acts. See the spirit of pious Job (Job 29:1-25.), and compare Barnabas and Dorcas. The regenerate man cannot fail to interest himself in those who are needy, or in trouble. The good man deals justly and kindly and thoughtfully with the lowly folk who serve him. Grinding the face of the poor is an absolute impossibility to any man who has “the mind of Christ.”R.T.
Isa 3:16
Dress and character.
The Word of God has sometimes things to say which it cannot be satisfied to address generally to mankind; it requires a more direct superscription for its message, and writes to men, to women, even sometimes to wives, maidens, mothers, widows, children. In the effort of Isaiah to produce a deep and general conviction of the national sin and disgrace and impending ruin, he singles out the women of that day; he bids us trace the influence of a godless luxury in their vain dressing, frivolous manners, and overloaded ornamentation and jeweler. He intimates that the nobler qualities of womanly mind and character were being lost in this great increase of frivolity and vanity; and he sets us upon imagining not only the present degradation of the land, but the yet deeper degradation that must come, the utter ruin of the generation that owned such women as mothers. Hallam says, “The love of becoming ornament is not perhaps to be regarded in the light of vanity; it is rather an instinct which woman has received from nature to give effect to those charms which are her defense; and when commerce began to minister more efficiently to the wants of luxury, the rich furs of the north, the gay silks of Asia, the wrought gold of domestic manufacture, illumined the halls of chivalry, and cast, as if by the spell of enchantment, that ineffable grace over beauty which the choice and arrangement of dress is calculated to bestow.” God cannot be especially pleased with a clothing of wearisome drab; and he must know that when bright colors are forsworn, the vanity of the human heart will still find expression in shape and pattern. He is ever dressing the brown earth in garments of grass and flower, pluming the wings of his birds with varied tints; and making gorgeous with bars of gold and crimson and blue the sky at sun setting. There are a few simple rules of dress which at once commend themselves to Christian judgment.
I. A CHRISTIAN SHOULD DRESS WITHIN REASONABLE EXPENSE, What is reasonable expense can never be settled by figures; it must always be left to individual decision; the utmost carefulness of one person may, relative to station, appear censurable extravagance to another person. But we may say this: any expenditure is unreasonable which deprives us of the means for meeting those higher claims which may be made upon usclaims of
(1) food,
(2) family,
(3) education,
(4) hospitality,
(5) charity, or
(6) religion.
And all expenditure on luxurious dress is unreasonable, which prevents our laying aside something against the calamities, diseases, and old age of the future. Above all, dressing which involves the spending of money which belongs to our creditors is a lie towards men, and an insult to God. Archbishop Leighton says,” Excessive costliness argues and feeds the pride of the heart, and defrauds, if not others of their dues, yet the poor of their charity, which in God’s sight is a due debt too; and far more comfort shalt thou have on thy death-bed, to remember that at such a time, instead of putting lace on my own back, I helped a naked back to clothing.”
II. A CHRISTIAN SHOULD DRESS ACCORDING TO THE BEST STANDARDS OF TASTE. Best, not necessarily newest. These you will discover, not by observing persons who are foremost in fashion, but by observing those persons for whom you have the most real respect. Whatever may be the class of society to which you belong, you can discern, within the limits of your sphere, the contrast between the dress of the shallow, the frivolous, and vain, and the dress of the thoughtful, the humble, and the worthy. Peter gives an idea of the standard of taste, in 1Pe 3:3-5.
III. A CHRISTIAN SHOULD DRESS SUITABLY TO THE SPHERE IN LIFE WHICH SHE OCCUPIES, AND THE CLASS OF SOCIETY TO WHICH SHE BELONGS. If you do not act thus, you make yourself a caricature; you must be a hypocrite, trying to deceive people into the idea that you are what you know that you are not. Most people easily read the disguise, and put a low estimate on the persons who foolishly resort to it. We honor the men and women who bravely say, “My sphere in life may be humble, but it is honest, and therefore it is honorable. I am not ashamed to dress according to it. I can occupy my place, and look just myself, with the smile of God, and the approbation of all good men, upon me.” Let servants dress as servants, maidens as maidens, married women as married, and the aged as aged. Each to herself be true.
IV. A CHRISTIAN SHOULD DRESS SO AS TO SERVE GOD BY HER DRESS. Our dress has an influence on others-on those in our station, on those in classes of society below us, and on the children we meet. This mode of influence is to be laid in service on the Lord’s altar. Two points may be impressed from these considerations.
1. Dress reveals character. This is true of the character of each individual. We often take our notions of a person from her dress. Carelessness, untidiness, and uncleanliness, things which are very nearly akin to ungodliness, are revealed only by looking at some, so-called, well-dressed people. Self-conceit, passion, and temper are exhibited in others. Sometimes we see persons of whom we think very pityingly. Poor creatures! There is little inside the cozy dress but vanity, pride, and worldliness. And others as certainly tells us of the inward modesty, the delicacy, seriousness, refinement of their souls. Burns sings
“Oh, wad some poo’er the giftie gic us,
To see o’orsels as ithers see us!”
And many of us have longed for the courage to tell others around us the impression which their dress was making upon us. If the looking-glass could speak, what surprising revelations it would make! It is true also of nations; dress is characteristic. It is true of towns and districts in our own land. In some parts of our country, where wages are good, and imitation finery is cheap, we find sharp contrasts of color, commonness of material, rude bold shapes, and overloading of tinsel. In other parts where work is concerned with the more necessary articles required for man’s use, the taste is sober, the quality good, and ornamentation refined.
2. Dress cultures character. A woman feels right when she is well dressed, and in a sense is kept right by her dress. The beautiful in appearance wants the beautiful in conduct to match it. Plato says, “Behavior, and not gold, is the ornament of woman. For a woman who wishes to enjoy the favor of one man, good behavior is the proper ornament, and not dresses. You should have the blush upon your countenance, which is the sign of modesty, instead of paint, and worth and sobriety instead of gold and emeralds.”R.T.
Isa 3:25, Isa 3:26
National evil in the loss of male population.
The destruction of the males in war is the cause of the extreme grief and helpless desolation of womanhood. The figure is intense when read in the light of the condition of unprotected woman in Eastern countries. “In the East of antiquity, as in many Eastern lands to this day, the position of an unmarried woman, whether maid or widow, was a very unhappy and perilous one. Only in the house of a husband could a woman be sure of respect and protection. Hence the Hebrews spoke of the husband’s house as a woman’s menuchub, or ‘rest’her secure and happy asylum from servitude, neglect, license” (S. Cox). In the verses before us the effect of the slaughter of the males on the community is described. The chief places of concourse are full of desolate, wailing women; and the state or nation is then personified as a desolate widow seated on the ground, a sign both of mourning and degradation. For illustration of the figure, see Vespasian’s coin. The device on it is a woman, disconsolate, in a sitting posture, leaning against a palm tree, and the legend is “Judaea capta.” As a modern illustration take the calamity which came upon France through the series of revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. The conscription swept off the males; the age for soldiers, and standard height, were again and again reduced, until even the nation’s youths were destroyed; and it has taken years to recover the national strength.
I. A NATION‘S STRONG MEN ARE HER PRESENT JOY. They work well in the factory. They advise well in the council. They ensure healthy and strong populations.
II. A NATION‘S STRONG MEN ARE HER DEFENSE. They ensure her respect abroad. They preserve her when attacked. They keep off disease by their vitality.
III. A NATION‘S STRONG MEN ARE HER HOPE FOR THE FUTURE. They put strength into government, art, science, literature, labor. Health is energy. A nation’s hope lies in this being the description of her sonsmens sana in corpore sano. Then what a national calamity war is! It takes a nation’s manhood. We may well “seek peace and ensue it,” for it keeps our manhood.R.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Isa 3:1. For behold, the Lord, &c. The prophet had, in the preceding chapter, declared in general the terror of the day of the Lord. He now descends to a more particular explication of it. The connecting particle for, in this verse, evidently shews its connection with what has preceded. We have in this prophecy, first, a general proposition, in which God denounces that he will deprive the Jews of all protection; in this verse:Secondly, a declaration of the particulars of this calamity, such as, a want of provision;at the end of this verse: A deprivation of all desirable and proper human protection; Isa 3:2-3. A substitution of a protection inadequate to their wants, Isa 3:4 a dissolution of all order, and total confusion of their polity, Isa 3:5-7. This prediction also refers to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldees. See Joe 1:1-4 and Jer 14:1; Jer 14:22; Jer 37:21; Jer 38:9.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
b. The judgment against the eminent things in the human sphere
Isa 2:22 to Isa 4:1
a. THE JUDGMENT AGAINST GODLESS MEN
Isa 2:22 to Isa 3:15
22Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils:
For wherein is he to be accounted of?
1For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts,
Doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah
21The stay and the staff,
22The whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,
2The mighty man, and the man of war,
The judge, and the prophet, and the 23prudent, and the 24ancient,
3The captain of fifty, and the 25 26the honorable man,
And the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the 27 28eloquent orator.
4And I will give children to be their princes,
29And babes shall rule over them.
5And the people 30shall be oppressed,
Every one by another, and every one by his neighbour:
The child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient,
And the base against the honourable.
6When a man shall 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:
7In that day shall he 31 32swear, saying,
I will not be a 33healer;
For in my house is neither bread nor clothing:
Make me not a ruler of the people.
8For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen:
Because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord,
To provoke the eyes of his glory.
9The show of their countenance doth witness against them;
And they declare their sins as Sodom, they hide it not.
Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.
10Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him:
For they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
11Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him;
For the reward of his hands shall be 34given him.
12As for my people, children are their oppressors,
And women rule over them.
O my people, 35they which lead thee cause thee to err,
And 36destroy the way of thy paths.
13The Lord standeth up to plead,
And standeth to judge the people.
14The Lord will enter into judgment
With the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof:
For ye have 37eaten up the vineyard;
The spoil of the poor is in your houses.
15What mean ye that ye 38beat my people to pieces,
And grind the faces of the poor?
Saith the Lord God of hosts.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa 2:22. The verb occurs several times in Isa 1:16; Isa 24:8, coll. Isa 53:3. The construction with the dative of the person addressed (Dat. ethicus) has here the meaning that this ceasing is in the interest of the person addressed himself. with : Exo 14:15; Exo 23:5; Job 7:16; Pro 23:4; 1Sa 9:5; 2Ch 35:21.
Chap. III. Isa 3:1. : logically considered there can be no difference between these two words, which moreover occur only here. But the Prophet designs by the words only a rhetorical effect. With sententious brevity he sketches thus the contents of the chapter whose first half treats of the male supports, whose second half of the female.Examples are not few of concrete nouns which, placed along side of one another, designate the totality by the masculine and feminine endings: Isa 11:12; Isa 43:6; Jer 48:19; Nah 2:13; Zec 9:17. It is doubtful about , 1Sa 15:9. But abstract nouns are very few that at the same time differentiate the idea as to gender by the gender endings. The most likely case of comparison is , the male and female branches (Isa 22:24). It is doubtful about Mic 2:4 (comp. Caspari, Micah, p. 117). found elsewhere only 2Sa 22:19 (Psa 18:19). The feminine form occurs more frequently : Num 21:19; Psa 23:4; Isa 36:6, etc.
Isa 3:4. occurs only here and Isa 66:4. The form is like ,, etc. The plural can signify the abstract, and this abstract may possibly stand pro concreto; the plural may also have a simple concrete meaning. All these constructions are grammatically possible and have found their defenders. As regards the meaning of the word, the questions arise, whether the word contains the notion of child (comp. ,) or the notion, inflict, bring upon, mishandle, (comp. , Jdg 19:25; 1Sa 31:4, etc., , ,, Isa 66:4), or both notions, and whether it is to be taken as subject or as acc. adverbialis to designate the manner and means. That the notion child lies in the word appears very conclusively from the preceding and from , Isa 3:12. But it is not at all necessary to exclude the notion vexatio which is decidedly demanded, Isa 66:4. One may easily unite both by translating as Delitzsch does, childish appetites, or childish tricks, childish follies. But the personifying of this idea, or construing it as abstr. pro concreto (puerilia = pueri, Gesenius) though grammatically possible, is still hard. I agree therefore with Hitzig, who translates by with tyranny, arbitrariness. Comp. , ,, etc.
Isa 3:5. (Faustrecht.) Such is the sense of . The word is used of the violent oppression of the Egyptian taskmakers (Exo 3:7; Exo 5:6 sqq.), of the creditor (Deu 15:2-3), of a superior military force of an enemy (1Sa 13:6), also of overpowering fatigue (1Sa 14:24) or of an unsparingly strict judicial process (Isa 53:7). In our passage the Niphal, as one may see from following , appears intended in a reciprocal sense. Moreover Isaiah uses the word often: Isa 3:12; Isa 9:3; Isa 14:2; Isa 58:3; Isa 60:17. tumultuari, insolenter tractare: comp. Isa 30:7; Isa 51:9. contemtus, vilis; comp. Isa 16:14; 1Sa 18:23.
Isa 3:6. is rendered by many expositors when: Vitringa, Hitzig, Ewald, Drechsler, Delitzsch. They therefore take the phrase as protasis to Isa 3:7. The consideration that Isa 3:6-7 evidently portray, not the reason, but rather the consequence of Isa 3:4, determines me also to adopt this view. By , then, a possibility is signified that may often ensue. occurs again only in the plural, Zep 1:3, where it means offendiculum, . Besides it is synonym of . The present situation therefore is manifestly designated as a scandalous one, as a subject of offence.
Isa 3:7. part. occurs only here. Other forms of the verb occur in Isaiah in the sense of binding and healing wounds: Isa 1:6; Isa 30:26; Isa 61:1. He repels the allegation that he still has clothing and bread, and declines therefore the honor of becoming judge of his people. is principally a poetic word. It occurs only twelve times in the Old Testament; three of these in historical books: Jos 10:24; Jdg 11:6; Jdg 11:11. Isaiah uses it four times, viz., here, Isa 1:10; Isa 20:3.
Isa 3:8. , stumble, totter, fall, Isaiah uses often: Isa 5:27; Isa 8:15; Isa 28:13; Isa 40:30; Isa 59:10; Isa 59:14, etc. Isaiah uses only Isa 1:16 and Isa 3:8; Isa 3:10. in an inimical sense, as Isa 2:4; Gen 4:8, etc.The form is syncopated from (Ewald, 244 b). Comp. Isa 1:12; Psa 78:17. and Hiph. occur very often with : Num 20:24; Num 27:14; Deu 1:26; Deu 1:43, etc. Once the Hiph. occurs with the following Psa 106:33, with following Psa 105:28 Psa 107:11; once with Eze 5:6. And so here, too, with following . In Isaiah the construction with the accusative does not again occur: alone with the meaning rebellem, contumacem esse, occurs again Isa 1:20; Isa 1:5; Isa 63:10.
Isa 3:9. , which only occurs here, can, in union with , have no other meaning than the adverbial form of speech (Deu 1:17; Deu 16:19; Pro 24:23; Pro 28:21), which means dignoscere facies, distinguish the countenances, i. e., make a partial distinction (comp. ). The notion of partiality indeed does not suit here, although not a few Jewish and Christian expositors understand the words in this sense. The context constrains us rather to go back to the simple fundamental meaning of close observance, particular notice, which is the preliminary of partial distinction. We are the more justified in this as elsewhere too (Isa 61:9; Isa 63:16; Gen 31:32, etc.) is used in a sense that proceeds from this fundamental meaning. is therefore the magisterial, so to speak, the juristic, exact observance and investigation of countenances. , which is likewise a legal term, also favors this view. For it is used as much of the judge that takes cognizance (Exo 23:2) as of the witness that deposes to the interrogation of the judge: Deu 19:16; 2Sa 1:16 : thy mouth hath testified () against thee. occurs in Isaiah again only Isa 63:7. The form of sentence in Isa 3:10 a is owing to the well known attraction, common also in Greek, by means of which the subject of the dependent phrase becomes the object of the principal verb. There is no need, therefore, of taking in the sense of prdicare. But it is simply say, speak out loud, be not silent, that the righteous is well off. There is, thus, no need of referring to passages as Psa 40:11; Psa 145:6; Psa 145:11. That may mean not only bonus, but also bene habens, well off, is shown beyond contradiction by passages like Amo 6:2; Jer 44:17; Psa 112:5.
Isa 3:11. According to our remarks at Isa 1:4 concerning , it is agreeable to usus loquendi to connect it with . Besides in the best editions they are so bound (comp. Delitzsch in loc.). Therefore is to be taken in the same way as Isa 3:10. To be sure, there is no passage we can cite in which means infelix, as we can for meaning felix. For Psa 106:32, and Gen 47:9 is both times not used of personal subjects. And there are no other places to cite. One must therefore say, that the prophet in respect of the meaning of has in Isa 3:11 a imitated the corresponding part of Isa 3:10. is performance, product, desert. Comp. Jdg 9:16; Pro 12:14. The word is found in Isaiah again Isa 35:4; Isa 59:18; Isa 66:6. What the hands of the wicked have themselves produced shall be joined to, put on them.
Isa 3:12. The singular has general significance and hence represents an ideal plural. Comp. Gen 47:3. As regards the form of the word, which occurs here only, is the root form for (1Sa 15:3; Isa 13:16, etc.) or (Jer 6:11; Jer 9:20).
Isa 3:13. (in Isaiah only again Isa 21:8) expresses the opposite of movement. and along side of each other occur 1Sa 19:20. and though not seldom interchanged (comp. Isa 1:17), still stand here side by side. But comp. Jer 15:10; Heb 1:3.The expression enter into judgment occurs only here in Isaiah. Comp. beside Job 9:32; Job 14:3; Job 22:4; Psa 143:2; Ecc 11:9; Ecc 12:14.
Isa 3:14. The Piel occurs in this sense in Isaiah only again Isa 5:5; comp. Exo 22:4. It is depascere, grazing of cattle. Elsewhere it is used of fire (Isa 6:13; Isa 40:16; Isa 44:15; Isa 1:11). only here in Isaiah, Isa 61:8.
Isa 3:15. to stamp, trample (Isa 19:10; Isa 53:5; Isa 53:10) is intensified by is to grind, pound fine, Isa 47:2.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Isaiah 3 connects quite easily and simply with Isaiah 2 so far as it continues the idea of the judgment, and to this effect, that it is now extended to the sphere of human existence. Isa 2:22 makes the appropriate transition. For therein the Prophet warns against trusting in men, who are only weak transitory creatures. Isaiah 3, also, with this fundamental idea, subdivides into two parts, of which the first (Isa 3:1-15) treats of the men, the second (Isa 3:16 to Isa 4:1) of the women. And yet we at once receive the impression that in Isaiah 3 he is treading ground dominated by other sentiments. For while chap. 2 discourses quite evidently of the judgment that in the last time, the great day of Jehovah, shall be passed on sub-human and superhuman creatures, Isaiah 3 seems only to speak of acts of judgment that do not bring the continuation of human kind into question. Moreover, in as much as an ordered government is essential to the very existence of such continuance, the removal of those in power enumerated in Isa 3:2-3 does not appear to be a punishment of these themselves for their loftiness, but of the people. Those authorities appear as a benefit that is withdrawn from the sinful nation, and in their stead they are abandoned to the miseries of anarchy, or of a boy and woman government. If now the removal of these pillars, the great and mighty (Isa 3:2-3), is because they on their part share the blame, still that is not the principal thought. But the chief matter is that from the nation, which (Isa 3:8) had provoked the eyes of the glory of the Lord, shall be taken away the indispensable support of its customary and natural rulers. In connection with Isaiah 2 one expects a specifying of the contents, that as the sub-human and superhuman magnates must be humbled so, too, must the human magnates be. But this thought comes up only at Isa 3:13-15. Hence Isa 3:1-21 make on me the impression of a discourse that originally did not belong in this connection, but which was inserted here because it still in some measure suits the context. It is possible that originally these words were directed against the bad government of Ahaz, who came to the throne as a young man of 20 years (2Ki 16:2), although, taken strictly, they portray conditions that really never occurred either under Ahaz or in any other stadium of Jewish history.
Because Isa 3:1, presupposes the destruction of human magnates, that were for themselves and others an object of unjustifiable confidence (Isa 2:22), the discourse as regards its matter fits the context (comp. Isa 2:11). But it fits in also in chronological respects, so far as all acts of divine judgment constitute a unity; consequently all visitations that precede the last judgment belong essentially to it as precursors. But that the Prophet notwithstanding makes a distinction appears from Isa 3:13-15.
The order of thought in our passage, then, is as follows: After the Prophet had signified by Isa 2:22, that now he would proceed to the judgment against every high thing among men, he classifies in advance Isa 3:1 the contents of what he has to say, in that he announces that Judah and Jerusalem shall be deprived of every support, male and female. The male supports he then enumerates Isa 3:2-3. If these are removed, of course only children and women remain as supports of the commonwealth. The misery of boy rule, that gradually degenerates into anarchy, is portrayed Isa 3:4-7 in vigorous lines. This misery is the symptom of prevalent ruin in Judah and Jerusalem, and the consequence of those crimes committed against the Lord (Isa 3:8), that are public and not at all denied. These, therefore, are the self-meriting cause of that misery (Isa 3:9); for as the righteous reap salvation as fruit of their works (Isa 3:10), so the wicked destruction (Isa 3:11). Thus it comes that children and women rule over the nation and that these bad guides lead it into destruction (Isa 3:12). But this self-merited temporal misfortune is only the prelude of that still higher judgment that Jehovah shall conduct in proper person which, according to chap. 2, shall take place at the end of days, and by which the Lord shall finally rescue the pith of the people, but will drag their destroyers to a merited accountability.
