Isaiah 3
PATThis chapter contains a description of the calamities which should befal the Jews in the declining part of their government, and should at last conclude in a total captivity, (ver. 2G.) • • • 3P [‘CHAP.‘ill. Vcr. 1. Ju OR, behold, the Lord doth take away from Jerusalem, and from Judah, the stay and the staff, the* whole stay of bread, and the whole stay oftoater.] Bread is’commonly called the staff of life: (sec Lev. xxvi. 2G. Ezek. xiv. 13.) This judgment seems to relate to the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, when bread and water were both very scarce. (See Jer. xxxvii. 2. Ezek. iv.16.) pity on thee, since thy children aro all in as miserable a condition as thyself? (See the eighteenth and the following verso.) By whom shall I comfort thee?’] AVhat human means of comfort is there left for thee? (Compare Amos vii. 2.) The prophet congratulates Jerusalem upon her restoration after the captivity, and tells her how every thing about her would put on a new face upon that joyful occasion. In which description he hath plainly an eye to the renovation of the church under the gospel. And in speaking upon this subject, he very naturally brings in a description of Christ in his state of humiliation and sufferings, together with the glory which would accrue to himself, f and the advantages which all true believers would receive from thence. But, according to Mr. White’s interpretation, this prophecy must come in very abruptly, without any connexion with what goes before, or what comes after.
Isaiah 3:1
JLWAKE, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion. Thou hast for a long time been in a state of silence and obscurity, like one dead and buried; rouse up thyself, and resume thy former prowess and dignity. (Compare H.17.) Put on thy beautiful garments.] Jerusalem is described as lying in the dust, in a disconsolate condition, ver. 2. but here the prophet exhorts her to change her sackcloth or mournful dress for a festival one. (Compare Ixi. 3.) The holy city: for henceforth there shall no. more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean."] No aliens or infidels, such as the Babylonians, shall invade thee. (Compare Nahum i. 15.) This mystically implies.the church’s beings purified from all corruptions, and the contagion of the wicked. (See the note on xxxv. 8.)
Isaiah 3:2
The mighty man and the man of war, the judge, &c. This likewise relates to the same times, particularly to Jehoiachin’s captivity, when all the men of note \vcre carried away captive with him. (See 2 Bangs xxiv. And the prophet."] The same judgment threatened in the times of the captivity,’ (Ezek. vii. 2G.) and actually fulfilled then, as appears by Jeremiah’s complaint, (Lamept. ii.9.) Her prophets find no vision from the Lord. (See likewise Psal. lxxiv. 9.) Ezekiel was the only prophet that Was carried away to Babylon, and we do not find that he had any vision relating to the Jews after the twelfth year of his captivity, which was a year or two after the destruction of Jerusalem, except it was the vision of the temple, (chap. xl. &c.) which related to a scene of things many ages to come. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem.] The city before lay in the dust, and w r as buried in its own ruins. (Compare iii. 26. xlvii. 1.) But now she is exhorted to rise from the ground, where she had lain prostrate, (li. 23.) and sit upon her throne or seat of author rity, as the mother-city of the Jewish nation. r Loose thy self from the bands of thy, neck, captive daughter of Zion.] Captivity and slavery are often expressed by the yoke of bondage. (See Deuk xxviii. 48, Jer. xxviii.
Isaiah 3:3
You have sold your selves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed witlwut money. For your iniquities you sold yourselves, (1. 1.) So foolish a bargain you made, as to venture the parting with your liberty, only to enjoy your sins and idolatrous customs: you received no valuable consideration when you thus enslaved yourselves; and therefore, to make the sale and the redemption correspondent to each other, you shall be rescued.out of this oppression gratis, which I will do by Cyrus. (See xlv. 13.) The words, in the mystical sense, may fitly be applied to the miserable captivity to which sinners enslave themselves, and the freedom of that redemption which Christ hath wrought for them. (Compare IPet. i. 18. Rom. iii. 24/)., JL,
Isaiah 3:4
I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. When all the eminent persons mentioned ver. 2, 3. are removed, the necessary consequence of that must be, that persons of no understanding or qualifications for government must succeed in their places. My people went down aforetime into Egypt; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.’].Compare Jer* 1. 17.- By the Assyrian, is meant the succession of Assyrian kings, Tiglath-pileser, Sennacherib, and the. rest; down to Nebuchadnezzar; for. the kings of Babylon are some* times styled kings of Assyria. (See jiote on xiv. 25.) The Jews had given these princes no just cause for their ill usage of them; though God for just reasons made them his instruments in punishing a wicked people.. Egypt aud Assyria are often joined together as the. two great oppressors of God’s people. (See the note on xi. 16.) *
Isaiah 3:5
And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another — the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable. The" usual effects of a weak and unsettled government/ where faction grows too hard for justice, and seditious men dare openly to insult those that are in authority. Ver. G. When a man shall take hold of his brother — saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our rider.’] Thou hast all manner of necessaries, (see vcr. 7.) fit to support the dignity of a ruler. To take hold of another, is a gesture of entreating his friendly assistance. (See iv. 1. Zcch. viii. 23.) And let this ruin be under thine hand.] Let thy hand, thy power, and interest, support this ruinous state of the government: so some understand the phrase, as if it were spoken by the figure hypallage; others thus, Let this ruinous and tottering government be Under thy care and protection. Noiv therefore, what have I here, saith the Lord.] Or, what have I to do here? (see note on xxii. 16.) that is, what have I to do with the Babylonians? when I gave my people into their hands, as the instruments of my vengeance, (see Jer. xxvii. 5, 6.) I never made over to them the right that I have in my people. Tliat my people is taken away for nought? they that ride over them make them to howl: and my name is continually blasphemed.] They had no valuable consideration given them for their liberty, (ver. 3.) nor did they injure the Babylonians first, that they should requite them in this manner* ver. 4. (to this sense the word hinman is often rendered without cause: see Psal. xxxv. 7.19. lxix. 4. cix. 3. cxix. 161. Lament, iv. 52.) they met with ill usage, and I got no honour by it. On the contrary, My name, is continually blasphemed: that is, the infidels take occasion from my delivering up my people into their hands, to reproach me as
Isaiah 3:7
Make me not a ruler of the people. I have not ability to undertake such an office; and the times are so bad, that I will not expose myself to the envy and danger of a high station. Vcr. 8. Their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory.] To provoke the glorious and all-seeing eyes of God, who is said to be of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, but with abhorrence, (Habak. i. 13.) Vcr. 9. The show of their countenance doth tuitness agaiiist them.] It is very uncertain what the word hacarath signifies, being never found elsewhere in the Bible: our " translators render it, the shoiu, i. e. the impudence of their countenance; whereby they put a bold face npon the worst of crimes, and glory ill the!* shaiic, after the example of Sodom, as it follows. (Sec i. 10.)
