Table of Contents
Isaiah 3
Isaiah 3
1 For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water.
2 The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient,
3 The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.
4 And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.
5 And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.
6 When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand:
7 In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be an healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people.
8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
9 The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.
10 Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
11 Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.
12 As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.
13 The Lord standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people.
14 The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
15 What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord God of hosts.
16 Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:
17 Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts.
18 In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon,
19 The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers,
20 The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings,
21 The rings, and nose jewels,
22 The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins,
23 The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails.
24 And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.
25 Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war.
26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.
Notes
Cross Reference
Commentary
Rashi
Verse 1
<html><b>removes from Jerusalem…</b> This entire section is explained in Tractate Chagigah (14a): Isaiah cursed Israel [i.e., prophesied tribulations for them] with eighteen curses, yet he was not satisfied until he said, (verse 5) “The youth shall behave haughtily against the old, and the base against the honorable.”</html>
Verse 2
<html><b>soothsayer</b> This denotes the king, as it is stated: (Prov. 16:10) “[Like] soothsaying on the lips of a king.”</html>
Verse 3
<html><b>counsellor</b> One who knows how to intercolate the years and fix the months. <b>skillful craftsman</b> [explained by the Talmud as “wise of the deaf,” meaning that] when he commences [to speak of] words of Torah, all become as deaf [i.e., unable to refute his statement]. <b>one who understands secrets</b> [The Talmud separates this into two, explaining “understanding” as one capable of deducing a decision from an earlier premise. “Secret” is explained as] one fit to be entrusted with secrets of the Torah, given in whispers, such as the story of Creation and the account of the Celestial Chariot, related in Ezekiel 1.</html>
Verse 4
<html><b>And I will appoint youths as their princes</b> These are people devoid of any observance of the commandments. <b>and scorners will rule over them</b> Heb. וְתַעֲלוּלִים [related to the Aramaic תַּעֲלֵי] foxes, [i.e.,] weak people. But I say that according to the simple meaning, תַּעֲלוּלִים means scornful people, people who mock them, as (Job 16:15): “I soiled (וְעוֹלַלְתִּי) my radiance in the dust,” and (Exod. 10: 2): “how I mocked (הִתְעַלַּלְתִּי) the Egyptians.”</html>
Verse 5
<html><b>And the people shall be oppressed</b> They shall be pressed and oppressing each other with competition and strife. <b>they shall behave haughtily, the youth against the elder</b> The youth will raise himself over the elder. <b>and the base against the honorable</b> [This is to be interpreted] according to its simple meaning. The exegetical meaning is as follows: Let one to whom grave interdicts seem light come and raise himself over one to whom light interdicts seem grave.</html>
Verse 6
<html><b>When a man shall seize his brother</b> When a man shall seize his brother in his father’s house, saying, “You are wealthy in Torah, and it is as white to you as a garment.” <b>be an officer to us</b> and teach us. <b>and this obstacle</b> upon which we are stumbling, in prohibition or permissibility, in defilement or in purity, shall be under your hand, for you know how to instruct us. Another explanation is: You have a garment to clothe the naked. <b>and this obstacle</b> fajjlejjnca in O.F. [faibless in modern French]. My want, that I lack bread, is under your hand to supply me. Therefore, you shall be to us as an officer. He replies, In my house there is neither bread nor clothing. What then are my qualifications as an officer?</html>
Verse 7
<html><b>He shall swear on that day</b> [lit. he will raise. The word יִשָּׂא] is only an expression of swearing; he will swear to them, I will not be a ‘Chovesh.’ I will not be one of those confined to the study hall, since, in my house there is neither bread nor clothing; I have understanding neither of the Mishnah nor of the Aggadah. Another explanation according to the simple meaning is: I will not be a confiner; I will not be a judge, who confines the convicts to prison.</html>
Verse 8
<html><b>For Jerusalem stumbled</b> They are all faulty and falling, and no one assists the next one. Why? Because they refused to obey, and now, they all provoke. <b>for their tongue and their deeds are against the Lord</b> [lit. to the Lord;] against Him to provoke Him. <b>to provoke the eyes of His glory</b> to provoke before His glory. Another explanation is: to provoke the matters of His glory.</html>
