Chapter Three

1. Calamities awaiting the Judeans: a) lack of means for livelihood. 2–7. b) lack of good rulers. 8–15. Vices of the people. 16–25. Vices of Judean women.

Isaiah 3:1. Behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall take away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and staff, all support of bread and all support of water, Explaining wherein the humiliation of Judea shall consist, the prophet briefly speaks of the depletion of Judean wealth and depicts in detail the anarchy that will result from the fact that no one will want to engage in public affairs, disrupted by the rule of inexperienced leaders. “Support and staff” — symbolic designations of every prop of the state — both strong-willed and wise people and natural riches. “Support of bread” — bread stores and water sources, without which people will begin to suffer from hunger and thirst.

Isaiah 3:2. the mighty warrior and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, and the seer and the elder, “Prophet” — clearly a false one, as is evident from the synonymous expression standing nearby: seer (the pagan diviner kosem). “Elder” — this is not merely an elder, but also an elder, a respected leader (compare verse 14).

Isaiah 3:3. the commander of fifty and the nobleman and counselor, and the wise craftsman and the skillful speaker. The prophet enumerates various representatives of the civil and military administration of the Judean kingdom (the captain of fifty in the army, a nobleman or senator, a counselor or minister). He also mentions the wise craftsman. Some interpreters understand architects here (Jer 24:1); others translate this expression with the term: enchanters. These latter also had great significance in directing state policy under impious kings. “Skillful speaker” — from the Hebrew, skillful in divinations.

Isaiah 3:4. And I will give them boys as their leaders, and children shall rule over them. In the near future this prophecy could refer to the enthronement of Manasseh, who ascended to the throne at age 12 (2 Sam 21:1).

Isaiah 3:5. And the people shall be oppressed, each by another, and each by his neighbor; the youth shall behave insolently toward the elder, and the base toward the honorable. As a result of the weakness of the rulers, the state will begin to experience various lawlessness.

Isaiah 3:6. When a man shall seize his brother in the house of his father, saying, You have clothing, be our leader, and let these ruins be under your authority. Isaiah 3:7. But he shall swear, saying, I cannot be a healer of the wounds of society; and in my house there is neither bread nor clothing; do not make me a leader of the people. No one will want to take upon themselves the burden of public service. “Shall seize” — will compel. “In the house of his father” — These words are more correctly, according to the grammatical sense of the Hebrew expression, to be related to the following expression: “you have clothing.” The whole thing can be translated thus: “you have clothing” (that is, some kind of special, magnificent, which was reserved for kings) in the house of your father; come then and be our leader, take into your hands these ruins (literally: this wavering, threatening destruction — a symbol of a seriously ill, weak state organization). “Cannot be a healer,” more accurately: “do not wish to be a healer (chobesch).” This word was chosen by the prophet well as having the meaning both of a doctor healing wounds (compare Isa 1:6) and of a ruler (compare Job 34:17). “And in my house there is not” — Eastern sheikhs are obliged to receive their needy subjects in their houses and therefore must have stores of food and clothing.

Isaiah 3:8. Thus Jerusalem is being ruined, and Judah has fallen, because their tongue and their deeds are against the Lord, offensive to the eyes of His glory. Isaiah 3:9. The expression of their faces testifies against them, and of their sin they speak openly, like the Sodomites, they do not hide: woe to their souls! for they bring evil upon themselves. The prophet bitterly reproaches the wicked Judeans for their open impiety. In particular, he condemns the wicked Judean rulers, who have led the people to the brink of ruin and for this must expect swift judgment of God. The Judeans do deeds that are offensive to the eyes of the glory of the Almighty. The eyes of the Lord, pure and holy, cannot look upon the vile deeds of the Judeans. “Expression of their faces” — more correctly from the Hebrew, their brow, their forehead. We have a saying: it is written on his forehead that he is a worthless or foolish man.

Isaiah 3:10. Tell the righteous that it shall be well with him, for he shall enjoy the fruits of his deeds; Isaiah 3:11. but woe to the wicked! for there shall be recompense for him because of the works of his hands. Throughout the Old Testament the idea is set forth that the destiny of a person corresponds to his behavior (compare Prov 1:31; Deut 28 and other passages).

Isaiah 3:12. The oppressors of My people are children, and women rule over them. My people! your leaders mislead you, and corrupt the way of your paths. “Children” — more accurately: capricious, willful people... “Women rule” — an allusion to Ahaz, who ascended to the throne as a very young man and, being weak in character, could be swayed by the influence of women (his mother or sisters). “Your leaders” — these are chiefly false prophets (compare Mic 3:5). “Way of your paths” — that is, the true way in which you should walk. They corrupted, that is, turned aside, diverted from it.

Isaiah 3:13. The Lord stands up for judgment — and rises to judge the peoples. Isaiah 3:14. The Lord enters into judgment with the elders of His people and their leaders: you have devoured the vineyard; the plunder of the poor is in your houses; Isaiah 3:15. why do you crush My people and grind the faces of the poor? says the Lord, the Lord of hosts. The Lord, who is to judge the Judean people as a whole, will show special severity toward the leaders of this people. “You have devoured the vineyard,” that is, you have used all the fruits of God’s vineyard for yourselves, instead of, as guardians entrusted to the vineyard, preserving this grape for the owner (compare Luke 20:16). The figurative expression of verse 14 is clarified in verse 15. Isa 3:16-25. The women of Jerusalem through their luxury and shamelessness provoked God’s anger against them. The Lord shall take from them all their ornaments and place upon them a mark of shame. Because of a shortage of sufficient men, most of whom will perish in war, many of them will remain unmarried.

