Isaiah 3:2 Study Bible: the mighty man, the man of war, the judge, the prophet, the diviner, the elder,

◄ Isaiah 3:2 ►

the mighty man and the warrior, the judge and the prophet, the soothsayer and the elder,

the mighty man
The Hebrew term for "mighty man" is "גִּבּוֹר" (gibbor), which often refers to a person of great strength or valor, typically in a military context. In ancient Israel, such individuals were revered for their prowess in battle and their ability to protect and lead their people. The removal of the "mighty man" signifies a loss of military strength and protection, highlighting the vulnerability of the nation when its defenders are taken away. This serves as a reminder of the importance of relying on God as the ultimate source of strength and protection.

and the warrior
The word "warrior" in Hebrew is "אִישׁ מִלְחָמָה" (ish milchamah), literally "man of war." This phrase emphasizes the role of those skilled in the art of warfare, not just in physical strength but also in strategy and leadership. The absence of warriors indicates a breakdown in national defense and security, symbolizing a deeper spiritual decline where the people have turned away from God, who is the true commander of their battles.

the judge
The Hebrew word for "judge" is "שֹׁפֵט" (shofet), which refers to one who administers justice and maintains order within society. Judges were crucial in upholding the law and ensuring that righteousness prevailed. The removal of judges suggests a collapse of justice and moral order, leading to chaos and corruption. This reflects the biblical principle that true justice and righteousness come from adherence to God's laws.

and the prophet
"Prophet" in Hebrew is "נָבִיא" (navi), a spokesperson for God who conveys His messages to the people. Prophets played a vital role in guiding the nation, calling them back to faithfulness and warning them of impending judgment. The absence of prophets indicates a spiritual famine, where divine guidance and revelation are no longer accessible, leaving the people without direction or hope.

the soothsayer
The term "soothsayer" is translated from the Hebrew "קֹסֵם" (qosem), referring to one who practices divination or seeks to predict the future through forbidden means. In the biblical context, reliance on soothsayers is condemned as it represents a turning away from God to seek guidance from false and deceptive sources. The mention of soothsayers alongside prophets highlights the contrast between true and false sources of spiritual insight.

and the elder
The word "elder" in Hebrew is "זָקֵן" (zaqen), denoting one who is advanced in age and often associated with wisdom and experience. Elders were respected leaders within the community, providing counsel and guidance based on their life experiences. The removal of elders signifies a loss of wisdom and stability, leading to societal disarray. This underscores the biblical value of honoring and learning from those who have walked the path of faith before us.

Persons / Places / Events

1. The Mighty Man and the Warrior
These refer to individuals who are strong and skilled in battle, representing military power and protection for the nation.

2. The Judge
A person responsible for making legal decisions and maintaining justice within the community, ensuring that society functions according to God's laws.

3. The Prophet
A messenger chosen by God to convey His words and guidance to the people, often calling them back to righteousness.

4. The Soothsayer
Someone who claims to predict the future or reveal hidden knowledge, often through forbidden or ungodly means.

5. The Elder
A respected leader or advisor within the community, often associated with wisdom and experience.

Teaching Points

The Importance of Godly Leadership
Godly leaders are essential for maintaining justice, righteousness, and spiritual direction within a community. We should pray for and support leaders who seek to follow God's will.

The Dangers of Ungodly Practices
Engaging in practices like soothsaying can lead us away from God. We must be discerning and avoid influences that contradict biblical teachings.

The Role of Wisdom and Experience
Elders and those with experience have valuable insights to offer. We should seek their counsel and learn from their wisdom in our personal and communal lives.

Dependence on God for Guidance
While leaders and prophets play crucial roles, our ultimate dependence should be on God for guidance and direction in our lives.

Bible Study Questions

1. How can we identify and support godly leaders in our communities today?

2. In what ways can we ensure that our decisions and actions align with biblical justice and righteousness?

3. What are some modern-day equivalents of soothsayers, and how can we guard against their influence?

4. How can we effectively incorporate the wisdom and experience of elders into our personal and church lives?

5. Reflect on a time when you relied on God's guidance rather than human wisdom. What was the outcome, and what did you learn from the experience?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Judges and Prophets
The role of judges and prophets is seen throughout the Old Testament, such as in the Book of Judges and the accounts of prophets like Samuel and Elijah, who were pivotal in guiding Israel.