2. Cease yeaccounted of ?Isa 2:22. As, in what precedes, the trust in things falsely eminent, in money, in power, in idolatry, was demonstrated as vanity, so the same occurs here in regard to men. Cease from men, says the Prophet. How shall man be an object of trust, how shall he be a support, seeing the principle of his life is the air that he breathes in and out of his nostrils, thus the fugitive quickly disappearing breath? Thence man himself is called so often breath;Psa 39:6-7; Psa 39:12; Psa 62:10, etc., comp. Gen 4:2.The expression whose breath is in his nostrils calls to mind Gen 2:7; Gen 7:22; Job 27:3.For wherein is he to be accounted of? Man as such, i. e., as bearer of the divine image in earthly form () is of course of great value before God. Comp. Psa 8:5 sqq.; Job 7:17. In these passages the inquiry what is man reminds one very much of the inquiry of our Prophet. But as helper, saviour, defender, support, man counts for little, yea less than nothing, according to Psa 62:10. For as one knows at once from Isa 3:1 sqq., human props may in a twinkling all of them be taken away. The preposition stands here as elsewhere (comp. Isa 7:2) as sign of the price that is regarded as the means for purchasing the wares or work.
3. For beholdeloquent orator.Isa 3:1-3. The solemn accumulation of the names of God that occurs here, occurs in like manner Isa 1:24; Isa 10:16; Isa 10:33; Isa 19:4. The subject addressed appears here also the chief city and the chief tribe of the people of Israel. But while, 1 and 2, it is always said Judah and Jerusalem, here (Isa 3:8) it is said Jerusalem and Judah. This is not without meaning, and we are perhaps justified in finding therein a support for the conjecture expressed above, that our passage did not originate at the same time with what precedes and what follows it, but is inserted here. The following words: the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water appear to interrupt the connection. For when, Isa 3:2-3, the different categories of kinds of human callings are enumerated, and Isa 3:16 sqq., the proud, aristocratic, decked out ladies are portrayed, is that not the specification of the ideas and , stay and staff? And what have bread and water to do here, seeing everything impersonal has already been noticed above Isa 2:13-16? It is conceivable that a reader, who did not understand the relation of the two words to what follows, had made a gloss of them in this sense, and that this gloss then had crept into the text. Such is the conjecture of Hitzig, Knobel, Meier, andthough afterwards retractedof Gesenius and Umbreit. The expression stay might call to mind the expression comfort your hearts with a morsel of bread (Gen 18:5; Jdg 19:5; Jdg 19:8; Psa 104:15) and the expression staff of bread (Lev 26:26; Eze 4:16; Ezekiel 5, 16). That just bread and water are named as corresponding to and might have its reason in this, that they recognized in bread the female principle and in water the male. But it is always doubtful to assume an interpolation only on internal grounds. Ewald and Drechsler understand the words in a figurative sense. The stay of bread and of water signify the supports that are necessary as bread and water. But Knobel justly remarks that this were an unheard of trope. May not all those be called staffs of bread and water that provide the state with bread and water, i. e., with all that pertains to daily bread? Call to mind the explanation of the fourth petition in Luthers catechism, wherein pious and faithful rulers and good government are reckoned as daily bread too. Staff of bread, etc., would be therefore, not the bread and water themselves as supports for preserving life (Genitive of the subject), but the supports on which bread and water, i. e., the necessities and nourishment of life depend (genitive of the object).
In the following enumeration, as Drechsler remarks, the instructors and military profession are especially represented. Even the entire apparatus of state machinery of that day is mentioned. But as all that are named are designated as those that the Lord takes away, it is seen that they are all regarded as false supports. They may even be that per se in so far as they ought not to exist at all among the people of God; as e. g., the , diviner and the , expert enchanter, (Deu 18:10-14). is the murmuratio (magia murmurata Apul.), the muttered repetition of the magic formulas (Isa 26:16); occurs again Isa 5:21; Isa 29:14.
Even the may, according to the context and the kindred passage Isa 9:14, be only prophets that prophesy falsely in the name of Jehovah. The use of the rest of the callings named is indeed legally justified, but nevertheless they are subject to abuse. One may indeed cast a doubt on the legality of the (comp. Isa 9:14) the amicus regis, the preferred favorite, but not on that of the others. Especially the men of war appear to be indispensable, whence each of the verses 2 and 3 begins with the naming of such. seems to mean the warrior proved by deeds; the man of war in general; the rank of captain; while the = state officer and = officer of the congregation. Ahithophel and Hushai (2 Samuel 17) are practical illustrations of , counsellor. The is the engineer, master of the preparation of warlike weapons and military machines (comp. on Jer 24:1).
4. And I will givea ruler of the people.
Isa 3:4-7. When a state trusts to an arm of flesh, and puts its trust solely in its princes and men of might, in its diplomats and generals, in a word, in the strength of its men, and the Lord takes away these strong ones as false supports, then, of course, a condition must ensue in which weak hands manage the rudder of state. No earthly state has continuously maintained a position strong and flourishing. One need only call to mind the world-monarchies. That gradual weakening of the world-power indicated in Daniels image of the monarchies (Daniel 2), takes place also within each individual kingdom. Call to mind the vigorous Assyrian rulers, a Tiglath Pileser, Sargon, Sennacherib, and the inglorious end of the last of their successors, whatever may have been his name: think of Nebuchadnezzar, and Belshazzar, of Cyrus and Darius Codomannus, of Augustus and Romulus Augustulus, etc. In Judah, too, it was not different. Zedekiah was a weakling that perpetually wavered between a fear of Jehovahs prophet and of his own powerful subjects. It may, therefore, be said that not some quite definite historical fact is prophesied here, but a condition of punishment is threatened such as always and everywhere must ensue where the strength of a national life is exhausted, and the end approaches (comp. Ecc 10:16).
When weak hands hold the reins of government a condition of lawlessness ensues, and of defencelessness for the weak. The strong then do as they wish. They exercise club law. A further consequence of that anarchical condition is that those of lower rank no longer submit to the higher ranks, but, in wicked abuse of their physical strength, lift themselves above them. The misery of that anarchical condition, however, stands out in strongest relief when at last no one will tolerate any government. Although the inhabitants would gladly make a ruler of any one that rises in any degree above the universal wretchedness (say any one that has still a good coat), yet every one on whom they would put this honor will resist it with all his might. Under thy hand, comp. Gen 41:35; 2Ki 8:20. With loud voice will the chosen man emphatically protest. This is indicated by the expression to which must be supplied (Isa 42:2; Isa 42:11). I will not be surgeon, he says, by which he calls the state life sick. [The sick man, as modern designation for the Turkish Empire.Tr.].
[On Isa 3:4. I will give children. Some apply this, in a strict sense, to the weak and wicked reign of Ahaz, others in a wider sense to the series of weak kings after Isaiah. But there is no need of restricting it to kings at all. The most probable opinion is that incompetent rulers are called boys or children not in respect to age but character.J. A. A. Similarly Barnes.
On Isa 3:6. The government shall go a begging. 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,being aware that they must be ruled or ruined.M. Henry.
On Isa 3:7. The last clause does not simply mean do not make me, but you must not or you shall not make me a ruler.J. A. A.
The meaning is, that the state of affairs was so ruinous and calamitous that he would not attempt to restore themas 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 unsuccessful and unskilful physician.Barnes.
On Isa 3:9. The sense is not that their looks betray them, but that they make no effort at concealment, as appears from the reference to Sodom. The expression of the same idea first in a positive and then in a negative form is not uncommon in Scripture, and is a natural if not an English idiom. Madame D. Arblay, in her memoirs of Dr. Burney, speaks of Omiah, the Tahitian, brought home by Capt. Cook, as uttering first affirmatively, etc., then negatively all the little sentences that he attempted to utter.J. A. A.
On Isa 3:10. The righteous are encouraged by the assurance that the judgments of God shall not be indiscriminate.The object of address seems to be not the prophets or ministers of God, but the people at large or men indefinitely.J. A. A.
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 Gods 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 Lords anger.M. Henry.]
5. For Jerusalemthy paths.
Isa 3:8-12. Such a condition of anarchy is only a symptom of the outward and inward decay. It is never blameless, but always blameworthy misfortune. As the second hemistich of Isa 3:8, evidently describes the inward decay, the first must consequently be referred to the outward. But hemistich 2 is strung on with with a chain-like effect. The anarchy is the symptom of the outward decay; but the outward decay is the consequence of that which is inward. With Drechsler I translate by insult the eyes of his glory. It is evident, that the Prophet would indicate a direct antithesis between the glory of Jehovah, and the bad tongues and works, as also an antithesis between the eyes of the loftiness of man Isa 2:11; Isa 5:15 and the eyes of the glory of Jehovah. The eyes of God who is God of light (Isa 60:19; Mic 7:8; 1Jn 1:5) are insulted just by this, that they must see the works of darkness. It seems to me, on this account, clear that the divine majesty is designated as glorious chiefly in respect to its purity and holiness; therefore ethically. That, moreover, the eyes of the glory of God, are not something different from the eyes of God Himself is just as clear as that the eyes of the glory must themselves be glorious. They are here the organ of the manifestation of His glory (comp. Rev 2:18), as in other places it speaks of the arm of His salvation (Isa 40:10), of His holiness, (Isa 52:10) of His strength (Isa 62:8). Besides the expression is only found here, as may be said also of the defective writing of it.
The Prophet had (Isa 3:8) assigned the badness of the words and work as the cause of the fall. But is this accusation well founded? Yes, it is. A double and unexceptionable witness testifies to its truth: 1) the cognitio vultuum, knowledge of countenances. Thus we might translate: appearance testifies against thee. (See Text. and Gr.)
2.) Their own declaration, though not made with this intention. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. The godless cannot lock up that of which his heart is full. The mouth, as it were, foams over involuntarily with it. The Sodomites, too, (comp. Isa 1:9-10) spoke out insolently the shameful purpose they had in mind (Gen 19:3). So the Israelites made no concealment of the evil they had in mind. Therefore their ruin is merited (comp. Gen 50:15; Gen 50:17) and just. The sentence: woe to them, for they have hurt themselves which, Isa 3:9 b, is especially applied to Israel, is established in what follows, by stating in its double aspect the fundamental and universal truth that underlies it, that a man must reap what he sows. First, the righteous is pronounced blessed because he shall eat the (good) fruits of his (good) works. As that universal truth of the causal connection between works and the fate of men is not expressed, but assumed, so that aspect of it that relates to the righteous is not expressed in doctrinal form, but, vigorous and life like, in the form of a summons to declare the righteous blessed.
The happiness of the righteous will consist in this, that he shall enjoy the fruit of his works (Pro 1:31). To the wicked, on the other hand, a woe is proclaimed. The happiness of the pious is announced to every one; the vengence that shall overtake the wicked is announced to himself alone.
Isa 3:12. Is a resum. In these words the whole course of thought from Isa 3:1-11, is comprehended again. The two halves of Isa 3:12 begin with My people put before absolutely, which shows how much the Lord loves His people, and how much the state of things portrayed makes Him sorry for His people. The word , oppressors, is used of those whom the people, for want of better, in consequence of that oppression mentioned in Isa 3:5, had been obliged to make chiefs. By this is intimated that these supports of necessity shall themselves be no proper chiefs that merit the name, but only rude oppressors. Comp. Isa 9:3; Isa 14:2; Isa 60:17. They are so, not in spite of, but just because of their being children, boys.
qui rect ducit, comp. Isa 1:17. The word is meant ironically, for how else could the be a ? Our passage as already remarked stands in evident connection with Isa 9:15. There too the leaders are called misleaders; there, too, the word is used of those who mislead, for they are called . We see by this that the Prophet has not in mind the same persons in the second half of the verse that he has in the first. He speaks in the second clause of the false prophets, as in Isa 9:14 sq. Like flies in honey, this vermin is ever found where there are bad rulers. For they need false prophets to cover over their doings. These false prophets, however, devour the path of the people. Delitzsch (like Jerome, Theodoret, Luther before him) understands by the way of their paths the right way, the way of the law. The prophets, that ought to preach it, say mum, mum, and retain it swallowed. It has gone into oblivion by false prophetic, errorneous preaching: But it seems to me as if then it must not read , the way of thy paths. For this is just the way that Israel actually treads, the direction that its life path actually tends. It must then read way of Jehovah as Psa 18:22, or , or , as Psa 119:30; Psa 119:32, or as Isa 40:14 or as Isa 59:8, or such like. I therefore agree with the explanation of those that take in a metaphorical sense like that where this word is elsewhere used of the destruction of a city (2Sa 20:19-20) or of a wall (Lam 2:8). The expression only occurs in this place in relation to a way, but it must mean nothing else than to direct the path of ones life down into the depths of destruction in which the devourers themselves are. Comp. Job 6:18.
6. The Lord standeth upthe Lord of Hosts.
Isa 3:13-15. At first sight one might think these three verses bring the further explication of one matter of moment in Isa 3:1-12, viz., the more particular laying down of the judgment against the chiefs of the nation which was only indicated in Isa 3:1, by taking away and in Isa 3:12 by the reproach uttered against them.
But we see from the solemnity of Isa 3:13, especially from the antithesis between and ( Isa 3:14-15), the people and His people that we are introduced into quite another moment of time. For evidently Isa 3:13-15 depict again the judgment of the world. The worlds judgment presents itself anew before his soul, says Delitzsch. The people Isa 3:13, recalls distinctly the nations and many people of Isa 2:2-4. However, it is not the judging of the nations generally that is portrayed, but only the judging of the people of God as a part of this universal judgment. Moreover, not of the nation in its totality, but of the destroyers of this totality, the princes and elders (Isa 3:14 a). These appear, therefore, as the chief agents of that inward and outward decay that has invaded the nation. If, according to Isa 2:3, all nations are to stream to the mountain of the Lord, because the law shall go forth out of Zion, then, evidently, Jerusalem itself must previously be cleansed and filled with the word of God. This cleansing, according to Isa 9:13 sqq., begins with this, that the Lord will cast off from Israel head and tail. The elders are the head, the false prophets are the tail. Here too, though a briefer, still a comprehensible, hint is given that indicates the sort of purifying that Israel itself must undergo in order to become what, according to Isa 2:3, it ought to become. This hint makes on me the impression that Isa 3:1-12 does, viz., that a word spoken on some other occasion has been applied to this purpose. Comp., the comment on Isa 3:16 sqq. Unmoved and unmovable (comp. Gen 37:7) i.e., as one whom no one can crowd from this place, the Lord conducts the judgment; and that standing, not sitting, therefore ready and prepared for instant execution of the judgment, He exercises the magisterial function, Psa 82:1, which so far resembles our passage that it also describes the judgment upon the magistrates of the people, represents too, the Lord as a judge in standing posture. Elsewhere He is represented as sitting in judgment: Psa 9:5; Psa 29:10; Joel 4:12, etc.
The discourse of the Lord begins with the second clause of Isa 3:14, with , but ye, thus with a conclusion to which the premise must be supplied. It is the same construction as Psa 2:6. The premise to be supplied must be to this effect: I have made you commanders that ye might administer justice. But ye, etc. The princes have regarded the nation as their domain which they might use up as they pleased. They have, therefore, themselves become the cattle from which they ought to have protected the vineyard. The he-goat had become gardener (Delitzsch). Comp. Isa 1:23; Mic 3:1-3. The image of the devoured vineyard is at once explained; robbery, plunder wrested from the poor is found in their houses. To the but you of Isa 3:14 corresponds an equally emphatic what mean ye that begins Isa 3:15. The flow of words is so fast that even the for, that otherwise would follow the question (comp. Isa 22:1; Isa 22:16) is wanting (comp. Jon 1:6, where, however, the construction is somewhat different). To grind to pieces the face of a man appears to me to be the expression for beating to pieces the face (1Ki 22:24; Mich. 4:14) in the intensest degree. The expression is exactly the opposite of permuclere faciem Psa 45:13; Pro 19:6. The high significance of the declaration is, in conclusion, evidenced by the reference of it to the Lord Jehovah Sabaoth, concerning which see the comment at Isa 1:9; Isa 1:24.
[On Isa 3:13. Nations here as often elsewhere means the tribes of Israel. See Gen 49:10; Deu 32:8; Deu 33:3; Deu 33:19; 1Ki 22:28; Mic 1:2.J. A. A.
On Isa 3:15. Grind the faces of the poor. The simplest and most natural interpretation is that which applies it to the act of grinding the face upon the ground by trampling on the body, thus giving the noun and verb their proper meaning and making the parallelism more exact.J. A. A.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa 2:2. Domus Dei, etc. The house of God is built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, who, themselves, too, are mountains, quasi imitators of Christ. (They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, Psa 125:1) Whence, also, upon one of the mountains Christ founded the Church and said: Thou art Peter, etc., Mat 16:18. Jerome.We can understand Jerusalem by the mountain of God, for we see how the believing run thither, and how those that have accepted the testimony come thither and seize the blessing that proceeds thence. But we may also by the house of God understand the churches spread over land and sea, as we believe St. Paul, who says, we are the house of God, Heb 3:6. And so we may recognize the truth of the prophecy. For the Church of God stands shining forth, and the nations, forsaking wickedness that has long had dominion over them, hasten to her and are enlightened by her. Theodoret.Ecclesia est, etc. The church is a mountain exalted and established above all other mountains, but in spirit. For if you regard the external look of the church from the beginning of the world, then in New Testament times, you will see it oppressed, contemned, and in despair. Yet, notwithstanding, in that contempt it is exalted above all mountains. For all kingdoms and all dominions that have ever been in the world have perished. The church alone endures and triumphs over heresies, tyrants, Satan, sin, death and hell, and that by the word only, by this despised and feeble speech alone. Moreover it is a great comfort that the bodily place, whence first the spiritual kingdom should arise, was so expressly predicted, that consciences are assured of that being the true word, that began first to be preached in that corner of Judea, that it may be for us a mount Zion, or rule for judging of all religions and all doctrines. The Turkish Alcoran did not begin in Ziontherefore it is wicked doctrine. The various Popish rites, laws, traditions began not in Ziontherefore they are wicked, and the very doctrines of devils. So we may hold ourselves upright against all other religions, and comfort our hearts with this being the only true religion which we profess. Therefore, too, in two psalms, Psalms 2, 110, mount Zion is expressly signified: I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion; likewise: The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Luther.
2. On Isa 2:2. Luther makes emphatic, as something pertaining to the wonderful nature of this kingdom, that other kingdoms are established and administered by force and arms. But here, because the mountain is lifted up, the nation shall flow (fluent), i.e., they shall come voluntarily, attracted by the virtues of the church. For what is there sweeter or lovelier than the preaching of the gospel? Whereas Moses frightens weak souls away. Thus the prophet by the word fluent, flow, has inlaid a silent description of the kingdom of Christ, which Christ gives more amply when He says: Mat 11:12, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force, i.e. they are not compelled, but they compel themselves. Morever rivers do not flow up mountains, but down them; but here is such an unheard-of thing in the kingdom of Christ.Starke.
3. Luther remarks on and shall say: come, etc. Here thou seest the worship, works and efforts and sacrifices of Christians. For they do only the one work, that they go to hear and to learn. All the rest of the members must serve their neighbors. These two, ears and heart, must serve God only. For the kingdom rests on the word alone. Sectaries and heretics, when they have heard the gospel once, instantly become masters, and pervert the Prophets word, in that they say: Come let us go up that we may teach him his way and walk in our paths. They despise, therefore, the word as a familiar thing and seek new disputations by which they may display their spirit and commend themselves to the crowd. But Christians know that the words of the Holy Ghost can never be perfectly learned as long as we are in the flesh. For Christianity does not consist in knowing, but in the disposition. This disposition can never perfectly believe the word on account of the weakness of the sinful flesh. Hence they ever remain disciples and ruminate the word, in order that the heart, from time to time, may flame up anew. It is all over with us if we do not continue in the constant use of the word, in order to oppose it to Satan in temptation (Matthew 4). For immediately after sinning ensues an evil conscience, that can be raised up by nothing but the word. Others that forsake the word sink gradually from one sin into another, until they are ruined. Therefore Christianity must be held to consist in hearing the word, and those that are overcome by temptations, whether of the heart or body, may know that their hearts are empty of the word.
4. Vitringa remarks on the words, Out of Zion goes forth the law, Isa 5:3. If strife springs up among the disciples concerning doctrine or discipline, one must return to the pattern of the doctrine and discipline of the school at Jerusalem. For shall go forth, stands here only as in Luk 2:1, There went forth a decree from Csar Augustus. In this sense, too, Paul says, 1Co 14:36, What? came the word of God out from you? The word of God did not go forth from Corinth, Athens, Rome, Ephesus, but from Jerusalem, a fact that bishops assembled in Antioch opposed to Julius I. (Sozom. hist. eccl. III. 8, the orientals acknowledged that the Church of Rome was entitled to universal honoralthough those who first propagated a knowledge of Christian doctrine in that city came from the East). Cyril took in the false sense of , has forsaken Zion. When the Lord opened the understandings of the disciples at Emmaus, to understand the Scriptures and see in the events they had experienced the fulfilment of what was written concerning Him in the law, Prophets and Psalms, He cannot have forgotten the present passage. Of this we may be the more assured since the words: Thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. Luk 24:46-47, point clearly to Isa 2:2-3 of our passage. Therefore too, Justin Martyr Apol. i. (commonly ii.), 49, says: But where the prophetic spirit predicts the future, he says: from Zion shall go forth the law, etc. And that this finally came to pass in fact, you may credibly assure yourselves. For from Jerusalem have men gone forth into the world, twelve in number, and these were unlearned, that knew not how to speak. But by the might of God they have proclaimed to all mankind that they were sent by Christ in order to teach all the word of God.
