Chapter 3
1-5 shown as a section. God is removing his support (his blessing?) from Jerusalem, and the people will all turn against each other. 6-8, None will want to be in authority as this just makes them a target. These verses seem less about Trib and more about the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon. The leaders were often carried away in the waves of conquest. Who would want to be a ruler at such a time? BUT, I do not want to get bogged down trying to "divide" each verse of Isaiah as it switches from near to far prophecy. I think it can sometimes change from verse to verse, and you'd still never be sure. It would, I think, reduce the impact of what is being said. So I'm going to try and avoid that. 9 - Woe to them. They proclaim and brag about their sin, as Sodom did. They are so jaded, so fearless of the Lord, that they don't even try to hide their sins. They brag about their sins! I have seen that before. Democratic National Convention 2016.
2022 - Isa 1:1-5 might be seen as a description of what happens to a nation when God stops protecting that nation. I think these verses should be seen as God's withdrawal from a nation, rather than from a person. The food and water supply is "on its own". God no longer promises rain in season and in plenty, There might be bread, there might not. You better prepare for both possibilities. This might be seen as a "prepper" verse. Next, those in authority and power. Those who defend the nation are taken away, honest judges, elders as examples of the right way, the people who are looked to for decisions and examples. Responsible people no longer want to be in charge!!!! So boys - the unqualified, who because of lack of age and/or training, have no clue how to be in charge - are put into places of responsibility. Everyone turns against everyone. Neighbor against neighbor, old against young, oppressed against oppressor. Holy cow, this is our country right now! And WE cannot fix it. This is people behaving as people always behave when God withdraws His support. The only cure for this is to convince God to change his mind, and restore His support.
Can I find any example at all of a nation recovering from this situation? Or does God not withdraw His support in the first place if there is any chance of reconciliation? Should we see Isaiah's words here as addressed to a nation that is beyond turning? This is not about chastening a nation, this is about a nation with no future.
Possible FB post. Depressing post!
2024- Verses 1-3 are about what God is going to remove. Interestingly, though, "is going to remove" is shown as a Hiphil participle rather than a straight up verb. According to the BLB explanation of an active participle, I think we need to go with or it can be "a substantive in its own right". So that is what we have here is a participle that functions as a full on verb. The obvious grammatical question then is can there be sequential verbs that follow a participle instead of a verb?
You read the list of those who be removed, and all of them would seem to be a great loss to any culture...but then at the end of the list you get "and the skillful enchanter". What is he doing in this list? Looked up the word translated enchanter. It seems to always have to do with the supernatural, though sometimes it is more like an enchanted amulet, and sometimes it is a whispered prayer. NASB95 translates it enchanter, but ESV calls it "the expert in charms". All seem to agree that this is someone that we not expect to be in company with his predecessors on the list. Why is he there? MSB just says this is God removing the people's leadership. There is no sequential verb in 1-3. These removals are all part of the participle back in vs 1.
In vs 4 we get our first sequential in the placing of boys instead of men in positions of power. We can see that this FOLLOWS, is sequential, to the removal of traditional leadership.
The next few verses have a lot of Qal Imperfect verbs. No sequentials, but they are all imperfect verbs following the sequential in vs 4. Imperfect means "continuous, incomplete, or ongoing". This sad state of affairs is not just a one day deal, but goes on for some period of time, until we get to vs. 8.
In vs 8, we get "For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen". Remember that at this point in Isaiah, Assyria has yet to invade the north. The fall of Jerusalem is still 100-150 years in the future. I think it is pretty evident here that Isaiah is looking out only that far - to the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon, and not all the way into the post-church age.
2025 - Still agree here. There is nothing in either verbs, the grammar or the words themselves being quoted by John in Revelation that indicates a far future aspect to this prophecy. I would say all of vvs 1-12 are about what is just "around the corner"for Jerusalem and Judah. NASB95 has a section break after 12, so I am cutting off there too.
2025 - It seems strange that Isaiah specifically says he is speaking of Judah and Jerusalem - of the Southern Kingdom - even the North will fall much sooner.
2021 - This verse:
[Isa 3:6 ESV] For a man will take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying: "You have a cloak; you shall be our leader, and this heap of ruins shall be under your rule";
Know why the choices we have for President are getting worse and worse? Because only a fool would want the job as things crumble all around us. The job is only forced upon people. How far back did the tide turn, from qualified and capable men, Godly leaders, to those who had other goals in mind? Those who only served because of what the job could do for them?
