Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 1:23
Thy princes [are] rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
23. Thy princes are rebellious ] In the Heb. a paronomasia, borrowed from Hos 9:15. The “princes” ( srm) are the civil and military officials of the monarchical constitution, as distinguished from the zq nm (sheikhs or elders) of the old tribal system. The charge brought against them is that as a class they are corrupted by systematic bribery. They are companions of thieves, conniving at extortion and receiving in return a share of the spoil. Hence the fatherless and widows, having no bribes to offer, can obtain no redress; they cannot even find access to the seat of judgment.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thy princes … – This is an explanation of the previous verse. Princes mean here those attached to the royal family; those who by rank, or office, had an influence over the people.
Rebellious – Against God. The corruption of a nation commonly begins with the rulers.
Companions of thieves – That is, they connive at the doings of robbers; they do not bring them to justice; they are their accomplices, and are easily bribed to acquit them.
Every one loveth gifts – Every magistrate can be bribed.
Followeth afar rewards – rodeph. This word denotes the act of pursuing after in order to obtain something; and means here that they made it an object to obtain rewards by selling or betraying justice They sell justice to the highest bidder. No more distressing condition of a people can be conceived than this, where justice could not be secured between man and man, and where the wicked could oppress the poor, the widow, and the orphan, as much as they pleased, because they knew they could bribe the judge.
They judge not – They do not render justice to; Isa 1:17. The Chaldee has well expressed the sense of a part of this verse: They say, each one to his neighbor, Favour me in my judgment, or do me good in it, and I will recompense you in your cause.
The cause of the widow come unto them – Or, rather, come before them. They would not take up her cause, but rather the cause of those who were esteemed able to offer a bribe, and from whom a gift might be expected, if a decision was made in their favor.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 1:23
Thy princes are rebellious . . . everyone loveth gifts
Rebellious princes
Instead of suppressing rebellion, they were rebels themselves.
(J. A. Alexander.)
The rebellious princes
I. THE PROFIT OF THEIR PLACES IS ALL THEIR AIM. They love gifts, and follow after rewards; they set their hearts upon their salary, the fees and perquisites of their offices, and are greedy of them, and never think they can get enough. Presents and gratuities will blind their eyes at any time, and make them pervert judgment (Hos 4:18).
II. THE DUTY OF THEM PLACES IS NONE OF THEIR CARE. They ought to protect those that are injured, and take cognisance of the appeals made to them; why else were they preferred? But they judge not the fatherless, take no care to guard the orphans, nor doth the cause of the widow come unto them, because the poor widow has no bribe to give. Those will have a great deal to answer for, who when they should be the patrons of the oppressed are their greatest oppressors. (M. Henry.)
Audacious corruption
Catiline, being prosecuted for some great offence, corrupted the judges. When they had given their verdict, though he was acquitted only by a majority of two, he said he had put himself to a needless expense in bribing one of those judges, for it would have been sufficient to have had a majority of one. (Plutarch.)
Political corruption in England
The machinery of both sides [Whig and Tory] was unlimited bribery. The degradation of the briber was as great as that of the bribed. Berkeley writes in 1721:–This corruption has become a national crime, having infected the lowest as well as the highest amongst us. (Knights England.)
Francis Bacon
He was charged by the Commons before the Lords, with twenty-two acts of bribery and corruption. He attempted no defence. He made a distinct confession in writing of the charges brought against him. And when a deputation of peers asked if that confession was his own voluntary act, he replied: It is my act, my hand, my heart. O my lords, spare a broken reed. (Knights England.)
Corruption in the reign of James I.
It was an age of universal abuses. Local magistrates were influenced by the pettiest gifts, and were called basket justices. (Knights England.)
Corruption checked by Act of Parliament
[In 1275 Parliament enacted] that no kings officer should take any reward to do his office, such enactment being one of the many proofs of the inefficiency of law to restrain corruption; for within fourteen years there were only two judges out of fifteen who were not found guilty of the grossest extortions. (Knights England.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 23. Companions of thieves – “Associates”] The Septuagint, Vulgate, and four MSS., read chabrey without the conjunction vau.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thy princes are rebellious against me, their sovereign Lord; they cast off my yoke, and make their own wills and lusts the rule of their life and government.
Companions of thieves; partly by giving them connivance and countenance, and receiving a recompence from them for it; and partly by practising the same violence, and cruelty, and injustice that thieves use.
Loveth gifts, i.e. bribes given to pervert justice, which are severely forbidden, Deu 10:17; 27:25.
Followeth after rewards; pursuing them with all eagerness, and by all means possible.
They judge not the fatherless, & c.; they are so far from doing them justice, that they will not so much as give them a fair hearing of their cause, because they cannot make their way to them by gifts.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
23. companions of thievesbyconnivance (Pr 29:24).
gifts (Eze22:12). A nation’s corruption begins with its rulers.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thy princes [are] rebellious,…. Stubborn and obstinate, refused to receive and acknowledge the Messiah; such were the Jewish rulers, civil and ecclesiastical, in the times of Christ.