Isaiah 3:10
Say ye to the righteous, It shall be well ivith him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings: Woe mito the wicked! it shall be ill with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him.] Sec a parallel place to this, Eccles. viii. 12, 13. Both these texts plainly intimate that God hath appointed a time wherein he will put a difference between the righteous and the wicked: times of great calamity and confusion arc proper seasons to put men in mind that God will one day rectify these disorders.
Isaiah 3:12
As for my people, children are their oppressors. See ver. 4. The words may be rendered, Their oppressors glean them; i.e. take from them that poor remainder of their substance, which the former calamities had left: the word is used for gleaning grapes, after the main vintage is already gathered, Deut. xxiv. 22. (See here, ver. 14.) And wonten rule over them.] Women signify here, metaphorically, the weakest and most contemptible part of the people, who take upon them to govern their betters. (Sec ver. 4, 5.) In this sense the word is taken, xixvii. 11. like that of Virgil: m’’" O vere Phrygiae, ncque enifn Phrygcs." O my people, they that lead thee cause thee to err.] The margin reads, Tliey that call thee blessed, i. e. the false prophets who soothe thee up in.fhy sins, and foretell nothing but peace and prosperity. (Compare ix. 15, 10.)
Isaiah 3:14
The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof. He will avenge the’ cause of the poor and oppressed, by those judgments which he is bringing upon the great and honourable. (See vcr. 1—3.)
Isaiah 3:15
What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind thefaces of the poor?. You squeeze them by your oppression: this is expressed by flaying their skin, and pulling their flesh from their bones, Micah iii. 2, 3.
Isaiah 3:16
Making a tinkling with their feet. Some interpret this of chains like a sort of trammels put about their feet, which hindered these nice ladies from making too large strides. (Sec Dr. Alix’s Reflect, upon the Scrip, par. i. chap. 20.) But the words which describe the women’s ornaments in this and the following verses are of a very doubtful signification; the modes of every age and country varying* so often, that the succeeding fashion makes the former to be quickly forgotten, and the words that express it to be out-dated.
Isaiah 3:17
And the Lord will discover their secret parts. When they shall be carried captive, stripped and bare, without any covering for their nakedness; for such were the barbarous customs of conquerors towards their captives. (Sec xx. 4. xlvii. 3. Jer.xiii. 22. Micah i.ll. Nahum iii. 5.) [Ver. 21. Nose-jewels.] The word may be translated jewels for the face or forehead, as it is rendered, Gen. xxiv. 47. Ezek. xvi! 12. But the same phrase is used Prov. xi. 22. where it certainly signifies a nose-jewel; and our interpreters translate it to that sense, As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout. St. Austin, in his Questions upon Genesis, tells us, it was the custom of the women in Mauritania to hang jewels in their noses; and the same custom is still observed I** in Persia, Arabia, and other countries, as those who have
Isaiah 3:20
Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the Jiead of all the streets, like a wild bull in a net, Sec. A description of the miserable condition of the city when it was just taken by the enemy, and the choicest men for youth and courage lay weltering in their own blood in every street, struggling for* life like a wild bull taken in a toil, and sinking under the weight of God’s wrath. When God delivered up Zedekiah into the hands of his enemies, he is said to spread his net upon him, (Ezek. xii. 13. xvii. 20.) ■
Isaiah 3:21
And drunken, but not with wine. See ver. 17.
Isaiah 3:22
Tliou shalt no more drink it again. Some render the words, Thou shalt no longer drink thereof (Compare Ezek. xxxix. 28.) If we follow the common translation, and understand this of Jerusalem, it must mean that such a judgment should not come upon it again in several ages; a long continuance being often styled for ever, in the Hebrew. But by comparing this verse with ver. 16. < and with liv. 9. we may conclude, that this prophecy hath a farther prospect upon a new state or restoration of the! Jews, which is still to be expected. (See likewise xxxv. 8. 9. lii.l.Ix. 15. lxii. 8.), \ [Thou shalt no more drink it again.] The words should rather be translated, Tliou slialt no longer drink thereof So the particle n6d plainly signifies, Ezek. xii. 28. Hos. i. 6. seeNoldius,p. 682.]
Isaiah 3:23
But I will put if into the hands of them tliat afflict tliee. Compare xlix. 26. Jer. xxv. 29. Rev. xyiii. 6.., Winch have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over.] The expression alludes to the custom of conquerors to tread upon the necks of the conquered. (See Josh. x. 24. Psal. Ixvi. 12.) The phrase of bowing down the soul, signifies undergoing great oppression and misery. (See Psal. lvii.6.). CHAP. LH.