Isaiah 3:5

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.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
people	הָעָ֔ם ha.'Am	H5971	a people (as a congregated unit) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
oppressed	וְנִגַּ֣שׂ ve.ni.Gas	H5065	to drive (an animal · conjunction + verb, niphal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
one	אִ֥ישׁ 'ish	H376	a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
another	בְּאִ֖ישׁ be.'Ish	H376	a man as an individual or a male person · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
one	וְאִ֣ישׁ ve.'Ish	H376	a man as an individual or a male person · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
neighbour	בְּרֵעֵ֑הוּ be.re.'E.hu	H7453	an associate (more or less close) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
child	הַנַּ֙עַר֙ ha.Na.'ar	H5288	(concretely) a boy (as active) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
proudly	יִרְהֲב֗וּ yir.ha.Vu	H7292	to urge severely · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
ancient	בַּזָּקֵ֔ן ba.za.Ken	H2205	old · preposition with the article + adjective, masculine singular absolute
base	וְהַנִּקְלֶ֖ה ve.ha.nik.Leh	H7034	to be light (as implied in rapid motion) · conjunction + definite article + verb, niphal active participle, masculine singular absolute
honourable	בַּנִּכְבָּֽד ba.nikh.Bad	H3513	to be heavy · preposition with the article + verb, niphal active participle, masculine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Jeremiah 9:3-8 And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to ev…
Malachi 3:5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false…
Leviticus 19:32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD.
2 Samuel 16:5-9 And when king David came to Bahurim, behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Ger…
2 Kings 2:23 And he went up from thence unto Beth-el: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him…
Job 30:1-12 But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.
Ecclesiastes 10:5-7 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceedeth from the ruler:
Isaiah 1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have pr…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 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 (Isa 3:1): 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, an…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 3:5

The anarchy resulting under such imbecile rulers (Isa 3:4); unjust exactions mutually; the forms of respect violated (Lev 19:32). base--low-born. Compare the marks of "the last days" (Ti2 3:2).

John Gill on Isaiah 3:5

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 h…

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John Calvin on Isaiah 3:5

The people will oppress every man his neighbor He describes the utmost confusion, which was about to overtake the Jews, when order was destroyed or relaxed; and this will happen to all nations, as soon as government is removed or falls to the ground. We know how great is the wantonness of the human mind, when every man is hurried along by ambition and, in short, how furious the lawless passions are when they are laid under no restraint. There is no reason, therefore, to wonder if, when the judgment-seats have been laid low, every man insults his neighbor, cruelty abounds, and licentiousness rages without control. If we considered this wisely, we would set a higher value on the kindness of Go…

The Church Fathers

(Verse 5.) And the people will fall, man against man, each one against his neighbor: the young will rise up against the old, and the lowly against the noble. When the young become leaders and mockers of the Lord, as the prophetic word describes, then no order of dignity, age, or knowledge will be preserved; but the young will rebel against the elderly, and the lowly against the noble, and they will fall together. And that Apostolic saying will be fulfilled: biting each other, you have been consumed by each other (Galatians 5:15). Josephus writes in Book 5 of The Jewish War that these events happened to the people of Judaea under Titus, son of Vespasian: that when they were being besieged by the Romans, there was a division of the city into three parts due to the rebellion. Some held the citadel and the Temple, others held the lower part of the city, and others held the upper part.
— Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Grind — (Ex. 32:20; Deut. 9:21; Judg. 16:21), to crush small (Heb. tahan); to oppress the poor (Isa. 3:5). The hand-mill was early used by the Hebrews (Num. 11:8). It consisted of two stones, the upper…
Head-dress — Not in common use among the Hebrews. It is first mentioned in Ex. 28:40 (A.V., “bonnets;” R.V., “head-tires”). It was used especially for purposes of ornament (Job 29:14; Isa. 3:23; 62:3). The Hebrew…
Anarchy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Children, Wicked · Are proud — Are proud
Famine · Sent as a — Sent as a
Reverence · 4:10;5:29;6:2,13;10:12,20,21;13:4;14:23;28:49,58; — 4:10;5:29;6:2,13;10:12,20,21;13:4;14:23;28:49,58;
Servants · Characteristics of wicked servants: Do not bear to be exalted — Characteristics of wicked servants: Do not bear to be exalted

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Isaiah 3:5

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 3:1-8

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 3:5

John Gill on Isaiah 3:5

John Calvin on Isaiah 3:5

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Isaiah 3:5

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 3:1-8

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 3:5

John Gill on Isaiah 3:5

John Calvin on Isaiah 3:5

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Keil & Delitzsch on Isaiah 3:5

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Isaiah 3:4

Rashi on Isaiah 3:5