And companions of thieves: who devoured widows’ houses; made the temple, which was a house of prayer, a den of thieves; and took away the key of knowledge from the people, and would not suffer them to attend the ministry of the Gospel, Mt 21:13
everyone loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards. The Targum paraphrases it,
“everyone says to his neighbour, do me a favour in my cause, I will return “it” to thee in thy cause;”
and so justice was perverted:
they judge not the fatherless; that is, either they do not take their cause in hand at all, or, if they do, do not do them justice, but wrong them of their goods and estates, which, of right, belong to them:
neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them; there being no money to be got by undertaking it; see the case of the unjust judge, a picture of judges in those times, Lu 18:2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In Isa 1:23 the prophet says this without a figure: “Thy rulers are rebellious, and companions of thieves; every one loveth presents, and hunteth after payment; the orphan they right not, and the cause of the widow has no access to them.” In two words the prophet depicts the contemptible baseness of the national rulers ( sarim ). He describes first of all their baseness in relation to God, with the alliterative sorerim : rebellious, refractory; and then, in relation to men, companions of thieves, inasmuch as they allowed themselves to be bribed by presents of stolen goods to acts of injustice towards those who had been robbed. They not only willingly accepted such bribes, and that not merely a few of them, but every individual belonging to the rank of princes ( Cullo , equivalent to haccol , the whole: every one loveth gifts); but they went eagerly in pursuit of them ( rodeph ). It was not peace ( shalom ) that they hunted after (Psa 34:16), but shalmonim shalmonim, things that would pacify their avarice; not what was good, but compensation for their partiality. – This was the existing state of Jerusalem, and therefore it would hardly be likely to take the way of mercy opened before it in Isa 1:18; consequently Jehovah would avail himself of other means of setting it right.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
23. Thy princes are rebellious There is here an elegant allusion or play on words. (28) He does not speak of princes in such a manner as if the common people were holy and needed no reproof, but he points out the source of the evil; for as no disease is more injurious than that which spreads from the head into the whole body, so no evil is more destructive in a commonwealth than a wicked and depraved prince, who conveys his corruptions into the whole body both by his example and by the liberty which he allows. Hence, too, comes the proverb, ὁποῖα ἡ δέσποινα, τοῖαι καὶ αἱ θεραπαινίδες, like mistress, like maids. The meaning, therefore, is as if the Prophet had said that there was no one vice more than another that reigned among the people, but that an unbounded commission of crimes prevailed among the nobles themselves, and that in this manner the whole body was stained with pollution. Something which gives additional force to the statement is implied in the word princes; for it is deeply to be lamented when an evil arises from that very quarter in which the remedy for it ought to be expected. He next mentions a particular instance.
Companions of thieves By these words he means that they are so far from restraining theft and false dealing, that, on the contrary, they draw gain from them; and he justly calls those persons companions of thieves, who, by receiving part of the booty, grant permission to commit theft. And, indeed, when a judge is corrupted by a bribe, it is impossible but that crimes shall abound and pass unpunished, with the perpetrators of which we must consider him to be in collusion.
Every one loveth a gift He next points out the reason why princes have made themselves companions of thieves, and have bound themselves by a wicked conspiracy to lend countenance to crimes. It is avarice. When judges are devoted to the love of money, justice is utterly destroyed; for if the acceptance of persons be a corruption of judgment, so that no room is left for justice, every man who is under the dominion of covetousness will assuredly regard the person rather than the cause. The consequence is, that he will not be able to perceive what is just and right, but, as one expresses it, will make laws and unmake them.
This reminds us how great a virtue it is in a magistrate to disregard money; for unless he keep his mind, his hands, and his eyes under restraint, he will never be able to judge justly. It is absurd to say, as some men do, that they keep their heart pure and uncorrupted, even though they receive bribes. What the Lord saith must be true, that a gift blindeth the eyes of the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous. (Exo 23:8.) No man is so upright, no man is so clearsighted and sagacious, that his mind shall resist the enchantment, and his eyes the blinding influence, of gifts. Such judges, therefore, he justly declares to be companions of thieves; for, hurried along by a blind desire of money, they overturn all law both of God and man, and leave no room for justice or modesty.
We must likewise observe that the Prophet, in order to convince hypocrites, brings forward their actions which were open and universally known; for otherwise they would not submit. And yet there can be no doubt that there were at that time many who objected, when he thus called them thieves, as even in the present day most men impudently and obstinately exclaim that they are not thieves on account of receiving the rewards and gifts which are offered to them, because their do not prevent them from passing a just judgment. But these replies being frivolous, the Prophet, after having exposed their wicked actions, satisfies himself with the reproof which he has given, and argues with them no longer. And, indeed, nature declares that it is impossible to give just judgment, when judges are so eager for gain and regard; because they cannot but absolutely expose to sale their honesty and reputation.
