Isaiah 3:4

I will give children to be their princes. — Better, youths. The words may point obliquely to Ahaz, who had ascended the throne at the age of twenty (2 Chronicles 28:1). Manasseh was but twelve when he became king; Josiah but eight (2 Chronicles 33:1; 2 Chronicles 34:1). In an Eastern monarchy the rule of a young king, rash and without experience, guided by counsellors like himself, was naturally regarded as the greatest of evils, and the history of Rehoboam had impressed this truth on the mind of every Israelite. (Comp. Ecclesiastes 10:16.)