Zion is contrasted here with Mount Sinai, whence the law came, which in the Old Testament was the foundation of all true doctrine: But in the New Testament Mount Zion or Jerusalem has the privilege to announce that now a more perfect law would be given and a new Covenant of God with men would be established. Thus Zion and Jerusalem are, so to speak, the nursery and the mother of all churches and congregations of the New Testament.Starke.
5. Frster remarks on the end of Isa 2:3, that the gospel is the sceptre of Jesus Christ, according to Psa 110:2; Psa 45:7 (the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre). For by the word Christ rules His church (Rom 10:14 sqq.).
6. On Isa 2:4. Pax optima rerum. Foerster. The same author finds this prophecy fulfilled by Christ, who is our peace, who has made of both one, and broken down the partition that was between, in that by His flesh He took away the enmity (Eph 2:14). Foerster, moreover, combats the Anabaptists, who would prove from this passage that waging war is not permitted to Christians. For our passage speaks only against the privata Christianorum discordia. But waging war belongs to the publicum magistratus officium. Waging war, therefore, is not forbidden, if only the war is a just one. To be such, however, there must appear according to Thomas, part. 2 th. qust. 40. 1) auctoritatis principis, 2) causa justa, 3) intentio bellantium justa, or ut allii efferunt: 1) jurisdictio indicentis, 2) offensio patientis, 3) intentio finem (?) convenientis.
7. On Isa 2:4. Jerome regarded the time of Augustus, after his victory at Actium, as the fulfilling of this prophecy. Others, as Cocceius, refer the words, they shall turn their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks, to the time of Constantine the Great; and the words nation shall not lift up sword against nation to the period of the restoration of religious peace in Germany,finally the words: they shall no more learn war, to a future time that is to be hoped for. Such interpretations are, however, just as one-sided as those that look only for a spiritual fulfilment of prophecy. For how is an inward fulfilment of this promise of peace to be thought of which would not have the outward effects as its consequence? Or how is an outward fulfilment, especially such as would deserve the name, conceivable without the basis of the inward? Or must this peaceful time be looked for only in heaven? Why then does the promise stand here? It is a matter of course that there is peace in heaven: for where there is no peace there can be no heaven. The promise has sense only if its fulfilment is to be looked for on earth. The fulfilment will take place when the first three petitions of the Lords prayer are fulfilled, i.e. when Gods name shall be held holy by us as it in itself is holy, when the kingdom of God is come to everything, without and within, and rules alone over all, when the will of God is done on earth as in heaven. Christendom makes this prayer quite as much with the consciousness that it cannot remain unfulfilled, as with the consciousness that it must find its fulfilment on earth. For, if referred to heaven, these petitions are without meaning. Therefore there is a time of universal inward and outward peace to be looked for on earth. It is not every days evening, i.e. one must await the event, and our earth, without the least saltus in cogitando, can yet experience a state of things that shall be related to the present, as the present to the period of trilobites and saurians. If one could only keep himself free from the tyranny of the present moment! But our entire, great public, that has made itself at home in Philistia, lives in the sweet confidence that there is no world beside that of which we take notice on the surface of the earth, nor ever was one, nor ever will be.
8. On Isa 2:4. Poets reverse the figure to portray the transition from peaceful to warlike conditions. Thus Virgil, Georg. I. 2:506 sq.:
Non ullus aratro
Dignus honos, squalent abductis arva colonis.
Et curv rigidum falces conflantur in ensem.
Aeneide VII. 2:635 sq.:
Vomeris huc et falcis honos, huc omnis aratri
Cessit amor; recoquunt patrios fornacibus enses.
Ovid, Fast. I. 2:697 sqq.:
Bella diu tenuere viros. Erat aptior ensis
Vomere, cedebat taurus arator equo.
Sarcula cessabant, versique in pila ligones.
Factaque de rastri pondere cassia erat.
9. On Isa 2:5. As Isaiah puts the glorious prophecy of his fellow prophet Micah at the head, he illuminates the future with a splendid, shining, comforting light. Once this light is set up, it of itself suggests comparisons. The questions arise: how does the present stand related to that shining future? What difference obtains? What must happen for that condition of holiness and glory to be brought about? The Christian Church, too, and even each individual Christian must put himself in the light of that prophetic statement. On the one hand that will humiliate us, for we must confess with the motto of Charles V.: nondum! And long still will we need to cry: Watchman what of the night (Isa 21:11)? On the other hand the Prophets word will also spur us up and cheer us. For what stronger impulse can be imagined than the certainty that one does not contend in vain, but may hope for a reward more glorious than all that ever came into a mans heart? (Isa 64:4; 1Co 2:9).
In the time of the second temple, in the evenings of the first days of the feast of Tabernacles, great candelabras were lighted in the forecourt of the temple, each having four golden branches, and their light was so strong that it was nearly as light as day in Jerusalem. That might be for Jerusalem a symbol of that let us walk in the light of the Lord. But Jerusalem rejoiced in this light, and carried on all sorts of pastime, yet it was not able to learn to know itself in this light, and by this self-knowledge to come to true repentance and conversion.
10. On Isa 2:8, their land is full of idols. Not only images and pictures are idols, but every notion concerning God that the godless heart forms out of itself without the authority of the Scripture. The notion that the Mass is effective ex opere operato, is an idol. The notion that works are demanded for justification with God, is an idol. The notion that God takes delight in fasts, peculiar clothes, a special order of life, is an idol. God wills not that we should set up out of our own thoughts a fashion of worshipping Him; but He says: In all places where I record My name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee, Exo 20:24Luther.
11. On Isa 2:9-21. When men have brought an idol into existence, that is just to their mind, whether it be an idolum manu factum, or an idolum mente excogitatum, there they are all wonder, all worship. Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Then the idol has a time of great prosperity and glory. But sooner or later there comes a time when the judgment of God overtakes the idol and its servants. God suffers sin to become ripe like men let a conspiracy, like they let fruit ripen. But when the right time comes then He steps forth in such a fashion that they creep into mouse-holes to hide themselves, if it were possible, from the lightning of His eye and His hand. Where then are the turned-up noses, the big mouths, the impudent tongues? Thus it has often happened since the world began. But this being brought to confession shall happen in the highest degree to the puffed-up world at that day when they shall see that one whom they pierced, and whom they thought they might despise as the crucified One, coming in His glory to judge the world. Then they shall have anguish and sorrow, then shall they lament and faint away with apprehension of the things that draw nigh. But those that believed on the Lord in His holiness, shall then lift up their heads for that their redemption draws nigh. At that time, indeed, shall the Lord alone be high, and before Him shall bow the knees of all in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and all tongues must confess that Christ is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12. On Isa 2:22. Of what do men not make idols! The great industrial expositions of modern times often fill me with dismay, when I have seen how men carry on an actual idolatrous worship with these products of human science and art, as if that all were not, in the end, Gods work, too, but human genius were alone the creator of these wonders of civilization. How wickedly this so-called worship of genius demeans itself ! How loathsome is the still more common cultus of power, mammon and the belly!
13. On Isa 3:1 sqq. Causa , etc. The saving cause of the commonwealth is the possession of men of the sort here mentioned, which Plato also knew, and Cicero from Plato, each of whom judge, commonwealths would be blessed if philosophers, i.e., wise and adept men were to administer them.Foerster. The same writer cites among the causes why the loss of such men is ruinous, the changes that thence ensue. All changes in the commonwealth are hurtful. Xenoph. Hellen. Isaiah 2 : . Aristot. Metaph. Isaiah 2 : .
14. On Isa 3:1. The stay of bread, etc. Vitringa cites Horat. Satir. L. II., 3 5:153 sq.:
Deficient inopem ven te, ni cibus atque
Ingens accedit stomacho fultura ruenti.
And on Isa 3:2 sq. he cites Cicero, who, De Nat. Deorum III., calls these prsidia humana, firmamenta reipublic. On Isa 3:6 sq. the same author cites the following passage from Livy (26 chap. 6): Cum fame ferroque (Capuani) urgerentur, nec ulla spes superesset iis, qui nati in spem honorum erant, honores detrectantibus, Lesius querendo desertam et proditam a primoribus Capuam summum magistratum ultimus omnium Campanorum cepit! On Isa 3:9 he quotes Seneca: De vita beata, chap. xii.: Itaque quod unum habebant in peccatis bonum perdunt peccandi verecundiam. Laudant enim ea, quibus erubescant, et vitio gloriantur.
15. On Isa 3:4; Isa 3:12. Foerster remarks: Pueri, etc. Boys are of two sorts. Some are so in respect to age, others in respect to moral qualifications. So, too, on the contrary there is an old age of two sorts: For honorable age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years. But wisdom is the true gray hair unto men, and an unspotted life is the true old age. Wis 4:8-9. Examples of young and therefore foolish kings of Israel are Rehoboam (the young fool gambled away ten whole tribes at one bet 1 Kings 12). Ahaz, who was twenty years of age when he began to reign (2Ki 16:2). Manasseh who was twelve years (2Ki 21:1,) and Amon who was twenty-two years (2Ki 21:19).
16. On Isa 3:7. Foerster remarks: Nemo se, etc. Let no one intrude himself into office, especially when he knows he is not fit for it, and then cites: Seek not of the Lord pre-eminence, neither of the king the seat of honor. Justify not thyself before the Lord; and boast not of thy wisdom before the king. Seek not to be judge, being not able to take away iniquity. Sir 7:4-6.Wen aber Gott schickt, den macht er auch geschickt.
17. On Isa 3:8. Their tongue and their doings are against the Lord. Duplici modo, etc. God may be honored by us in two outward ways: by word and deed, just as in the same way others come short; to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Judges 15.Vitringa.
18. On Isa 3:9. They hide not their sin. Secunda post, etc. The next plank after shipwreck, and solace of miseries is to hide ones impiety.Jerome.
19. On Isa 3:10. Now He comforts the pious as in Psalms 2. His anger will soon kindle, but it shall be well with all that trust in Him. So Abraham, so Lot was delivered; so the apostles and the remnant of Judah when Jerusalem was besieged. For the Lord helps the righteous (Psa 37:17; Psa 37:39).Luther.
20. On Isa 3:13-14.
Judicabit judices judex generalis,
Neque quidquam proderit dignitas papalis,
Sive sit episcopus, sive cardinalis,
Reus condemnabitur, nec dicetur qualis.
Rhythmi vulgo noti, quoted byFoerster.
21. On Isa 3:16 sq. Usus vestium, etc. Clothes have a four-fold use: 1) they are the badge of guilt, or souvenir of the fall (Gen 3:7; Gen 3:10; Gen 3:21); 2) they should be coverings against the weather; 3) they may be ornaments for the body, (Pro 31:22; Pro 31:25); 4) they may serve as a mark of rank (2Sa 13:18).The abuse of clothes is three-fold; 1) in regard to the material, they may be costlier or more splendid than ones wealth or rank admits of; 2) in respect of form, they may betray buffoonery and levity; 3) in respect to their object, they may be worn more for the display of luxury and pride than for protection and modest adornment.Foerster.
22. On Isa 4:2. Germen Jehovae est nomen Messi mysticum, a nemine intellectum, quam qui tenet mysterium Patris et Christi. Idem valet quod filius propago Patris naturalis, in quo patris sui imago et gloria perfectissime splendet, Jessaiae in seqq. (Isa 9:5) ,, filius, Joanni , , processio Patris naturais. Est hic eruditi cujusdam viri elegans observatio, quae eodem tendit, quam non licet intactam praetermittere. Comparat ille inter se nomina Messi (Jer 23:5) et in hoc loco. Cum autem prior appellatio absque dubitatione innuat, Messiam fore filium Davidis, docet posteriorem non posse aliud significare quam filium Jehovae, quod nomen Christi Jesu est , omni alio nomine excellentius. Addit non minus docte, personam, quae hic germen Jehovae dicitur, deinceps a propheta nostro appellari Jehovam (Isa 28:5).Vitringa. This exposition, which is retained by most Christian and orthodox commentators, ignores too much the fundamental meaning of the word , Branch. It is, nevertheless, not incorrect so far as the broader meaning includes the narrower concentrically. If Branch of Jehovah signifies all that is the personal offshoot of God, then, of course, that one must be included who is such in the highest and most perfect sense, and in so far the passage Isa 28:5 does not conflict with exposition given by us above.
[J. A. Alexander joins with Vitringa and Hengstenberg in regarding the fruit of the earth, as referring to the same subject as the branch of the Lord, viz.: the Messiah; and thus, while the latter term signifies the divine nature of the Messiah, the former signifies His human origin and nature; or if we translate land instead of earth, it points to his Jewish human origin. Thus appears an exact correspondence to the two parts of Pauls description, Rom 1:3-4, and to the two titles used in the New Testament in reference to Christs two natures, Son of God and Son of Man.Tr.].
23. On Isa 4:3-4. Great storms and upheavals, therefore, are needful, in order to make the fulfilment of this prophecy possible. There must first come the breath of God from above, and the flame of God from beneath over the earth, and the human race must first be tossed and sifted. The earth and mankind must first be cleansed by great judgments from all the leaven of evil. [J. A. Alexander, with Luther, Calvin, Ewald, maintains concerning the word Spirit in Isa 4:4, that the safest and most satisfactory interpretation is that which understands by it a personal spirit, or as Luther expresses it, the Spirit who shall judge and burn.Tr.]. What survives these judgments is the remnant of which Isaiah speaks. This shall be holy. In it alone shall the Lord live and rule. This remnant is one with the new humanity which in every part, both as respects body and soul, will represent the image of Christ the second Adam. This remnant, at the same time, comprehends those whose names are written in the book of life. What sort of a divine book this may be, with what sort of corporal, heavenly reality, of course we know not. For Himself God needs no book. Yet if we compare the statements of the Revelation of John regarding the way in which the last judgment shall be held, with certain other New Testament passages, I think we obtain some explanation. We read Mat 19:28, that on the day of the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, the twelve apostles, too, shall sit on twelve thrones to judge the generations of Israel. And 1Co 5:2, we read that the saints shall judge the world. But, Rev 20:11, we find again the great white throne, whereon sits the great Judge of the living and the dead, after that, just before (Rev 4:4), it was said: And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. Afterwards it reads (Rev4:12): And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And (Rev 4:15). And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. From this description there seems to me to result that the books necessarily are meant for those who are, by the Supreme Judge charged with the judgment of particular ones. To this end they need, in the first place, many books that contain the works of individuals. God has a book-keeping for the life of every man. This divine record will be produced to every single one at the day of judgment. Is he a Jew? by one of the twelve Apostles. Is he a heathen? by some other saint. No man shall be able to remonstrate against this account for it will carry the evidence of truth in itself, and in the consciences of those to be judged. Should such a protest occur, the arraigned will be referred to the book of life. This is only one. For it contains only names. After this manner will the separation be accomplished, spoken of in Mat 25:32 sq. For those whose names are found in the book of life go to the right side; the rest to the left. Then the great Judge Himself takes up the Word in the manner described in Mat 25:34 sqq., and calls the righteous to Himself, that they may inherit the kingdom that is prepared for them. But the wicked He repulses from Him into everlasting fire, that is prepared for the devil and his angels, in regard to which the account of the judgment in Matthew 25, as far as the end is concerned, harmonizes entirely with Rev 20:15.
24. On Isa 4:5-6. The pillar of fire and cloud belongs to the miraculous graces by which the founding of the Old Testament kingdom of God was glorified just as the New Testament kingdom was by the signs that Jesus did, and by the charismata of the Apostolic time. But that appearance was quite appropriate to the state of developed revelation of that time. This had not reached the New Testament level, and not even the prophetic elevation that was possible under the Old Testament, but only the legal in which the divine stands outwardly opposed to the human. God is present among His people, but still in the most outward way; He does not walk in a human way among men; there is, too, no inward leading of the congregation by the Holy Spirit, but an outward conducting by a visible heavenly appearance. And, for these revelations to the whole people, God makes use entirely of nature, and, when it concerns His personal manifestation, of the elements. He does so, not merely in distinction from the patriarchal theophanies, , but, particularly in contrast with heathenism, in order to accustom the Israelitish consciousness from the first not to deify the visible world, but to penetrate through it to the living, holy God, who has all the elements of nature at command as the medium of His revelation.Auberlen.
As at the close of Johns Revelation (chaps. 21, 22) we see the manifestation of the Godhead to humanity return to its beginning (Genesis 2, 3, 4), in as much as that end restores just that with which the beginning began, i.e. the dwelling of God with men, so, too, we see in Isa 4:5-6, a special manifestation of the (relative) beginning time recur again in the end time; the pillar of fire and cloud. But what in the beginning was an outward and therefore enigmatical and unenduring appearance, shall at last be a necessary and abiding factor of the mutual relation between God and mankind, that shall be established for ever in its full glory. There shall come a time wherein Israel shall expand to humanity and humanity receive power to become Israel, wherein, therefore, the entire humanity shall be Israel. Then is the tabernacle of God with men no more a pitiful tent, made of mats, but the holy congregation is itself the living abode of God; and the gracious presence of Almighty God, whose glory compares with the old pillar of fire and cloud, like the new, eternal house of God, with the old perishable tabernacle, is then itself the light and defence of His house.
25. On Isa 4:5-6. But give diligence to learn this, that the Prophet calls to mind, that Christ alone is destined to be the defence and shade of those that suffer from heat and rain. Fasten your eyes upon Him, hang upon Him as ye are exhorted to do by the divine voice, Him shall ye hear! Whoever hearkens to another, whoever looks to any other flesh than this, it is all over with him. For He alone shelters us from the heat, that comes from contemplating the majesty (i.e. from the terror that Gods holiness and righteousness inspire), He alone covers us from the rain and the power of Satan. This shade affords us a coolness, so that the dread of wrath gives way. For wrath cannot be there where thou seest the Son of God given to death for thee, that thou mightest live. Therefore I commend to you that name of Christ, wherewith the Prophet adorns Him, that He is a tabernacle for shade against the heat, a refuge and place of concealment from rain and tempest.Luther.With some modification, we may apply here the comprehensive turn Foerster gives to our passage: 1) The dwelling of Mount Zion is the church; 2) the heat is the flaming wrath of God, and the heat of temptation (1Pe 4:12; Sir 2:4-5); 3) tempest and rain are the punishments of sins, or rather the inward and outward trials (Psalms 2.; Isa 57:20); 4) the defence or the pillar of cloud and fire is Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 10).
26. On Isa 5:1-7. This parable has a brother in the New Testament that looks very much like it. I might say: the head is almost the same. For the beginning of that New Testament parable (Mat 21:33; Mar 12:1), A man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a wine-fat and built a tower, is manifestly imitated after our passage. But here it is the vineyard that is bad, while there, in the New Testament, the husbandmen are good for nothing. Here the Lord appears as at once owner and cultivator of the vineyard; there the owner and cultivators are distinguished. This arises from the fact that the Lord Jesus apparently had in His mind the chiefs of the people, the high-priests and elders (Mat 21:23-24). From this it is manifest that here as there the vineyard is the nation. In Isaiah, however, the vineyard, that is to say the vine itself is accused. The whole people is represented as having equally gone to destruction. In the Synoptists, on the other hand, it is the chiefs and leaders that come between the Lord and His vineyard, and would exclude Him from His property, in order to be able to obtain it wholly for themselves, and divide it amongst them. Therefore there it is more the wicked greed of power and gain in the great that is reproved; here the common falling away of the whole nation.
27. Isa 5:8. Here the Prophet denounces the rich, the aristocracy, and capital. Thus he takes the part of the poor and lowly. That grasping of the rich and noble, which they display sometimes like beasts of prey, at other times gratify in a more crafty and legal fashion, the Prophet rebukes here in the sharpest manner. Gods work is opposed to every sin, and ever stands on the side of those that suffer oppression, no matter what may be their rank. God is no respecter of persons (Deu 10:17 sq.).
28. Isa 5:11-17. The morning hour, the hour when light triumphs over darkness, ought to be consecrated to works of light, as it is said: Aurora Musis amica, , (Hesiod. . . . 540) Morgenstund hat Gold im Mund. It was, says Foerster, a laudable custom among the Persians, that the chamberlains entering in to their kings early in the morning, cried out with a loud voice: Arise, O king, attend to business, as Mesoromastes commands. On the other hand, they that be drunken are drunken in the night, 1Th 5:7 sq. So much the worse, then, when men do the works of night even in the early hour, and dare to abuse the light. Plenus venter despumat in libidines, says Augustine. In vino (Eph 5:18). Corpus, opes, animam luxu Germania perdit. Melancthon. On Isa 5:15 Foerster cites the expression of Augustin: God would not suffer any evil to be done in the world unless some good might thence be elicited.
29. Isa 5:18. Cords of vanity are false prejudices and erroneous conclusions. For example: no one is without sin, not even the holiest; God does not take notice of small sins; he that is among wolves must howl with them; a man cannot get along in the world with a scrupulous, tender conscience; the Lord is merciful, the flesh is weak, etc. By such like a man draws sin to him, binds his conscience fast, and resists the good motions of preventing grace. Thick cart-ropes signify a high degree of wickedness, the coarsest and most revolting prejudices. For example: God has no concern about human affairs; godliness delivers no one from misery and makes no one blessed; the threatenings of the prophets are not to be feared; there is no divine providence, no heaven, no hell (Deu 29:17-19). Out of such a man twists and knots a stout rope, with which he draws to him manifest blasphemy, entangles himself in it, so that often he cannot get loose, but is sold as a servant under sin (Rom 6:16; 1Ki 21:20; 1Ki 21:25). Starke.