They judge not the fatherless As the Lord specially recommends to us the fatherless and widows, because they have been deprived of the protection of men, so we need not wonder if he is displeased when they are abandoned by the judges, who ought to have been their guardians and defenders; for since they have neither foresight, nor industry nor strength if no one comes forward to render assistance they must be exposed without redress to every kind of violence and injustice. Now, when no regard is paid to them, it follows that the sway is held, not by justice, but by covetousness and plunder.
(28) Our author illustrates it by the alliteration of primi pravi . “The word סוררים ( sorerim) is here equivalent,” says Jarchi, “to סרים, ( sarim,) that is, persons departing from the right path.” “In this word סוררים, ( sorerim,)” says his annotator Breithaupt, which our Commentator here explains by סרים, ( sarim,) departers, “there is an allusion to the word שרים, (princes,) which we here find in the sacred text.” — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(23) Thy princes are rebellious.The Hebrew words present an alliterative paronomasia (srim, srerm), which may be represented by Thy rulers are rebels. Here, as before, we note the influence of Hosea (Hos. 9:15), from whom the words are cited.
Companions of thieves.We seem almost to be reading a report of the state of police in a provincial city under the government of Turkey as it is, or of Naples or Sicily as they were. The kadi himself is in secret partnership with the brigands who infest the highways. Nothing can be done without baksheesh, and the robbers who have the plunder can bribe more heavily than the man whom they have robbed. (Comp. Mic. 7:3.) To the complaints of the widow and the orphan the judges turned a deaf ear, and put off the hearing of their cause with indefinite procrastination. There is, perhaps, a touch of irony in the word for bribes (shalmnm, as if peace gifts), which were sought after, instead of shalm, the true peace itself.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 1:23 Thy princes [are] rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
Ver. 23. Thy princes are rebellious. ] Or, Revolters, apostates. There is an elegance in the original, such as this prophet is full of: Ac si dicas primi sunt pravi vel perversi. So saith Calvin here: Episcopi may be called Aposcopi, Cardinales Carnales vel Carpinales, carpet men; Canonici Cenonici, Praepositi praeposteri, &c. This note A Lapide is very angry at – et lapides loquitur.
And companions of thieves.
Every one loveth gifts.
And followeth after rewards.
They judge not the fatherless.
Neither doth the cause of the widow come before them.
a Speed, 992.
b Scultet. in loc.
Thy princes, &c. Figure of speech Hermeneia. Interpreting the Figures of speech Hypocatastasis in Isa 1:22.
princes are rebellious. Sarim sorerim, not a “pun”, but the Figure of speech Paronomasia (App-6), for solemn emphasis. It may be Englished “thy rulers are unruly”.
gifts = rewards, or bribes.
princes: Isa 3:14, 2Ch 24:17-21, 2Ch 36:14, Jer 5:5, Eze 22:6-12, Dan 9:5, Dan 9:6, Hos 7:3-5, Hos 9:15, Mic 3:1-3, Mic 3:11, Act 4:5-11
companions: Pro 29:24, Mat 21:13, Mar 11:17, Luk 19:46
every: Isa 33:15, Exo 23:8, Deu 16:19, Pro 17:23, Jer 22:17, Eze 22:12, Hos 4:18, Mic 7:3
they judge: Isa 10:1, Isa 10:2, Jer 5:28, Jer 5:29, Zec 7:10, Mal 3:5, Luk 18:2-5
Reciprocal: Exo 22:22 – General Deu 24:17 – pervert Deu 25:1 – General 2Ch 19:7 – let the Job 22:9 – widows Psa 68:5 – a judge Psa 82:3 – Defend Pro 21:7 – robbery Pro 31:9 – General Ecc 7:7 – a gift Isa 1:4 – Ah sinful Isa 1:5 – the whole Isa 1:17 – seek Isa 5:23 – for reward Isa 32:7 – instruments Jer 17:11 – he that Jer 22:3 – do no violence Jer 32:32 – they Eze 11:1 – Pelatiah Eze 12:2 – thou Eze 22:27 – princes Amo 5:7 – turn Amo 5:12 – take Mic 3:9 – that Mic 6:12 – the rich Zep 3:3 – princes Zec 12:5 – the governors Act 24:26 – hoped 1Co 6:10 – thieves 1Th 4:6 – the Lord 1Ti 6:10 – the love
1:23 Thy princes [are] rebellious, and companions of {g} thieves: every one loveth bribes, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come to them.
(g) That is, they maintain the wicked and the extortioners: and not only do not punish them, but are themselves such.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes