Isaiah 3:4

4 “I will make mere lads their leaders, and children will rule over them.”

Isaiah 3:4 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 3:4

And I will give children [to be] their princes
Either in age, or in understanding, who are really so, or act like such; and in either sense, when this is the case, it is an unhappiness to a nation, ( Ecclesiastes 10:16 ) : and babes shall rule over them;
which is the same as before. The Targum is,

``the weak shall rule over them;''

such who are weak in their intellectuals, or are of mean pusillanimous spirits, "effeminate", as the Vulgate Latin version renders it; and so as "children" are opposed to the "ancient", that should be taken away, these are opposed to "men of might" and courage, who would now be wanting: or "men of illusions", as in the margin; such as were subtle as foxes, and should deceive them, and impose upon them, and were audacious and impudent, and would mock at them, and despise them. So Jarchi and Abarbinel; and according to this sense of the word the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, render it, "mockers shall rule over them".

Isaiah 3:4 In-Context

2 the mighty man and the warrior, the judge and the prophet, the soothsayer and the elder,

3 the commander of fifty and the dignitary, the counselor, the cunning magician, and the clever enchanter.

4 “I will make mere lads their leaders, and children will rule over them.”

5 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.

6 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.”