Isaiah 3:12

[As for] my people, children [are] their oppressors,.... Or rulers; for נוגש, in the Ethiopic language, signifies a king: or "exactors", as in Isaiah 60:17 princes are so called, because they exact

As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.

Women; either, 1. Properly so called, by their favour and power with the rulers; or, 2. Weak and effeminate rulers, such being called women both in sacred and profane writings. They which lead thee; thy rulers, civil and ecclesiastical, whose duty it is to show thee the right way. Or, as others, they that bless thee, i.e. thy false prophets, which flatter thee, and speak peace to thee. Destroy the way of thy paths; keep thee from the knowledge or practice of that way which leads to thy salvation, and mislead thee into evil courses, by their wicked counsels or examples.

Isaiah 3:12 [As for] my people, children [are] their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause [thee] to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.Ver. 12. As for my people.] Now the "people of my wrath, and of my curse"; Loammi, discovenanted, discarded. Children are their oppressors.] Rulers he calleth them not, as being too good a name for them, but "oppressors"; and these were boys and women - i.e., such as were no wiser than children, nor had any more command of their passions than weak women, and were therefore unfit for government. Brunhild, the wife of Sigebert, king of Metz, Fridegund, the wife of Chilperic, and Katherine Medicis, wife of Henry II, are said to be the furies of France. What work they made in that kingdom in their generations, by abusing their husbands’ love and authority, histories are full. The like did Jezebel in Israel, Athalia in Judah, and Dame Alice Pierce here in England in King Edward III’ s days. This woman being the king’ s concubine, and presuming on his favour, whom in his old age she had subdued, grew so insolent, that she imprisoned Sir Peter la Mare, Speaker for the Parliament; intermeddled with courts of justice, and other offices, where she herself would sit to effect her desire, which, though in all who are so exalted, are ever excessive, yet in a woman most immoderate, as having less of discretion, and more of greediness. Heliogabalus in a merriment set up a senate of women; but then their ordinances were correspondent, as what attire each woman should use, how they should take place, when salute, &c. But these in the text, working upon their husbands’ impotencies, who were children, in the sense that Shechem, the son of Humor, is so called - neque distulit puer, a lad or a boy, because swayed not by right reason - but by blind affection, exacted of the poor people unreasonable tributes and pensions for the maintenance of their pride and luxury. Est haec ingens plaga, saith one; this is a great mischief to a State, such as Greece and Rome sometimes groaned under. Diophantus, the son of Themistocles, once boasted that he ruled all Greece, because he ruled his mother, she ruled his father, and he ruled Greece. Cato also complained, Mulieres regunt nos, nos Senatum, Senatus Romam, Roma orbem; our women, said he, rule us, we rule the senate, the senate the city, and the city the whole world. O my people, they which lead thee.] Or, Those that bless thee and pronounce thee happy, saying as do thy false prophets, those flatterers, because thou hast with thee the oracles and ordinances of God, the ceremonies and sacrifices, praising thee therefore, and promising thee all happiness, soothing thee up in thy sins, &c.

(12) Children are their oppressors . . .—This points, as before (Isaiah 3:4), to the youth and yet more the character of Ahaz. The influence of the queen-mother or of the seraglio was dominant in his counsels. Cowardly (Isaiah 7:2), idolatrous, delighting in foreign worships and foreign forms of art (2 Kings 16:10), such was the king who then sat on the throne of Judah. And the evil worked downwards from the throne. Those who should have been the leaders of the people were quick only to mislead. Princes, priests, judges were all drifting with the current of debasement.

Verse 12. Err - "Pervert"] בלעו billeu, "swallow." Among many unsatisfactory methods of accounting for the unusual meaning of this word in this place, I choose Jarchi's explication, as making the best sense. "Read billalu, 'confound.' Syriac." - Dr. Judd. "Read beholu, 'disturb or trouble.'" - Secker. So Septuagint. This verse might be read, "The collectors of grapes shall be their oppressors; and usurers (noshim, instead of nashim, women) shall rule over them."

12. The threat of Isa 3:4 is already on the way to be fulfilled; the conditions of anarchy are present in the childish character of the reigning monarch, Ahaz. Cf. Ecclesiastes 10:16. The prophet’s pity for the nation breaks out in the repeated exclamation, “My people!” children are their oppressors, &c.] Rather, his tyrant (plural of majesty) is a child and women role over him (i.e. the people): the queen-mother and women of the harem attain an undue and dangerous influence under such a régime. they which lead thee cause thee to err] thy leaders are misleaders, an expression found again in Isaiah 9:16. The word for “lead” is that used in Isaiah 1:17, “set right.” destroy] have swallowed up; according to others: “have confused.” The meaning is that the landmarks of national righteousness have been effaced from the minds of the people by the conduct of its statesmen and guides.

As for my people, children are their oppressors - This refers, doubtless, to their civil rulers. They who “ought” to have been their “protectors,” oppressed them by grievous taxes and burdens.

12. Through a vista of years the prophet sees the Jews much reduced in power, pusillanimous in character, enslaved to evil-doing, and so helpless in that slavery, that he says, children — that is,