Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 3:15
What mean ye [that] ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
15. The strongest metaphors are used to express the cruelty with which the poor are treated.
What mean ye that ye crush my people (Pro 22:22), and grind the face of the afflicted as between two millstones, determined to wring the uttermost farthing from them. The expression does not occur elsewhere, but in its fierce energy it may be compared with Mic 3:2 and Amo 2:7.
16 4:1. An oracle addressed to the women of Jerusalem. Like Amos (Isa 4:1-3) in Samaria, Isaiah sees in the luxury of these pampered ladies a measure of the extortions practised by their husbands (cf. also ch. Isa 32:9-12).
16, 17 are connected as protasis and apodosis.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
What mean ye – What is your object? Or, What advantage is it to you? Or, By what right or pretence do you do this?
Beat my people to pieces – That is, that you trample on them; or cruelly oppress them; Psa 94:5.
And grind the faces of the poor – This is an expression also denoting great oppression. It is taken from the act of grinding a substance on a stone until it is worn away and nothing is left. So, by their cruel exactions, by their injustice to the poor, they exhausted their little property until nothing was left. The word faces here is synonymous with persons – or with the poor themselves. The word face is often used in the sense of person; Exo 33:14; 2Sa 18:11. A similar description, though in still stronger language, is found in Mic 3:2-3 :
Who pluck off their skin from off them,
And their flesh from off their bones;
Who also eat the flesh of my people,
And flay their skin from off them;
And they break their bones, and chop them in pieces,
As for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 15. And grind the faces] The expression and the image is strong, to denote grievous oppression but is exceeded by the prophet Micah, Mic 3:1-3: –
“Hear, I pray you, ye chiefs of Jacob,
And ye princes of the house of Israel:
Is it not yours to know what is right?
Ye that hate good and love evil:
Who tear their skins from off them,
And their flesh from off their bones;
Who devour the flesh of my people;
And flay from off them their skin;
And their bones they dash in pieces;
And chop them asunder, as morsels for the pot:
And as flesh thrown into the midst of the caldron.”
In the last line but one, for keasher, read, by the transposition of a letter, kisher, with the Septuagint and Chaldee.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
What mean ye? what warrant have ye for it? how durst you presume to do it?
Grind, or batter, as the word is used, Exo 32:20; smite them cruelly: see Isa 58:4.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. What right have ye to beat,c. (Psa 94:5 Mic 3:2;Mic 3:3).
grindby exactions, soas to leave them nothing.
facespersons; with theadditional idea of it being openly and palpably done.”Presence,” equivalent to “face” (Hebrew).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
What mean ye, [that] ye beat my people to pieces,…. Reduce them to the utmost poverty; so the Targum,
“wherefore do ye impoverish my people?”
as they did by exacting tithes of all that they possessed; by requiring large sums for their long prayers; and by various traditions they enjoined them to observe:
and grind the faces of the poor? either by smiting them on the cheek, as Christ, who became poor for our sakes, was smitten by them; or by bringing them into such low circumstances, by their exorbitant demands, that they had not sufficiency of food to eat; by which means their faces became pale, thin, and meagre:
saith the Lord God of Hosts: who saw all their actions, and was able to plead his people’s cause, and take vengeance on their oppressors.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
15. What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces? He mentions also other particulars, from which it is evident that they ruled in a haughty, cruel and oppressive manner. It was not necessary that the Prophet should describe minutely everything deserving reproof in the princes; for from these few circumstances it is evident with what injustice and cruelty and tyranny they ruled. But to whom shall the poor betake themselves but to the magistrate, who ought to be the father of his country and the protector of the wretched? On this account he employs a vehement interrogation, What? as if he had said, “What effrontery is this! What cruelty and barbarity, to abuse the mean condition of the poor, so as to have no compassion on them!” By two comparisons he describes their cruel oppression mingled with pride.
