Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 3:25
Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war.
25. The words for “men” and “mighty” (lit. “might”) are poetical terms.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
25, 26. A poetic personification of Jerusalem, the mother city, mourning the loss of her sons and defenders.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thy men – This is an address to Jerusalem itself, by a change not uncommon in the writings of Isaiah. In the calamities coming on them, their strong men should be overcome, and fall in battle.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 25. Thy mighty men.] For geburathech an ancient MS. has gibborech. The true reading, from the Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, and Chaldee, seems to be gibborayich.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
25. Thy menof Jerusalem.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thy men shall fall by the sword,…. Of the Romans; which would be a punishment to the women for their pride and luxury, being deprived thereby of their husbands:
and thy mighty in the war; of Vespasian and Titus, and which the Jews i call , “the war of Vespasian”: in which great multitudes of men, even of mighty men, were slain.
i Misn. Sabbat, c. 6. sect. 3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The prophet now passes over to a direct address to Jerusalem itself, since the “daughters of Zion” and the daughter of Zion in her present degenerate condition. The daughter of Zion loses her sons, and consequently the daughters of Zion their husbands. – “Thy men will fall by the sword, and thy might in war.” The plural m ethim (the singular of which only occurs in the form m ethu , with the connecting vowel u as a component part of the proper names) is used as a prose word in the Pentateuch; but in the later literature it is a poetic archaism. “Thy might” is used interchangeably with “thy men,” the possessors of the might being really intended, like robur and robora in Latin (compare Jer 49:35).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
25. Thy men shall fall by the sword. He directs his discourse to Jerusalem and to the whole kingdom of Judah; for, after having demonstrated that the whole body is infected with a plague, and that no part of it is free from disease, and after leaving not even spared the women, he returns to the general doctrine. It would be improper that more than one husband should be assigned to one woman. Besides, what immediately follows applies exclusively to this nation. He particularly describes the punishment, that God will bring down by wars the whole strength of the people.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(25-26) Thy men . . .(26) her gates . . .The feminine pronoun in both verses points to the daughter of Zion as representing her many daughters. As in Lam. 1:1, and as in the JUDA CAPTA medals that commemorated the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, she is represented as sitting on the ground desolate and afflicted.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
25. And the proximate cause of all this shall be the profuse slaughter of the male population.
Thy men The men of Judah and Jerusalem, for these are here evidently addressed.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
They Will Also Lose Their Menfolk ( Isa 3:25 to Isa 4:1 ).
These women will also lose their menfolk in the troubles that are coming, so that they will have no one to protect them and provide them with their luxuries. How different things would have seemed if they had only trusted in Yahweh.
Isa 3:25 to Isa 4:1
‘Your men will fall by the sword,
And your might in war,
And her gates will lament and mourn,
And she will be desolate and sit on the ground.
And seven women will take hold of one man in that day,
Saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing,
Only let us be called by your name.
You, take away our reproach.” ’
The switch in persons and subject is common in Hebrew writings. From speaking of the women he now speaks to them, and then about their ‘mother’ Zion, and then again about them, all in three sentences.
Part of the consequence of their way of living and of their deliberately ignoring His instruction, is that not only will they suffer themselves as in Isa 3:24, but they will also lose their men, those who are their ‘might’, their strength and protection. Thus will the gates of Zion mourn. The gates, where there would usually be an open space, probably the only one in the town as houses crowded in on each other, (such cities were rarely the result of planning), were the place to which people went for public and communal activity. So they will weep together there, languishing on the ground (compare Isa 47:1).
‘Seven women.’ Seven is the number of divine completeness and perfection. Here the idea is ironic. Such a group of women will plead with one man to give them his name, even though they promise that they will not be financially dependent on him. There will be so few men that it will be the only way that they can achieve desired fulfilment. Not to be married was seen as a reproach and a shameful thing.
So the passage (Isa 3:1 to Isa 4:1) ends as it began with those who have sinned having no one to look to because they have forsaken Yahweh, the men are leaderless and oppressed, the women destitute and husbandless. But while in one sense it is His doing, it is quite apparent that they have brought it on themselves, assisted by the behaviour of those who are set over them.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 3:25-26. Thy men shall fall, &c. We have in these verses the second evil; the desolation and widowhood of the matrons and virgins. See Lam 2:21-22. We may observe, that the prophet here does not address the women themselves, but Sion; which frequently is spoken of and represented in the character of a woman. Here she is described as a desolate widow, lamenting her ruined country, her solitary streets, and, in the posture of a mourner, bewailing her sad calamity. See Job 2:13. Lam 2:10; Lam 3:28.
REFLECTIONS.1st, God had commanded them to cease from man and creature-confidences: these he here threatens to destroy, and mentions his glorious titles; the Lord, the Lord of hosts, able to the uttermost to execute the sentence that he pronounces.
