away from Jerusalem and from Judah stay and staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water; the 2 mighty man, and the man of war; the judge, and the prophet, and the diviner, and the ancient; the captain of 3 fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the skilful enchanter. And I 4 will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. And the people shall be oppressed, 5 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. When a man shall 6 take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand in that day shall he lift up his voice, 7

726 B. C., when Judah had fairly recovered from the Syro-Ephraimite war, as a not improbable date. See Introduction, pp. 23 foll.

Verses 1-12 are in the form of eight-lined stanzas. 1. For the whole read 'every.'

3. honourable man, i.e. man in high favour. Instead of cunning artificer, &c., render 'skilled magician' and 'expert charmer.' We find here portrayed the same condition of things as in ii. 6. Among the most important leaders of society was the soothsayer and the magician. The soothsayer sought to ascertain the will of the Deity in all the emergencies of life whether public or private. The magician sought to control that will. With reference to the soothsayer's art, 'It was regarded not merely as permissible, but as essential to piety and the security of the state' (Bevan in Critical Review, 1899, April, p. 143).

4. For babes read 'wilfulness.' Cf. verse 12.

5. Translate: 'The people shall oppress one another, man against man, and one against another.'

6. his brother (like 'his neighbour') is the Hebrew idiom for Englige another.'

hoe of his father means ancestral abode.

6

clothing is too general a term for the original Simlah, which was the broad and flowing outer garment or mantle ordinarily worn, like the Greek himation (the rendering in LXX). The ruin here means te ruined social fabric of the state. This is made clear in verse. On the word ruler see note on i. 10. 7. The peri ous offer is declined. He loudly protests that he

saying, I will not be an healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: ye shall not make me ruler of the 8 people. For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen : because their tongue and their doings are against the 9 LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory. 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. 10 Say ye of the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for I they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the

wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his 12 hands shall be given him. 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 13 the way of thy paths. The LORD standeth up to plead, 14 and standeth to judge the peoples. The LORD will enter into judgement with the elders of his people, and the

will not be surgeon or binder up' of a state so desperately wounded (cf. i. 5). His poverty was so great that in his ancestral inheritance he had not the wherewithal to maintain himself as a ruler (Kaşîn).

9. Instead of shew of their countenance read with R.V. (marg.): 'Their respecting of persons.' Here as elsewhere the gross partiality of the judges of Judah is rebuked; cf. i. 17, 23; Amos v. 10-12 (in reference to Israel); Mic. ii. 2, 3.

their soul, according to Hebrew (and Arabic) idiom, means 'themselves.'

12. Translate: 'As for my people, their despot is a boy (child).' There is no need to follow LXX, who with a different punctuation of the Hebrew word rendered women translate it by 'usurers (åπaιTOÛνtes). Our punctuated Hebrew text yields a good enough sense; for the presence and power of women in society is indicated later on in verse 16, and the mention of them here is thoroughly-appropriate and probable.

13. Yahweh is introduced as judge. He presents Himself before His people to conduct the trial, yet not as plaintiff, but as judge. It is otherwise i. 18. The reading His people' is preferable to the peoples of the Massoretic Hebrew text represented in R.V. The former has the support of the LXX.

princes thereof: It is ye that have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses: what mean ye 15 that ye crush my people, and grind the face of the poor? saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.

Moreover the LORD said, Because the daughters of 16 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: therefore the Lord will 17 smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will lay bare their secret parts. [?] In that day the Lord will take away the bravery 18

iii. 16—iv. 1. The denunciation of the prophet turns from the men to the women of the upper classes of society. It takes the form of six-lined stanzas.

16. Translate: 'walk with outstretched necks and ogling (or leering) with their eyes': the word rendered ‘ogling' or 'leering' may also mean 'winking.' So it seems to be understood by the LXX (èv veúμaoiv oplaλμâv). The tinkling with the feet as the women walked trippingly along was due to either the anklets or the step-chains (ankle-chains, R. V.) of verses 18, 20. ' Anklets of solid gold or silver are worn by some ladies. They are of course very heavy, and knocking together as the wearer walks make a ringing noise; hence it is said in a song, "The ringing of thy anklets has deprived me of my reason (Lane, Modern Egyptians). Muḥammad, however, in Koran, Sur. xxiv. 32, discouraged such vulgar display, and recommended that women 'beat not with their feet that their hidden ornaments may be perceived.'