Part of a FB series of posts?
First woe:
9 For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves. [Isa 3:9 ESV]
2021 - Vs 9 is becoming more and more widespread. Sin is heralded as a successful strategy. Homosexuality, transvestites, abortions. All touted as wonderful, successful, enlightened, fulfilling. And surely the similarity to Sodom cannot be missed.
More for the series?
I find these two verses very telling, very un-PC, and a good way to get banned from FB:
11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him. 12 My people--infants are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, your guides mislead you and they have swallowed up the course of your paths. [Isa 3:11-12 ESV]
This just looks like the US over the last 10 or 20 years. Our leaders get younger and younger, and men are being harangued, heckled, and replaced by women, because they are women. Being male is tantamount to disqualification from public office. I know Isaiah is not about us, but I still see us in this passage.
2024 - Vs 12 is the end of a section. It summarizes the sorry state in which Judah will find itself after God removes good leadership. Without good leaders, the nation turns to younger and younger males - children really, and to women for leadership. And these, because they lack wisdom, discernment, even the most basic experience, will become oppressors. It is easier to yell and scream at those over whom you have authority than to actually lead them. So I think vs 12 is describing how things are generally going to be because God is no longer providing men to lead.
2024 - In vs 13, a new section, we get a couple of infinitives. God is to contend and to judge. That is, He is going to do something about this situation. He abandoned them back in Chapter 2 and we have seen how bad things are going to get as the culture implodes due to a lack of leadership. And somewhere down the line, when it has gone far enough, God will act. Looking at other translations, the idea seems to be that God will make his case, plead his case, "contend" that it is time for judgment, for woe, and he will stand in judgment. I am not sure that is correct...I think He will stand to make his case, but as I have seen it, judges sit to pronounce judgment. Look at the description of the pre-Millennial judgment and the GWT. The judge is sitting in both of those. So it is like God will stand and make his case...which we get a glimpse of in vss 14-15.
2025 - Actually, vs 13 has four words that all act as verbs. Arises, to contend, stands, and to judge. These are two grammatically the same phrases. The first in each is a participle and the second an infinitive construct. In BLB all four are shown as verbs/forms of verbs. None of the four appear to denote a specific time. Arises now or has already done so, or will arise in the future? It does not say, but in English we naturally tend to go with sometime in the future.
2025 - I am getting the idea that Isaiah had a LOT of seriously advance training in speaking and/or writing. He is using Hebrew in what seems to me to be a far more intricate way than I have noted in other books...though I have not looked for these forms in other books after first discovering them in Isaiah.
2025 - This section is vvs 13-15. There are two verbs in 14. The first is "enters" and this is of imperfect type. This tells us the action is ongoing or incomplete. God's action here is still in progress. Contrast this with the second verb, devoured, which is in perfect tense. The sins for which God is judging them was completed in the past. God does not punish future crime, future sin. He judges what is already been done. Judgement is a consequence, not an attempt to turn or preempt.
2025 - In 15, crushing and grinding are both imperfect.
2025 - The next section is vvs 16-26. Vs 16 is overrun with verbs. It starts with a sequential imperfect, "and said"....
2025 - It just gets so involved. I cannot do 66 chapters of Isaiah this way, a verb at a time. I am going to stop this, and try to apply it only when I suspect a break from near prophecy to far, and see if I can confirm my suspicions.
2025 - Just to restate what this deep dive into verbs is about, I believe the OT prophets, in their dreams or visions or trances, saw the future of God's people. They did not see the church age. They did not comprehend that the church age was in the middle and so they didn't understand a lot of their own prophecies, or at least did not understand that a whole separate age was going to come about. There are prophecies ABOUT that age, as in "all nations will be blessed". But they didn't comprehend that prophecy as being about the church age.
Their prophecy for the most part wraps around the church age. So I try to determine whether a prophecy is to be fulfilled before the church age, or after the church age, in the 70th week. For me, "near" is pre-church, and far is post-church. And NONE is about specific events in the church age. The church age is only spoken of in terms of generalities, and even then only rarely.
