Isaiah 1:23

Thy princes [are] rebellious,.... Stubborn and obstinate, refused to receive and acknowledge the Messiah; such were the Jewish rulers, civil and ecclesiastical, in the times of Christ.

Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

Thy princes are rebellious against me, their sovereign Lord; they cast off my yoke, and make their own wills and lusts the rule of their life and government. Companions of thieves; partly by giving them connivance and countenance, and receiving a recompence from them for it; and partly by practising the same violence, and cruelty, and injustice that thieves use. Loveth gifts, i.e. bribes given to pervert justice, which are severely forbidden, 27:25. Followeth after rewards; pursuing them with all eagerness, and by all means possible. They judge not the fatherless, & c.; they are so far from doing them justice, that they will not so much as give them a fair hearing of their cause, because they cannot make their way to them by gifts.

Isaiah 1:23 Thy princes [are] rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.Ver. 23. Thy princes are rebellious.] Or, Revolters, apostates. There is an elegance in the original, such as this prophet is full of: Ac si dicas primi sunt pravi vel perversi. So saith Calvin here: Episcopi may be called Aposcopi, Cardinales Carnales vel Carpinales, carpet men; Canonici Cenonici, Praepositi praeposteri, &c. This note A Lapide is very angry at - et lapides loquitur. And companions of thieves.] While they not only suffered such to go unpunished, but also shared with them. Cato complained that in his time some thieves stood at the bar in cold irons, when others, and worse, sat on the bench with gold chains about their necks. The bold pirate told Alexander to his teeth that he was the arch-pirate of the world. And what shall we think of Pope Alexander, who, in 1505 AD, sent a bull of pardons for many, dispensing thereby with such as kept away, or by any fraud had gotten the goods of other men, which they should now retain still, without scruple of conscience, so as they paid a rateable portion thereof to his Holiness’ s receivers? And at this day Popish priests will absolve a thief of his wickedness, if they may have half with him of the stolen goods. Every one loveth gifts.] Not only taketh; although in taking also the Greek proverb saith, ουτεπαντα, ουτεπαντη, ουτεπαραπαντων, great care and caution should be used. Olim didici quid sint munera, said a grave man. See Deuteronomy 16:19. And followeth after rewards.] As a hunter his game, or a merchant his gain, or a martialist his enemy. Sectantur retributiones - i.e., Collidunt inter se indices, saith the Chaldee paraphrast: The judges conspire, saying one to another, Help thou me in judging against the poor, and I will do as much for thee another time. They judge not the fatherless.] Because friendless, penniless. Sed pupillos laedere, est pupillam oculi Dei contingere. Neither doth the cause of the widow come before them.] The widow cannot speak for herself (in the original she hath her name from dumbness), and hath no money to make room for her. Hence her cause is slighted. Speed, 992. Scultet. in loc.

(23) Thy princes are rebellious.—The Hebrew words present an alliterative paronomasia (sβrim, sτrerξm), which may be represented by “Thy rulers are rebels.” Here, as before, we note the “influence of Hosea (Hosea 9:15), from whom the words are cited. Companions of thieves.—We seem almost to be reading a report of the state of police in a provincial city under the government of Turkey as it is, or of Naples or Sicily as they were. The kadi himself is in secret partnership with the brigands who infest the highways. Nothing can be done without baksheesh, and the robbers who have the plunder can bribe more heavily than the man whom they have robbed. (Comp. Micah 7:3.) To the complaints of the widow and the orphan the judges turned a deaf ear, and put off the hearing of their cause with indefinite procrastination. There is, perhaps, a touch of irony in the word for “bribes” (shalmτnξm, as if “peace gifts”), which were sought after, instead of shalτm, the true peace itself.

Verse 23. Companions of thieves - "Associates"] The Septuagint, Vulgate, and four MSS., read חברי chabrey without the conjunction ו vau.

23. Thy princes are rebellious] In the Heb. a paronomasia, borrowed from Hosea 9:15. The “princes” (sârîm) are the civil and military officials of the monarchical constitution, as distinguished from the zìqçnîm (sheikhs or elders) of the old tribal system. The charge brought against them is that as a class they are corrupted by systematic bribery. They are companions of thieves, conniving at extortion and receiving in return a share of the spoil. Hence the fatherless and widows, having no bribes to offer, can obtain no redress; they cannot even find access to the seat of judgment.

Thy princes ... - This is an explanation of the previous verse. Princes mean here those attached to the royal family; those who by rank, or office, had an influence over the people. Rebellious - Against God.

AN AGAINST THE CITY, Isaiah 1:21-31.21-23. By a Hebrew character called Piskah, after Isaiah 1:20 a long pause is indicated.