Saith the Lord Jehovah of hosts. That the reproof may have all the weight that it ought to have, he brings forward God as speaking; for there is an implied contrast that these things should not be viewed as coming from the mouth of men, but that the accusation proceeds from God himself, and that he pursues those who are guilty of such injustice, and will at length take vengeance on them. Because those who have been exalted to any kind of honor conduct themselves so haughtily as to disdain every direction and advice, he therefore meets their pride by bringing forward the majesty of God, that they may not venture to despise his earnest and severe threatenings. Yet let us remember that this passage ought not to be understood as if the Prophet were speaking only about the mercy of God; for after having threatened vengeance indiscriminately on all, he particularly mentions those who are their heads, in order to show that no man can escape the arm of God: and here he employs what is called the argument from the greater to the less.” How would the Lord spare the lowest of the people, when he punishes even the princes themselves, because they have destroyed the vineyard?”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
OPPRESSION OF THE POOR
Isa. 3:15. What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord God of hosts.
That infidelity should progress among the labouring classes is one of the most surprising and unreasonable things imaginable. For there is no book so emphatically on the side of the poor as is the Bible. Were the Bible obeyed, the miseries of the poor would vanish. The truth, however, is, that the Bible has suffered from its professed friends. The upper classes who have patronised it have not put its precepts into practice, and the victims of their greed and oppression have foolishly accepted their conduct as an exposition of the teaching of the book which they have professed to venerate. Hence the wrongs which the poor have suffered have prepared them to listen to the blasphemies and to accept the sophisms of infidel lecturers. The employer of labour who oppresses his men during the six days of the week, and goes to church twice on the Sunday, is more dangerous to society than a score of Tom Paines or Bradlaughs. Hence also it is the duty of Gods prophets in all ages to confront such men with the question of our text.
I. Oppression of the poor is one of the most common of all sins. It has been practised in all ages, in all countries, by all classes, in most varied forms. Poor is a relative term. Masters have oppressed their servants, debtors their creditors, officers their soldiers, kings their subjects, people their pastors. The oppression has often been so terrible that the oppressed have sought refuge in suicide.
Mans cruelty to man
Makes countless thousands mourn.
II. Oppression of the poor is one of the most hateful of all sins.
1. It is a misuse of strength. Strength is given to men that they may be helpful to each other; but the oppressor uses his strength as if he were a tiger or a wolf; as if he were a wrecker who drowns the shipwrecked mariner whom he ought to rescue.
2. It is a cowardly and shameful advantage that is taken of human weakness. To lead a blind man into a quagmire or over a precipice would be thought a shameful act, even by the most degraded villains. But in what respect would it differ in principle from oppression of the poor? The weak and needy, by reason of their feebleness and poverty, have a claim upon our pity and help; to oppress them is to outrage the primary laws of conscience. Yet how often it is done!
III. Oppression of the poor is among those sins which are certain to be most terribly punished. The oppressor proceeds on the idea, that the man whom he oppresses has no friends to succour and avenge him. What a mistake! All the oppressed have a friend and avenger in GOD. Shall oppression go unrequited? Nay, verily! For,
1. It is an offence against Gods laws. He has distinctly commanded us to love our neighbour as ourselves, and how manifold are the applications of this great commandment!
2. It is an offence against Gods feelings. In a peculiar manner His sensibilities are outraged when His children act cruelly towards each other. Oppression of the poor kindles within Him mingled disgust and indignation, [559]
[559] These things are done before God, who looks upon every part of the human family as His own. How should you feel if you were to enter the room where your child is sleeping, and find upon it a stealthy cat, stationed at the portal of life, and stopping its very breath? How should you feel were you to find upon your child a vampire that had fastened into its flesh his blood-sucking bill, and was fast consuming its vitality? How do you feel when one of your children tramples upon another? or when your neighbours children crush yours? or when ruffian violence strikes against those whose hearts for ever carry the core of your heart?
