Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 3:5
And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honorable.
5. A general description of the state of anarchy; “the bonds of discipline and order are loosed, all authority disappears” (Dillmann).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And the people shall be oppressed – This describes the state of anarchy and confusion which would exist under the reign of children and babes Isa 3:4, when all law would be powerless, and all rights violated, and when the feeble would be oppressed and borne down by the strong. The word used here, properly denotes that unjust exactions or demands would be made, or that the people would be urged to fulfill them.
Every one by another – In turn they shall oppress and vex one another. Hebrew man by man; and man by his neighbor – a strong mode of expression, denoting that there would be a state of mutual strife, and violation of rights; compare 1Ki 20:20.
The child … – All ranks of society shall be broken up. All respect due from one rank in life to another shall be violated.
Shall behave himself proudly – The word used here means rather to urge, or press on. The child shall crowd on the old man. This was particularly descriptive of a state of anarchy and disorder, from the fact that the Jews inculcated so much respect and deference for age; see the note at Isa 3:2.
The ancient – The old man.
And the base – The man of low rank in life. The word properly means the man that is despised, the vile, the ignoble; 1Sa 18:23; Pro 7:9.
The honorable – All the forms of respect in life would be broken up; all the proper rules of deference between man and man would be violated. Neither dignity, age, nor honor would be respected.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 3:5
And the people shall be oppressed
Tyranny
The dissolution of good order and political confusion.
Oppression and pride everywhere prevail. (R. Macculloch.)
State chaos
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, (J. Parker, D. D.)
An evil spirit in the nation
It is here threatened that God would send an evil spirit among them (Jdg 9:23), which would make them–
1. Injurious and unneighbourly one towards another. The people shall be oppressed everyone by his neighbour, and their princes, being children, take no care to restrain the oppressors, or relieve the oppressed. Nor is it to any purpose to appeal to them.
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 is generally untractable, rude, and ungovernable, when the child behaves himself proudly against the ancient; whereas he should rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man (Lev 19:32). When young people are conceited and pert, and carry it scornfully towards their superiors, it 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 by the mob, and their power set at defiance. (M. Henry.)
A lamentable state of society
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. (M. Henry.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
The people shall be oppressed, by the command or connivance of such childish rulers.
The child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable; foolish and unworthy men shall by wicked arts gain the favour and abuse the power of the prince, and thereby behave themselves insolently towards their betters.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. The anarchy resulting undersuch imbecile rulers (Isa 3:4);unjust exactions mutually; the forms of respect violated (Le19:32).
baselow-born. Comparethe marks of “the last days” (2Ti3:2).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the people shall be oppressed, everyone by another, and everyone by his neighbour,…. There being no governors, or such as were unfit for government, no decorum was kept and observed, but a mere anarchy; and so everyone did as he pleased, as when there was no king in Israel; and everyone rushed into the house of his neighbour, and plundered his goods; this was the case of Jerusalem, at the time of the siege, it abounding with robbers and spoilers:
the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient; show no respect to them, nor honour them, as the law requires in Le 19:32 but behave insolently towards them; and so the Jews say d, that when the son of David is come, as he now would be, young men shall make ashamed the faces of old men, and old men shall stand before young men:
and the base against the honourable; persons of a mean birth and extract would rise up against and insult such as were men of families and fortune, of noble birth and of high degree.
d T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 97. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“And the people oppress one another, one this and another that; the boy breaks out violently upon the old man, and the despised upon the honoured.” Niggas is the reciprocal niphal, as the clause depicting the reciprocity clearly shows (cf., nilcham , Isa 19:2); nagas followed by Beth means to treat as a tyrant or taskmaster (Isa 9:3). The commonest selfishness would then stifle every nobler motive; one would become the tyrant of another, and ill-mannered insolence would take the place of that reverence, which is due to the old and esteemed from boys and those who are below them in position, whether we regard the law of nature, the Mosaic law (Lev 19:32), or the common custom of society. Nikleh (from kalah , the synonym of , Isa 9:1; Isa 23:9; cf., Isa 16:14, kal, to be light or insignificant) was a term used to denote whoever belonged to the lowest stratum of society (1Sa 18:23). It was the opposite of nichad (from Cabed , to be heavy or of great importance). The Septuagint rendering, is a very good one (as the Semitic languages have no such antithetical formations with ). With such contempt of the distinctions arising from age and position, the state would very soon become a scene of the wildest confusion.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
5. The people will oppress every man his neighbor He describes the utmost confusion, which was about to overtake the Jews, when order was destroyed or relaxed; and this will happen to all nations, as soon as government is removed or falls to the ground. We know how great is the wantonness of the human mind, when every man is hurried along by ambition and, in short, how furious the lawless passions are when they are laid under no restraint. There is no reason, therefore, to wonder if, when the judgment-seats have been laid low, every man insults his neighbor, cruelty abounds, and licentiousness rages without control. If we considered this wisely, we would set a higher value on the kindness of God, when he preserves us in any tolerable condition, and does not allow us to be lamentably ruined. Hence it is evident that they who direct or apply their minds to sap the foundations of civil government are the open enemies of mankind, or rather, they are in no respect different from wild beasts.
But this confusion described by the Prophet is most disgraceful, that a child shall dare to insult an old man, that the dregs of a low and despised multitude shall rise up against nobles and men of high reputation; for it is the most preposterous of all things that modesty shall be thrown away, so that they who were worthy of veneration shall be treated with contempt. And yet this spectacle, so shameful and revolting, must unavoidably be exhibited when civil government has been overthrown. As to my rendering of the verb נגש ( niggash) in an active sense, to oppress, I was forced to adopt it, for otherwise the meaning of the passage would have been imperfect.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(5) The people shall be oppressed . . .The words paint the worst form of the decadence of an Eastern kingdom. All is chaotic and anarchic; a fierce struggle for existence; the established order of society subverted; the experience of age derided by the petulance of youth. The picture of the corruption of a monarchy is as vivid and complete in its way as that which Thucydides (3:82-84) draws of the corruption of a democracy. It might seem to have been drawn from the Turkey or the Egypt of our own time.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 3:5. And the people shall be oppressed, &c. Shall deal hardly one by another, &c. See the 38th chapter of Jeremiah throughout, and his Lam 4:16.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 3:5 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.
Ver. 5. And the people shall be oppressed, one by another. ] The greater devouring the lesser, as fishes do. How should it be otherwise, when there is either no government, or not that which is good; but all things turned, as here, topsy turvy, without any respect to age, order, or dignity, and
“ Scinditur ineertum studia in contraria vulgus. ” – Virg.
This dissension is the mother of dissolution, saith Nazianzen. This dissipation and perversion of order and manners is the forerunner of utter desolation and subversion.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
child = a youth, or a boy. as in Isa 3:12.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the people: Isa 9:19-21, Isa 11:13, Jer 9:3-8, Jer 22:17, Eze 22:6, Eze 22:7, Eze 22:12, Amo 4:1, Mic 3:1-3, Mic 3:11, Zec 7:9-11, Mal 3:5, Jam 2:6, Jam 5:4
child: Isa 1:4, Lev 19:32, 2Ki 2:23, Job 30:1-12
base: 2Sa 16:5-9, Ecc 10:5-7, Mat 26:67, Mat 27:28-30, Mar 14:65, Luk 22:64
Reciprocal: Num 16:12 – General Job 19:18 – Yea Job 30:12 – rise Pro 19:10 – much Pro 30:22 – a servant Ecc 10:16 – when Isa 9:15 – ancient Jer 52:3 – through Hos 12:7 – he loveth Zec 11:6 – deliver 1Co 13:5 – behave
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
3:5 And the people shall be {e} 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.
(e) For lack of good regiment and order.