Children Are Their Oppressors
1 For, behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah supply and support, the whole supply of bread, and the whole supply of water; 2 the mighty man, the man of war, the judge, the prophet, the diviner, the elder, 3 the captain of fifty, the honorable man, the counselor, the skilled craftsman, and the clever enchanter. 4 I will give boys to be their princes, and children shall rule over them. 5 The people will be oppressed, everyone by another, and everyone by his neighbor. The child will behave himself proudly against the old man, and the wicked against the honorable. 6 Indeed a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, “You have clothing, you be our ruler, and let this ruin be under your hand.” 7 In that day he will cry out, saying, “I will not be a healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing. You shall not make me ruler of the people.” 8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against Yahweh, to provoke the eyes of his glory. 9 The look of their faces testify against them. They parade their sin like Sodom. They don’t hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought disaster upon themselves. 10 Tell the righteous that it will be well with them, for they will eat the fruit of their deeds. 11 Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them, for the deeds of their hands will be paid back to them. 12 As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. My people, those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths. 13 Yahweh stands up to contend, and stands to judge the peoples. 14 Yahweh will enter into judgment with the elders of his people and their leaders: “It is you who have eaten up the vineyard. The plunder of the poor is in your houses. 15 What do you mean that you crush my people, and grind the face of the poor?” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.
The judgment on a society is that its competent people are removed and nobody will take the job.
For, behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah supply and support, the whole supply of bread, and the whole supply of water;
The judgment begins with food and water and then becomes something stranger. What is removed next is people.
2 the mighty man, the man of war, the judge, the prophet, the diviner, the elder, 3 the captain of fifty, the honorable man, the counselor, the skilled craftsman, and the clever enchanter.
Eleven kinds of competence, stripped out of a society at once. The list is not sorted by approval — the diviner and the enchanter are on it beside the judge and the prophet — because the point is not that good men are taken and bad ones left. Everyone who knew how to do anything is gone.
I will give boys to be their princes, and children shall rule over them.
The replacement is not tyranny. It is inexperience, which the chapter regards as the worse punishment.
The people will be oppressed, everyone by another, and everyone by his neighbor. The child will behave himself proudly against the old man, and the wicked against the honorable.
What follows the removal of the leadership class is not anarchy in the streets but the collapse of ordinary deference. Everyone oppresses everyone, which is what happens when no arrangement is settled and every encounter has to be won.
Indeed a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, “You have clothing, you be our ruler, and let this ruin be under your hand.”
The qualification for high office has become the ownership of a cloak. And the man drafted refuses: I will not be a healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing Isaiah 3:7. Nobody wants it. A society in which authority is a burden to be dodged is the picture the chapter is building, and it is more frightening than one with a bad king.
The look of their faces testify against them. They parade their sin like Sodom. They don’t hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought disaster upon themselves.
The charge is not the sin but the display. What has gone is the shame that used to make people conceal things, and the chapter counts that loss as evidence rather than as honesty.
10 Tell the righteous that it will be well with them, for they will eat the fruit of their deeds. 11 Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them, for the deeds of their hands will be paid back to them.
One verse of relief, and the mechanism is the same for both: each eats what he grew.
Yahweh will enter into judgment with the elders of his people and their leaders: “It is you who have eaten up the vineyard. The plunder of the poor is in your houses.
The case is against the leadership specifically, and the evidence is located — in your houses, where it could be found by anyone who looked.
What do you mean that you crush my people, and grind the face of the poor?” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.
The question is asked as though it were unintelligible, and the image is a millstone: a face pressed into the ground and turned on. It is the most violent picture of exploitation in the book, and it is applied to men who never touched anyone.
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