Oppression and Luxury Condemned
With the elders of His people
And His princes:
“For you have1 eaten up athe vineyard;
The plunder of the poor is in your houses.
And grinding the faces of the poor?”
Says the Lord God of hosts.
“Because the daughters of Zion are haughty,
And walk with1 outstretched necks
And1 wanton eyes,
Walking and1 mincing as they go,
Making a jingling with their feet,
The crown of the head of the daughters of Zion,
And the Lord will buncover their secret parts.”
| << Isaiah 3:14 | Isaiah 3:16 >> |
Isaiah 3:15
What mean ye - What is your object? Or, What advantage is it to you? Or, By what right or pretence do you do this?
Beat my people to pieces - That is, that you trample on them; or cruelly oppress them; Psalms 94:5.
And grind the faces of the poor - This is an expression also denoting great oppression. It is taken from the act of grinding a substance on a stone until it is worn away and nothing is left. So, by their cruel exactions, by their injustice to the poor, they exhausted their little property until nothing was left. The word "faces" here is synonymous with "persons" - or with the poor themselves. The word "face" is often used in the sense of "person;" Exodus 33:14; II Samuel 18:11. A similar description, though in still stronger language, is found in Micah 3:2-3 :
Who pluck off their skin from off them,
And their flesh from off their bones;
Who also eat the flesh of my people,
And flay their skin from off them;
And they break their bones, and chop them in pieces,
As for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Isaiah 3:15:
Psalms 36:1
Psalms 94:5
Isaiah 8:6
| << Isaiah 3:14 | Isaiah 3:16 >> |
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