30. Isa 5:19. The wicked mock at the patience and long-suffering of God, as if He did not see or care for their godless existence, but forgot them, and cast them out of mind (Psa 10:11), so that the threatened punishment would be omitted. They would say: there has been much threatening, but nothing will come of it; if God is in earnest, let Him, etc.; we dont mind threats; let God come on if He will! Comp. Isa 22:12-13; Isa 28:21-22; Amo 5:18; Jer 5:12; Jer 8:11; Jer 17:15; Eze 12:21 sqq. Starke.
31. Isa 5:20. To make darkness of light, means to smother in oneself the fundamental truths that may be proved from the light of nature, and the correct conclusions inferred from them, but especially revealed truths that concern religion, and to pronounce them in others to be prejudices and errors. Bitter and sweet have reference to constitution, how it is known and experienced. To make sweet of bitter means, to recommend as sweet, pleasant and useful, what is bad and belongs to darkness, and is in fact bitter and distasteful, after one himself believes he possesses in the greatest evil the highest good. Starke.
32. Isa 5:21. Quotquot mortales etc. As many as, taking counsel of flesh, pursue salvation with confidence of any sort of merit of their own or external privilege, a thing to which human nature is much inclined, oppose their own device to the wisdom of God, and, according to the prophet, are called wise in their own eyes (Isa 28:15; Isa 30:1-2; Jer 8:8-9; Jer 9:23 sq.; Jer 18:18). Vitringa.
33. Isa 5:26 sqq. The Prophet here expresses in a general way the thought that the Lord will call distant nations to execute judgment on Jerusalem, without having in mind any particular nation. Vitringa quotes a remarkable passage from the excerpts of John Antiochenus in Valesius (p. 816), where it is said, that immediately after Titus had taken Jerusalem, ambassadors from all the neighboring nations came to him to salute him as victor and present him crowns of honor. Titus refused these crowns, saying that it was not he that had effected these things, but that they were done by God in the display of His wrath, and who had prospered his hands. Comp. also the address of Titus to his soldiers after the taking of Jerusalem in Joseph. B. Jud. VII. 19.
HOMILETICAL HINTS
1. Isa 2:6-11. Idolatry. 1) What occasions it (alienation from God, Isa 2:6 a); 2) The different kinds: a. a coarse kind (Isa 2:6 b, Isa 2:8), b. a more refined kind (Isa 2:7); 3) Its present appearance (great honor of the idols and of their worshippers, Isa 2:9); 4) Its fate at last (deepest humiliation before the revelation of the majesty of God of all that do not give glory to Him (Isa 2:10; Isa 2:18).
2. Isa 2:12-22. The false and the true eminence. 1) False eminence is that which at first appears high, but at last turns out to be low (to this belongs impersonal as well as supersensuous creatures, which at present appear as the highest in the world, but at last, in the day of the Lord of Hosts, shall turn out to be nothing); 2) The real eminence is that which at first is inconspicuous and inferior, but which at last turns out to be the highest, in fact the only high one.
3. Isa 3:1-9. Sin is the destruction of a people. 1) What is sin? Resisting the Lord: a. with the tongue, b. with deeds, c. with the interior being (Isa 3:8-9); 2) In what does the destruction consist (or the fall according to Isa 3:8 a)? a. in the loss of every thing that constitutes the necessary and sure support of the commonwealth (Isa 3:1-3); b. in insecure and weak props rising up (Isa 3:4); c. in the condition that follows of being without a Master (Isa 3:5); d. in the impossibility of finding any person that will take the governance of such a ruinous state (Isa 3:6-7).
4. Isa 3:4. Insurrection is forbidden by God in express words, who says to Moses that which is altogether just thou shalt follow, Deu 16:20. Why may not God permit an intolerable and often unjust authority to rule a land for the same reason that He suffers children to have bad and unjust parents, and the wife a hard and intolerable husband, whose violence they cannot resist? Is it not expressly said by the Prophet I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them? I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath, Hos 13:11. Tholuck.
5. Isa 3:10-13. Let us learn to distinguish between false and real comfort. 1) False comfort deals in illusion: the real deals in truth; 2) The false produces a present effect; the real a lasting one; 3) The false injures the one comforted; the real is health to him. Harms.
6. Isa 4:2-6. The holiness of Gods Church on earth that is to be looked for in the future. 1) Its preliminary: the judgment of cleansing and purifying (Isa 4:4); 2) What is requisite to becoming a partaker? a. belonging to the remnant (Isa 4:2-3); b. being written in the book of life (Isa 4:3); 3) The surety of its permanence: the gracious presence of the Lord (Isa 4:5-6).
7. Isa 5:21. The ruin of trusting in ones own Wisdom 1) Those that have such confidence set themselves above God, which is: a. the greatest wickedness, b. the greatest folly; 2) They challenge the Divine Majesty to maintain its right (Isa 5:24).
Footnotes:
[21]Supporter and supportress.
[22]every supporter.
[23]diviner.
[24]elder.
[25]Heb. a man eminent in countenance.
[26]the favorits.
[27]Or, skilful in speech.
[28]expert enchanter.
[29]and childishly shall they rule.
[30]shall use club law.
[31]Heb. lift up the hand.
[32]lift up his voice
[33]Heb. binder up.
[34]Heb. done to him.
[35]Or, they which call thee blessed.
[36]Heb. swallow up.
[37]Or, burnt.
[38]trample.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The subject appears to be continued through this chapter, which engaged the prophet’s attention in the former. The people are reproved their transgressions, and the consequent displeasure of the Lord spoken of.
Isa 3:1
The prophet opens this chapter by pointing to the consequence of sin. The bread and the water, the common supplies of life, shall be taken from the people: and what tends to aggravate this distress is that the hand of the Lord is seen in it: and they shall know that it is the Lord’s punishment. There is somewhat truly awful in this! Afflictions of every kind to our poor fallen nature, come heavy; but if they come with a special commission from the Lord, that the Lord hath sent them; they have a tenfold bitterness in them. I beg the Reader to mark with me, the special feeling, in this verse. The first name of the Lord is in small letters, signifying the Adonai, one of the well-known names of Christ, in his office-characters, as Mediator; the stay and support of his redeemed. The second name of the Lord is in capital letters, the well-known incommunicable name of Jehovah. Blessed Jesus! how delightful is the consideration, under all the transgressions of thy people, that the bread of life, and the water of life are not taken away. Reader, I charge it upon your heart and my own, ever to keep in remembrance, that Christ, our Father’s first and best gift, is never taken away. Jesus is given to the church, to have and to hold forever. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Divine Judgments
Isa 3
This is a chapter of judgments, and the judgments are given in detail. These judgments are said to have taken place within the gates of a city, even the city of Jerusalem. A tempest in a desert may have features of grandeur; but what of a tempest poured down with infinite fury upon the stately city, a city of palaces, temples, and treasuries of art? There the storm seems to be doubly furious and cruel. God made Jerusalem into a wilderness in the day of his wrath, and he turned the veil of her beauty into a blotch of leprosy. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Let us prove this by looking into the details of the case.
Note the completeness of the ruin:
“For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, the mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator” ( Isa 3:1-3 ).
A remarkable expression “The Lord doth take away.” There is a simplicity in the action that is terrifying. All these great treasures and dignities are not so firmly secured to us that a touch will not remove them, provided the touch be given by the finger of God. There is no expression of effort; the very ease of the action is its most painful significance. “The Lord doth take away” as a child might remove a toy; as the weakest hand might remove from one position to another the lightest article that could be lifted. It is a complete detachment. When God takes away, who can tell where he puts the thing which he steals in the night-time? Everything is secure, as we suppose, at eventide, and behold at the dawning of the day there is nothing left but emptiness! How have the things been removed? Has God yoked the lightning to the load, and taken it away by a stupendous effort? He has simply touched the mountains, and they have gone up in smoke; he has looked at the rivers, and they have fled from his gaze; he has laid his hand upon strength and beauty, and they have been turned into weakness and putrescence.
All these men and things God took away; then what was left? The whole meaning is not in the catalogue itself. Having perused the inventory of the things that were taken away, the heart asks in a tone of despair, Then what was left? Bread gone, and water; the mighty man, the man of great estates, the large freeholder; and the soldier; the judge, who held the balances so evenly; the prophet, the man all eyes, who saw the future, and read it with the fluency of absolute acquaintance and sympathy; and the prudent, the man who was not to be bewildered and confused in mind, whose mental action was steady, solid, and reliable; and the ancient, the crown of grey hairs; the captain of fifty, the very smallest military unit; and the honourable man, the man of radiant countenance, who brought warmth with him and light into every society he entered; and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, the man who had knowledge of words, and the man who had knowledge of engineering; and the eloquent orator not only the man of noble and urgent speech, but, literally, the man who said the right word at the right time; or, secondarily, the man who had a formula of incantation, uttering which all things became as he wished them to be the eloquent orator, the man who kept within his heart the word of enchantment, forgot the word, and when he tried to pronounce it all things laughed at him scornfully: he said in effect, I can open the door for you by pronouncing a certain name; show me where the obstinate gate is, and by the utterance of a word I will make it fall back on its hinges; and they took him to the gate, and he began to speak, and he stumbled and fell, and the gate moved not in lock or hinge because of his impotent incantation. What ruin God can work! When he sweeps his hand through the nations let those reap what he leaves behind, or glean or gather it if they can, and they will find their barns rewarded with emptiness, and their courage will be a mortification and a pain.
It is so with the individual man. When God ruins a man there is nothing left: the bread has gone, and the water has gone, and might, and military temper, and the power of judgment, and insight, and prudence all the lien which men have upon antiquity for the enrichment of experience; and all honour, and all counsel, and all cunning of fingers and hands, and the word of incantation forgotten the man who once had only to speak and it was done, so persuasive was his word and so winning his tone, has forgotten his speech, or if he utters the magic words they have lost their music and their spell. This action is that of withdrawment. These men and powers and dignities and blessings have been simply “taken away.” Nor do we know our blessings until they are removed. We may have amongst us bread and water to satisfy; we may turn up our lips in scorn at such simple fare; the nation may be so crowded with mighty men and judges and prophets, prudent and ancient souls, honourable men and counsellors, and cunning artificers, and eloquent orators, until the plethora somewhat annoys us. We cannot look upon the redundance of blessing, and keep our religious emotion upon a level with it. How shall God teach us the value of such privileges? Simply by taking them away. There need be no violence, no stroke of thunder, no clouding and darkening of the summer heavens; they have simply to be taken away from us, and then we shall know that a prophet hath been amongst us, and that bread was the very staff of life.
But the ruin does not end here. Mark the disorder and inversion of all natural relations and sequences. This dismal narrative is related between Isa 3:4 and Isa 3:7 .
“And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them” ( Isa 3:4 ).
I will set Ahab in the kingdom at the age of twenty; Manasseh, a boy of twelve, shall wield the sceptre; Josiah at eight years of age shall be hailed as king. In an Eastern monarchy this was felt to be the deepest humiliation, that an inexperienced king, without pith, without the education which comes of much life should reign over the people, and invite to his counsels men of equal juvenility and inexperience. Oriental pride quailed before this degradation, and accounted it a political and imperial disaster.
“And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable” ( Isa 3:5 ).
There is a natural relation of classes. Whilst all that is purely mechanical and arbitrary is to be viewed with suspicion, yet there is a natural sequence in things, there is indeed what is called a fitness or harmony of things; and when society is rightly inspired the base man knows that he is base, and his baseness is his weakness, and his weakness defines his position; and the child knows himself to be but a child, and therefore he behaves himself with discretion, and is limited by circumstances which he cannot control. Once let the moral centre be lost, and then you have lost all arithmetical counting, all geometrical relationship, all figure and form and mechanism and security, and the foursquare is thrown out of its parallel, and that which was right is numbered with that which is forbidden. How is society held together but by moral and political considerations? Some of the strongest men physically are amongst the weakest mentally and morally. When society is properly ordered and organised wisdom goes for everything: wisdom rules the city; wisdom directs the war; wisdom is consulted in the day of perplexity and in the night of desperation. Once let moral security give way, and you have this picture repeated: “The people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour”: complete chaos shall reign; the child shall spit in the face of the ancient, and the base man shall claim the throne of the honourable. We are more dependent upon righteousness than we sometimes suppose. A sense of honesty keeps men right; a sense of moral inferiority determines the right classification of society. Aristocracy is mental, not hereditary. There is a genealogy of blood; there is also a genealogy of mind. When moral considerations are supreme all these questions are settled easily and finally.
“When a man shall 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: in that day shall he 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” ( Isa 3:6-7 ).
Here we have the law of primogeniture. By the law of the state it was right that the eldest son should take a certain definite and ruling position. But he was naked; he had not one rag with which to cover his nudity; and seeing one of his younger brethren with a coat on, with a garment on, he sprang upon him and said, By that coat I ask thee to take my place: thou hast at least so much, and I have nothing; come, be head of the family and be prince of the tribe. But the younger son scorned the proffered dignity. The moral base had gone, and therefore the mechanical dignity was of no account; the pedestal of righteousness had been struck away, and the statue of nominal dignity fell into the dust. The picture is a vivid one, and is occurring in all its moral and more serious aspects every day. There comes a time when a man does not want to be mayor, or premier, or prince; he says, All these are fictions, lies, hypocrisies, names without corresponding realities, paper behind which there is no bullion: I will not be king, for there is no kingdom to rule. How desolating are the judgments of God! how he takes out the inside of things, and leaves the shell to mock the man who seizes it as if he were about to lay hands upon a prize! What are our dignities if they have no religious allusion, and no spiritual value, and no heavenly guarantee of excellence and durability? In all these things see what forfeitures men make by ill-behaviour, and how certain and complete is the judgment of God.
What a verse is the eighth! We cannot even now read it without quailing under the awful representation “For Jerusalem is ruined.” We thought Jerusalem never could be ruined: the mountains were round about her, and to the old psalmists those mountains signified the security of the righteous. Is beauty no protection? is ancient history of no account? will not the dead kings of Judah speak for her in the time of her trial? We cannot live upon our past, upon our forefathers, upon our vanished glories; morality must be as fresh as the dew of the morning; our righteousness must be as clear, personal, and definite as the action which we perform at the living moment. A man cannot lay up a character and fall back upon it if his present conduct is out of keeping with it; he himself takes the juice and sap out of the character which he once lived. “Jerusalem is ruined.” Why? There is a moral reason. There is always a moral reason for divine judgment. That reason reads thus: “Because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory.” In their fancy they give him eyes of omniscience, and in their action they defy those eyes to see the rottenness of their conduct. Men do not come to ruin because they are good; it is nowhere recorded that because a man prayed he was blasted by the lightning of heaven. Ruin has a moral explanation behind it, an explanation we may be ashamed to give, or to confess, or to recognise even within the secrecy of our own consciousness; but there is the eternal law wherever there is death there has been sin: the wages of sin is death. We are not speaking now of the mere death of the body, of the death which dogs die, but of that second death, that inner decease, that decessus or exodus of the character, when the soul goes out of a man, and abandons him, because it has been ill-used, dethroned, discrowned.
The proofs are adduced, and they are of a character which cannot be denied. In the ninth verse we read “The shew of their countenance doth witness against them.” Here is prim facie evidence, as we should now phrase it. The proof of the internal decay is in the face. That face is an open book. Every blot shows blackly upon it There are lines hieroglyphical to those who cannot read, but full of expressiveness to those who have the seeing eye. Blessed be God, a man cannot be a villain without showing it! Pamper himself as he may, the bad lines on the face will come out now and then. Marvellous is the writing of the human countenance! Not that you find what is technically termed beauty there as a proof of moral excellence, mere form of feature, or line of bone, or tint of skin; we are not speaking of such superficial things in this connection; but the expression of the face, its sudden expressions, its expressions when it supposes itself to be inexpressive, the very concealment of the character which brings a kind of luminous vacancy into the eyes. Can a man drink deeply, and yet not show it in his face? Can any man think bad thoughts lovingly can he roll iniquity under his tongue as a sweet morsel, and gloat over it, and dream about it, and hail it in the morning, and bless it at night, without that loved demon working its wizardry on the face, taking out of the voice its solemn music, and casting into the gait of the wanderer the lurch of the vagabond? Men do not know this in all its reality. They have recourse to mechanical means for adorning themselves, for obliterating the traces of evil conduct; but they fail: the buried thing lifts itself up, and casts off the flower that was meant to hide its presence. A sudden expression reveals a character. “The shew of their countenance doth witness against them:” they have lost their spirituality, their ennobling reverence, their simplicity of soul, their genial smile, their impressive and self-interpreting frankness; they lurch, they wait, they glance furtively, and they blush; they show themselves to be devotees of sensuality. There is amid all their claim to the contrary a porcine look, a tone and manner which even the simplest can hardly misunderstand. The other truth, the beautiful truth, is equally vivid. What wonders grace works in a man! How it fills even an ordinary exterior with light! how the flame beautifies the lamp! how the Spirit of the indwelling God ennobles and dignifies the living house which he sanctifies by his presence. Thank God for the self-revelations of sin; bless God that a man cannot eat too much or drink too much without the blotch upon the skin signing him and sealing him fool and criminal. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
“They declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not.” This indicates the possibility of coming to a condition of shamelessness. Men may sin so much as to glory in it. Men may glory in their shame. Repetition is no defence; familiarity does not mean excuse or mitigation. May not men speak profanely until they become unaware of their profanity? May not men drink so deeply as to be quite unconscious that they are drinking at all? And may we not do the forbidden deed so frequently that it comes to us with the ease of familiarity, and leaves not behind it the sting which should fill the soul with inexpressible torment? Sodom became brazen-faced; Sodom cared not for the God of heaven; and nothing but fire, brimstone, hell, could disinfect the locality which she disgraced. To what lengths may evil go! but after a certain point that road becomes quite easy; we do not so much walk over it as glide along it with most fatal and gratifying celerity.
On whose account was all this wrath displayed? Does God play with lightnings, and show the artillery of heaven that he may make the universe afraid lest it provoke him? No: God acts upon moral reasons; and, as we have often had occasion to say, he never withholds those reasons from the criticism and judgment of the very men upon whom he pours out the vials of indignation. The reasons are given in Isa 3:14-15 :
“For ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord God of hosts.”
Who ever abandons the sanctuary, the poor should never go away; who ever closes the Bible, the poor man should keep it lying widely open; he should always have a Bible that opens easily, not stiffly, because it is well handled, and is the continual defence of men who cannot defend themselves. We must not turn the country into a stupendous money-making machine for our own use and furtherance. There is a legitimate and Christian socialism. The country should be a commonwealth. The danger is that all the countries now become gigantic betting-houses. Labour seems to be driven away; there is hardly any honest healthy work to be obtained by thousands of people. Yet there is money enough. Yes, but it passes through the channels of speculation; it is made to do a fevered work. Men do not like labour as they used to do; they prefer the toss of the dice, the fortune won in an hour: it involves no detail; it does not demand discipline, at least of a servile kind. All this means that the poor man must stand back: this is the game of the rich: only he who has thousands to risk can be admitted within this accursed ring. The poor must go out and do what they can. Let them, says the mocking voice, eat the dust beneath their feet; we cannot be clogged with them, or hampered in our movements. So the countries of irreligious civilisation, or of nominal religious civilisation, are becoming gigantic stock exchanges. Money is not legitimately circulated; it is not worked for. Blessed be the nation that loves to till its ground, to sow honest seed honestly, and to reap a good harvest thankfully. That is the way of life that will stand when all other ways have been proved to be rotten and unrighteous.
We have spoken much of judgment; let us say that the judgment is not indiscriminate:
“Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him” ( Isa 3:10-11 ).
This is not blind wrath; the wrath is the more terrible that it is critical. There must be some escape from unregulated and aimless wrath the blind fury that strikes without knowing at which or at what its blows are aimed; men might get away from that fury; but this is not mere fury, it is judgment: to the righteous, righteousness; to the wicked not an arbitrary punishment, but, “the reward of his hands shall be given him.” The wicked man digs his own hell. We must not think of hell as a divine invention; may we not say it reverently? it is an invention totally human. All evil digs and eats its own perdition; all evil chokes its throat with brimstone of its own finding. O wicked man! that harvest of wickedness is but the reaping of thine own sowing. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Men call the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them, but the rocks and the mountains stand still in stiff dignity, and have no answer to the bad man’s cry; they are not allies of the devil; the rocks are God’s own stone-houses, the mountains are altars of his own building; they will not answer the cry of despair, the wail of sin. Whilst we say, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” we can also say with equal emphasis of voice, and with tenderer significance of tone, “God is Love.”
