This chapter gives us a picture of doom and gloom for Jerusalem and Judah, and we see the judgment and effects on the leadership of the people. All was perfect, Jerusalem was the centre of all the world’s religions, and peace went throughout the earth. The problem was that Jerusalem failed to shine out; this was against what God wanted. He wanted the word to go out.
The multiple names of God hint at judgment to come, Isaiah 3:1 / Isaiah 1:24 / Isaiah 10:16 / Isaiah 10:33 / Isaiah 19:4. We read of famine and drought, and the essential supplies are going to stop, and so is their leadership.
If the bread was removed, the life of the people was removed, Isaiah 3:1 / Leviticus 26:26 / Psalm 105:16. They couldn’t trust in their supply of water, Isaiah 3:1, that came into the walls of Jerusalem through the conduit that Hezekiah built, Jeremiah 38:21 / Jeremiah 38:9 / Lamentations 4:4.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The reference here is probably to the invasion of the land by Nebuchadnezzar. The famine consequent on that invasion is described in Jeremiah 38:21 / Jeremiah 38:9 / Lamentations 4:4.’
There is a lot of insecurity because there was no direction or leadership, Isaiah 3:2-3 / 2 Kings 24:14 / Leviticus 19:32 / 2 Chronicles 31:17 / 1 Kings 12:6 / 1 Kings 12:8. God would replace them with youths and children or those who behaved as mischievous children and insolent novices, Isaiah 3:4 / Ecclesiastes 10:16.
Constable, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The Lord would remove the leading men in the military, political, religious, and commercial spheres of life. These were people the Israelites depended on. This happened when the Babylonians conquered the city and the land, 2 Kings 24:14, and earlier when the Assyrians defeated Israel.’
The trust that Israel placed in man was the besetting sin in Isaiah’s day, Isaiah 3:5 / Leviticus 19:32 / 1 Kings 3:7.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘In turn, they shall oppress and vex one another. Hebrew ‘man by man, and man by his neighbour’, a strong mode of expression, denoting that there would be a state of mutual strife, and violation of rights, 1 Kings 20:20.’
It appears that if you had a cloak, you would be picked as a leader, Isaiah 3:6. Anybody who has clothes on his back would be counted worthy enough to rule. In that day, he will cry out, I have no remedy. I have no food or clothing in my house, do not make me the leader of the people,’ Isaiah 3:7.
Motyer, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Isaiah is in reality describing a breakdown in national character and seriousness; the spirit which treats national welfare, politics and leadership as a joke.’
We see the actual Jerusalem, immoral and corrupt, where there was no true religion, just weakness and insecurity. They are standing on the edge; all God had to do was to give a push that would cause an end to their wickedness.
Jerusalem and Judah have sinned in what they say and in what they do, Isaiah 3:8 / Matthew 12:36-37. Just like Sodom, Isaiah 3:9 / Isaiah 1:10 / Genesis 19:5, they didn’t care who saw their sins, Isaiah 3:9 / Romans 1:27 / Ephesians 5:12.
When they suffered God’s judgment they would then understand that they brought their disaster upon themselves, Isaiah 3:9. In other words, if they tried to blame God, they would realise they forsook God’s laws.
God is going to be just, Genesis 18:25, and so, the righteous who were left in the land would escape, Isaiah 1:19-20, and all will reap what they sowed, Isaiah 3:10-11 / Jeremiah 6:19 / Galatians 6:8.
Notice the youth oppress God’s people, Isaiah 3:12. This has reference to the nature of the rulers. Their leaders led them into apostasy because they didn’t stand up for that which was right, Isaiah 3:12. In other words, the rulers didn’t have enough backbone to rule right, James 3:1.
God speaks against the leaders, and He is coming in judgement, Isaiah 3:13-14. God’s people were God’s vineyard, Psalm 80:9-13 / Isaiah 5:1-7 / Jeremiah 2:21 / Jeremiah 12:10 / Ezekiel 15:6-8 / Hosea 10:1, and they had taken away that which belonged to the poor as their own, Isaiah 3:14.
The rulers had, by their exactions and oppressions, ruined the people and destroyed the country. The leaders and elders have looked after their own needs and oppressed the poor, Psalm 94:5 / Leviticus 19:9-10 / Deuteronomy 24:20-21. The rulers reigned with little concern for the poor, and they ruled for their own sake, and not for the sake of the people, Isaiah 3:15 / Psalms 94:5 / Micah 3:2-3.
Hailey, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Micah describes how easy it is for a false prophet to lead the people astray. ‘If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood do lie, saying I will prophecy unto thee of wine and strong drink, he shall even be the prophet of this people’, Micah 2:11. The same principle can be observed today. Our country is on the verge of political and economic ruin because of unsound leadership. Also, the church has experienced apostasy and spiritual chaos because of the leadership of elders, preachers, and leaders who do not follow the Lord’s way, but follow their own.’
The remaining part of this chapter speaks against the daughters of Zion, Isaiah 3:16. We see that the abnormal luxury of the women of Judah and Jerusalem is condemned.
They were ‘haughty’, Isaiah 3:16, that is, they were proud of themselves. They were ‘walking with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes’, Isaiah 3:16, that is, they were walking while giving seductive glances, Proverbs 6:13-14.
They were strutting their stuff, so to speak, and they were wearing expensive ankle bracelets, Isaiah 3:16. God is going to bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion and make their scalps bald, Isaiah 3:17.
In that day, God is going to snatch away twenty-one items that they parade themselves with, Isaiah 3:17-23 / Titus 2:5 / 1 Peter 3:3-4. They did all these things and wore all these things to attract the men to them. Their worldly possessions will be taken away. All those things with which they dressed themselves would be traded for the rags of a captive, Isaiah 3:24.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The prophet proceeds to denounce the ‘judgment’ or ‘punishment’ that would come upon them for their pride and vanity. In the calamities that would befall the nation, all their ornaments of pride and vainglory would be stripped off; and instead of them, they would exhibit the marks and wear the badges of calamity and grief.’
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The contrast between sash and rope is especially tragic. When Assyria led the northern kingdom into captivity, some 30,000 were herded in long lines to Nineveh with ropes joining the captives by being passed through their ears. These are indeed tragic words for God’s apostate people. The significance of Isaiah 3:26 is that it unconsciously shifts from ‘the women of Jerusalem’ to Jerusalem itself, indicating that the vainglorious women were a type of Jerusalem in its apostasy.’
The war to come would take the lives of the all the mighty warriors, Isaiah 3:25, and in desperation because of a lack of males, seven women would try to get the same man for her husband, Isaiah 4:1.
As a result, ‘the gates of Zion will lament and mourn, destitute and she will sit on the ground,’ Isaiah 3:26 / Lamentations 1:1. To sit on the ground, was the usual posture of grief and mourning, denoting great depression and humiliation, Lamentations 2:10 / Lamentations 3:28 / Jeremiah 15:17 / Job 3:13 / Ezra 9:3-5.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘It is a remarkable coincidence that in the medals which were made by the Romans to commemorate the captivity of Judea and Jerusalem, Judea is represented under the figure of a female sitting in a posture of grief, under a palm tree, with this inscription, ‘judea capta’. The passage here, however, refers not to the captivity by the Romans but to the first destruction by Nebuchadnezzar. It is a tender and most affecting image of desolation. During the captivity at Babylon, it was completely fulfilled and for ages since, Judea might be appropriately represented by a captive female sitting pensively on the ground.’