1. Famine should come upon them; and terribly it raged in Jerusalem, both when besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, and afterwards by Titus; which last destruction seems to be chiefly the subject of this prophecy.
2. Desolations should be spread on every side; their mighty warriors fallen, and none remaining to lead their armies; no judge left to administer justice, no prophet to instruct or comfort them. The power had been taken from them to decide in matters of life and death, forty years before their destruction, Joh 18:31 but after they had revolted, and were besieged by the Romans, a state of utter confusion began within the walls; the prudent and the ancient were removed by famine, or the sword: not so much as an inferior officer left, or one honourable man or counsellor to be found; or when all order was dissolved, neither office, honour, nor wisdom maintained any longer reverence or attention. The cunning artificer ceased, when all business was at a stand; and the eloquent orator was silenced, when his voice could be no longer heard for the tumult.
3. The government devolved on those who were weak as infants, and unable to restrain the general disorder; or men of illusion, as in the margin of our English Bibles, every arrogant factious spirit who headed the populace; whence a scene of violence and strange disorder must ensue, as was the case when, during the siege of Jerusalem, factions rent them in pieces, and every street afforded scenes of murder, rapine, and violence; all respect for age and station was lost, and lawless anarchy reigned.
4. So desperate would be their state, so ruined and desolate, that every one who had aught to lose would decline the administration, though pressed to be their ruler, as having clothing when the rest were naked as well as famished, and that this ruin might be under their hand, in order to alleviate, or extricate the nation from it: but not a man could be found who would accept the office: seeing their state desperate and incurable, each would swear himself incapable of healing the deadly breaches, and that he had neither food nor clothing to maintain such dignity, or to relieve their wants.
5. The cause of all this misery was their sins: because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, and especially against his Christ, in their malignity and cruelty reviling him as an impostor, and crucifying him as the greatest of malefactors; to provoke the eyes of his glory, who, justly offended with such insult and rejection of himself and his gospel, caused this wrath to come upon them to the uttermost.
From the whole, we may learn, (1.) That sin unrepented of, will be sooner or later the ruin of every nation, and each individual sinner. (2.) It is among the sad symptoms of God’s abandoning a people, when he sends them a famine of his word, and removes the ministry of his Gospel from them. (3.) The kingdom is in the way to speedy ruin, when folly and weakness are at the helm and popular tumults dare interrupt the administration of justice.
2nd, We have,
1. An awful woe denounced upon a wicked people. Woe unto their soul! the judgments were great through the weakness and wickedness of their rulers; who, though effeminate as women, and unable as children to protect them from their enemies, harassed and oppressed them: but this was the least part of their misery; their souls, their immortal souls, were more terribly exposed to the eternal wrath and curse of God: they have rewarded evil to themselves, their ruin is their own choice, and their sufferings the just reward of their sins. Note; (1.) If we lose our souls, we lose our all. (2.) In the day of God, the sinner will have none to blame for his misery but himself. Several grievous provocations are here mentioned.
[1.] They sin with a high hand, take no pains to conceal it, nor blush; with hardened impudence, openly avowing their abominations, as Sodom, shameless before men, and fearless of God. Note; (1.) Habitual sin hardens the conscience. (2.) They who are past shame are on the brink of ruin.
[2.] Their priests were the corrupters; they who should have led, deceived them by false doctrines; they who should have rebuked, cried peace to them; they whose examples should have reformed, hardened them. Such were the Pharisees in our Lord’s day. But were they the only false teachers, the exalters of human merit, the false prophets of peace, and examples of iniquity? How many a priest will this suit in every age!
[3.] Their magistrates were oppressive, devouring the poor whom they should have protected; and, greedy of gain, sought only to fill their coffers, instead of exercising mercy and doing justice.
2. For these things the Lord standeth up to plead, expostulating with them on the wickedness of their ways; What mean ye? &c. and standeth to judge the people; either to vindicate his people from their oppressors, or rather to execute judgment upon the wicked, and this without respect of persons; the ancient, and princes, as deepest in guilt, will be the first in punishment. Note; (1.) When God standeth up to plead, what sinner but must tremble? Why will they not consider their ways, and prevent their ruin? (2.) The greatest find no favour as such at his tribunal; none can appeal from his sentence.
3. A distinction will be made amid these judgments. The righteous few shall not suffer with the wicked. Say ye to the righteous, who is justified through Jesus Christ, and by divine grace renewed in the spirit of his mind, it shall be well with him; peace of conscience, the sense of God’s love, and the hope of his glory shall be his support in whatever national visitations he may be involved; for, they shall eat the fruit of their doings: as they have not provoked these judgments, they shall be delivered from them, or supported under them. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him in time and in eternity; all his sufferings are embittered, his prospects dark, his life miserable, his death terrible; and after death he is accursed; he is doomed to devouring fire and everlasting burnings. Woe indeed to the impenitent, when the reward of his hands shall thus be given him!
