Scriptures/The Bible/The Old Testament/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.

We live in a day and age where everyone is said to be "oppressed". It only occurred to me recently that this phenomena could apply here, and that Isaiah could be ironic as this applies to our day. The younger generation is seeking the overthrow of the old in a most proud and self-destructive fashion.

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.

Definitely seems to apply to today, and perhaps applying even more as time goes on and wickedness becomes even more open, because I'm not entirely convinced that "sodomy" as we use the term today, encompasses all that went into the destruction of Sodom. Certainly the story of that destruction tells of more.

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.

The oppression of the young against the old, as with the last part of verse 5.

women rule over them This is particularly interesting. It's curious to ask why this is such a problem, though I can certainly think of ways that todays age is a feminine pathology. I usually think of this more abstractly rather than thinking that the actual rulership of women is fundamentally problematic. It is certainly possible that it is problematic, but that's not where my mind naturally goes. The world has become ruled by an abhorrent safety-first mentality, coddling, and promotion of neuroticism that Jordan Peterson, for example, has described as something along the lines of an unbalanced excess of the feminine archetype.

they which lead thee: Per Peter Turchin, the fundamental driver of political instability is elite overproduction. Inter-elite competition leads people into waring factions. This dynamic is apparent in the Pride Cycles of the Book of Mormon and in the Lord's solution to bringing about Zion in the Parable of the Olive Trees in Jacob 5.

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:

the daughters of Zion are haughty: Between modern feminism and the tendency for even more sane modern women to, often enough, have little respect for their husbands, have voracious appetites for trite consumer goods, but little appetite for work, and to make an immodest display of themselves, there is much to be said here. Apart from the current trend of man-hating, I don't really have many more especially contemporary observations on this subject.

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.

Normally we think of this as an illness and a humiliation, but in the vein of Alma 3 we can see that these women can fulfill the prophesy by marking themselves and exposing themselves. The prominence of pussy hats and the various protests in the nude (eg. Naked Athena, but that is only one of the less stunning examples), it seems that we are seeing this today.

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,

Presumably the day when he enters into judgement. I expect there is war, societal collapse, and economic collapse in this judgement.

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 veils.

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.

The daughter of Zion is frequently an allusion to Jerusalem. I think, however, that Isaiah is describing actual women. The allusion to the city is figurative here, while the women are literal, rather than the other way around. It is both the city AND the actual women who will suffer because the men fall by the sword. The impact on the women is described in the next chapter. Could this impact also be an allegory for the influence the Lord, or Zion, will obtain after all this destruction? Isaiah's employment of double-meanings and layered allegory is not to be underestimated.