9 The appearance of their faces witnessed against them, And their sin, as Sodom, they declared, They have not hidden! Wo to their soul, For they have done to themselves evil.
and the men of Sodom `are' evil, and sinners before Jehovah exceedingly.
A generation -- how high are their eyes, Yea, their eyelids are lifted up.
And she doteth on them at the sight of her eyes, And sendeth messengers to them, to Chaldea.
Fallen hath the crown `from' our head, Wo `is' now to us, for we have sinned.
`The word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of Jehovah -- we are not hearkening unto thee; for we certainly do everything that hath gone out of our mouth, to make perfume to the queen of the heavens, and to pour out to her libations, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our heads, in cities of Judah, and in streets of Jerusalem, and -- we are satisfied with bread, and we are well, and evil we have not seen.
They were ashamed when they did abomination! Yea, they are not at all ashamed, Yea, blushing they have not known, Therefore they do fall among those falling, In the time I have inspected them, They stumble, said Jehovah.
And withheld are showers, and gathered rain hath not been. The forehead of a whorish woman thou hast, Thou hast refused to be ashamed.
And whoso is missing me, is wronging his soul, All hating me have loved death!
Therefore hath pride encircled them, Violence covereth them as a dress. Their eye hath come out from fat. The imaginations of the heart transgressed;
And Jehu cometh in to Jezreel, and Jezebel hath heard, and putteth her eyes in paint and maketh right her head, and looketh out through the window.
and Samuel saith, `Bring ye nigh unto me Agag king of Amalek,' and Agag cometh unto him daintily, and Agag saith, `Surely the bitterness of death hath turned aside.'
and they call unto Lot and say to him, `Where `are' the men who have come in unto thee to-night? bring them out unto us, and we know them.' And Lot goeth out unto them, to the opening, and the door hath shut behind him, and saith, `Do not, I pray you, my brethren, do evil; lo, I pray you, I have two daughters, who have not known any one; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do to them as `is' good in your eyes; only to these men do not anything, for therefore have they come in within the shadow of my roof.' And they say, `Come nigh hither;' they say also, `This one hath come in to sojourn, and he certainly judgeth! now, we do evil to thee more than `to' them;' and they press against the man, against Lot greatly, and come nigh to break the door.
And Jehovah saith, `The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah -- because great; and their sin -- because exceeding grievous: I go down now, and see whether according to its cry which is coming unto Me they have done completely -- and if not -- I know;'
and concerning the ten horns that `are' in its heads, and of the other that came up, and before which three have fallen, even of that horn that hath eyes, and a mouth speaking great things, and whose appearance `is' great above its companions.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 3
Commentary on Isaiah 3 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 3
The prophet, in this chapter, goes on to foretel the desolations that were coming upon Judah and Jerusalem for their sins, both that by the Babylonians and that which completed their ruin by the Romans, with some of the grounds of God's controversy with them. God threatens,
O that the nations of the earth, at this day, would hearken to rebukes and warnings which this chapter gives!
Isa 3:1-8
The prophet, in the close of the foregoing chapter, had given a necessary caution to all not to put confidence in man, or any creature; he had also given a general reason for that caution, taken from the frailty of human life and the vanity and weakness of human powers. Here he gives a particular reason for it-God was now about to ruin all their creature-confidences, so that they should meet with nothing but disappointments in all their expectations from them (v. 1): The stay and the staff shall be taken away, all their supports, of what kind soever, all the things they trusted to and looked for help and relief from. Their church and kingdom had now grown old and were going to decay, and they were (after the manner of aged men, Zec. 8:4) leaning on a staff: now God threatens to take away their staff, and then they must fall of course, to take away the stays of both the city and the country, of Jerusalem and of Judah, which are indeed stays to one another, and, if one fail, the other feels from it. He that does this is the Lord, the Lord of hosts-Adon, the Lord that is himself the stay or foundation; if that stay depart, all other stays certainly break under us, for he is the strength of them all. He that is the Lord, the ruler, that has authority to do it, and the Lord of hosts, that has the ability to do it, he shall take away the stay and the staff. St. Jerome refers this to the sensible decay of the Jewish nation after they had crucified our Saviour, Rom. 11:9, 10. I rather take it as a warning to all nations not to provoke God; for if they make him their enemy, he can and will thus make them miserable. Let us view the particulars.
Isa 3:9-15
Here God proceeds in his controversy with his people. Observe,
Isa 3:16-26
The prophet's business was to show all sorts of people what they had contributed to the national guilt and what share they must expect in the national judgments that were coming. Here he reproves and warns the daughters of Zion, tells the ladies of their faults; and Moses, in the law, having denounced God's wrath against the tender and delicate woman (the prophets being a comment upon the law, Deu. 28:56), he here tells them how they shall smart by the calamities that are coming upon them. Observe,