3rdly, The daughters of Zion had contributed to swell the national guilt, and must therefore share in these plagues.
1. Their sins are vanity and lewdness. Proud of their persons and ornaments, with elevated heads, and stretched-forth necks, they treated with an air of disdain their inferiors; while wantonly they cast their amorous glances around, and all their motions bespoke desire of admiration. Note; (1.) Vanity is woman’s besetting sin. (2.) They who lay snares for others, are justly chargeable with every evil consequence which follows. (3.) A wanton eye betrays an impure heart.
2. Their punishments should correspond with their sins. Loathsome disease should deform and humble the proud beauty: their ornaments, which fashion dictated, and their vain hearts affected, pleased with the finery, and never thinking they had enough, must all be plundered; themselves enslaved, and led into captivity, and a girding of sackcloth should be their miserable covering: instead of perfumes and fragrance, they should be nauseous through poverty and ulcers; their shining girdles should give place to rags, tattered and rent; their braided locks, dressed with such curious art, now torn for anguish, or falling off through sickness, should leave them bald; and the scorching sun, or burning carbuncles, disfigure that fair face, which in the glass had led so often to self-idolatry; while their husbands should be slain by the sword, and no man left to marry them. Thus, sunk under universal desolations, the gates of the very city would mourn; and Jerusalem, as a disconsolate widow, in the dust bewail her irreparable ruin. Note; (1.) The sins of lewdness often make those loathsome, who were once most lovely. (2.) Extravagant finery easily leads to pinching poverty. (3.) Beauty is a dangerous gift, and often proves the bane of its possessor. (4.) Dress according to our station is becoming; but to be curious and expensive is to turn the covering of our shame into an increase of our sin.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
The chapter ends, as it began, and as one might reasonably suppose would be the close; if sin reigns, sorrow must follow: for the wages of sin is death. Blessed be God, who hath taken occasion, from the misery of our nature, to magnify the riches of his grace, and where sin hath abounded that grace should much more abound; that as sin hath reigned unto death, so might grace reign through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord, Rom 5:20-21 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 3:25 Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war.
Ver. 25. Thy men shall fall by the sword. ] For suffering and favouring the women’s excesses, such as are today naked breasts and shoulders Abhorred filth! Our King Henry VI at such a sight cried, Fie, fie, ladies, in sooth you are to blame, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
mighty = might. Some codices, with Aramaean, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read “mighty ones”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Thy men: 2Ch 29:9, Jer 11:22, Jer 14:18, Jer 18:21, Jer 19:7, Jer 21:9, Lam 2:21, Amo 9:10
mighty: Heb. might
Reciprocal: Isa 4:1 – seven Isa 65:12 – will I Jer 15:8 – widows
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 3:25-26. Thy men shall fall, &c. We have in these verses the second evil; the desolation and widowhood of the matrons and virgins: see Lam 2:21-22. But we must observe, that the prophet here does not address the women themselves, but Zion, which frequently is spoken of and represented in the character of a woman. Her gates shall lament The gates of Zion, which, by a figure, are said to lament, to imply the great desolation of the place, that there would be no people to go out and come in by them, or to meet together there as they used to do. And she, being desolate Bereaved of her children; Hebrew, , emptied, or cleansed, that is, deprived of all that she had held dear, and delighted in; shall sit upon the ground In the posture of a mourner, bewailing her sad calamity. Sitting on the ground, the reader will observe, was a posture denoting deep distress: see on Job 2:13. The Prophet Jeremiah has noticed it, in the first place, among many indications of sorrow, in an elegant description of this same state of distress of his country, Lam 2:8-10. Thus also the psalmist, By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. For, undoubtedly, Isaiah in this prophecy had in his view, at least first and immediately, the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and the dissolution of the Jewish state under the captivity of Babylon. His prediction, however, received a second, and still more awful accomplishment, in the destruction of that city and nation by the Romans. And, what is remarkable, in a medal coined by Vespasians order, Jerusalem is represented, according to the picture drawn of her here by the prophet, as lamenting that calamity, under the emblem of a woman sitting on the ground in a melancholy and mournful posture.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
3:25 Thy men shall fall by the {t} sword, and thy mighty in the war.
(t) Meaning that God will not only punish the women but their husbands who have permitted this dissoluteness and also the commonwealth which has not remedied it.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The woman in view is Jerusalem personified. She is seen as having lost her providers and defenders and all on whom she depended. She is utterly without joy and alone (cf. Lam 1:1).
"There is extant a coin from [the time of the Roman emperor] Vespasian which pictures the conquered Jerusalem as a dejected woman sitting under a palm tree, a soldier standing before her, and which bears the inscription Judaea capta, or devicta. Jerusalem alone." [Note: Young, 1:170.]