Warnings Against Soothsayers
Deuteronomy warns against engaging with soothsayers and diviners, emphasizing reliance on God rather than occult practices.

Elders in the Church
The New Testament speaks of elders in the early church, highlighting their role in leadership and spiritual guidance, as seen in the pastoral epistles.

Sermons

National Leaders Removed	R. Macculloch.	Isaiah 3:1-3
The Death of Statesmen	J. Bennett, D. D.	Isaiah 3:1-3
The Death of the Renowned	J. Cumming, D. D.	Isaiah 3:1-3
The Death of the Renowned Excites Special Attention and Interest	J. A. Todd.	Isaiah 3:1-3
The Perils of Greatness	Bishop J. Taylor, D. D.	Isaiah 3:1-3
A Picture of Anarchy	E. Johnson	Isaiah 3:1-7
National and Spiritual Anarchy	W. Clarkson	Isaiah 3:1-8

People

Isaiah

Places

Jerusalem, Sodom, Zion

Topics

Ancient, Arts, Diviner, Elder, Hero, Judge, Mighty, Prophet, Prudent, Secret, Soldier, Soothsayer, Strong, War, Warrior, Wise

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Isaiah 3:1-3

5245 captain
5714 men

Isaiah 3:1-7

5700 headship

Library

A Paradox of Selling and Buying
'Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.'--ISAIAH iii. 3. THE first reference of these words is of course to the Captivity. They come in the midst of a grand prophecy of freedom, all full of leaping gladness and buoyant hope. The Seer speaks to the captives; they had 'sold themselves for nought.' What had they gained by their departure from God?--bondage. What had they won in exchange for their freedom?-- only the hard service of Babylon. As Deuteronomy puts it: …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Marching Orders
'Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord. 12. For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your reward.'--ISAIAH iii. 11, 12. These ringing notes are parts of a highly poetic picture of that great deliverance which inspired this prophet's most exalted strains. It is described with constant allusion to the first Exodus, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Christian view of Sorrow
"A man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief" Is. Iii. 3. There is one great distinction between the productions of Heathen and of Christian art. While the first exhibits the perfection of physical form and of intellectual beauty, the latter expresses, also, the majesty of sorrow, the grandeur of endurance, the idea of triumph refined from agony. In all those shapes of old there is nothing like the glory of the martyr; the sublimity of patience and resignation; the dignity of the thorn-crowned Jesus. …
E. H. Chapin—The Crown of Thorns

The Personal History of Herod - the Two Worlds in Jerusalem.
It is an intensely painful history, [581] in the course of which Herod made his way to the throne. We look back nearly two and a half centuries to where, with the empire of Alexander, Palestine fell to his successors. For nearly a century and a half it continued the battle-field of the Egyptian and Syrian kings (the Ptolemies and the Seleucidæ). At last it was a corrupt High-Priesthood - with which virtually the government of the land had all along lain - that betrayed Israel's precious trust. …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

How those are to be Admonished who Praise the Unlawful Things of which they are Conscious, and those who While Condemning Them, in no Wise Guard
(Admonition 32.) Differently to be admonished are they who even praise the unlawful things which they do, and those who censure what is wrong, and yet avoid it not. For they who even praise the unlawful things which they do are to be admonished to consider how for the most part they offend more by the mouth than by deeds. For by deeds they perpetrate wrong things in their own persons only; but with the mouth they bring out wickedness in the persons of as many as there are souls of hearers, to …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

