Isaiah 3:5

5 And the people will be oppressed {by each other} and a man by his neighbor. The boy will act arrogantly toward the elder, and the dishonorable toward the honorable.

Isaiah 3:5 Meaning and Commentary

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 ^F4, that when the son of David is come, as he now would be, young men shall make ashamed the faces of old men, and old men shall stand before young men: and the base against the honourable;
persons of a mean birth and extract would rise up against and insult such as were men of families and fortune, of noble birth and of high degree.

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 97. 1.

Isaiah 3:5 In-Context

3 captain of fifty and the honorable men of rank, and counselor and skillful magicians and skillful enchanter.

4 And I will make boys their princes, and children shall rule over them.

5 And the people will be oppressed {by each other} and a man by his neighbor. The boy will act arrogantly toward the elder, and the dishonorable toward the honorable.

6 Indeed, a man will seize his brother [in] the house of his father: "{You have a cloak}; you shall be a leader for us, and this heap of ruins [shall be] under your hand!"

7 He will lift up [his voice] on that day, saying, "I will not be a healer; in my house there is no bread and there is no cloak. You shall not make me [the] leader of [the] people!"

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "man by man"