Isaiah 3:4

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹For behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts is about to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: the whole supply of bread and water, ²the mighty man and the warrior, the judge and the prophet, the soothsayer and the elder, ³the commander of fifty and the dignitary, the counselor, the cunning magician, and the clever enchanter. ⁴"I will make mere lads their leaders, and children will rule over them."⁵The people will oppress one another, man against man, neighbor against neighbor; the young will rise up against the old, and the base against the honorable. ⁶A man will seize his brother within his father's house: "You have a cloak-you be our leader! Take charge of this heap of rubble." ⁷On that day he will cry aloud: "I am not a healer. I have no food or clothing in my house. Do not make me leader of the people!" ⁸For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen because they spoke and acted against the LORD, defying His glorious presence.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

children: 1 Kings 3:7-9, 2 Chronicles 33:1, 2 Chronicles 34:1, 2 Chronicles 36:2, 2 Chronicles 36:5, 2 Chronicles 36:9, 2 Chronicles 36:11, Ecclesiastes 10:16

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 22:1 - eight years old 2 Chronicles 13:7 - young Proverbs 30:22 - a servant Isaiah 3:12 - children Isaiah 51:18 - none Jeremiah 52:3 - through

Cross-References

Genesis 3:13
Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" "The serpent deceived me," she replied, "and I ate."

Deuteronomy 29:19
because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, 'I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.' This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.

2 Kings 1:4
Therefore, this is what the LORD says: You will not get up from the bed on which you are lying. You will surely die." So Elijah departed.

2 Kings 1:6
They replied, "A man came up to meet us and said, 'Go back to the king who sent you and tell him that this is what the LORD says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending these men to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not get up from the bed on which you are lying. You will surely die.'"

2 Kings 1:16
And Elijah said to King Ahaziah, "This is what the LORD says: Is there really no God in Israel for you to inquire of His word? Is that why you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not get up from the bed on which you are lying. You will surely die."

2 Kings 8:10
Elisha answered, "Go and say to him, 'You will surely recover.' But the LORD has shown me that in fact he will die."

Psalms 10:11
He says to himself, "God has forgotten; He hides His face and never sees."

2 Corinthians 2:11
in order that Satan should not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

2 Corinthians 11:3
I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.

1 Timothy 2:14
And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman who was deceived and fell into transgression.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And I will give children [to be] their princes,.... Either in age, or in understanding, who are really so, or act like such; and in either sense, when this is the case, it is an unhappiness to a nation, Ecclesiastes 10:16:

and babes shall rule over them; which is the same as before. The Targum is,

"the weak shall rule over them;''

such who are weak in their intellectuals, or are of mean pusillanimous spirits, "effeminate", as the Vulgate Latin version renders it; and so as "children" are opposed to the "ancient", that should be taken away, these are opposed to "men of might" and courage, who would now be wanting: or "men of illusions", as in the margin; such as were subtle as foxes, and should deceive them, and impose upon them, and were audacious and impudent, and would mock at them, and despise them. So Jarchi and Abarbinel; and according to this sense of the word the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, render it, "mockers shall rule over them".

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And I will give children - Not children in respect to age so much as in regard to talent for governing. I will commit the land to the government of weak and imbecile princes. This would naturally occur when the wise and great were removed; compare Ecclesiastes 10:16 : ‘Wo to thee, O land, when thy king is a child;’ compare Isaiah 3:12.

And babes shall rule ... - That is, babes in experience and knowledge. This was fully accomplished in the succession of weak and wicked princes that succeeded Isaiah, until the time of Zedekiah, the last of them, when the temple was taken by Nebuchadnezzar. - “Lowth.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 3:4. I will give children to be their princes - "I will make boys their princes"] This also was fully accomplished in the succession of weak and wicked princes, from the death of Josiah to the destruction of the city and temple, and the taking of Zedekiah, the last of them, by Nebuchadnezzar.

Babes shall rule over them. — Dymennysche men schul lordschopen to hem. - Old MS. Bible.