Verse 9
<html><b>The recognition of their faces</b> The sin that they recognize faces [i.e., show favoritism] in judgment testified against them before Me. Another version is: The recognition of their faces—They are recognizable by the boldness of their faces. <b>like Sodom they told, they did not deny</b> They committed [sins] publicly.</html>
Verse 10
<html><b>Praise the righteous man for he is good</b> Say to the righteous man that he did good.</html>
Verse 11
<html><b>Woe to the wicked [who does] evil</b> For he is bad to himself and to others; he brings about harm to himself and to others. [This is found] in Tanchuma (Emor 5). This verse refers back to: Say to the righteous that he is good and woe is to the wicked [who does evil].</html>
Verse 12
<html><b>their rulers are mockers</b> Heb. נֹגְשָׂיו מְעוֹלֵל, they are mockers. <b>and women govern them</b> Heb. נָשִׁים. Adulterous women govern them, as he states below (verse 16): “Since the daughters of Zion were haughty,” and they turned their hearts to evil; therefore, all weaklings governed them. Jonathan renders it as an expression of creditors (נוֹשִׁים) [rendering: and as creditors they govern them]. <b>Your leaders</b> Heb. מְאַשְּׁרֶיךָ. Your leaders, who should have led you on the good way, lead you astray. <b>they have destroyed</b> Spoiled.</html>
Verse 13
<html><b>stands to plead</b> [i.e., to judge the case] of Israel standing, so to speak, so as not to be strict in their judgment. <b>and stands to judge the nations</b> Heb. ועמד. He delays and dwells on their judgment. This expression of standing means delay.</html>
Verse 14
<html><b>The Lord will enter into judgment with the elders of His people</b> For they should have protested (Shabbath 55a), and to the nations He says, And you have ravaged My vineyard. I became slightly incensed [against them,] and you helped to do harm. <b>the spoils of the poor</b> [of] a poor generation, for they were poor in good deeds. All this is in the Midrash Aggadah, but according to its simple meaning, the entire section deals with Israel, and “stands to judge the peoples,” refers to the tribes. <b>and you have ravaged the vineyard</b> The elders and the officers ‘ate up’ the rest of the people.</html>
Verse 15
<html><b>What to you mean</b> Heb. מַלָּכֶם, like מַה לָכֶם, what do you mean? [lit. What is to you?] <b>you grind</b> Crush and degrade to disgrace them in their lawsuit.</html>
Verse 16
<html><b>And the Lord said</b> Concerning the women who governed My people, “Since the daughters of Zion are so haughty…” <b>and winking eyes</b> Heb. וּמְשַׂקְּרוֹת, an expression of looking. Another explanation is: They paint their eyes with vermilion or with blue eye shade. <b>walking and raising themselves they walk</b> Heb. ותפוף. This is an expression of something floating on another, as (Deut. 11:4): “over whom He caused…to flow (הֵצִיף),” which the Targum renders as אַטֵיף. Thus, a tall one would walk between two short ones, in order to appear to be floating over them (Shabbath 62b). Jonathan, however, renders: and with wigs they surround themselves. They would tie wigs, braids of cut-off hair. They would twist together with their braids so that they would appear thick and broad. <b>and with their feet they spout venom</b> When they would pass in the street near Jewish youths, they would stamp their feet and hint to them of the affection of the adulteresses, in order to arouse their temptation, like the venom of a serpent. עֶכֶס is the venom of a serpent.</html>
Verse 17
<html><b>And the Lord shall smite with zaaraath</b> Heb. וְשִׂפַּח. This is an expression of zaraath [believed to be a form of leprosy, see Commentary Digest II Kings 5:1], as (in Leviticus 13:6): “It is a mispachath (מִסְפַּחַת).” But since it is written with a ‘sin,’ our Sages expounded about it that they would become enslaved maidservants (שְׁפָחוֹת), and some expounded it to mean that He smote them with many families (מִשְׁפָּחוֹת) of lice. <b>shall pour out their “vessels”</b> Heb. פָּתְהֵן יְעָרֶה. Their vessels He shall pour out. This is the Aramaic language, like “a black vessel” פַּתְיָא אוּכְמָא [in] (Pesachim 88a). They would say, Let Him hurry and hasten His deed, to bring on the invaders. An officer will see me and take me. When the retribution came, Nebuchadnezzar’s officers took them for wives because of their beauty. Thereupon, the Holy One, blessed be He, signaled to their ‘fountains,’ and blood of an issue flowed from them profusely, as a person pours from one vessel to another. They became loathsome to them, and they cast them to the ground from upon their chariots (Lamentations Rabbah 4:15). Jonathan, however, rendered: He will remove their glory. פתהן means wideness or greatness.</html>
Verse 18
<html><b>On that day</b> In the future, when the Holy One, blessed be He, will come to restore Israel to Him, the Lord shall remove from them the glory of the shoes, that they will not depend for their glory on the beauty of women’s jewelry and objects of vanity. <b>the shoes</b> The shoes that were on their feet with which they spouted venom. <b>and the embroidered headdresses</b> Heb. והשביסים. Types of headdresses for the ornaments of the head. Many [instances of this word] are found in the language of the Mishnah: the embroidered headdress (שביס) of the hair net (Kelim 28:10). <b>and the hair nets</b> Heb. וְהַשַׂהַרֹנִים. Jonathan renders: the hair nets.</html>
