Isaiah 3 - Introduction

Chapter 3 (to Isaiah 4:1) The Coming Fate of Judah and Jerusalem.

This passage splits up into two, Isaiah 3:1 and Isaiah 3:16 to Isaiah 4:1. The first deals with Yahweh's judgment on the men, the second with His judgment on the women.

The first passage (Isaiah 3:1) can be analysed as follows:

a 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 (Isaiah 3:1).

b 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 (Isaiah 3:2).

c And I will give children to be their princes, and the ruthless (or ‘babes') will rule over them, 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 (Isaiah 3:4).

d 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” (Isaiah 3:6).

e 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).

e What their faces reveal witnesses against them, and they declare their sin like Sodom. They do not hide it.' (Isaiah 3:8 a).

d Woe to them themselves, for they have rewarded themselves with evil. Say of the righteous that it is well, for they will eat the fruit of their doings. Woe to the wicked for it is ill, for the reward of his hands will be done to him (Isaiah 3:9).

c As for my people, children are their oppressors (taskmasters), and women rule over them. O my people, those who should set you right cause you to err, and swallow up the way of your paths (Isaiah 3:12).

b Yahweh stands up to plead, and stands to judge the peoples. Yahweh will enter into judgment, with the elders of his people, and its princes (Isaiah 3:13 a).

a “It is you who have eaten up the vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean that you crush my people, and grind the face of the poor?” Says the Lord, Yahweh of hosts (Isaiah 3:14).

In ‘a' we have a commencing reference to the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, and His people are to have their bread and water taken from them, and in the parallel it is their own princes and authorities who have crushed and ground them, and it ends with a reference to the Lord, Yahweh of hosts. In ‘b' we have references to the elders and others who lord it over His people, and in the parallel Yahweh will lord it over these very rulers. In ‘c' children will be their princes and the babes (or the ruthless) will rule over them, and they will be oppressed, and in the parallel children will oppress them and women rule over them. In ‘d' no man will agree to rule over the ruin that their country will become, and in the parallel they have rewarded themselves with evil, and while it will be well with the righteous, it will be woe to the wicked who will receive the reward of their hands. In ‘e' Jerusalem and Judah are ruined because their tongue and their doings are against Yahweh, provoking the majesty of His eyes, and in the parallel their faces reveal their sin, and their behaviour that they are like Sodom.