2024 - I don't know if 16-17 are some "new" indictment, or part of the continuing presentation of God's case against Israel. Aha! "the Lord said" is a sequential verb, tying back to the previous verses where God is making his case. This is therefore a continuation of that case against Judah, not a new indictment. This is part of the problem that will exist. In vs 18, "will take away" is imperfect, meaning ongoing action. So in the day when God makes his case, it is going to go very badly indeed for these women who have set themselves up to rule over Judah. Once Jerusalem falls, these women will find themselves powerless, abused, denigrated, and sitting alone in the dust in rags instead of in the finery of their "glory days". Perhaps the real problem here was not women in leadership, but in the arrogance they had about that being their true place and purpose.
vss 16, 17 seem to prophesy a judgement on women in particular, baldness maybe, and nakedness. Not sure about this one. It looks like the finery and exaltation of women will be brought low. How? vs. 25, 26:
25 Your men shall fall by the sword and your mighty men in battle. 26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; empty, she shall sit on the ground. [Isa 3:25-26 ESV]
Without the protection, without the "consent" of men, women lose the battle. All falls apart.
2021 - 16, 17, This could be interpreted as the ultimate failure of feminism. Female leadership is not in view. Women are fully capable of leading, and at times the best leaders. The Bible has examples of female leadership in tune with God's will. Dinah, Rahab, there was a female judge in that book, Lydia, many others. But feminism is a different thing. It presumes the created order to be in error. Its aim is to turn everything upside down. To make men slaves to women. These verses may be saying that a system built on the opposite of the created order is destined for a spectacular failure. It will fall so hard that it will be like stripping the women who created it naked in public. Exposing their most private thoughts, embarrassingly.
2025 - Vs 18 uses the phrase "in that day". I think we should see this as the day of God's arising to contend and standing to judge. It is about the near fulfilment of the judgment of God as Judah and Jerusalem fall to Babylon.
I believe this says that leadership is not the optimum role for women. I believe it says that when women begin to fill these roles in great numbers, it is a sign of decline in that nation. It is not a sign of "enlightenment" but of ignoring the light. It is a sign that the system is breaking down from the foundation.
2021 - Maybe the fundamental problem is not that women fill more leadership roles but more that the stronger sex is denigrated and pushed out and disrespected. What happens when you alienate your strongest players? There is a vacuum, and it can only be filled with weaker players, once the strong are pushed out. And that is what is happening with the whole patriarchal, CRT, socialist agenda. The most able, the most successful, the strongest - are being labelled as criminals, thieves, greedy bastards, and most of all, oppressors. These are not successful because they work harder, because they're smarter, because they are better organized, but because they have built a whole system that funnels success and wealth only to them, and at other's expense. Now here is the interesting part. In Isaiah, when these cultural changes were taking place, it was because God was taking away their support and supply. God was taking away "plenty" and leaving "want". Further, the removal of the strongest and best equipped leaders was also God's doing, as punishment sent on a sinful nation. When God stops enforcing His created order of leadership, it is because He is done with that nation. This is surely a scary development.
Previous four paragraphs distilled as a third series post?
[[[Possible series: Vs 1-6 are God's proactive judgments: vs 1 Take away support and supply, food and water are sought after, not taken for granted. vs 2, The rank and file military deteriorates. The justice system deteriorates. The religious system collapses. (def of diviner?) vs 3, Military leadership declines. Perhaps becomes political instead of nationalistic. Then these "magical" things collapse? Does this mean once organized religion collapses people will turn to charms and witches, and then they too will be ineffective? Vs 4, Lack of experienced leadership. Younger, but more importantly, unqualified leadership. Put in a picture of the cross dresser in charge of HUD. vs 5, all will turn on each other. So polarized that we are each surrounded by enemies no matter where we live. It will be ok to cheat your neighbor, because you are enemies along some dimension. Is the last part of the verse about millennials? A whole generation that shouldn't have to wait for experience and success, because they are already smarter than all who came before, and the old have nothing to teach them? And maybe a disease begins to deplete the elderly, to wipe out the experience of lifetimes? Despised to honorable - criminals defunding the police. Murderers, rapists, child molesters and drug addicts held up as fallen heroes, as martyrs in the battle AGAINST justice. Wow. How many posts is that? And they just keep going!]]]