Isaiah 3:1

CHAPTER III

The whole of this chapter, with the first verse of the next, is

a prophecy of those calamities that should be occasioned by the

Babylonish invasion and captivity. These calamities are

represented as so great and so general, that even royal

honours, in such a state, are so far from being desirable, that

hardly any can be got to accept them, 1-7.

This visitation is declared to be the consequence of their

profanity and guilt; for which the prophet farther reproves and

threatens them, 8-15.

Particular amplification of the distress of the delicate and

luxurious daughters of Zion; whose deplorable situation is

finely contrasted with their former prosperity and ease, 16-26.

NOTES ON CHAP. III

Verse Isaiah 3:1. The stay and the staff - "Every stay and support"] Hebrew, "the support masculine, and the support feminine:" that is, every kind of support, whether great or small, strong or weak. "Al Kanitz, wal-kanitzah; the wild beasts, male and female. Proverbially applied both to fishing and hunting: i.e., I seized the prey, great or little, good or bad. From hence, as Schultens observes, is explained Isaiah 3:1, literally, the male and female stay: i.e., the strong and weak, the great and small." - Chappelow, note on Hariri, Assembly I. Compare Ecclesiastes 2:8.

The Hebrew words משען ומשענה mashen umashenah come from the same root שען shaan, to lean against, to incline, to support; and here, being masculine and feminine, they may signify all things necessary for the support both of man and woman. My old MS. understands the staff and stay as meaning particular persons, and translates the verse thus: - Lo forsoth, the Lordschip Lord of Hoostis schal don awey fro Jerusalem and fro Juda the stalworth and the stronge.

The two following verses, Isaiah 3:2, are very clearly explained by the sacred historian's account of the event, the captivity of Jehoiachin by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon: "And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths; none remained save the poorest sort of the people of the land," 2 Kings 24:14. Which is supplied by our version.