Isaiah 3:14

Isa 3:14 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.

Ver. 14. The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients.] With the princes and rulers, each of which shall have cause to cry out,

“ Iudex ante fui, nunc iudicis ante tribunal Sistor. ”

For ye have eaten up the vineyard.] Vos, non caret emphasi, "Ye," even "ye" that should have preserved it, and wrought in it, have depastured and destroyed my vineyard, that is, my Church, {as Isa 5:17} or poor men’s possessions, through your extortions and oppressions.

And the spoil of the poor is in your houses.] You are taken επ αυτοφωρω, {a} in the very act of your theft, as Cacus was, and Verres, &c.

{a} Deprehensi estis in furto. - Oecolamp.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Isa_3:14

The Lord will enter into judgment

God, the Friend of the poor

Whoever abandons the sanctuary, the poor should never go away; whoever closes the Bible, the poor man should keep it lying widely open; he should always have a Bible that opens easily, not stiffly, because it is well handled, and is the continual defence of men who cannot defend themselves.

(J. Parker, D. D.)

Isaiahs solemn reproof

Returning into the city he silently hovers in and out of the courts of revelry and feasting that open on to the narrow thoroughfares, watching the judges and honourable men of wealth, who had just come in from their ceremonial worship at the temple, to eat, to drink, to talk lewdly, and to amuse themselves with soothsayers and necromancers, and the haughty women, with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, and gay and sumptuous dresses, paid for with the money wrung from the impoverished tenantry of their spouses. As he watches and muses, the fire within his bones flames up, and he reminds them as he passes into the darkness, the spoil of the poor is in your houses! (F. Sessions.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3:14 elders and rulers: Wickedness and abuse by ungodly and incompetent leadership thwarts God’s purpose for his people (see also 3:12). Therefore, leaders come under more severe judgment because they bear responsibility for the welfare of those under them. • my vineyard: See the Song of the Vineyard (5:1-7).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Meaning, that the rulers and governors had destroyed his Church, and not preserved it, according to their duty.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

ancients--Hence they are spoken of as "taken away" (Isa 3:1-2).

vineyard--the Jewish theocracy (Isa 5:1-7; Psa 80:9-13).

eaten up--"burnt"; namely, by "oppressive exactions" (Isa 3:12). Type of the crowning guilt of the husbandmen in the days of Jesus Christ (Mat 21:34-41).

spoil . . . houses-- (Mat 23:14).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 14. The vineyard. - "My vineyard"] כרמי carmi, Septuagint, Chaldee, Jerome.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

14. Those immediately arraigned are the “elders and princes,” the authorities responsible for the national welfare.

for ye have eaten up] Rather, And you—ye have eaten up. The indignant remonstrance of Jehovah commences at this point. The image of the vineyard is fully explained in ch. Isa_5:1-7. The point of the accusation here is that those who should have kept the vineyard from the intrusion of wild beasts have themselves devoured it.

the spoil … houses] the evidence of their sin.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof,.... Both civil and ecclesiastical; the princes, chief priests, and elders of the people, who set themselves and took counsel together against the Lord and his Christ; would not suffer the people to be gathered to him; sought his life, and at last took it away.

For ye have eaten up the vineyard, or burnt it (p); the house of Israel, and of Judah compared to a vineyard, in a following chapter; and so the Targum,

"ye have oppressed my people;''

these are the husbandmen our Lord speaks of, that beat the servants that were sent for the fruits of the vineyard, and at last killed the heir, Mat 21:34.

The spoil of the poor is in your houses; the Pharisees devoured widows' houses, and filled their own, with the spoil of them, Mat 23:14.

(p) "succendistis", Vatablus, Montanus.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

With the ancients ... - With the old men, the counselors.

Ye have eaten up the vineyard - Hebrew ‘Ye have burnt up’ - that is, you have oonsumed or destroyed it. By the vineyard is represented the Jewish republic or people; Psa 80:9-13; compare the notes at Isa 5:1-7. The princes and rulers had, by their exactions and oppressions, ruined the people, and destroyed the country.

The spoil of the poor - The “plunder” of the poor; or that which you have taken from the poor by exactions and oppressions. The word “spoil” commonly means the plunder or booty which is obtained in war.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The ancients; the princes or rulers, as it is explained in the next clause, who are oft called elders, because such were commonly and fitly chosen out of those who were ripe in years.

Eaten up; destroyed instead of preserving and dressing it, as you should have done.

The vineyard; the church and commonwealth of Israel, which is oft called God’s vineyard, as Psa 80:8,14,15; Isa 5:1; Jer 2:21, &c., and here the vineyard, by way of eminency; or, the vineyard which was committed to your care to keep.

The spoil of the poor; the goods which you have violently taken away from the poor.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

14. The parties are now distinctly named.

The ancients — The elders, heads of houses and tribes, responsible representatives of the people.

Ye have — The address is direct. The charge is against these guides.