Isaiah 3:16. And the Lord said: because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with necks stretched high and enticing with their eyes, and go with strutting gait and make a tinkling with chains on their feet, “Daughters of Zion,” that is, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, walk with necks stretched high, that is, stretched back with pride. They want to draw the attention of men to themselves by every means. “Chains on their feet” — ankle bracelets with golden chains, which women, when walking, produced a kind of jingling sound. The prophet Isaiah, like the other prophets, were not absolute opponents of such expenditures on the adornment of life. They proclaimed the coming of times when Israel would express its joy in songs and feasts, and Jerusalem would be adorned with all beauty. But luxury that was united with forgetfulness of higher interests of life they denied.

Isaiah 3:17. The Lord shall lay bare the crown of the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord shall uncover their shame; “Laying bare the crown of the heads” — a scab, a kind of skin disease accompanied by hair loss. “The Lord shall uncover their shame” — the Russian translation apparently holds here the opinion that the word phat means female sexual parts, but the ancient translators did not attach such meaning to this word. Blessed Jerome translates this word with the expression: hair. The parallelism with the first part of the verse compels us to accept exactly this meaning of this Hebrew word. Here will be no repetition with the preceding hemistich: in the first hemistich we are speaking of a disease of hair (a scab), and in the second — of forcible shearing of hair from the forehead, which as a result is laid bare. The shamefulfulness of this shearing is indicated even in the ancient Babylonian laws of King Hammurapi, which punished violation of a priestess with the shaving of her forehead (see Scheil, 1902, p. 127).

Isaiah 3:18. In that day the Lord shall take away the beautiful ankle chains and the stars, and the crescents, “Beautiful ankle chains” — more accurately, rings of precious metals, worn by women on the ankles. “Stars” — more accurately “suns” (an image of the sun). “Crescents” — medallions depicting the moon, which also served as amulets.

Isaiah 3:19. earrings, and necklaces, and fans, head coverings and bracelets, and girdles, and bottles of perfume, and amulets, “Earrings” — more accurately from the Hebrew, drops. These were called diamonds, placed on the ears and resembling elongated water drops. “Head coverings” — head scarves. “Bracelets” — more accurately, golden ankle chain to bind the feet, in order to make the steps more limited and in order to produce a jingling sound. (compare Gen 24:47). “Bottles of perfume” were often made of pure gold. “Amulets” — protective talismans against various misfortunes with inscriptions. In going into all these details of women’s dress, the prophet wants to say thereby that the Hebrew women had practically no time for anything other than their toilette...

Isaiah 3:20. rings and nose rings, Arab women even now wear rings fastened to the nose with special devices and hanging down over the lips.

Isaiah 3:21. fine linen garments and cloaks, and scarves, and pouches, “Fine linen garment” — this is festive, expensive clothing. “Cloaks” — various kinds of wraps. “Scarves” — properly a shawl, worn in the east over all clothing.

Isaiah 3:22. sheer tunics and fine wrappings, and veils. “Sheer” — more correctly read this word separately and see here an indication of mirrors made of polished metal, which women constantly carried with them. 4 “Fine tunics” — garments made of the finest linen, which were worn under the tunic.

Isaiah 3:23. And instead of perfume there shall be stench, and instead of a girdle a rope, and instead of curled hair baldness, and instead of a wide tunic a narrow sackcloth, instead of beauty a mark of shame. “Wide tunic” — a wide garment with sleeves. “Sackcloth” — properly, a sack or narrow garment, made of the coarsest fabric. “Mark of shame” was usually placed on animals as a sign of their belonging to a certain person. From this we can conclude that Hebrew women will also be sold into slavery and through this branding their beauty will be spoiled.

Isaiah 3:24. Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty in battle. Isaiah 3:25. And the gates of the city shall lament and mourn, and she shall sit on the ground desolate. Since many Judeans will fall in war, there will be none to gather at the city gates, where judgment was ordinarily conducted and the marketplace was set up. The speech of the prophet, which concludes in chapter 3, with the exception of verses 10–11, which are an exclamation similar to the pious effusions of the psalms, is recognized by the best critics as the genuine work of Isaiah. It is said, however, that the prophet Isaiah was not accustomed to such details as he gives about the ornaments of women, but this expression, properly speaking, has no sufficient foundation. This speech was probably composed in the last years or soon after the death of Jotham, perhaps just before the accession of Ahaz to the throne of the Judean kingdom. Pressed by external enemies (2 Sam 15:37), Jerusalem internally is given over to anarchy. Young Ahaz has not yet taken the reins of government and many, apparently, are afraid of his reign, wishing to have a more capable ruler over them. However, there are no volunteers to take upon themselves the difficult task of governing the Judean kingdom. According to Condamin, this speech can be conveniently divided into the following strophes: verses 1–7 – 1st strophe – 3, 3, 2, 2 verses 8–15 – 2nd strophe – 3, 3, 2, 2 verses 16–23 – 1st strophe – 3, 2, 3 verses 24–26 – 2nd strophe – 3, 2, 3 It should be noted that Condamin divides verse 19 into two, as is done in the Hebrew Massoretic Bible, which resulted in him having 26 verses in chapter 3, not 25. * * * In the Slavonic translation from the LXX — And the bright Laconian, and fine linens, and blues, and purples. Translator’s note.