Verses 18-23 are no longer in the form of the six-lined stanza of the verses that immediately precede, but are simple, prose commencing with the formula In that day. Duhm, Cheyne, and Marti consider that such an enumeration is quite alien to the style of Isaiah, and it certainly does seem a strange contrast. But is it not possible that this was intended to express the prophet's scorn of all these paraphernalia of feminine frivolity, which are utterly unworthy of poetry? It must be remembered that enumerations are not altogether foreign to Isaiah's style; cf. ii. 12-16, iii. 2, 3 In that day (viz. the impending day of Divine visitation which the prophet has throughout in view) Yahweh will take away the adornment of the anklets, the little suns and the little moons.' The 'little suns' and 'little moons were doubtless used as amulets, and had a magical significance.

of their anklets, and the cauls, and the crescents; the pen19 20 dants, and the bracelets, and the mufflers; the headtires,

and the ankle chains, and the sashes, and the perfume a1 boxes, and the amulets; the rings, and the nose jewels; 22 the festival robes, and the mantles, and the shawls, and the

The latter were crescents, and were worn hanging as a necklace. In Judges viii. 21 we read that they were carried on the necks of the camels of the two Midianite kings. They were used as a charm. Lane observes that horses often wear appendages consisting of a few verses of the Koran enclosed in cases of metal or leather. Among modern Arabs the hilâl is a crescent of diamonds set in gold or silver, resembling in form the phase of the moon when between two and three nights old. It is regarded as an effective remedy against the Evil Eye, for the hilal or new moon is the image of growing prosperity (Delitzsch).

19. The ear-drops, the bracelets, and the veils.' The enumeration does not follow any method or order. The ear-drops were also worn by males. Lane, in describing the modern counterparts, says 'it consists of a drop suspended within a wreath hanging from a sprig,' sometimes consisting of diamonds, sometimes emeralds or rubies set in gold. In ancient times glass may have been used, for we know that it was manufactured in Egypt in early times (Wilkinson, ii. 140-152, &c.; Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 64). Moreover, glass bowls have been discovered in Nineveh as well as glass ornaments in Babylon (Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, abridged edition, pp. 65, 290).

20. It is not easy to determine the probable form of the 'headtire.' It may have consisted of bands made of gold and silver thread which passed across the forehead from one ear to the other (Delitzsch), or it may have assumed other forms; see Hebrew Antiquities (R.T.S.), p. 50. We learn from Isa. lxi. 10 that it was worn on festive occasions, as weddings.

The girdles' (sashes) and the scent-cases probably went together, the latter suspended from the former. Probably the scent-cases contained some preparation of the balsam perfume which we find mentioned in verse 24. There were also other varieties of perfume, as we learn from Ps. xlv (myrrh, aloes, and cassia, another list in Song of Solomon iv. 14).

The amulets were probably ear-rings inscribed with devices magical and protective. It is significant that Jacob buried these (Gen. xxxv. 4) under a terebinth. See Enc. Bibl. amulet.'

21. ‘The finger-rings and nose-rings,' Hebrew Antiquities, p. 52 (see illustrations).

22. For satchels read 'pockets.'

satchels; the hand mirrors, and the fine linen, and the tur- 23 bans, and the veils. [I] And it shall come to pass, that 24 instead of sweet spices there shall be rottenness; and instead of a girdle a rope; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth : branding instead of beauty. Thy men shall fall by the 25 sword, and thy mighty in the war. And her gates shall 26 lament and mourn; and she shall be desolate and sit upon the ground. And seven women shall take hold of one man 4

23. The Hebrew word rendered 'hand-mirrors' comes in the midst of articles of clothing. LXX render by articles of fine linen' (byssus). Something of the kind was probably intended. Peiser, ZATW. (xvii. (1897) p. 349), compares the Şubatu gu-li-nu of Babylonian contract tablets; gulinu is almost the same word as the Hebrew in this passage, and means a kind of garment. The rendering 'hand-mirror' should probably be abandoned..

24. The catalogue of finery is concluded. It shall all come to a sorry end: the tragic note is once more sounded. The scene changes from the glitter of the ear-drops and the head-tires, and the clatter of the anklets of a fashionable lady, as she trips along the streets of Jerusalem, to a far different scene of slaughter, mourning, captivity, and degradation, The poetic measure is

resumed.

The tragic contrasts are ruthlessly set forth. Pethigil seems to mean some stately robe. 'Instead of a stately robe, girding of sackcloth.' Rottenness, disease, and penury that cause the hair to fall off; the sackcloth of mourning for the dead; ropes round the body and branding upon the fair faces and arms of the captives taken from the beleaguered towns-this is the lot that awaits the once powerful and gay. We are strongly reminded of the language and tone of chap. xxii. 12 foll.

25-26 complete the picture of the slaughtered garrison and the depopulated town, probably Zion, which is here personified and addressed in verse 25, and described in the 3rd person in verse 26 as sitting in silent anguish on the ground.

iv. 1 is a grim portrayal of one of the consequences of war and its depopulation. The women vastly outnumber the male population, and are willing to dispense even with the rights of maintenance by the husband if he will only save them from the dishonour of unwedded life and childlessness (cf. Isa. liv. 4 foll.; Judges xi. 38; Gen. xxx. 23; 1 Sam. i. 5-10). This seems to be the real meaning of the passage. There is no proof that the seven women