Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

ISAIAH - CHAPTER 3

JUDAH AND JERUSALEM TO BE JUDGED

1. In fulfillment of repeated warning, the Lord withdraws His blessings because of Judah’s sins, (Verse 1; comp. Leviticus 26:23-26).

a. He takes away physical necessities which they have too long taken for granted, (Verse 1; Isaiah 5:13; Isaiah 9:20; Ezekiel 4:16-17).

b. He also takes away their leaders and counsellors, judges and defenders, prophets and honorable men - all who might be expected to exercise wisdom and prudence, (Verse 2-3; Isaiah 9:13-15; 2 Kings 24:14; Ezekiel 17:12-13).

2. The result of God’s action is a state of anarchy and confusion, (Verse 4-7; Micah 7:3-6; Jeremiah 9:3-8).

a. Children are exalted to rule in a time of severe oppression, (Verse 4, 12; Ecclesiastes 10:16).

b. The young treat their elders maliciously for their own pleasure.

c. The pride of the base humiliates the honorable.

d. No one can be found who is able to restore order, provide the basic needs of the nation and be a healer of their divinely inflicted wounds, (comp. Hosea 5:13-14).

3. The ruin of Jerusalem, as the fall of Judah, is not without cause, (Isaiah 1:7; Isaiah 6:11).

a. Their words and deeds have been stout against the Lord, (Isaiah 9:17; Isaiah 59:1-3; comp. Malachi 3:13).

b. They have so provoked Him to Anger that the searching, piercing brilliancy of His glorious eye is against them, (Verse 8; Isaiah 65:3-7; Jeremiah 32:27-35; Jeremiah 44:2-8).

4. No longer trying to hide their sin, they display it as proudly as Sodom, (comp. Isaiah 1:10; Genesis 13:13).

5. By such shamelessness they have dealt woeful misery unto themselves, (Proverbs 8:36; Proverbs 15:32; Romans 6:23).

6. The righteous have no cause to be afraid, for God will reward them with the fruit of their labors, (Isaiah 54:17; comp. Deuteronomy 28:1-14).

7. But, woe to the wicked! they will reap as they have sown, (Isaiah 65:6-7; comp. Deuteronomy 28:15-68; Galatians 6:7-8).

Verse 12-26: A CONDEMNATION OF OPPRESSION, LUXURY AND PRIDE

1. The people of Judah are ruled, with tyranny, by women and capricious children - misleaders; who cause them to err and confuse the course of their paths. ,

2. The cries of the oppressed having reaching the ear of the Lord God of hosts, He is pictured as rising up to judge His people -beginning with the elders and princes who have devoured His vineyard and enriched themselves by the plunder of the poor, (Isaiah 5:7; Isaiah 10:1-2; Micah 6:2; Hosea 4:1; Hosea 12:2; Micah 3:1-3; comp. Ezekiel 20:35-38; Matthew 21:33-44).

3. He demands to know what they expect to gain by the brutal suppression of His people - grinding the faces of the poor!

4. The judgment coming upon the nation reaches all who have contributed to the national guilt; here He specifically condemns the "daughters of Zion".

a. They are proud, haughty and luxuriously robed.

b. They are scandalously seductive in the way they attract attention to themselves.

c. Provoked to anger by their sin, the Lord humbles them -smiting their heads with scabs, taking away their extravagant adornments, and revealing them as they really are, (comp. Ezekiel 16).

5. Warfare, captivity and utter humiliation is foreseen for the daughters of Zion.

a. Their men will fall by the sword so that the ultimate reproach, the one most feared by women of Palestine, comes upon them - widowhood, or the lack of a husband.

b. Their desperation is clearly portrayed by the prophet in Isaiah 4:1.

"And In that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach."