Isaiah 3: 1-15

The sin denounced here (in Isaiah 3) is social injustice: "Ye grind the face of the poor." (Verse 15) The money exacted unjustly from the poor enables the upper classes to live in ostentatious luxury. (The end of the chapter, verses 3:16-26, describes in detail all the ornaments of the pampered rich women of Jerusalem.) As punishment for this the whole social order will be upturned, the young will behave insolently to the aged (Verse 3), responsibility and moral leadership will cease. (Verse 7)

1. For, behold, the LORD, the LORD of hosts,

Doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah

Stay and staff,

Every stay of bread, and every stay of water;

2. The mighty man, and the man of war;

The judge, and the prophet,

And the diviner, and the elder;

 3. The captain of fifty, and the man of rank,

And the counselor, and the cunning charmer, and the skillful enchanter.

4. And I will give children to be their princes,

And babes shall rule over them.

5. And the people shall oppress one another,

Every man his fellow, and every man his neighbor;

The child shall behave insolently against the aged,

And the base against the honorable.

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