Isaiah 3:5

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

the people: Isaiah 9:19-21, Isaiah 11:13, Jeremiah 9:3-8, Jeremiah 22:17, Ezekiel 22:6, Ezekiel 22:7, Ezekiel 22:12, Amos 4:1, Micah 3:1-3, Micah 3:11, Zechariah 7:9-11, Malachi 3:5, James 2:6, James 5:4

child: Isaiah 1:4, Leviticus 19:32, 2 Kings 2:23, Job 30:1-12

base: 2 Samuel 16:5-9, Ecclesiastes 10:5-7, Matthew 26:67, Matthew 27:28-30, Mark 14:65, Luke 22:64

Reciprocal: Numbers 16:12 - General Job 19:18 - Yea Job 30:12 - rise Proverbs 19:10 - much Proverbs 30:22 - a servant Ecclesiastes 10:16 - when Isaiah 9:15 - ancient Jeremiah 52:3 - through Hosea 12:7 - he loveth Zechariah 11:6 - deliver 1 Corinthians 13:5 - behave

Cross-References

Genesis 2:17
but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die."

Genesis 3:2
The woman answered the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden,

Genesis 3:3
but of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You must not eat of it or touch it, or you will die.'"

Genesis 3:6
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Genesis 3:7
And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed together fig leaves and made coverings for themselves.

Genesis 3:10
"I heard Your voice in the garden," he replied, "and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself."

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."

Genesis 3:14
So the LORD God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and every beast of the field! On your belly will you go, and dust you will eat, all the days of your life.

Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

Genesis 3:22
Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever..."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the people shall be oppressed, everyone by another, and everyone by his neighbour,.... There being no governors, or such as were unfit for government, no decorum was kept and observed, but a mere anarchy; and so everyone did as he pleased, as when there was no king in Israel; and everyone rushed into the house of his neighbour, and plundered his goods; this was the case of Jerusalem, at the time of the siege, it abounding with robbers and spoilers:

the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient; show no respect to them, nor honour them, as the law requires in Leviticus 19:32 but behave insolently towards them; and so the Jews say d, that when the son of David is come, as he now would be, young men shall make ashamed the faces of old men, and old men shall stand before young men:

and the base against the honourable; persons of a mean birth and extract would rise up against and insult such as were men of families and fortune, of noble birth and of high degree.

d T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 97. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And the people shall be oppressed - This describes the state of anarchy and confusion which would exist under the reign of children and babes Isaiah 3:4, when all law would be powerless, and all rights violated, and when the feeble would be oppressed and borne down by the strong. The word used here, properly denotes that “unjust exactions or demands” would be made, or that the people would be “urged” to fulfill them.

Every one by another - In turn they shall oppress and vex one another. Hebrew ‘man by man; and man by his neighbor’ - a strong mode of expression, denoting that there would be a state of mutual strife, and violation of rights; compare 1 Kings 20:20.

The child ... - All ranks of society shall be broken up. All respect due from one rank in life to another shall be violated.

Shall behave himself proudly - The word used here means rather to “urge,” or “press on.” The child shall “crowd on” the old man. This was particularly descriptive of a state of anarchy and disorder, from the fact that the Jews inculcated so much respect and deference for age; see the note at Isaiah 3:2.

The ancient - The old man.

And the base - The man of low rank in life. The word properly means the man that is despised, the vile, the ignoble; 1 Samuel 18:23; Proverbs 7:9.

The honorable - All the forms of respect in life would be broken up; all the proper rules of deference between man and man would be violated. Neither dignity, age, nor honor would be respected.