Prayer
Almighty God, we are of yesterday, and know nothing. Thou dost come up from everlasting, from the unbeginning time, and we cannot comprehend thee. Yet our time is part of God’s eternity; through the mystery of time we may understand somewhat of thy duration, O thou who livest from everlasting to everlasting, without loss of strength or decay of glory. Enable us so to understand ourselves as to begin to see somewhat of the mystery of thy being; may we know that the divine seal is upon our own souls, and that if we study ourselves aright we shall begin to know somewhat of thy love and tenderness and compassion. Dwell within us, O Holy Spirit, ruling our understanding, our judgment, our will, our whole being, and sanctifying us until we become holy as our Father in heaven is holy. Great will be this miracle, and it lies only within thine own power to accomplish it; but with God all things are possible. We remember what we were, and what by thy grace we now are, and thus we look forward to the great completion of thy purpose in us, and foresee the time when we shall be sanctified, body, soul, and spirit. We commend ourselves to thee to this intent; we come not for mere enjoyment, for the excitement of high religious feeling that it may evaporate and issue in nothingness; we come that we may be perfected, strengthened, equipped for life’s duty, and prepared for life’s daily sacrifice. By this shall we know, that we are in God, and that God is in us, that we hold ourselves lightly when he bids us lay down our lives, and that we are ready, morning, noon, and night, to open the door to the coming Lord, and give him all the welcome of love. O thou Son of God, whose eyes are full of tears, whose heart is full of tenderness, thou didst pity the sin of the world, and taste death for every man. Thou art still looking down upon the little earth, and still thine heart moves piteously and redeemingly towards it; thou dost weep over the city, thou dost lament the moral wilderness. Enable us to enter into sympathy with thee herein, that the world may not only show to us its sunny and flowery aspects, but may reveal to us its sin, its misery, all that debases its character and that overwhelms its purity: thus seeing the world as it is we shall be moved along Christian lines, we shall be inspired by Christian love, and our supreme desire will be to snatch some men from the burning, to bring some wanderers back again, and so to serve the Lord. The world lieth in wickedness; we are not deceived by the madness of its affected noise; underneath all the noise we hear the raving of moral insanity. The world is sick at heart; the earth is bearing a great load of iniquity. O Son of God, forsake not the place of thy mediation: pray for the world which thou hast redeemed; see the great tragedy completed, and establish the kingdom of righteousness upon the ruins of evildoing. Thou knowest whose hearts are sore, whose lives are blighted, whose hopes are clouded, and to whom to-morrow is a dread mystery coming fast upon black wings, and with purpose to destroy. Arm us against all fear; qualify us to do life’s work with power and ease, with adequate faculty, and with unwavering and loving trust. Help especially those who are in great need of help; men who know not which way to turn; men who are imprisoned in darkness and afflicted with great infirmity. If we have sworn a holy vow at thine altar to be better, may the vow be redeemed in actual practice; if any man has. set his hand to an evil record that he will break thy law and defy thy judgment, may he be swift to obliterate his folly. Watch by the bedside of the afflicted; make the empty cradle a greater blessing than the occupied cradle. Grant unto all souls exit from this land of darkness, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, into the city of life. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XI
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PART 3
Isa 1:1-5:30
There are three things suggested by the word, “vision,” in the title, viz:
1. Being a vision, it will frequently speak of events, that are yet future, as if they had already occurred, e.g., Isa 3:8 ; Isa 5:13 .
2. What is seen in vision must be subject to the laws of the perspective. To illustrate: One who views a series of mountains from a distance may see a number of peaks, which are many miles apart, as one object. Thus in the fulfilment of prophecy, there may be a primary fulfilment and a long distance from that, the larger fulfilment. But they appear to the eye of the prophet as one fulfilment because they are in line with each other. A notable instance of this is seen in the case of the anti-Christs. Antiochus Epiphanes, the first one, was followed by the papacy; then after him comes the World Secular Ruler; and last comes the man of sin, who fills out the outline of all the ones who have preceded him.
3. It is, as a whole, one vision. It consists, indeed, of various parts, but from the outset they present the same vision. Though the visions are greatly diversified in size, form, coloring, and other details, they are in essential character only one vision.
This vision was “concerning Judah and Jerusalem” and yet it embraces a vast variety of nations and countries. There is a primary reference here to Judah versus Israel, but in the scriptural sense, all this prophecy is “concerning Judah and Jerusalem,” i.e., the people and city of God. Other nations and countries are spoken of only as they are related to Judah and Jerusalem, or at any rate to the people of God symbolized in those names. The first chapter is the preface to the whole book, whose standpoint is the covenant as set forth in Lev 26 and Deuteronomy 28-32, being especially modeled on Deu 32 , the song of Moses, and consists of “The Great Arraignment,” divided into four well-marked messages, in each of which Jehovah is introduced as himself speaking directly to his people. The divisions are as follows: Isa_1:2-9; 10-17; 18-23; 24-31.
The first message (Isa 1:2-9 ) opens with an invocation to heaven and earth to hear Jehovah’s indictment against his people, and it contains (1) a charge of rebellion against their nourishing father; (2) a charge of brutish ignorance, indifference, and ingratitude, such as the ox and the ass would not have shown their owners; (3) a charge of corruption and estrangement from Jehovah; (4) a charge of unyielding stubbornness which rendered the chastisement of Jehovah ineffective though stroke upon stroke had fallen upon them until there was not place found on the body for another stroke; (5) a penalty of desolation of their land and the captivity of the people; (6) a hope of an elected remnant who would be purified by the coming affliction upon the nation.
In this paragraph we have a picture of severe chastisements, not of the depravity of human nature, though sin in Israel has, of course, led Jehovah to chastise his rebellious son. In Isa 1:9 we have mention of the remnant left by Jehovah. This is the first mention of it and gives us the key to the hope of Israel in this dark hour, a favorite doctrine with Isaiah and Paul.
The second message of the first chapter (Isa 1:10-17 ) contains the charge of formality without spirituality in their religion. They are compared to Sodom and Gomorrah though they abound in their ritualistic service. After showing his utter contempt for this formality without spirituality, Jehovah exhorts them to return to him. The ceremonial is not condemned here, except as it was divorced from the spiritual. The prophet insists that ritual and sacrifice must be subordinated to faith and obedience. This is in harmony with the teaching of Hos 6:5-6 ; Mic 6:6-8 ; and Jer 7:4 ; Jer 7:21 ff., et al. In Isa 1:13 here we have the mingling of wickedness with worship which is an abomination. A real reformation is twofold: (1) cease to do evil; (2) learn to do well. Human activity Isa 1:17 emphasized in Isa 1:16-17 , while divine grace is set forth ia Isa 1:18 .
The third message of this chapter (Isa 1:18-23 ) is a message of” offered mercy and grace, with an appeal to their reason and an assurance of cleansing from the deepest pollution of sin. There is a back reference here to the promises and threatenings of the Mosaic covenant (Lev 26 ; Deu 30 ) in which life and death were set before them with an exhortation to choose. There is also a renewed charge here contained in the sad description of the moral degradation of Zion (Isa 1:21-23 ) in which Jerusalem is called a harlot and her wickedness is described as abominable.
The fourth message in this chapter (Isa 1:24-31 ) is a message of judgment on the ungodly. This judgment is both punitive and corrective. God avenges himself on his enemies and at the same time purifies his people, especially the holy remnant, and restores them to their former condition of love and favor. But the utter destruction of transgressors and sinners is positively affirmed, the sinner and his work being consumed. Sin is a fire that consumes the sinner. Therefore sin is suicidal. Isa 1:9 is quoted by Paul in Rom 9:29 and is there used by him to prove his proposition that, though Israel was in number like the sands of the sea, only a remnant should be saved. The remnant of the election of grace is both an Old Testament and a New Testament doctrine, as applied to the Jews.
Someone has called Isaiah 2-5 “the true and the false glory of Israel.” In chapter I the prominent idea is Justice coming to the help of rejected mercy, and pouring out vengeance on the sinful; in Isaiah 2-5 the idea is one of mercy, by means of justice, triumphing in the restoration of holiness. The characteristic in chapter I is its stern denunciations of the Sinaitic law, while the reference to Psa 72 is subordinate; the characteristic of Isaiah 2-5 is that, though the menaces of the law are still heard in them, it is only after the clearest assurance has been given that the prophecies of 2Sa 7 and Psa 72 shall be realized.
That Isaiah 2-5 belong to the time of Uzziah, is the natural inference from Isa 1:1 and Isa 6:1 . The contents of the chapters are such as to thoroughly confirm this obvious view. They refer to a period of prosperity (Isa 2:6-16 ) and luxury (Isa 3:16-23 ); when there was great attention to military preparations (Isa 2:7 ; Isa 2:15 ; Isa 3:2 ) and commerce (v. 16), and great reliance on human power (v. 22). Above all, it is only by remembering how, “when Uzziah was strong, his heart was lifted up” (2Ch 26:16 ), and he invaded the holy place, that we can fully appreciate the emphatic assertion of God’s incomparable exaltation and inviolable sanctity which prevails throughout this section.
In Isa 2:1 we have the title to Isaiah 2-5 and it shows that the message is for Judah and not for Israel. In this sense it means the same as in 1:1. The main body of Isa 2 (Isa 2:7-22 ) is an expansion of Isa 1:31 , “the strong one shall be as tow.” Isa 2:2-4 are intensely messianic and give an assurance that, amidst the wreck of Solomon’s kingdom and earthly Zion, as herein described, the promise made to David shall stand firm. It is the promise of this scripture that a time shall come when controversies shall not be settled by war; they shall be settled by arbitration, and the arbiter is the glorious One of the prophecy, and the principles of arbitration will be his word, the law that goes forth from his mouth. Cf. Mic 4:1-5 . We may never know whether it is Isaiah or Micah that is borrowing, or whether both alike quote from some earlier prophet. This glorious and far-reaching prediction has not yet been completely fulfilled. This is the first messianic prophecy of Isaiah, the pre-eminently evangelical prophet.
But what is meant here by “the latter days”? I cite only two scriptures, which tell us exactly what is meant. John, in his first letter says, “this is the last day,” or the last time, that is, the times of the gospel are “the latter days.” The prophet, Joel, says, “It shall come to pass in the last days,” or the latter days, “That God will pour out his Spirit,” and we know from the New Testament that this was fulfilled in Jerusalem on the first Pentecost after the resurrection of our Lord. It is settled by these words of God that “the latter days” in the Old Testament prophecies are the gospel days of the New Testament. Let us remember that the gospel days are the last days. There is no age to succeed the gospel age. Whatever of good is to be accomplished in this world is to be accomplished in the gospel days, and by the means of the gospel. All this universal peace arbitration, knowledge of the Lord and his kingdom come by means of this same gospel.
I shall not cite the scriptures to prove it, but it is clearly established by the New Testament that the “mountain of the Lord’s house” here is the visible, not invisible, church of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he established himself, empowered it through the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and it is through the instrumentality of that church that the great things of this prophecy are to be brought about. This passage distinctly says, “Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Our Saviour came, established his church, and then said, “Go into all the world, etc.” and “Ye shall preach the gospel to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.” The instrument then, by which these things are to be accomplished is just the gospel which we preach and which people hear and by which they are saved.
It is here prophesied that the nations shall be impressed with the visibility of the Lord’s house, the church, and shall say, “Come, ye, and let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.” They shall be enlightened by the light of the church, which being full of the Holy Spirit shall catch the eye of the nations and attract them. Then will they gay, “Come and let us go up to the house of the Lord.” The purpose of all this shall be that he may teach them. The church is God’s school and God himself is the teacher) and they are taught the principles of arbitration.
The arbiter of the nations, as here described, is the Lord Jesus Christ, the daysman betwixt the nations. He and the principles of his gospel alone can bring about such a state of things that “there shall be war no more.” The result of this arbitration will be universal peace (Isa 2:4 ). This shall be a glorious consummation when will be settled by arbitration controversies of every kind whether between nations or individuals, and righteousness shall prevail throughout the whole world. God’s means of preparation of the nation for the great future, as just shown in the messianic prophecy, are his judgments. These only can prepare the nation for this great future (Isa 2:5-4:1 ), the items of which are (1) the sins to be visited and (2) the classes of objects to be visited by these judgments. The sins to be visited by these judgments (Isa 2:5-9 ) are soothsaying, heathen alliances, luxury, militarism, and idolatry.
The objects against which these judgments are to be brought (Isa 2:10-4:1 ) are everything proud and lofty:
1. Inanimate things that minister to pride, such as cedars and oaks, mountains, military defenses, ships and idols (2:1021).
2. Men, especially the ruling classes (Isa 2:22-3:15 ). In Isa 3:4 we have a picture of weak, foolish rulers. Cf. Isa 3:12 . The ruling classes were especially to blame for the growing sin and corruption of Judah. They were “grinding the face of the poor.”
3. Women, for pride and wantonness (Isa 3:16-4:1 ). Here let us recall the indictment of the cruel, carousing women by Amos (Amo 4:1-3 ), and the words of Hosea about the prevalence of social impurity in his day (Hos 4:2 ; Hos 4:13-14 ). Isaiah dumps out the entire wardrobe of the luxurious sinner of the capital city. What a pity that wicked Paris should set the fashions for Christian women!
After this blast of judgments then follow the messianic prosperity, purity, and protection (Isa 4:2-6 ), a beautiful picture on a very dark background. Here we have the first mention of the’ key word, “Branch,” in “the Branch of the Lord.”
The subject of Isa 5 is the vineyard and its lessons, and the three essential things to note are: (1) the disappointing vineyard and its identification; (2) a series of woes announced; and (3) the coming army.
The prophet shows great skill here in securing attention by reciting a bit of a love song and then gliding gradually into his burning message to a sinful people. The description of this vineyard in the text is vivid and lifelike, showing the pains taken by the owner in preparing, tending, and guarding it. The great pains thus taken enhanced the expectation and, therefore, the disappointment. So, in despair and disgust he destroyed the vineyard and made its place desolate.
The prophet identifies the vineyard with Israel and Judah which had their beginnings, as a nation, with Abraham, and from the day of its planting it was under the special care of Jehovah. He always gave it the most desired spot in which to dwell, both in Egypt and in Canaan, but it never did live up to its opportunities and more, it never did yield the fruits of justice and righteousness, but instead, oppression and a cry. These general terms give way to the particular in the woes that follow. There are six distinct woes pronounced (Isa 5:8-23 ) against sinners in this paragraph, as follows:
1. Woe unto the land monopolies. This is a picture of what may be observed in many parts of the world today. Monopolies lead to loneliness and desolation. God is against the land shark. For a description of conditions, similar to Isaiah’s, in England, gee Goldsmith’s Deserted Village, in which are found these lines: Ill fares the land, to hastening his a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay. 2. Woe unto the drunken revelers. This is a vivid picture of wine with its accompaniments and results. People inflamed with strong drink relish a kind of music which is not very religious. These musical instruments are all right but they were put to the wrong use. Intoxicating drinks not only pervert the instruments of the Lord, but they make their subjects disregard the works and rights of Jehovah. In Isa 5:13 we see the effect of spiritual ignorance, which is captivity, perhaps the Babylonian captivity, or it may refer to Israel’s captivity already begun. Sheol in Isa 5:14 refers to the place of the departed, the underworld in which the “shades” rested. Here the picture is that of the increasing multitudes in the spirit world because of their disobedience here and God’s destruction of them, after which their land becomes the pasture for the flocks of foreign nomads.
3. Woe unto the defiant unbelievers. This is a picture of the harness of sin, and awful effect produced on those who follow its course. They are harnessed by it and rush madly on in their defying of the Holy One of Israel.
4. Woe unto the perverters of moral distinction, calling evil good, and good evil, putting darkness for light, and light for darkness. Their moral sense is so blunted that they cannot make moral distinctions, as Paul says in Hebrews, “not having their senses exercised to distinguish between good and evil.”
5. Woe unto the conceited men, perhaps their politicians. They are often so wise that they cannot be instructed, but they can tell us how to run any kind of business, from the farm to the most intricate machinery of the government. They may have never had any experience in the subject which they teach, yet they can tell those who have spent their lives in such service just how to run every part of the business down to the minutest detail. But they are really “wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight.”
6. Woe unto drunken officers, who justify the wicked for a bribe and pervert justice. When one is once allowed to look in upon our courts of justice (?) he can imagine that Isaiah was writing in the age in which we live. He goes on to show the just punishment that they were destined to receive because of their rejection of the law of Jehovah and because they despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
The conditions herein set forth (Isa 5:25-30 ) reach beyond those of the Assyrian invasion and find a larger fulfilment in the carrying away of Judah by the Chaldeans. Here Jehovah is represented as giving the signal and the call to the nations to assemble for the invasion of Judah and Israel, which may apply either to the Assyrians or to the Chaldeans and, perhaps, to both. Then the prophet describes the speed with which they come and do their destructive work, which may apply to the march of the Assyrians against Samaria and the Chaldeans against Jerusalem. (For minute details of description see the text.) The prophet closes his description of this invading army (or armies) and their destructive work, with Israel in the deepest gloom, which was fulfilled in three instances: (1) the capture of Samaria by the Assyrians; (2) the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans; (3) the final destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Perhaps all three of these events are in the perspective of the prophet’s vision, which constitute the dark picture and disappointing gloom with which he closes chapter 5 and section I of his book.
Isa 6 gives us Isaiah’s encouraging vision of Jehovah. The preceding section closed in the deepest gloom; the light of prophecy only made the darkness more fearful. Already the heir of David’s throne, Uzziah, had been “humbled” by God’s stroke, “cut away” as a withered branch, excluded from the house of the Lord, and continued till death “unhealed of his plague.” The prophet had delivered his message faithfully, but being only a man, he was conscious of the failure of his message, and therefore, at such a time he needed the comforting revelation of Jehovah, just such as the vision of Isa 6 affords. Thus Jehovah, as he comforted Abraham, Jacob, Moses Joshua, Elijah, the twelve, Paul, and John, in their darkest hours by a vision of himself, so here he comforts Isaiah in his gloom of despondency.
A brief outline of Isa 6 is as follows:
1. The heavenly vision, a vision of the Lord, his throne, his train, the seraphim with six wings each and saying, “Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts.” These creatures are God’s attendants and the six wings represent the speed with which they fly in carrying out his behests, but when in divine presence four of them were used for another purpose. One pair veiled the seraph’s face from the intolerable effulgence of divine glory; another pair veiled his feet, soiled in various ministrations, which were not meet for the all-pure presence.
2. The sense of unworthiness produced by the vision and the symbolic cleansing which encouraged him in his mission. Here the prophet acts very much as Job and John did when they saw his holiness, crying out, “unclean.” This is a most natural result from the contrast between relative and absolute holiness. Job maintained his integrity until he saw the Lord and then he was ready to say, “I abhor myself and repent.” So John fell at the feet of the glorious Son of God as one dead, and Peter said, “Depart; I am a sinful man.” With these examples before us we may conclude that he who boasts of his holiness advertises thereby his guilty distance from God.
3. The offer for service, which naturally follows such a preparation as Isaiah had just received. This, too, is an expression of renewed courage, in the face of such a dark prospect.
4. The message and its effect. He was to preach with the understanding that his message would not be received and that the hearer, because of this message, would pass under the judicial blindness. This passage is quoted by our Lord (Mat 13:14-15 ) to show the same condition in his day and that the responsibility for this condition did not rest upon the prophet or the preacher but that it was the natural result of an inexorable law, viz: that the effect of the message on the hearer of it depends altogether upon the attitude of the hearer toward the message. Them that reject, it hardens and them that accept, it gives life. Thus it has ever been with subjects of gospel address, but the message must be delivered whether it proves a savor of life unto life or of death unto death.
5. The terrible judgments to follow. Here the prophet asks, “How long is to continue this judicial blindness?” and the answer comes back, “Until cities are laid waste, etc.” This includes their captivity in Babylon, their rejection of the Saviour and consequent dispersion, and will continue until the Jews return and embrace the Messiah whom they now reject until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
6. The final hope expressed. This is the hope of the “remnant,” “the holy seed.” This was Isaiah’s hope of Israel in his day; it was Christ’s hope of Israel in his day; it was Paul’s hope of Israel in his day, and is it not our hope of Israel in our day? “The remnant according to the election of grace.”
QUESTIONS
1. What three things are suggested by the word, “vision,” in the title?
2. How do you explain the fact that this vision was “concerning Judah and Jerusalem” and yet it embraces a vast variety of nations and countries?
3. What relation does Isa 1 sustain to the whole book, what it standpoint, after what is it modeled, and of what does it consist?
4. What are the contents of the first message?
5. What expressions in this paragraph are worthy of note and what is their application?
6. What is the second message of Isa 1 (Isa 1:10-17 )?
7. What is the third message of this chapter (Isa 1:18-23 ), what the back reference here and what the renewed charge?
8. What is the fourth message in this chapter (Isa 1:24-31 ) and what in particular, the hope here held out to Judah?
9. What is the New Testament quotation from this chapter and what use is there made of it?
10. What is the nature of the contents of Isaiah 2-5 and what the relation of this section to Isa 1 ?
11. To what period of time does the section (Isaiah 2-5) belong and what the proof?
12. What is the title to this section and what does it include?
13. What is the close relation of Isaiah 1-2?
14. What is the assurance found in the introduction (Isa 1:2-4 ) and how does this passage compare with Micah’s prophecy on the same point?
15. What is meant here by “the latter days”?
16. What is meant by “the mountain of the Lord’s house”?
17. What means shall be used by the church in accomplishing these results?
18. What spirit of inquiry is here awakened?
19. To what purpose shall all this be?
20. Who is to be the arbiter of the nations, as here described?
21. What is the result of this arbitration?
22. What God’s means of preparation of the nation for the great future, as just shown in the messianic prophecy, and what, in general the items of judgment?
23. What are the sins to be visited by these judgments (Isa 2:5-9 )?
24. What are the objects against which these judgments are to be brought (Isa 2:10-4:1 )?
25. What shall follow these judgments on God’s people (Isa 4:2-6 )?
26. What is the subject of Isa 5 and what the three main points in it?
27. Describe the disappointing vineyard.
28. Identify this vineyard and show its parallels in history.
29. Itemize the woes that follow (Isa 5:8-23 ) and note the points of interest in each case.
30. What is the coming army as predicted in Isa 5:25-30 and what the parallels of this prophecy and its fulfilment?
31. What is the subject of Isa 6 and what its relation to the section (Isaiah 2-5) and what its bearing on the condition of Judah at this time?
32. Give a brief outline of Isa 6 and the application of each point.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
XXVII
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ISAIAH
The relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy is that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To him give all the prophets witness. All the scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, testify of him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence.
Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch, indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour, and across this horrible background of gloom the prophet sketches in startling strokes of light the image of a coming Redeemer.
In Isa 2:2-4 we have the first picture of him in Isaiah, that of the effect of his work, rather than of the Messiah himself. This is the establishment of the mountain of the Lord’s house on the top of the mountains, the coming of the nations to it and the resultant millennial glory.