Judge from your own feelings how God, with His infinite sensibility, must feel when He sees men rising up against their fellow-men; performing gross deeds of cruelty on every hand, waging wars that cause blood to flow throughout the globe; when, in short, He sees them devastating society by every infernal mischief that their ingenuity can invent.Beecher.
What shall become of the oppressor? No creature in heaven or earth shall testify his innocency. But the sighs, cries, and groans of undone parents, of beggared widows and orphans, shall witness the contrary. All his money, like hempseed, is sowed with curses; and every obligation is written on earth with ink and blood, and in hell with blood and fire.Adams, 1653.
APPLICATION.
1. A due consideration of our text would deter men from the sin here denounced. The question which God now addresses to oppressors He will, with a slight difference, put to them againwhen they shall he gathered at His bar! What meant ye that ye did beat my people to pieces, and did grind the faces of the poor? Bethink you, O ye oppressors, what will ye answer then? Will it be, Lord, we thought Thou wert too great to take any notice of what men did on earth? or, Lord, we oppressed them because they were weak, and we saw we could make a good profit out of their defencelessness? Do these excuses seem to you too flimsy to be seriously suggested? Consider, then, what more valid vindication will be at your command in that day. In that day you will stand speechless!
2. A remembrance of the prevalence of the crime denounced in our text will give soundness and vigour to our theology. The demand of our day is for a God all mercy. Men are endeavouring to cover up hell with the rose-leaves of a spurious benevolence. But a remembrance of the wrongs that are done upon earth, the frightful cruelties that are every day perpetrated, will convince us that hell is a moral necessity. A God all mercy would be not only a God unkind, but a God unjust, a God worthy only of the pity and contempt of his creatures.
3. A due consideration of the manner in which God intervenes on behalf of the wronged and defenceless, will inspire all noble minds with veneration and admiration for His character. Jehovah is no Brahma, throned in eternal calm, and indifferent to the sins and sufferings of mankind; He is a Father, prompt to feel and to avenge the wrongs of His children. Let us resolve to be like Him. Let us not only avoid oppression in all its forms; let us be swift to sympathise with and to succour the oppressed.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
15. What mean ye What induces such foul injustice? What motive, what right, impels such action toward the poor? A blow aimed at the public conscience, though parried just for that lawless time, nevertheless comes home some day with its full death stroke.
Grind the faces of the poor This signifies great oppression. To “grind” is to trample on. “Faces” is here equivalent to persons. The poor are claimed in the Scriptures (Amo 2:6-7; Mic 3:2, etc.) as well as in the universal conscience, as objects of care and protection. In times when justice is prostrate, such as the prophet foresaw in Judah and Jerusalem, crushing oppression of the poor is the greatest social crime.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 3:15 What mean ye [that] ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
Ver. 15. What mean you, that you beat my people to pieces? ] Heb., What to you? all in a word, short and sharp – q.d., What reason had you, what authority to do thus? That was a witty answer that was given once here to the Pope’s exactor, who pleaded that all churches were his, and therefore he might call for what sums he pleased; a nimble disputant replied that all churches were the Pope’s in a sense, viz., Tuitione sed non fruitione; defensione, non dissipatione – i.e., to defend them, but not to destroy them. If God give any man power, it is for “edification, and not for destruction.” 2Co 13:10
And grind the faces.
Saith the Lord God.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
beat = crush.
saith = is the oracle of. the Lord.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
What mean: Eze 18:2, Jon 1:6
ye beat: Isa 58:4, Exo 5:14, Amo 2:6, Amo 2:7, Amo 8:4-6, Mic 3:2, Mic 3:3
Reciprocal: Deu 24:17 – pervert Job 22:4 – will he enter Psa 10:9 – when Psa 94:5 – break Ecc 5:8 – regardeth Eze 16:49 – neither Act 21:13 – What Act 21:32 – beating Jam 2:6 – Do
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
3:15 What mean ye [that] ye beat my people to pieces, {m} and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
(m) That is, you show all cruelty against them.