Dusk in a Jerusalem gateway: the elders’ stone benches empty along the passage, a worn wooden staff leaning alone against the gate wall, the lane beyond emptying.

Zion on trial

Isaiah 3

When the people you lean on fail, what is left to lean on?

26 verses≈ 4 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–5Zion on trialJudah’s sin, the mountain raised, the vineyard’s songChapter 3
6Holy, holy, holyIsaiah’s call, in the year King Uzziah died (about 740 BC)
7–12ImmanuelAhaz’s fear, the sign, the Child, the shoot of Jesse
13–23The nations judgedBabylon to Tyre: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
24–27The whole earthThe earth laid waste, and death swallowed up
28–35Woe and a KingEgypt’s help or the LORD’s, and the King in His beauty
36–39Hezekiah’s crisisSennacherib, 701 BC: the prayer, the sickness, the envoys
40–48Comfort My peopleTo the exiles ahead: Cyrus, the idols, the Servant
49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things new

Judgment on Jerusalem and Judah

Isaiah

Isaiah

For behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts

is about to remove

from Jerusalem and Judah

both supply and support:

the whole supply of food and water,

the mighty man and the warrior,

the judge and the prophet,

the soothsayer and the elder,

the commander of fifty and the dignitary,

the counselor, the cunning magician, and the clever enchanter.

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God

“I will make mere lads their leaders,

and children will rule over them.”

Isaiah

The people will oppress one another,

man against man, neighbor against neighbor;

the young will rise up against the old,

and the base against the honorable.

Isaiah

A half-ruined family courtyard among fallen stones: one man holds out a plain wool cloak to his brother, who backs away with open, empty hands.

A man will seize his brother

within his father’s house:

“You have a cloak—you be our leader!

Take charge of this heap of rubble.”

Isaiah

On that day he will cry aloud:

“I am not a healer.

I have no food or clothing in my house.

Do not make me leader of the people!”

Question

Quick question

A man is offered the rule of his people, and he begs to be let off. Read 3:6–7 again before you answer.

Why does the man in 3:6–7 refuse to lead?

Isaiah

For Jerusalem has stumbled

and Judah has fallen

because they spoke and acted against the LORD,

defying His glorious presence.

The expression on their faces testifies against them,

and like Sodom they flaunt their sin;

they do not conceal it.

Woe to them,

for they have brought disaster upon themselves.

Isaiah

Tell the righteous it will be well with them,

for they will enjoy the fruit of their labor.

Isaiah 3:10

Isaiah

Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them!

For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.

God

Youths oppress My people,

and women rule over them.

O My people, your guides mislead you;

they turn you from your paths.

Isaiah

God

A rich room in a Jerusalem house: an ivory-inlaid couch and dyed wall hangings, and heaped in the corner a poor family’s basalt millstones, a worn cloak and a rolled goat-hair tent.

The LORD brings this charge

against the elders and leaders of His people:

“You have devoured the vineyard;

the plunder of the poor is in your houses.

Why do you crush My people

and grind the faces of the poor?”

declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.

A Warning to the Daughters of Zion

God

The LORD also says:

“Because the daughters of Zion are haughty—

walking with heads held high

and wanton eyes,

prancing and skipping as they go,

jingling the bracelets on their ankles—

the Lord will bring sores

on the heads of the daughters of Zion,

and the LORD will make their foreheads bare.”

Isaiah

Instead of fragrance

there will be a stench;

instead of a belt, a rope;

instead of styled hair, baldness;

instead of fine clothing, sackcloth;

instead of beauty, shame.

Isaiah

An empty Jerusalem gateway at dusk, both wooden doors standing open, dust drifting across the threshold and a woman’s dark wool mantle left on the stone step.

Your men will fall by the sword,

and your warriors in battle.

And the gates of Zion will lament and mourn;

destitute, she will sit on the ground.

0:10

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

Lord GOD of Hosts, You see the poor whose faces are ground down, and You rise to judge for them. Guard me from the pride that flaunts and the greed that takes. Clothe me with a humble heart, and make me a help to the weak. Amen.

You’ve experienced

Isaiah 3

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A verse to carry with you

Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their labor.

Isaiah 3:10

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