In Isa 4:2-6 is another gleam from the messianic age in which the person of the Messiah comes more into view in the figure of a branch of Jehovah, beautiful and glorious. In sketching the effects of his work here the prophet adds a few strokes of millennial glory as a consummation of his ministry.
In Isa 7:14 he delineates him as a little child born of a virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity, “God with us.” In this incarnation he is the seed of the woman and not of the man.
The prophet sees him as a child upon whom the government shall rest and whose name is “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 ). This passage shows the divinity of Christ and the universal peace he is to bring to the world. In these names we have the divine wisdom, the divine power, the divine fatherhood, and the divine peace.
In Isa 11:1-9 the prophet sees the Messiah as a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, i.e., of lowly origin, but possessing the Holy Spirit without measure who equips him for his work, and his administration wrought with skill and justice, the result of which is the introduction of universal and perfect peace. Here the child is presented as a teacher. And such a teacher! On him rests the seven spirits of God. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equality in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and his very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals.
In Isa 40:3-8 appears John the Baptist, whom Isaiah saw as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming King.
In Isa 11:2 ; Isa 42:1 ; Isa 61:1-3 the prophet saw the Messiah as a worker in the power of the Spirit, in whom he was anointed at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry which was wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit. At no time in his ministry did our Lord claim that he wrought except in the power of the Holy Spirit who was given to him without measure.
In Isa 35:1-10 the Messiah is described as a miracle worker. In his presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like a hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. The New Testament abounds in illustrations of fulfilment. These signs Christ presented to John the Baptist as his messianic credentials (Mat 11:1-4 ).
The passage (Isa 42:1-4 ) gives us a flashlight on the character of the Messiah. In the New Testament it is expressly applied to Christ whom the prophet sees as the meek and lowly Saviour, dealing gently with the blacksliding child of his grace. In Isa 22:22 we have him presented as bearing the key of the house of David, with full power to open and shut. This refers to his authority over all things in heaven and upon earth. By this authority he gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter one for the Jews and the other for the Gentiles who used one on the day of Pentecost and the other at the house of Cornelius, declaring in each case the terms of entrance into the kingdom of God. This authority of the Messiah is referred to again in Revelation:
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying. Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 7:17
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphis write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth. Rev 3:7
In Isa 32:1-8 we have a great messianic passage portraying the work of Christ as a king ruling in righteousness, in whom men find a hiding place from the wind and the tempest. He is a stream in a dry place and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
In Isa 28:14-18 the Messiah is presented to w as a foundation stone in a threefold idea:
1. A tried foundation stone. This is the work of the master mason and indicates the preparation of the atone for its particular function.
2. An elect or precious foundation stone. This indicates that the stone was selected and appointed. It was not self-appointed but divinely appointed and is therefore safe.
3. A cornerstone, or sure foundation stone. Here it is a foundation of salvation, as presented in Mat 16:18 . It is Christ the Rock, and not Peter. See Paul’s foundation in 1 Corinthians:
According to the grace of God which was given unto me; as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:10-11 .
In Isa 49:1-6 he is presented as a polished shaft, kept close in the quiver. The idea is that he is a mighty sword. In Revelation, Christ is presented to John as having a sharp, twoedged sword proceeding out of his mouth.
In Isa 50:2 ; Isa 52:9 f.; Isa 59:16-21 ; Isa 62:11 we have the idea of the salvation of Jehovah. The idea is that salvation originated with God and that man in his impotency could neither devise the plan of salvation nor aid in securing it. These passages are expressions of the pity with which God looks down on a lost world. The redemption, or salvation, here means both temporal and spiritual salvation salvation from enemies and salvation from sin.
In Isa 9:1 f. we have him presented as a great light to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali. In Isa 49:6 we have him presented as a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth: “Yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”
In Isa 8:14-15 Isaiah presents him as a stone of stumbling: “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”
The prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection are found in Isa 50:4-9 ; Isa 52:13-53:12 . In this we have the vision of him giving his “back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startled all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on him. The iniquity of others is put on him. It pleases the Father to bruise him until he has poured out his soul unto death as an offering for sin.
The teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews is his teaching concerning the “holy remnant,” a favorite expression of the prophet. See Isa 1:9 ; Isa 10:20-22 ; Isa 11:11 ; Isa 11:16 ; Isa 37:4 ; Isa 37:31-32 ; Isa 46:3 . This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9-11.
In Isa 32:15 we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest,” and in Isa 44:3 : “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”
In Isa 11:10 he is said to be the ensign of the nations: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting place shall be glorious.”
Isa 19:18-25 ; Isa 54:1-3 ; Isa 60:1-22 teach the enlargement of the church. The great invitation and promise are found in Isa 55 .
The Messiah in judgments is found in Isa 63:1-6 . Here we behold an avenger. He comes up out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the winevat and the restoration of the Jews is set forth in Isa 11:11-12 ; Isa 60:9-15 ; Isa 66:20 . Under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of his kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men, a kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness, and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love, and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood; “And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth. And the water prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth; and all the high mountains, that are under the whole heavens, were covered.”
So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until its shores are illimitable. War ceases. Gannenta rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. The cow and the bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child safely plays over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realms none hurt nor destroy, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream?
In many passages the prophet turns in the gleams from the millennial age, but one of the clearest and best on the millennium, which is in line with the preceding paragraph, Isa 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”
The prophet’s vision of the destruction of death is given in Isa 25:8 : “He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it,” and in Isa 26:19 : “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”
The clearest outlines of the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained” are to be found in Isa 25:8 , and in two passages in chapter Isa 66 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her; that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hands of Jehovah shall be known toward his servants ; and he will have indignation against his enemies. Isa 66:10-14
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah. Isa 66:22-23
QUESTIONS
1. What is the relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy?
2. What can you say of Isaiah as a witness of the Messiah?
3. What can you say of Isaiah’s pictures of the Messiah and their background?
4. Following in the order of Christ’s manifestation, what is the first picture of him in Isaiah?
5. What is the second messianic glimpse in Isaiah?
6. What is Isaiah’s picture of the incarnation?
7. What is Isaiah’s picture of the divine child?
8. What is Isaiah’s vision of his descent, his relation to the Holy Spirit, his administration of justice, and the results of his reign?
9. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah’s herald?
10. What is the prophet’s vision of his anointing?
11. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a miracle worker?
12. What is the prophet’s vision of the character of the Messiah?
13. What is the prophet’s vision of him as the key bearer?
14. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a king and a hiding place?
15. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah as a foundation stone?
16. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a polished shaft?
17. In what passages do we find the idea of the salvation of Jehovah, and what the significance of the idea?
18. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a light?
19. Where does Isaiah present him as a stone of stumbling?
20. What is the prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection?
21. What is the teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews?
22. Where do we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?
23. Where is he said to be the ensign of the nations?
24. What passages teach the enlargement of the church?
25. Where is the great invitation and promise?
26. Where is the Messiah in judgment?
27. What passages show the restoration of the Jews?
28. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah’s kingdom?
29. What is the prophet’s vision of the millennium?
30. What is the prophet’s vision of the destruction of death?
31. What is the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained?”
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Isa 3:1 For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,
Ver. 1. For, behold. ] This is also part of the former sermon, though made the beginning of another chapter; for of our prophet that is some way true which Petrarch saith of Livy, viz., that he wrote many books, Quos in decades non ipse sed fastidiosa legentium scidit imperitia, which not himself, but others without any great skill divided into decades – sc., chapters.
The Lord – doth take away.] Heb., Is taking away – i.e., He will surely and suddenly do it, and thereby pave a way to the utter ruin of all. For as it was a sign Samson meant to pull down the house when he pulled away the pillars, so that God is about to ruin a state when he plucketh away those that are the shores and props of it.
The stay and the staff.
The whole stay of bread.
a Septuagint.
b Piscator.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah Chapter 3 – 4:1
Isaiah 3 – Isa 4:1
But universal as the prostration of human pride must be, this chapter indicates that most crushingly shall the blow fall on Jerusalem and Judah, and this not only in their public political life, but minutely and searchingly on the daughters of Zion in all their haughty littleness of vain show. Here we have this double ground for divine intervention. But is it not pertinent to ask, What has all this to do with the gospel as we have it now? Does not the prophet look at the ancient people of God as nationally on the road to ruin? Does he not here entirely pass over the present ways of grace in the gospel to tell in the next chapter the deliverance which the Messiah will effect for the escaped of Israel? Does he not here omit all reference to the call of the Gentiles to-day and the church of God, that he may hold out the hope of Israel in the Branch of Jehovah for beauty and glory? For then everyone left in Jerusalem shall be called holy, when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of Zion’s daughters. “For behold the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay 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 honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the skilful enchanter. And I will give youths to be their princes, and children shall rule over them. And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the elder, and the base against the honourable. When a man shall 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: in that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be a healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing; ye shall not make me a ruler of the people” (vv. 1-7).
What surer sign of decay and of imminent dissolution than the absence of all power among those who are in the place of authority, when those who should be the props of the state are children – not in fact, but in mind and purpose! Respect for what is officially exalted must then give place to universal contempt, and oppression and shameless malpractices flaunt without check, with anarchy the result. “For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against Jehovah, to provoke the eyes of his glory. The show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves” (vv. 8, 9) There is no ruin without sin; and here it was frightful and shameless.
Nevertheless the evil day only brings out the faithful care of God over the righteous, as surely as the wicked meet with the due reward of their deeds. It is, however, a humiliating, as well as a sifting, time for God’s people; though the prophet declares in the most animated terms, how Jehovah espouses the cause of the poor against those who grind down their faces. “Say ye of the righteous, that [it shall be] well [with him], for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! [it shall be] ill [with him]; for the desert of his hands shall be given him” (vv. 10, 11). God holds in a day of confusion to His righteous government, and warns. “[As for] my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. My people! they that lead thee mislead [thee], and destroy the way of thy paths. Jehovah setteth himself to plead, and standeth to judge the peoples. Jehovah will enter into judgement with the elders of his people, and the princes thereof, [saying,] It is ye that have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor [is] in your houses. What mean ye [that] ye crush my people and grind the faces of the afflicted? saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts” (vv. 12-15). Thus far the rulers and princes. Others might plunder their enemies and enrich their followers at the expense of their neighbours; but the civil and religious chiefs of Israel were so degraded and depraved as to prey on the flesh and blood of their brethren for their own greed and gain, the defenceless poor faring worst in this scene of alternate flattery and oppression. How true that the corruption of the best thing is the worst corruption!
Quite as sorrowful is the picture of domestic life. When women live for display in apparel, no further proof is needed to bring to their door the charge that the sanctity of the home is tainted, and that there is no real heart for the relations God has set up. Such finery is assuredly not for a husband or the family, but, small as it is, it escapes not the withering notice of the Judge of all. Dress, gait, glances, are all noticed by the Spirit of God. “And Jehovah saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks, and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and Jehovah will discover their secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away the ornament of anklets, and the networks, and the crescents, the pendants, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, the head-tires, and the ankle-chains, and the sashes, and the perfume-boxes, and the amulets, the rings, and the nose-jewels, the festival-robes and the mantles, and the shawls, and the bags (or purses), the mirrors, and the fine linen, and the turbans, and the flowing veils. And it shall come to pass, instead of sweet spices there shall be rottenness; and instead of a girdle, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth; branding instead of beauty. Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she, stripped (or desolate), shall sit upon the ground” (vv. 16-26).
How in the face of such a prolonged strain of detail as this can any one theorist as we all know has been done, on the essential contrast of history as particular facts with prophecy as general principles? Nowhere in the Bible or out of it does any historian so copiously and minutely expose that luxury which internally ruins a people in their homes as does Isaiah here, after dealing a deadly blow at their dishonour of the true God and hankering after false. It were more true to say that along with the infinitely great, the inspired prophecy penetrates and lays bare the smallest things as alike coming under God’s eyes. History in man’s hand would be ashamed to go down so low. Poor, proud, deceived man! Not only is there a change, and an exposure most humiliating to pride, but so complete would be the desolation, that the dearth of men is described as tempting women to a boldness contrary to female modesty. “And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name. Take away our reproach” (Isa 4:1 ). Sober men will be surprised to hear it was an ancient notion of the spiritualizing school that the “one man” is Christ, and the “seven women” believers! Possibly this absurd result of departing from its obvious and real meaning may account for the severance of the verse from Isa 3 . and transferring it to Isa 4 , where the Branch at once follows.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 3:1-12
1For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah
Both supply and support, the whole supply of bread
And the whole supply of water;
2The mighty man and the warrior,
The judge and the prophet,
The diviner and the elder,
3The captain of fifty and the honorable man,
The counselor and the expert artisan,
And the skillful enchanter.
4And I will make mere lads their princes,
And capricious children will rule over them,
5And the people will be oppressed,
Each one by another, and each one by his neighbor;
The youth will storm against the elder
And the inferior against the honorable.
6When a man lays hold of his brother in his father’s house, saying,
You have a cloak, you shall be our ruler,
And these ruins will be under your charge,
7He will protest on that day, saying,
I will not be your healer,
For in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;
You should not appoint me ruler of the people.
8For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen,
Because their speech and their actions are against the LORD,
To rebel against His glorious presence.
9The expression of their faces bears witness against them,
And they display their sin like Sodom;
They do not even conceal it.
Woe to them!
For they have brought evil on themselves.
10Say to the righteous that it will go well with them,
For they will eat the fruit of their actions.
11Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him,
For what he deserves will be done to him.
12O My people! Their oppressors are children,
And women rule over them.
O My people! Those who guide you lead you astray
And confuse the direction of your paths.
Isa 3:1 Chapter three continues the prophet’s prediction of YHWH’s judgment on Jerusalem and Judah.
Lord GOD of hosts This title for Israel’s Deity is used several times early in Isaiah (cf. Isa 1:24; Isa 3:1; Isa 10:16; Isa 10:33; Isa 19:4). See full note at Isa 1:24 and Special Topic: Names for Deity .
is going to remove This VERB (BDB 693, KB 747, Hiphil PARTICIPLE) in the Hiphil stem means remove or take away.
1. YHWH to remove Israel’s sickness, Exo 23:25; Deu 7:15
2. Israel to remove the accursed things (i.e., Achan’s sin), Jos 7:13
3. Israel to put away foreign gods, Jdg 10:16
4. Saul removes mediums and spiritists, 1Sa 28:3
5. individuals did not put away God’s laws, 2Sa 22:23; Psa 18:23
But notice here it is God who removes all of Judah’s support, strength, and idolatrous leadership.
1. supply (lit. staff, BDB 1044) of bread, Isa 3:1
2. supply (lit. staff) of water, Isa 3:1
3. mighty men, Isa 3:2
4. warriors, Isa 3:2
5. judge, Isa 3:2
6. prophet, Isa 3:2, cf. Isa 9:14-15; Isa 28:7; Isa 29:10
7. diviner, Isa 3:2
8. elder, Isa 3:2, cf. Isa 9:14-16
9. captain of fifty, Isa 3:3
10. honorable man, Isa 3:3
11. counselor, Isa 3:3
12. expert artisan, Isa 3:3, cf. Isa 40:20 (idol maker)
13. skillful enchanter, Isa 3:3
Remember, judgment was YHWH, the loving parent, disciplining His children so that they might be strong, stable, happy, and a light to the nations. His personal attention to Judah was a sign of His love and concern. He loved them enough not to leave them in their sin!
SPECIAL TOPIC: JUDGE, JUDGMENT, AND JUSTICE () IN ISAIAH
NASBBoth supply and support
NKJVthe stock and store
NRSVsupport and staff
TEVeverything and everyone that the people depend on
NJBof resources and provisions
LXXthe mighty man and the mighty woman
PESHITTAstay and staff
REBevery prop and stay
The MT has MASCULINE and FEMININE forms which BDB 1044 defines as support and staff (cf. 2Sa 22:19). In Lev 26:26 it is the staff of bread.
Isa 3:3
NASBskillful enchanter
NKJV, NRSV,
REBexpert enchanter
TEVeveryone who uses magic to control events
NJBsoothsayer
LXXintelligent hearer
PESHITTAexpert counselor
The NOUN (BDB 538) means whispering or charming. It originally referred to snake charming (cf. Psa 58:5; Ecc 10:11; Jer 8:17). It came to denote soft speaking (cf. Isa 26:16; 2Sa 12:19; Psa 41:7).
The same term is used in Isa 3:20 for amulets worn by Judean women. It refers to magical practices and charms, forbidden to Israel and Judah.
Isa 3:4 Judah’s elder leadership will be removed (by YHWH Himself) even to the highest levels. Ineffective and senseless young people will lead (cf. Ecc 10:16).
NASBchildren
NKJV, NRSVbabes
NJBlads
LXX,
PESHITTAmockers
The difference is between the MT (BDB 760, wantonness, cf. Deu 22:14; Deu 22:17; Psa 141:4) and an emendation to (BDB 760, children, cf. Psa 8:3). Both seem to fit the context.
Isa 3:5-6 The oppression and abuse are described.
1. oppressed by one another
2. oppressed by neighbors
3. generational tensions
4. societal tensions
5. family tensions
Isa 3:7-12 The person the family chooses to lead will not accept the position because of the current crisis (Judah is wounded [Isa 1:6], only God can heal [Isa 30:26]) and the family’s (i.e., Judah) rebellion against YHWH.
1. their speech is against YHWH, Isa 3:8
2. their actions are against YHWH, Isa 3:8
3. they rebel against His glorious presence, Isa 3:8
4. their partiality shows on their faces, Isa 3:9
5. their sin is displayed like Sodom’s, Isa 3:9
6. they have brought evil on themselves, Isa 3:9
7. they reap what they sow, Isa 3:10-11
a. the righteous
b. the wicked
8. they are oppressed by youthful leaders (cf. Isa 3:4), Isa 3:12
9. they are ruled over by women, Isa 3:12
10. their leaders lead them astray, Isa 3:12
11. their paths (i.e., plans and goals) are confused, Isa 3:12
These consequences of rebellion are a reflection of Deu 28:15-68.
JPSOA puts Isa 3:10-11 in a parenthesis.
Isa 3:8
NASB, NRSVHis glorious presence
NKJVthe eyes of His glory
TEVGod himself
NJBhis glorious gaze
LXXtheir glory
PESHITTAthe majesty of his glory
REBhis glory
The MT is followed closely by NKJV. The eyes represented God’s personal presence.
The term glory (kabod, BDB 458) is common, but has a wide semantic flield.
SPECIAL TOPIC: GLORY (KABOD)
Isa 3:9 The expression of their faces bears witness against them The Aramaic Targums have their partiality in judgment (legal abuses and bribery) accuse them. This may be a play on the eyes of the Lord mentioned in Isa 3:8 versus the look of sinful Judeans in Isa 3:9.
They display their sin like Sodom Again, as in Isa 1:10, Isaiah compares the sins of Judean society to the sins of Sodom (cf. Genesis 19). These Judean leaders (and their families) were flaunting publicly their pride, wealth, and exploitation of the weak and powerless of society.
Sodom was arrogant (Eze 16:50) and YHWH destroyed them, so too, now Judah (Isa 3:16) and they also will be destroyed (Isa 3:16-26, the subject moves from prideful women to prideful Jerusalem).
brought evil on themselves They reap what they sow (cf. Isa 3:10-11). This is a spiritual principle. God is ethical/moral and so is His creation. Humans break themselves on God’s standards. We reap what we sow. This is true for believers (but does not affect salvation) and unbelievers (cf. Job 34:11; Psa 28:4; Psa 62:12; Pro 24:12; Ecc 12:14; Jer 17:10; Jer 32:19; Mat 16:27; Mat 25:31-46; Rom 2:6; Rom 14:12; 1Co 3:8; 2Co 5:10; Gal 6:7-10; 2Ti 4:14; 1Pe 1:17; Rev 2:23; Rev 20:12; Rev 22:12).
Isa 3:12
NASB, NKJV,
NRSVTheir oppressors are children, And women rule over them
TEVmoneylenders oppress my people and their creditors cheat them
NJBthe oppressors pillage them, and extortioners rule over them
LXXexacters strip you, and extortioners rule over you
PESHITTAThe princes shall pluck my people out, and women shall rule over them
REBMoneylenders strip my people bare, And usurers lord it over them
JPSOAMy people’s rulers are babes, It is governed by women
The MT has my people, their oppressors, children and women rule over them. Obviously TEV, NJB, and REB follow the LXX (change women, , BDB 61 to creditors
1. BDB 673 I, cf. Isa 24:2, ACTIVE PARTICIPLE PLURAL of , cf. Isa 24:2 or
2. BDB 674 I, ACTIVE PARTICIPLE PLURAL of , cf. Exo 22:25).
These phrases could be
1. literal
a. child king
b. controlled by
(1) a strong Queen mother
(2) the child king’s wives
(3) the women at court
2. figurative of weak and inexperienced leadership
NASB, NRSVconfuse
NKJVdestroy
NJBefface
LXXpervert
PESHITTAdisturbed
REBto ruin
The VERB (BDB 118, KB 134, Piel PERFECT) means engulf or swallow up (cf. Exo 15:12; Num 16:30; Num 16:32; Num 16:34; Num 26:10; Deu 11:6). In the Piel stem it also denotes shallowing, but is also used as a metaphor for destruction or something being confounded (cf. Isa 9:16; Isa 19:3; Isa 28:7).
Scholars are still discussing the possibility of one, two, or three Hebrew roots/cognates using these same three letters ().