Eaten up the vineyard — Destroyed God’s Church by subverting its purity. Ye have “eaten” (literally, burnt) this up. The same in effect as if it stood, “Ye have robbed my people;” and thus it better accords with the word spoil, plunder; the evidence of which is, that it is in your houses.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The ancients... the princes. These were the chief oppressors. They delivered the judgments, and it was by them that justice was perverted. Jehovah therefore enters specially into judgment with them. For ye have eaten up; rather, So ye have eaten up. Jehovah is supposed to address the unjust judges. He reproaches them with having "eaten up," or rather "scorched up," his vineyard, i.e. Israel, (comp. Isa_5:1-7) and taxes them with having still their ill-gotten gains in their houses. "So ye," he says, "have thus acted ye whose duty it was to have acted so differently."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ancients - The princes or rulers; such were commonly chosen out of those who were in ripe years. Eaten - Destroyed instead of preserving the church and commonwealth of Israel. Spoil - The goods which you have violently taken away from the poor.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

"Jehovah will proceed to judgment with the elders of His people, and its princes. And ye, ye have eaten up the vineyard; prey of the suffering is in your houses. What mean ye that ye crush my people, and grind the face of the suffering? Thus saith the Lord Jehovah of hosts." The words of God Himself commence with "and ye" (v'attem). The sentence to which this (et vos = at vos) is the antithesis is wanting, just as in Psa 2:6, where the words of God commence with "and I" (va'ani, et ego = ast ego). the tacit clause may easily be supplied, viz., I have set you over my vineyard, but he have consumed the vineyard. The only question is, whether the sentence is to be regarded as suppressed by Jehovah Himself, or by the prophet. Most certainly by Jehovah Himself. The majesty with which He appeared before the rulers of His people as, even without words, a practical and undeniable proof that their majesty was only a shadow of His, and their office His trust. But their office consisted in the fact that Jehovah had committed His people to their care. The vineyard of Jehovah was His people - a self-evident figure, which the prophet dresses up in the form of a parable in chapter 5. Jehovah had appointed them as gardeners and keepers of this vineyard, but they themselves have become the very beasts that they ought to have warded off. בּער is applied to the beasts which completely devour the blades of a corn-field or the grapes of a vineyard (Exo 22:4). This change was perfectly obvious. The possessions stolen from their unhappy countrymen, which were still in their houses, were the tangible proof of their plundering of the vineyard. "The suffering:" ani (depressus, the crushed) is introduced as explanatory of haccerem, the prey, because depression and misery were the ordinary fate of the congregation which God called His vineyard. It was ecclesia pressa, but woe to the oppressors! In the question "what mean ye?" (mallâcem) the madness and wickedness of their deeds are implied. מה and לכם are fused into one word here, as if it were a prefix (as in Exo 4:2; Eze 8:6; Mal 1:13; vid., Ges. 20, 2). The Keri helps to make it clear by resolving the chethibh. The word mallâcem ought, strictly speaking, to be followed by chi: "What is there to you that ye crush my people?" as in Isa 22:1, Isa 22:16; but the words rush forwards (as in Jon 1:6), because they are an explosion of wrath. For this reason the expressions relating to the behaviour of the rulers are the strongest that can possibly be employed. דּכּא (crush) is also to be met with in Pro 22:22; but "grind the face" (tâchan p'ne) is a strong metaphor without a parallel. The former signifies "to pound," the latter "to grind," as the millstone grinds the corn. They grind the faces of those who are already bowed down, thrusting them back with such unmerciful severity, that they stand as it were annihilated, and their faces become as white as flour, or as the Germans would say, cheese-white, chalk-white, as pale as death, from oppression and despair. Thus the language supplied to a certain extent appropriate figures, with which to describe the conduct of the rulers of Israel; but it contained no words that could exhaust the immeasurable wickedness of their conduct: hence the magnitude of their sin is set before them in the form of a question, "What is to you?" i.e., What indescribable wickedness is this which you are committing? The prophet hears this said by Jehovah, the majestic Judge, whom he here describes as Adonai Elohim Zebaoth (according to the Masoretic pointing). This triplex name of God, which we find in the prophetic books, viz., frequently in Amos and also in Jer 2:19, occurs for the first time in the Elohistic Psalm, Psa 69:7. This scene of judgment is indeed depicted throughout in the colours of the Psalms, and more especially recals the (Elohistic) Psalm of Asaph (Psa 82:1-8).

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

This verse describes the parties more distinctly and begins the accusation. “Jehovah will enter into judgment (engage in litigation, both as a party and a judge) with the elders of His people (the heads of houses, families and tribes) and the chiefs thereof (the hereditary chiefs of Israel, here and elsewhere treated as responsible representatives of the people). And ye (even ye) have consumed the vineyard (of Jehovah, His church or chosen people), the spoil of the poor (that which is taken from him by violence) is in your houses.” Some regard the last clause as the language of the Prophet, giving a reason why God would enter into judgment with them; but it is commonly regarded as the commencement of the judge’s own address, which is continued through the following verse.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Lord will enter into judgment with the elders of His people 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.

the spoils of the poor [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.

and you have ravaged the vineyard The elders and the officers ‘ate up’ the rest of the people.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Ye have eaten up, etc. How can you be the judges of my people, when you yourselves, etc. בערתם You have eaten up. Comp. Exod. 22:4. The vineyard. That is, Israel.

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.