Isaiah 3:9 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 3:9
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.
respect · noun, common feminine singular construct
countenance
פְּנֵיהֶם֙pe.nei.Hem
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
them
עָ֣נְתָה'A.ne.tah
H6030
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
declare
הִגִּ֖ידוּhi.Gi.du
H5046
properly · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person common plural
sin
וְחַטָּאתָ֛םve.cha.ta.Tam
H2403
an offence (sometimes habitual sinfulness) · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
Sodom
כִּסְדֹ֥םkis.Dom
H5467
Sedom · preposition + proper noun, a place name
hide
כִחֵ֑דוּkhi.Che.du
H3582
to secrete · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person common plural
Woe
א֣וֹי'o
H188
lamentation · interjection
soul
לְנַפְשָׁ֔םle.naf.Sham
H5315
properly · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
rewarded
גָמְל֥וּga.me.Lu
H1580
to treat a person (well or ill) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
evil
רָעָֽהra.'Ah
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · noun, common feminine 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
Genesis 13:13 But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.
Genesis 18:20-21 And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
Jeremiah 6:15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fal…
Genesis 19:5-9 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know th…
1 Samuel 15:32 Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitter…
2 Kings 9:30 And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window.
Psalms 10:4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
Psalms 73:6-7 Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 3:9-15
Here God proceeds in his controversy with his people. Observe,
I. The ground of his controversy. It was for sin that God contended with them; if they vex themselves, let them look a little further and they will see that they must thank themselves: Woe unto their souls! For they have rewarded evil unto themselves. Alas for their souls! (so it may be read, in a way of lamentation), for they have procured evil to themselves, Isa 3:9. Note, The condition of sinners is woeful and very deplorable. Note, also, It is the soul that is damaged and endangered by sin. Sinners may prosper in their outward estates, and yet at the same time there may be a woe to their souls. Note, further, Whatever evils b…
show--The Hebrew means, "that which may be known by their countenances" [GESENIUS and WEISS]. But MAURER translates, "Their respect for person"; so Syriac and Chaldee. But the parallel word "declare" favors the other view. KIMCHI, from the Arabic, translates "their hardness" (Job 19:3, Margin), or impudence of countenance (Jer 3:3). They have lost not only the substance of virtue, but its color.
witness--literally, "corresponds" to them; their look answers to their inner character (Hos 5:5).
declare-- (Jde 1:13). "Foaming out their own shame"; so far from making it a secret, "glorying" in it (Phi 3:19).
unto themselves--Compare "in themselves" (Pro 1:31; Pro 8:36; Jer 2:19; Rom 1:27).
John Gill on Isaiah 3:9
The shew of their countenance doth witness against them,.... The word translated "shew" is only used in this place. Some derive it from "to know", in the conjugations Piel and Hiphil; and render it, "the knowledge of their countenance" (f); that is, that which may be known by their countenances; the countenance oftentimes shows what is in the heart, the cruel disposition of the mind, the pride and vanity of it, the uncleanness and lasciviousness that is in it; to this our version agrees, and which is confirmed by the Chaldee paraphrase,
"the knowledge of their countenance in judgment doth testify against them;''
as they appear there, so it may be judged of them; their guilt flies in their…
Those who look upon their dispersion and the desolation of their city may not aptly say, "Woe to them, for they have imagined an evil imagination, saying against their own soul, let us bind the righteous man, because he is not pleasing to us." It is so true, for when they erred concerning the Scriptures, they did not know that "the one who digs a pit for his neighbor falls in it; and a serpent will bite the one who destroys a hedge."
Immediately following, the prophet himself explains why he called them rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah: "Your hands are full of blood." Again a little later he says, "They have proclaimed their sin as Sodom and made it manifest. Woe to their souls, because they have taken evil counsel with themselves, saying, 'We will bind the just one, for he is a burden to us.' " Since he overtly speaks of blood and a plot against a just man, there is nothing else this could be than the plot against our Savior Jesus Christ.
For he [Jesus] had done so many good works among them. He had given sight to the blind, feet to the lame, the power of walking to the palsied, life also to the dead; for all these good works they paid him death as his price, appraised at thirty pieces of silver. It is related also in the Gospels that he was bound. This also the word of prophecy had foretold by Isaiah, saying, "Woe to their soul, who have devised a most evil device against themselves, saying, 'Let us bind the just one, seeing that he is unprofitable to us.' "
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
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…
Countenance · Guilty — Guilty
Face · Character revealed in — Character revealed in
Physiognomy · .Character revealed in — .Character revealed in
Sin · The wicked: Boast of — The wicked: Boast of
Sodom · Wickedness of the inhabitants of — Wickedness of the inhabitants of
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).
John Calvin on Isaiah 3:9
The proof of their countenance will answer in them, or, will answer against them [59] As the Prophet had to do with impudent and brazen-faced hypocrites, who impudently boasted that they were good men; so he says that their countenance testifies what kind of persons they are, and that it will not be necessary to bring witnesses from a distance, in order to prove their wickedness; for to answer means "to bear testimony," or "to confess." Although, therefore, they disguise their face and countenance, so that they frequently deceive others, yet God compels them to show and prove what they are; so that, in spite of themselves they carry, as it were, in their forehead a mark of their deceit and h…
But Israel, instead of walking in the consciousness of being a constant and favourite object of these majestic, earnestly admonishing eyes, was diligently engaged in bidding them defiance both in word and deed, not even hiding its sin from fear of them, but exposing them to view in the most shameless manner. - "The look of their faces testifies against them, and their sin they make known like Sodom, without concealing it: woe to their soul! for they do themselves harm." In any case, the prophet refers to the impudence with which their enmity against God was shamelessly stamped upon their faces, without even the self-condemnation which leads in other cases to a diligent concealment of the sin…
The very look on their faces: At this time people boldly displayed their rebellion against God.
Rashi on Isaiah 3:9
The recognition of their faces 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.
like Sodom they told, they did not deny They committed [sins] publicly.
