Isaiah 3:4

4 And I have made youths their heads, And sucklings 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 Hero and man of war, judge and prophet, And diviner and elder,

3 Head of fifty, and accepted of faces, And counsellor, and the wise of artificers, And the intelligent of charmers.

4 And I have made youths their heads, And sucklings rule over them.

5 And the people hath exacted -- man upon man, Even a man on his neighbour, Enlarge themselves do the youths against the aged, And the lightly esteemed against the honoured.

6 When one layeth hold on his brother, [Of] the house of his father, [by] the garment, `Come, a ruler thou art to us, And this ruin [is] under thy hand.'