"But Whereunto Shall I Liken this Generation?"
Matth. xi. 16.--"But whereunto shall I liken this generation?" When our Lord Jesus, who had the tongue of the learned, and spoke as never man spake, did now and then find a difficulty to express the matter herein contained. "What shall we do?" The matter indeed is of great importance, a soul matter, and therefore of great moment, a mystery, and therefore not easily expressed. No doubt he knows how to paint out this to the life, that we might rather behold it with our eyes, than hear it with our …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Brief Memoir of Thomas Watson
Compiled by C. H. Spurgeon Thomas Watson's Body of Practical Divinity is one of the most precious of the peerless works of the Puritans; and those best acquainted with it prize it most. Watson was one of the most concise, racy, illustrative, and suggestive of those eminent divines who made the Puritan age the Augustan period of evangelical literature. There is a happy union of sound doctrine, heart-searching experience and practical wisdom throughout all his works, and his Body of Divinity is, beyond …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Of Civil Government.
OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. This chapter consists of two principal heads,--I. General discourse on the necessity, dignity, and use of Civil Government, in opposition to the frantic proceedings of the Anabaptists, sec. 1-3. II. A special exposition of the three leading parts of which Civil Government consists, sec. 4-32. The first part treats of the function of Magistrates, whose authority and calling is proved, sec. 4-7. Next, the three Forms of civil government are added, sec. 8. Thirdly, Consideration …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Letter Li to the virgin Sophia
To the Virgin Sophia He praises her for having despised the glory of the world: and, setting forth the praises, privileges, and rewards of Religious Virgins, exhorts her to persevere. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, to the Virgin Sophia, that she may keep the title of virginity and attain its reward. I. Favour is deceitful and beauty is vain; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised (Prov. xxxi. 31). I rejoice with you, my daughter, in the glory of your virtue, whereby, as I hear, you …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

"All Our Righteousnesses are as Filthy Rags, and we all do Fade as a Leaf, and Our Iniquities, Like the Wind, have Taken us Away. "
Isaiah lxiv. 6, 7.--"All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Not only are the direct breaches of the command uncleanness, and men originally and actually unclean, but even our holy actions, our commanded duties. Take a man's civility, religion, and all his universal inherent righteousness,--all are filthy rags. And here the church confesseth nothing but what God accuseth her of, Isa. lxvi. 8, and chap. i. ver. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"Thou Shalt Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother. "
From this Commandment we learn that after the excellent works of the first three Commandments there are no better works than to obey and serve all those who are set over us as superiors. For this reason also disobedience is a greater sin than murder, unchastity, theft and dishonesty, and all that these may include. For we can in no better way learn how to distinguish between greater and lesser sins than by noting the order of the Commandments of God, although there are distinctions also within the …
Dr. Martin Luther—A Treatise on Good Works

Concerning Salutations and Recreations, &C.
Concerning Salutations and Recreations, &c. [1273] Seeing the chief end of all religion is to redeem men from the spirit and vain conversation of this world and to lead into inward communion with God, before whom if we fear always we are accounted happy; therefore all the vain customs and habits thereof, both in word and deed, are to be rejected and forsaken by those who come to this fear; such as taking off the hat to a man, the bowings and cringings of the body, and such other salutations of that …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity

A Sermon on Isaiah xxvi. By John Knox.
[In the Prospectus of our Publication it was stated, that one discourse, at least, would be given in each number. A strict adherence to this arrangement, however, it is found, would exclude from our pages some of the most talented discourses of our early Divines; and it is therefore deemed expedient to depart from it as occasion may require. The following Sermon will occupy two numbers, and we hope, that from its intrinsic value, its historical interest, and the illustrious name of its author, it …
John Knox—The Pulpit Of The Reformation, Nos. 1, 2 and 3.

The Prophet Micah.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. Micah signifies: "Who is like Jehovah;" and by this name, the prophet is consecrated to the incomparable God, just as Hosea was to the helping God, and Nahum to the comforting God. He prophesied, according to the inscription, under Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. We are not, however, entitled, on this account, to dissever his prophecies, and to assign particular discourses to the reign of each of these kings. On the contrary, the entire collection forms only one whole. At …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Isaiah
CHAPTERS I-XXXIX Isaiah is the most regal of the prophets. His words and thoughts are those of a man whose eyes had seen the King, vi. 5. The times in which he lived were big with political problems, which he met as a statesman who saw the large meaning of events, and as a prophet who read a divine purpose in history. Unlike his younger contemporary Micah, he was, in all probability, an aristocrat; and during his long ministry (740-701 B.C., possibly, but not probably later) he bore testimony, as …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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