Verse 19
<html><b>The necklaces</b> [Jonathan renders:] עַנְקַיָא, necklaces, an expression similar to (Proverbs 1:9): “And necklaces (עֲנָקִים) for your throat.” They are called נְטָפוֹת, meaning “to drip,” because they hang on the neck and drip onto the breast, and they are a sort of pierced pearls, strung on a string, mostnecs in O.F. <b>and the bracelets</b> Heb. וְהַשֵּׁרוֹת, bracelets for the arm, translated וְשִׁירַיָא. <b>and the veils</b> Heb. וְהָרְעָלוֹת. A veil with which they envelop their entire countenance except the eyeball, so that a man will desire to satisfy himself by gazing at the cheeks. Another explanation is that they are types of pretty shawls, with which to enwrap themselves, and in the language of the Mishnah, there is an instance: “Shawled (רְעוּלוֹת) Arabian women,” in Tractate Shabbath (65a).</html>
Verse 20
<html><b>The tiaras</b> Heb. פְּאֵרִים. The Targum renders: tiaras. This resembles (Exodus 39:28): “the beautiful hats (פַּאֲרֵי הַמִּגְבָּעוֹת).” <b>and the foot chains</b> Heb. וְהַצְּעָדוֹת, circlets for the legs. <b>and the hair ribbons</b> [Lit. ties,] as the name implies, short ties with which they tie their hair, and some make them gilded, fres in O.F. <b>and the clasps</b> Heb. וּבָתֵּי הַנֶּפֶשׁ, [the houses of the soul] opposite the heart, nosche in O.F. <b>and the earrings</b> Heb. לְחָשִׁים, rings for the ear, the place into which people whisper (לוֹחֲשִׁים).</html>
Verse 22
<html><b>The tunics</b> Heb. הַמַּחֲלָצוֹת. [Jonathan renders:] כִּתּוּנַיָּא as in Samuel (2 2:21): and take to yourself his clothing (חֲלִיצָתוֹ), for the body is clothed with them, and when they are removed, they are removed from the body (חוֹלְצִין). <b>and the bedspreads</b> Heb. וְהַמַּעֲטָפוֹת, bedspreads, according to the Targum, who renders שׁוֹשִׁיפַיָא. <b>and the tablecloths</b> Heb. וְהַמִּטְפָחוֹת, tablecloths. and the purses Heb. וְהַחֲרִיטִים. [Jonathan] translates it as מַחְכַּיָּא, [an ornament] bearing the shape of the woman’s private parts, as we translate כּוּמָז (Ex. 35:22) as מָחוֹךְ.</html>
Verse 23
<html><b>The mirrors</b> Heb. גִּלְיוֹנִים. These are mirrors, as the Targum renders: מַחְזְיָתָא, miradojjr in O.F., and because they reveal (מְגַלּוֹת) the form of the face, they are called גִּלְיוֹנִים, or perhaps their mirrors were rolled (נִגְלָלוֹת). <b>and the sheets</b> of linen with which they would enwrap themselves. <b>and the turbans</b> Heb. וְהַצְּנִיפוֹת, molekin in O.F. <b>and the clasps</b> Heb. וְהַרְדִידִים, Fermalc in O.F., and they are of gold with which the shawl is closed when the woman enwraps herself therein.</html>
Verse 24
<html><b>And it shall come to pass, that, instead of perfume, there will be decay</b> The place where they would perfume themselves will be decayed. <b>and in the place of a girdle, laceration</b> Heb. נקפה. The place where she girded herself, there will be lacerated, cut with wounds and signs of blows, as (Job: 19:26): “And after my skin is cut to pieces (נִקְּפוּ)”; (infra 10:34) “and the thickets of forest shall be cut down (וְנִקַּף).” <b>and in the place of the deed, a wound</b> Heb. (מַעֲשֶׂה מִקְשֶׁה). [The place where they would do the deed mentioned above: “walking and raising themselves they walk,” and that is at the height of the head, there will be] מִקְשֶׁה קָרְחָה, a wound that makes the head bald. מִקְשֶׁה is an expression similar to (Daniel 5:6): “knocked one against the other (נַקְשָׁן).” I would explain it as follows: The place where they would put the plates of gold made by hammering batdec in O.F.but it is vowelized in the Masorah among the ten words vowelized with a ‘pattach’ [i.e., a ‘segol,’ and none of them is connected to the following word, and every [instance of the word] that is in the construct state is vowelized with a ‘kamatz’ [i.e., a ‘tzeireh’]. <b>and in the place of the organ of levity</b> Heb. וְתַחַתפְּתִיגִיל. This is like two words: פְּתִי גִיל, a vessel [or organ] that brings levity; the secret parts about which is mentioned above: shall pour out their ‘vessels.’ Instead of that levity, a girdle of sackcloth will be on all loins. <b>for this is instead of beauty</b> For this is fitting for them to have instead of the beauty with which they acted haughtily.</html>
Verse 25
<html><b>Your men</b> Your heroes, your men of war, who go out in the army with a number.</html>
Verse 26
<html><b>shall lament</b> Heb. וְאָנוּ, an expression of lamentations. <b>her gates</b> The gates of the towns and houses. In all their gates will be lamentation. <b>and she shall be emptied out</b> Heb. ונקתה, lit., and she shall be cleansed, meaning: and she shall be emptied of everything, like (Amos 4:6): “And behold, I have given you cleanness of teeth (נִקְיוֹן שִׁנַּיִם),” [meaning hunger,] and in the language of the Mishnah; “So-and-so was cleaned out (נקי) of his belongings” (Baba Kamma 41a). <b>she shall sit on the ground</b> [This denotes figuratively that they will be reduced] from a high station to a low one. (Lam. 2: 10) “…shall sit on the ground and remain silent,” on the Ninth of Av.</html>