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
behold. Figure of speech Asterismos, for emphasis. the
the LORD of hosts. See note on 1Sa 1:3.
stay. staff. Note the Figure of speech Paronomasia. Hebrew. mash’en (masculine); mish’an (feminine)
bread. water. Put by Figure of speech Synecdoche (of Species), for all kinds of food.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 3
For, behold, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, the mighty men, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counselor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. And I will give children to be their princes, and the babes shall rule over them ( Isa 3:1-4 ).
And so God is speaking now, it would seem, of more of a near, local kind of a situation rather than the long-term that He had spoken of in chapter 2.
And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honorable. When a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler and let this ruin be under thy hand: In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be a healer; for in my house is nether bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler over the people. For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory. The show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, and hide it not ( Isa 3:5-9 ).
They have the same kind of open, flagrant demonstration of their sin as did Sodom. They don’t seek to hide it, but they become very brazen in their desire for recognition.
Woe to their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. Say to the righteous ( Isa 3:9-10 ),
This is to comfort the righteous with all the devastation that is to come.
Say to the righteous that it shall be well with him ( Isa 3:10 ):
It is going to be well with you. When God shakes the earth, it is going to be well with you.
for they shall eat the fruit of their own labors. But woe unto the wicked! it will be ill with him: for the reward of his hands will be given him. As for my people, children are their oppressors, women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths ( Isa 3:10-12 ).
God is talking about the corrupted government at that time. Sounds sort of familiar.
The LORD stands up to plead, and stands to judge the people. The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What mean ye that you beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord GOD of hosts. Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and they walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover their secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, the rings, and nose jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and all of the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, the glasses, the fine linen, the hoods, the veils. And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be a stink; and instead of a girdle a tear; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty. Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground ( Isa 3:13-26 ).
And here God is describing the judgment that is to come upon Judah and Jerusalem for their iniquity. Speaking of the proudness and of the material aspects of their lifestyles. How things are going to be changed because they didn’t take God into consideration in their lives. How Judah and Jerusalem were destroyed and ravaged by Babylon. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Isa 3:1-7
This chapter carries an extensive denunciation of the apostate and hardened Israel’s reprobate society, regarding that of the rulers and judges of the nation and also that of the vain and artificial women of the nation; and with all this, there is also a formal statement of the ultimate judgment against the whole nation, uttered in the present perfect tense as prophecy certain to be fulfilled.
“Here is a study in disintegration.” It is a sad picture of a society which has forsaken its moral values, turned from God to a philosophy of humanism, and adopted the customs, idols, and value-judgments of paganism, inevitably culminating in the bitter predictive prophecy of Isa 3:8, “Jerusalem is mined!” The fulfillment of this, no doubt, had already become evident in the great Assyrian invasion that occurred in the times of Isaiah (702 B.C.); “But the real fulfillment waited a century till Nebuchadrezzar’s removal of the ablest citizens, leaving behind an utterly weak and irresponsible regime.
Isa 3:1
“For behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem stay and staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water.”
“Doth take away …” “The present is used here for the future, so certain is the fulfillment.” The use of both masculine and feminine forms in staff and stay seems to identify this reference as an idiom meaning “every kind of support, great or small, strong or weak.”
Isa 3:2-3
“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 expert artificer, and the skillful enchanter.”
All of these popular supports of the nation were to be taken away as a result of the divine judgment, beginning, even then, to descend upon the apostate people, and destined, finally, to result in the complete overthrow and destruction of the Jewish state, defined in the prophets as “the sinful kingdom,” resulting also in the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the deportation into captivity of its population. Further steps in the decline and judgment of Israel also appear in this chapter.
The enchanters and diviners mentioned here does not indicate that the prophets believed there was any authenticity in the claims of such persons, a question Isaiah skirted altogether in this passage; but all of the prophets invariably held that the consultation or use of such alleged sources of power was sinful. The message here speaks of the extreme state of Israel’s apostasy in that such persons were considered the principal props of the nation. Cheyne pointed out the prophets of Israel asserted that, “The use of such magical powers was an act of rebellion against the God of gods.
Isa 3:4-7
“And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. And the people shall be oppressed, everyone by another, and everyone by his neighbor: the child shall behave himself proudly against the old man, and the base against the honorable. When a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand; in that day shall he lift up his voice, saying, I will not be a healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: ye shall not make me ruler of the people.”
The babes and children mentioned in Isa 3:4 is a reference to the incompetence, weakness, and ignorance of the people that will be elevated to places of authority as the decline of Israel continues. Isa 3:5 speaks of the arrogant rejection of authority and the utter disregard of God’s law concerning respect for the aged. Isa 3:6-7 speak of a state of wretchedness in the continued ruin of Israel in which men would be offered high authority for no better reason than their having possession of a coat; but the ruin of the kingdom was so complete that no one wanted to be charged with the responsibility of ruling it.
Isa 3:1-4 RUINED GOVERNMENT. Every necessity will be taken away from Jerusalem and Judah. Every stay and staff. Bread and water are essential for physical life, but they would disappear when God stepped forth to judge the land for its sins. Civil and cultural stay and staff (perhaps even more necessary than bread and water) would also be taken away. Every form of authority would disappear:
a. mighty man-hero; man of valor already tested in battle
b. man of war-common soldier; lower in rank than mighty man
c. judge-civil officer who arbitrated civil cases
d. prophet-one who delivered Gods revelation to the people (with the prophet gone would come a famine of hearing the words of the Lord . . . Cf. Amo 8:11)
e. diviner-not a legitimate support, but one depended upon, nevertheless, by the people. The entire present order of things, the Judean way of life was to be changed radically.
f. captain of fifty-designates a particular officer (Cf. 2Ki 1:9; Exo 18:25; 1Sa 8:12).
g. honorable men-favored persons-those who had the favor of the king, probably occupied positions of responsibility
h. counsellor-one who served the public in counseling
i. expert artificer-one who is wise or skillful with respect to arts (Cf. 2Ki 24:14 ff; Jer 24:1; Jer 29:2).
j. skillful enchanter-one who whispered or muttered magical formulas; not a legitimate office
In the place of experienced and sagacious adult authorities, God would cause children and babes (literally: puerilities) to rule over them. Incompetent, inexperienced, childish, brat-like rulers would be substituted for Jerusalem and Judah. A whole line of youthful kings followed Hezekiah. After him, only one was 25 years of age (the legal age of a Jew was 30):
Jehoahaz – 23 yrs. old; 2Ki 23:31
Amon – 22 yrs. old; 2Ki 21:19
Zedekaih – 21 yrs. old; 2Ki 24:18
Jehoiachim – 18 yrs. old; 2Ki 24:8
Mannasseh – 12 yrs. old; 2Ki 21:1
Josiah – 8 yrs. old; 2Ki 22:1
It is the hotheadedness, the over-confidence, and the recklessness of youth that is stressed here. The lack of maturity in judgment and decision would be the ruin of the nation. As an Arabian writer said, A blow in the face by an axe is easier to take than the rule of a boy. Young writes: When respect for age goes, moral anarchy is at hand . . . Respect for old age had been coupled in the law with the fear of God (Lev 19:32). When all authority passes, respect for age also passes. One evidence of the degeneration of a government and people is seen in the manner in which the aged are treated. The N.T. clearly teaches Christians to respect the authority of age (especially of those appointed elders and overseers of the Lords church) (Cf. 1Ti 3:1-13; 1Ti 5:1-24; 2Ti 3:2; Tit 3:1 ff; Heb 13:7; Heb 13:17; 1Pe 5:5; Eph 6:1-4; Col 3:20, etc.). The childish vexation of Ahab, king of Israel, because he could not have Naboths vineyard, (Cf. 1Ki 21:1 ff) is a pointed example of what type of rulers would soon come to Judah because of their sin, (Cf. Ecc 10:5-7; Ecc 10:16-17).
Isa 3:5-7 RESULTING CHAOS. Social chaos is inevitable. Oppression by one another (everyman did that which was right in his own eyes, for there was no king in Israel [Jdg 17:6, etc.]), is the certain result of such moral anarchy. The spirit of Rehoboam (rebellion) would take precedence over the spirit of Solomon (wise judgment) and the result would be rashness, recklessness and failure. Those who should occupy a place of subserviency arrogate to themselves places of power. Men will seek to appoint rulers on the mere basis of possessing a few garments. The extremely critical condition of Judah appears in this prophecy. Anyone who possesses extra clothing will be accosted and forced to try to rescue the nation from civil economic and international ruin. The one accosted will vehemently refuse the pressure. In the first place he does not consider himself to possess the means necessary to alleviate the existing conditions; and in the second place he considers the circumstances impossible-the ruined nation beyond all help-and he does not want the responsibility. He refuses to be a healer because Judah is beyond being healed. It is indeed tragic, in nation or church, that conditions can become so calamitous that a righteous man will refuse to undertake the responsibilities of leadership !
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The prophet now deals with judgment in greater detail, and shows how it will proceed against the rulers and against the women. The judgment in the case of the rulers is to be the destruction of true government and the substitution of incompetent administration, with chaos necessarily resulting. The reason for this, so far as the people are concerned, is the open sin into which they have been led by evil rulers. So far as Jehovah is concerned, He has the cause of the people in His heart, and is against all oppression.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
an Exhortation to Humility and Reverence
Isa 2:12-22; Isa 3:1-12
If men will not repent, they must suffer. If they will not voluntarily put away their idols and sorceries, they will be compelled to do so in the anguish of their disappointment with their helpless deities, Isa 2:20. Nothing in that great civilization would be spared. High towers, fenced walls, ships, treasures, armor-all would perish. Their vaunted faith in man would cease. Life would become elemental in its simplicity amid the shelter of the ragged rocks. In sarcastic phrase the prophet depicts a despairing nation choosing for ruler the first man that came along with a decent coat on his back, Isa 2:6; but in vain. We can almost hear the sob of the prophets soul in Isa 2:8-9, and recall the tears of a greater than Isaiah, Who wept over this same Jerusalem eight hundred years afterward. Patriotism is one of the purest passions that can burn in the heart of man! Lives there a man, with soul so dead, that never to himself has said, This is my own, my native land!
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
EXPOSITORY NOTES ON
THE PROPHET ISAIAH
By
Harry A. Ironside, Litt.D.
Copyright @ 1952
edited for 3BSB by Baptist Bible Believer in the spirit of the Colportage ministry of a century ago
ISAIAH CHAPTER THREE
JUDAH’S FALLEN CONDITION
“For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, the mighty man, and the man of war, the Judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable. When a man shall 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: In that day shall he 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. For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of His glory. The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him:, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto 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 thorn. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths. The Lord standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people. The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord God of hosts” (verses 1-15).
THIS third chapter continues along the same line as chapter two, but makes it very definitely clear that it is Jerusalem and Judah which GOD has in view above all others when He speaks of coming desolation and unsparing judgment.
The covenant people and the one-time holy city had gone so far from the path of obedience that GOD Himself prepared them for the vengeance decreed by weakening their means of defense.
Children were their princes and babes ruled over them. Their leaders, in other words, were like infants unable to control themselves, much less to guide others aright, so disorder and confusion prevailed in place of orderly government. When GOD is dethroned, anarchy always results.
In their desperation, men were ready to follow anyone who might seem to be able to point out a way of escape from the present misery and might promise to bring order out of the chaotic condition prevailing. But those to whom they turned for guidance were in utter bewilderment themselves, and so refused to take the responsibility of seeking to rectify the abuses which were affecting the nation so adversely (verses 5-7).
The root-cause of all the trouble is indicated in verse 8, “Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of His glory.” Thus they had brought down judgment upon their own heads, and so we hear the solemn “woes” pronounced against them – two in this chapter (verses 9 and 11); and six in chapter five (verses 8, 11, 18, 20, 21, 22).
First we read, “Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.” Then in verse 11, “Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.” As for the righteous remnant, GOD will care for them, protecting them in the day of storm and stress (verse 10).
Alas, the great majority of the people were oblivious to their danger and were content to go on with children as their oppressors and women ruling over them, as we have seen; a weak and powerless leadership that could not lift them above the existing confusion.
The Psalmist prayed, “Enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified” (Psa 143:2). There is none now to plead for the guilty leaders in Judah; rather, the Lord Himself stands up to plead against them and to enter into judgment with them. Because of the way they have misled the people and abused their confidence, He will hold them accountable for all their waywardness.
“Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, the rings, and nose jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, the glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails. And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty. Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground” (verses 16-26).
The vain women too who have given themselves to folly come in for a stern rebuke.
In their pride and empty-headedness, their one great concern has been personal adornment. Vain of their beauty, they sought to add to it by every device known to women of fashion. But GOD was about to smite them with sore diseases that would disfigure them and make them to be loathed by their former admirers.
It may seem strange to observe that GOD took note of all the ornaments and apparel that they relied upon to make themselves attractive, but we need to remember that in the New Testament careful instruction is given to women that their adorning be not that which is outward, such as wearing of jewels, putting on of apparel and wearing the hair attractively, but rather that meekness and grace which is the adornment of the heart.
It is well for Christian women to pay careful attention to that which is here set forth, as becoming to women professing godliness. Pride and vanity are alike hateful to GOD, whether manifested in men or in women. In due time such behavior must be dealt with by Him in judgment if there be no repentance.
~ end of chapter 3 ~
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
CHAPTER 3
Judgments upon the Rulers and the Daughters Of Zion
1. The judgment against the rulers (Isa 3:1-7) 2. Jerusalems sad condition (Isa 3:8-9) 3. Jehovahs message (Isa 3:10-15) 4. The worldliness of the daughters of Zion (Isa 3:16-23) 5. Their humiliation in judgment (Isa 3:24-26; Isa 4:1)This chapter describes the corrupt conditions among the professing people of God in Isaiahs day. A similar corruption and worldliness prevailing in our age demands divine judgment.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
behold: Isa 2:22
the Lord: Isa 1:24, Isa 36:12, Isa 51:22
the stay: Lev 26:26, Psa 105:16, Jer 37:21, Jer 38:9, Eze 4:16, Eze 4:17, Eze 14:13
Reciprocal: Gen 18:5 – comfort Gen 44:1 – Fill the Jdg 10:18 – What man Job 12:20 – taketh Psa 104:15 – bread Pro 28:2 – the transgression Isa 22:3 – thy rulers Jer 52:6 – the famine Lam 5:4 – have Eze 4:10 – General Eze 5:16 – and will Eze 16:27 – and have Mic 4:9 – is there
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 3:1. For, &c. The prophet, having in the preceding chapter declared, in general terms, the terror of the day of the Lord, now descends to a more particular explication, and special confirmation of what he had advanced concerning it. Behold Look upon what follows to be as certain as if it were already accomplished; the Lord doth take away, &c., the stay and the staff All their supports, of what kind soever; all the things they trust to, and look for help and relief from; the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water Bread is commonly called the staff of life: see Lev 26:26; Eze 14:13. But by bread and water here are meant all kinds of aliment, whereby the body is supported. This judgment seems to relate especially to the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, when bread and water were both very scarce: see Jer 14:1-6; Jer 37:21; Jer 38:9.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 3:1. Behold, the Lord doth take away from Jerusalemthe whole stay of bread. This threatening is understood of the Chaldean invasion in the reign of Jechoniah, and after the death of king Josiah. The prophet, as in the preseding chapter, continues to speak of future times. Habakkuk is considered as referring to the same invasion, when he says, Though the figtree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be on the vine, &c. Hab 3:17.
Isa 3:2. The mighty man. The soldier shall be devoid of courage, the judge destitute of wisdom, the prophet hopeless, the false prophet struck dumb on seeing all his predictions of plenty, terminate in want of bread, and in a diversion of the streams of water from the city. A nation without God; a people torporized with guilt! They were then made to know the breach of Gods covenant.
Isa 3:4. I will give children to be their princes. The four last kings of Davids race were young men, mere boys in wisdom, and their baseness augmented the calamities of their country. See 2Ki 24:14.
Isa 3:10. Say ye to the righteous. See on Eze 21:3.
Isa 3:12. Children are their oppressors. Their rulers were children in understanding, such imbeciles as Rehoboam and Ahaz.Women rule over them. A soft husband is often hen pecked, and often for the good of the family. Cato, in one of his satirical humours, said, Mulieres regunt nos, nos Senatum; Senatus Romam. That is, women rule over us; they rule the senate; the senate is an old wife.
Isa 3:14. Ye have eaten up the vineyard. The elders of Israel had taken advantage of every change in the nation to wrest the lots of land from the poor, as their own freeholds for ever. At the captivity, the jubilee was but a name: now the Lord wrested the land from the oppressors. The prophet Micah follows Isaiah in raising his voice against the oppressors, who ground the faces of the poor, and sold the needy for a pair of shoes.
Isa 3:16. The daughters of Zion are haughty. Women are particularly formed for maternal virtues, and to shine in all the paths of piety, like the noble Grecian ladies mentioned in the reflections on Acts 4. At present they play a high game in the fashionable world; and even religious women are seen on Saturday at the theatre, and on Sunday at the sacrament! They had better look at the daughters of Zion, dragged in a state of nudity to the markets of Babylon, as in Isa 3:17. An offended God has the rod in his hand; the sword, disease, and captivity, are at his command. The cholera makes the wicked fear, and all have reason to exclaim with the dying patriot, Oh my country! We have now also a powerful empire in our front. Since the peace of 1815, France, which so much excels us in population, has revived all her energies of agriculture, of commerce, of naval and military grandeur. All her seamen are registered, and ready at a moments command. When the wary Romans made peace with Antiochus they stipulated concerning the extent of his navy, to obviate future fears. Tradito et naves longas armamentaque earum; neve plures quam decem naves actuarias (nulla plusquam triginta remis agatur) habeto; neve monerem ex bella causa, quod ipse illaturus erit, &c.
Isa 3:18. Round tires like the moon. An ornament horned like the moon, a species of golden torque to support their robes. See Deu 1:28. Pro 1:9.
Isa 3:21. Nose jewels. In Holdsworths book of Asiatic dresses, nose jewels are not to be found; they occur in bones of white ivory in some untutored negroes of Africa, and among the Indians of the South sea. The human face being the noblest work of God, both for perfection and beauty, jewels only degrade its noble aspect. What can diamonds add to a countenance which should ever shine with the moral glory of God.
Isa 3:23. The glassespolished reflectors of copper or mixed metals. Glass was not discovered till about fifty years before the birth of our Saviour.
REFLECTIONS.
During the long and peaceful reign of Uzziah, the Hebrews had improved their agriculture and commerce, and wantonly indulged themselves in luxuries, horses and carriages. The prophet therefore was led to foresee their calamities, that God would punish waste with want, pride with humiliation, and incorrigible crimes with the sword of the Chaldees. 2 Kings 24, 25. Their bribery and corruption, in obtaining places of trust and dignity, he would punish by making those rulers anxious to transfer their power to any one, that the evil might not dishonour their own name. The equity of Gods national visitations was founded on the greatness of their sin; the infidel character of their conversion, and the reigning habits of vice had long caused them to cease from blushing. They showed, as the people of Sodom, a daring affront; they gloried in the insults they had offered to modesty and conscience, and mocked both piety and vengeance.
The women, in the more fashionable circles of Jerusalem, contributed not less than men towards the ruin of their country. Their haughty airs, their wanton eyes, their mincing gait, which dispersed the perfumes in their shoes, accompanied with offensive dresses, all mark the awful stage of corruption to which they had arrived.And who in reading this portrait can forbear thinking of the ladies in London, Paris, and in all the polished circles of Europe. Their education, their course of reading, their monthly changes of dress, their nocturnal pleasures, with their total effeminacy and dissipation, announce them to be in a situation which cannot be far distant from punishment. And how striking, how mortifying are the characters of that punishment! Instead of beauty and fine tresses of hair, there should be baldness, and a shriveled mien. Instead of Indian perfumes, there should be the effluvia of disease. Instead of fashionable dresses, there should be sackcloth. Their husbands and paramours should fall by the sword, and burning should follow beauty, when those delicate ladies, whose fingers disdained to touch domestic labour, should be compelled to work in the field. What shall mortals say of the Lords judgments? Our sins indeed are great; but is there no remedy? Are we glutted with wealth, and cursed with pleasure? Is there no way to check the gay and giddy crowd? Is there no gospel which can persuade, and no paternal rod which can prevent a greater destruction. Are we lost, irretrievably lost? Must we then sink with gay indifference down to everlasting fire? Oh Lord, in the midst of wrath remember mercy.The first verse of the fourth chapter should be added here. The daughters of Zion who knew not what to do with themselves in pride and prosperity, shall not know what to do with themselves in adversity. Husbands failing because of slaughter, seven of them, a certain for an uncertain number, shall claim and beg protection from one man on the abject condition of feeding and clothing themselves. Hence it appears that polygamy, which has no foundation in nature, often originated in the great slaughter of men. Besides, they might do this not only to take away their reproach, but to protect them against being seized more dishonourably by the heathen.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 3:1-12. Judah to be Punished with Anarchy.The date is uncertain. That it was early in the reign of Ahaz is a dubious inference from Isa 3:12. The pillars of society will be removed, and control will thus be thrown into the hands of young, inexperienced upstarts. Social distinctions will be swept away, age and rank no longer secure respect. Tired of the anarchy, the people will offer the headship of their district to one whom they imagine equal to it, apparently because he belongs to the old order and has hereditary instincts for administration. But he will refuse, disclaiming the qualification. This impending ruin is due to Judahs rebellious provocation of Yahweh, its respect of persons (mg.), Sodom-like shamelessness in its sin. Blessed is the righteous, woe to the wicked; each shall reap what he has sown. The people is governed by oppressors and usurers, its leaders mislead it.
Isa 3:1. the whole . . . water: a gloss; stay and staff are the pillars of society.
Isa 3:6. Render, When a man shall take hold of his brother saying, In thy fathers (reading 2nd person) house is a mantle (? robe of office), come be thou our ruler.
Isa 3:10 f. Perhaps a gloss; the Heb. is elliptical, the thought generalising, the standpoint that of the later individualism, which sharply differentiated the pious and wicked and asserted a corresponding difference in their fate.Say ye of: read Blessed is (ashre for imru).
Isa 3:12. Render, tormentors are their oppressors, and usurers (nshim) rule over them.destroy: confuse.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
3:1 For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the rod {a} and the staff, the whole support of bread, and the whole support of water,
(a) Because they trusted in their abundance and prosperity he shows that they should be taken from them.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The 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 (Isa 3:1; Isa 3:15).
"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." [Note: Oswalt, p. 131.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The folly of trusting in people 3:1-4:1
This section gives particular examples of the general statements that precede it. Isaiah’s point was that depending on people will not yield the glorious destiny of Israel depicted in Isa 2:1-4. The prophet used imagery to make his point rather than logical argumentation.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
"For" ties this section to the argument of Isa 2:6-22. "Behold" (Heb. hinneh) commonly introduces a threat in prophetic material. The multiple names of God again hint at judgment to come (cf. Isa 1:24; Isa 10:16; Isa 10:33; Isa 19:4). God was going to remove what was essential from Judah and Jerusalem. "Supply" (Heb. mash’en) and "support" (Heb. mash’ena) 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.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER II
THE THREE JERUSALEMS
740-735 B.C.
Isa 2:1-22; Isa 3:1-26; Isa 4:1-6
AFTER the general introduction, in chapter 1, to the prophecies of Isaiah, there comes another portion of the book, of greater length, but nearly as distinct as the first. It covers four chapters, the second to the sixth, all of them dating from the same earliest period of Isaiahs ministry, before 735 B.C. They deal with exactly the same subjects, but they differ greatly inform. One section (chapters 2-4.) consists of a number of short utterances-evidently not all spoken at the same time, for they conflict with one another-a series of consecutive prophecies, that probably represent the stages of conviction through which Isaiah passed in his prophetic apprenticeship; a second section (chapter 5) is a careful and artistic restatement, in parable and oration, of the truths he has thus attained; while a third section (chapter 6) is narrative, probably written subsequently to the first two, but describing an inspiration and official call, which must have preceded them both. The more one examines chapters 2-6., and finds that they but express the same truths in different forms, the more one is confirmed in some such view of them as this, which, it is believed, the following exposition will justify. chapters 5 and 6 are twin appendices to the long summary in 2-4: chapter 5 a public vindication and enforcement of the results of that summary, chapter 6 a private vindication to the prophets heart of the very same truths, by a return to the secret moment of their original inspiration. We may assign 735 B.C., just before or just after the accession of Ahaz, as the date of the latest of these prophecies. The following is their historical setting.
For more than half a century the kingdom of Judah, under two powerful and righteous monarchs, had enjoyed the greatest prosperity. Uzziah strengthened the borders, extended the supremacy and vastly increased the resources of his little State, which, it is well to remember, was in its own size not larger than three average Scottish counties. He won back for Judah the port of Elah on the Red Sea, built a navy, and restored the commerce with the far East, which Solomon began. He overcame, in battle or by the mere terror of his name, the neighbouring nations-the Philistines that dwelt in cities, and the wandering tribes of desert Arabs. The Ammonites brought him gifts. With the wealth, which the East by tribute or by commerce poured into his little principality, Uzziah fortified his borders and his capital, undertook large works of husbandry and irrigation, organised a powerful standing army, and supplied it with a siege artillery capable of slinging arrows and stones. “His name spread far abroad, for he was marvellously helped till he was strong.” His son Jotham (740-735 B.C.) continued his father s policy with nearly all his fathers success. He built cities and castles, quelled a rebellion among his tributaries, and caused their riches to flow faster still into Jerusalem. But while Jotham bequeathed to his country a sure defence and great wealth, and to his people a strong spirit and prestige among the nations, he left another bequest, which robbed these of their value-the son who succeeded him. In 735 Jotham died and Ahaz became king. He was very young, and stepped to the throne from the hareem. He brought to the direction of the government the petulant will of a spoiled child, the mind of an intriguing and superstitious, woman. It was-when the national policy felt the paralysis consequent on these that Isaiah published at least the later part of the prophecies now marked off as chapters 2-4 of his book. “My people,” he cries-“my people! children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.”
Isaiah had been born into the flourishing nation while Uzziah was king. The great events of that monarchs reign were his education, the still grander hopes they prompted the passion of his virgin fancy. He must have absorbed as the very temper of his youth this national consciousness which swelled so proudly in Judah under Uzziah. But the accession of such a king as Ahaz, while it was sure to let loose the passions and follies fostered by a period of rapid increase in luxury, could not fail to afford to Judahs enemies the long-deferred opportunity of attacking her. It was an hour both of the manifestation of sin and of the judgment of sin-an hour in which, while the majesty of Judah, sustained through two great reigns, was about to disappear in the follies of a third, the majesty of Judahs God should become more conspicuous than ever. Of this Isaiah had been privately conscious, as we shall see, for five years. “In the year that king Uzziah died,” (740), the young Jew “saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.” Startled into prophetic consciousness by the awful contrast between an earthly majesty that had so long fascinated men, but now sank into a lepers grave, and the heavenly, which rose sovereign and everlasting above it, Isaiah had gone on to receive conviction of his peoples sin and certain punishment. With the accession of Ahaz, five years later, his own political experience was so far developed as to permit of his expressing in their exact historical effects the awful principles of which he had received foreboding when Uzziah died. What we find in chapters 2-4 is a record of the struggle of his mind towards this expression; it is the summary, as we have already said, of Isaiahs apprenticeship.
“The word that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.” We do not know anything of Isaiahs family or of the details of his upbringing. He was a member of some family of Jerusalem, and in intimate relations with the Court. It has been believed that he was of royal blood, but it matters little whether this be true or not. A spirit so wise and masterful as his did not need social rank to fit it for that intimacy with princes which has doubtless suggested the legend of his royal descent. What does matter is Isaiahs citizenship in Jerusalem, for this colours all his prophecy. More than Athens to Demosthenes, Rome to Juvenal, Florence to Dante, is Jerusalem to Isaiah. She is his immediate and ultimate regard, the centre and return of all his thoughts, the hinge of the history of his time, the one thing worth preserving amidst its disasters, the summit of those brilliant hopes with which he fills the future. He has traced for us the main features of her position and some of the lines of her construction, many of the great figures of her streets, the fashions of her women, the arrival of embassies, the effect of rumours. He has painted her aspect in triumph, in siege, in famine, and in earthquake; war filling her valleys with chariots, and again nature rolling tides of fruitfulness up to her gates; her moods of worship and panic and profligacy-till we see them all as clearly as the shadow following the sunshine, and the breeze the breeze, across the cornfields of our own summers.
If he takes wider observation of mankind, Jerusalem is his watch-tower. It is for her defence he battles through fifty years of statesmanship, and all his prophecy may be said to travail in anguish for her new birth. He was never away from her walls, but not even the psalms of the captives by the rivers of Babylon, with the desire of exile upon them, exhibit more beauty and pathos than the lamentations which Isaiah poured upon Jerusalems sufferings or the visions in which he described her future solemnity and peace.
It is not with surprise, therefore, that we find the first prophecies of Isaiah directed upon his mother city: “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.” There is little about Judah in these chapters: the country forms but a fringe to the capital.
Before we look into the subject of the prophecy, however, a short digression is necessary on the manner in which it is presented to us. It is not a reasoned composition or argument we have here; it is a vision, it is the word which Isaiah saw. The expression is vague, often abused and in need of defining. Vision is not employed here to express any magical display before the eyes of the prophet of the very words which he was to speak to the people, or any communication to his thoughts by dream or ecstasy. They are higher qualities of “vision” which these chapters unfold. There is, first of all, the power of forming an ideal, of seeing and describing a thing in the fulfilment of all the promise that is in it. But these prophecies are much more remarkable for two other powers of inward vision, to which we give the names of insight and intuition-insight into human character, intuition of Divine principles-“clear knowledge of what man is and how God will act”-a keen discrimination of the present state of affairs in Judah, and unreasoned conviction of moral truth and the Divine will. The original meaning of the Hebrew word saw, which is used in the title to this series, is to cleave, or split; then to see into, to see through, to get down beneath the surface of things and discover their real nature. And what characterises the bulk of these visions is penetrativeness, the keenness of a man who will not be deceived by an outward show that he delights to hold up to our scorn, but who has a conscience for the inner worth of things and for their future consequences. To lay stress on the moral meaning of the prophets vision is not to grudge, but to emphasise its inspiration by God.
Of that inspiration Isaiah was himself assured. It was Gods Spirit that enabled him to see thus keenly; for he saw things keenly, net only as men count moral keenness, but as God Himself sees them, in their value in His sight and in their attractiveness for His love and pity. In this prophecy there occurs a striking expression “the eyes of the glory of God.” It was the vision of the Almighty Searcher and Judge, burning through mans pretence, with which the prophet felt himself endowed. This then was the second element in his vision-to penetrate mens hearts as God Himself penetrated them, and constantly, without squint or blur, to see right from wrong in their eternal difference. And the third element is the intuition of Gods will, the perception of what line of action He will take. This last, of course, forms the distinct prerogative of Hebrew prophecy, that power of vision which is its climax; the moral situation being clear, to see then how God will act upon it.
Under these three powers of vision Jerusalem, the prophets city, is presented to us-Jerusalem in three lights, really three Jerusalems. First, there is flashed out {Isa 2:2-5} a vision of the ideal city, Jerusalem idealised and glorified. Then comes {Isa 2:6 – Isa 4:1} a very realistic picture, a picture of the actual Jerusalem. And lastly at the close of the prophecy {Isa 4:2-6} we have a vision of Jerusalem as she shall be after God has taken her in hand-very different indeed from the ideal with which the prophet began. Here are three successive motives or phases of prophecy, which, as we have said, in all probability summarise the early ministry of Isaiah, and present him to us first, as the idealist or visionary; second, as the realist or critic; and, third, as the prophet proper or revealer of Gods actual will.
I. THE IDEALIST
{Isa 2:1-5}
All men who have shown our race how great things are possible have had their inspiration in dreaming of the impossible. Reformers, who at death were content to have lived for the moving forward but one inch of some of their fellow-men, began by believing themselves able to lift the whole world at once. Isaiah was no exception to this human fashion. His first vision was that of a Utopia, and his first belief that his countrymen would immediately realise it. He lifts up to us a very grand picture of a vast commonwealth centred in Jerusalem. Some think he borrowed it from an older prophet; Micah has it also; it may have been the ideal of the age. But, at any rate, if we are not to take Isa 2:5 in scorn, Isaiah accepted this as his own. “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.” The prophets own Jerusalem shall be the light of the world, the school and temple of the earth, the seat of the judgment of the Lord, when He shall reign over the nations, and all mankind shall dwell in peace beneath Him. It is a glorious destiny, and as its light shines from the far-off horizon, the latter days, in which the prophet sees it, what wonder that he is possessed and cries aloud, “O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord!” It seems to the young prophets hopeful heart as if at once that ideal would be realised, as if by his own word he could lift his people to its fulfilment.
But that is impossible, and Isaiah perceives so as soon as he turns from the far-off horizon to the city at his feet, as soon as he leaves tomorrow alone and deals with today. The next verses of the chapter-from Isa 2:6 onwards-stand in strong contrast to those which have described Israels ideal. There Zion is full of the law and Jerusalem of the word of the Lord, the one religion flowing over from this centre upon the world. Here into the actual Jerusalem they have brought all sorts of foreign worship and heathen prophets; “they are replenished from the East, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and strike hands with the children of strangers.” There all nations come to worship at Jerusalem; here her thought and faith are scattered over the idolatries of all nations. The ideal Jerusalem is full of spiritual blessings; the actual, of the spoils of trade. There the swords are beat into ploughshares and the. spears into pruning-hooks; here are vast and novel armaments, horses and chariots. There the Lord alone is worshipped; here the city is crowded with idols. The real Jerusalem could not possibly be more different from the ideal, nor its inhabitants as they are from what the prophet had confidently called on them to be.
II. THE REALIST
{Isa 2:6 – Isa 4:1}
Therefore Isaiahs attitude and tone suddenly change. The visionary becomes a realist, the enthusiast a cynic, the seer of the glorious city of God the prophet of Gods judgment. The recoil is absolute in style, temper, and thought, down to the very figures of speech which he uses. Before, Isaiah had seen, as it were, a lifting process at work, “Jerusalem in the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills.” Now he beholds nothing but depression. “For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and haughty, upon all that is lifted up, and it shall be brought low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.” Nothing in the great civilisation, which he had formerly glorified, is worth preserving. The high towers, fenced walls, ships of Tarshish, treasures and armour must all perish; even the hills lifted by his imagination shall be bowed down, and “the Lord alone be exalted in that day.” This recoil reaches its extreme in the last verse of the chapter. The prophet, who had believed so much in man as to think possible an immediate commonwealth of nations, believes in man now so little that he does not hold him worth preserving: “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?”
Attached to this general denunciation are some satiric descriptions, in the third chapter, of the anarchy to which society in Jerusalem is fast being reduced under its childish and effeminate king. The scorn of these passages is scathing; “the eyes of the glory of God” burn through every rank, fashion, and ornament in the town. King and court are not spared; the elders and princes are rigorously denounced. But by far the most striking effort of the prophets boldness is his prediction of the overthrow of Jerusalem itself (Isa 3:8). What it cost Isaiah to utter and the people to hear we can only partly measure. To his own passionate patriotism it must have felt like treason, to the blind optimism of the popular religion it doubtless appeared the rankest heresy-to aver that the holy city, inviolate and almost unthreatened since the day David brought to her the ark of the Lord, and destined by the voice of her prophets, including Isaiah himself, to be established upon the tops of the mountains, was now to fall into ruin. But Isaiahs conscience overcomes his sense of consistency, and he who has just proclaimed the eternal glory of Jerusalem is provoked by his knowledge of her citizens sins to recall his words and intimate her destruction. It may have been that Isaiah was partly emboldened to so novel a threat, by his knowledge of the preparations which Syria and Israel were already making for the invasion of Judah. The prospect of Jerusalem, as the centre of a vast empire subject to Jehovah, however natural it was under a successful ruler like Uzziah, became, of course, unreal when every one of Uzziahs and Jothams tributaries had risen in revolt against their successor, Ahaz. But of these outward movements Isaiah tells us nothing. He is wholly engrossed with Judahs sin. It is his growing acquaintance with the corruption of his fellow countrymen that has turned his back on the ideal city of his opening ministry, and changed him into a prophet of Jerusalems ruin. “Their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of His glory.” Judge, prophet, and elder, all the upper ranks and useful guides of the people, must perish. It is a sign of the degradation to which society shall be reduced, when Isaiah with keen sarcasm pictures the despairing people choosing a certain man to be their ruler because he alone has a coat to his back! {Isa 3:6}
With increased scorn Isaiah turns lastly upon the women of Jerusalem, {Isa 3:16-26; Isa 4:1-2} and here perhaps the change which has passed over him since his opening prophecy is most striking. One likes to think of how the citizens of Jerusalem took this alteration in their prophets temper. We know how popular so optimist a prophecy as that of the mountain of the Lords house must have been, and can imagine how men and women loved the young face, bright with a far-off light, and the dream of an ideal that had no quarrel with the present. “But what a change is this that has come over him, who speaks not of tomorrow, but of today, who has brought his gaze from those distant horizons to our streets, who stares every man in the face, {Isa 3:9} and makes the women feel that no pin and trimming, no ring and bracelet, escape his notice! Our loved prophet has become an impudent scorner!” Ah, men and women of Jerusalem, beware of those eyes! “The glory of God” is burning in them; they see you through and through, and they tell us that all your armour and the “show of your countenance,” and your foreign fashions are as nothing, for there are corrupt hearts below. This is your judgment, that “instead of sweet spices there shall be rottenness, and instead of a girdle a rope, and instead of well-set hair baldness, and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth, and branding instead of beauty. Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn, and she shall be desolate and sit upon the ground!”
This was the climax of the prophets judgment. If the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot. If the women are corrupt the state is moribund.
III. THE PROPHET OF THE LORD
{Isa 4:2-6}
IS there, then, no hope for Jerusalem? Yes, but not where the prophet sought it at first, in herself, and not in the way he offered it-by the mere presentation of an ideal. There is hope, there is more-there is certain salvation in the Lord, but it only comes after judgment. Contrast that opening picture of the new Jerusalem with this closing one, and we shall find their difference to lie in two things. There the city is more prominent than the Lord, here the Lord is more prominent than the city; there no word of judgment, here judgment sternly emphasised as the indispensable way towards the blessed future. A more vivid sense of the Person of Jehovah Himself, a deep conviction of the necessity of chastisement: these are what Isaiah has gained during his early ministry, without losing hope or heart for the future. The bliss shall come only when the Lord shall “have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning.” It is a corollary of all this that the participants of that future shall be many fewer than in the first vision of the prophet. The process of judgment must weed men out, and in place of all nations coming to Jerusalem, to share its peace and glory, the prophet can speak now only of Israel-and only of a remnant of Israel. “The escaped of Israel, the left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem.” This is a great change in Isaiahs ideal, from the supremacy of Israel over all nations to the bare survival of a remnant of his people.
Is there not in this threefold vision a parallel and example for our own civilisation and our thoughts about it? All work and wisdom begin in dreams. We must see our Utopias before we start to build our stone and lime cities.
“It takes a soul
To move a body; it takes a high-souled man
To move the masses even to a cleaner stye;
It takes the ideal to blow an inch inside
The dust of the actual.”
But the light of our ideals dawns upon us only to show how poor by nature are the mortals who are called to accomplish them. The ideal rises still as to Isaiah only to exhibit the poverty of the real. When we lift our eyes from the hills of vision, and rest them on our fellow-men, hope and enthusiasm die out of us. Isaiahs disappointment is that of every one who brings down his gaze from the clouds to the streets. Be our ideal ever so desirable, be we ever so persuaded of its facility, the moment we attempt to apply it we shall be undeceived. Society cannot be regenerated all at once. There is an expression which Isaiah emphasises in his moment of cynicism: “The show of their countenance doth witness against them.” It tells us that when he called his countrymen to turn to the light he lifted upon them he saw nothing but the exhibition of their sin made plain. When we bring light to a cavern whose inhabitants have lost their eyes by the darkness, the light does not make them see; we have to give them eyes again. Even so no vision or theory of a perfect state-the mistake which all young reformers make- can regenerate society. It will only reveal social corruption, and sicken the heart of the reformer himself. For the possession of a great ideal does not mean, as so many fondly imagine, work accomplished; it means work revealed-work revealed so vast, often so impossible, that faith and hope die down, and the enthusiast of yesterday becomes the cynic of tomorrow. “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted?” In this despair, through which every worker for God and man must pass, many a warm heart has grown cold, many an intellect become paralysed. There is but one way of escape, and that is Isaiahs. It is to believe in God Himself; it is to believe that He is at work, that His purposes to man are saving purposes, and that with Him there is an inexhaustible source of mercy and virtue. So from the blackest pessimism shall arise new hope and faith, as from beneath Isaiahs darkest verses that glorious passage suddenly bursts like uncontrollable spring from the very feet of winter. “For that day shall the spring of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.” This is all it is possible to say. There must be a future for man, because God loves him, and God reigns. That future can be reached only through judgment, because God is righteous.
To put it another way: All of us who live to work for our fellow-men or who hope to lift them higher by our word begin with our own visions of a great future. These visions, though our youth lends to them an original generosity and enthusiasm, are, like Isaiahs, largely borrowed. The progressive instincts of the age into which we are born and the mellow skies of prosperity combine with our own ardour to make our ideal one of splendour. Persuaded of its facility, we turn to real life to apply it. A few years pass. We not only find mankind too stubborn to be forced into our moulds, but we gradually become aware of Another Moulder at work upon our subject, and we stand aside in awe to watch His operations. Human desires and national ideals are not always fulfilled; philosophic theories are discredited by the evolution of fact. Uzziah does not reign for ever; the sceptre falls to Ahaz: progress is checked, and the summer of prosperity draws to an end. Under duller skies ungilded judgment comes to view, cruel and inexorable, crushing even the peaks on which we built our future, yet purifying men and giving earnest of a better future, too. And so life, that mocked the control of our puny fingers, bends groaning to the weight of an Almighty Hand. God also, we perceive as we face facts honestly, has His ideal for men; and though He works so slowly towards His end that our restless eyes are too impatient to follow His order, He yet reveals all that shall be to the humbled heart and the soul emptied of its own visions. Awed and chastened, we look back from His Presence to our old ideals. We are still able to recognise their grandeur and generous hope for men. But we see now how utterly unconnected they are with the present-castles in the air, with no ladders to them from the earth. And even if they were accessible, still to our eyes, purged by gazing on Gods own ways, they would no more appear desirable. Look back on Isaiahs early ideal from the light of his second vision of the future. For all its grandeur, that picture of Jerusalem is not wholly attractive. Is there not much national arrogance in it? Is it not just the imperfectly idealised reflection of an age of material prosperity such as that of Uzziahs was? Pride is in it, a false optimism, the highest good to be reached without moral conflict. But here is the language of pity, rescue with difficulty, rest only after sore struggle and stripping, salvation by the bare arm of God. So do our imaginations for our own future or for that of the race always contrast with what He Himself has in store for us, promised freely out of His great grace to our unworthy hearts, yet granted in the end only to those who pass towards it through discipline, tribulation, and fire.
This, then, was Isaiahs apprenticeship, and its net result was to leave him with the remnant for his ideal: the remnant and Jerusalem secured as its rallying-point.