The shew of their countenance hath answered them: and they have proclaimed abroad their sin as Sodom, and they have not hid it: woe to their souls, for evils are rendered to them.

“The climax of your sin is that you hate the righteous one whom you killed, as well as those who by his grace are godly, righteous and loving. It is for this reason that the Lord said, "Woe to their soul, because they have taken evil counsel against themselves, saying, 'Let us take away the just one, for he is distasteful to us.' " Although you did not offer a sacrifice to Baal, like your ancestors, and did not offer cakes in groves and on hills to the heavenly army, you did not accept the Lord's Christ. Whoever does not know Christ does not know the will of God. Whoever rejects and hates him obviously rejects and hates the one who sent him. Whoever does not have faith in him does not believe the words of the prophets who preached his good news and proclaimed him to all people.”

“Immediately following, the prophet himself explains why he called them rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah: "Your hands are full of blood." Again a little later he says, "They have proclaimed their sin as Sodom and made it manifest. Woe to their souls, because they have taken evil counsel with themselves, saying, 'We will bind the just one, for he is a burden to us.' " Since he overtly speaks of blood and a plot against a just man, there is nothing else this could be than the plot against our Savior Jesus Christ.”

“Those who look upon their dispersion and the desolation of their city may not aptly say, "Woe to them, for they have imagined an evil imagination, saying against their own soul, let us bind the righteous man, because he is not pleasing to us." It is so true, for when they erred concerning the Scriptures, they did not know that "the one who digs a pit for his neighbor falls in it; and a serpent will bite the one who destroys a hedge."”

“They bound Jesus and led him to the meeting place of the high priest. Can you recognize that this was already written? Isaiah says, "Woe to their souls because they have taken evil counsel against themselves, saying, 'Let us bind the just one, for he is troublesome to us.' " Woe to their souls indeed! Let us see why. Isaiah was sawn in two, but afterwards the people were restored. Jeremiah was thrown into the dungeon, but the Jews had their wound healed. In these instances the sin was against a man, and therefore less. However, when they sinned not against a man but against God become human, then woe to their souls!”

“For he [Jesus] had done so many good works among them. He had given sight to the blind, feet to the lame, the power of walking to the palsied, life also to the dead; for all these good works they paid him death as his price, appraised at thirty pieces of silver. It is related also in the Gospels that he was bound. This also the word of prophecy had foretold by Isaiah, saying, "Woe to their soul, who have devised a most evil device against themselves, saying, 'Let us bind the just one, seeing that he is unprofitable to us.' "”

“Again, they are to be admonished that if they are not afraid of being wicked; they should at least be ashamed of being seen for what they are. Often a sin that is concealed is avoided, because a mind that is ashamed to be taken for what it does not fear to be in fact is sometimes ashamed to be in fact what it avoids appearing to be. On the other hand, when a person is shamelessly and notoriously wicked, then, the more freely he commits every kind of evil, the more he thinks it lawful, and in imagining it lawful, he is thereby without doubt immersed in it all the more. Therefore, it is written, "They have proclaimed abroad their sin as Sodom, and they have not hid it." For if Sodom had concealed its sin, it would still have sinned, but in fear. But it had completely lost the curb of fear, in that it did not seek even darkness in its sinning. Therefore, it is said again, "The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is multiplied." For sin in words is sin in act, but sin that is cried out is sin committed with deliberation.”

“הכרת. According to some, the cutting off, derived from כרת to cut off, but more correctly, the knowing of; comp. הכירהו they knew him (Gen. 42:8); the Dagesh in כ indicates the omission of the radical נ which appears in ינכר He is known (Prov. 26:24). He who is able to judge of the constitution of the whole body from the face will find in it the declaration and confession of the truth; no further evidence is wanted. And they tell their sin like Sodom. They do not even conceal their sins; for he who does conceal them feels at least ashamed of what he has done.”

“For Jerusalem is ruined. Here he gives the cause of what has been said, namely of the renunciation: and first he gives the proximate cause, namely the punishment of universal ruin: hence it is said in the person of the prophet: therefore he will refuse — "for," that is "because," Jerusalem is ruined, that is, the city itself; and Judah, that is, the province itself, has collapsed, through punishment, from its integrity. Below 23: they have led its strong men into captivity, they have undermined its houses, they have set it in ruin. Second, he gives the remote cause, namely guilt. And it is divided into three parts. In the first he aggravates the guilt; in the second he ordains punishment against the guilt, at the words, woe to their soul; third he shows the justice of the one who punishes, at the words, say to the just. He aggravates the sin from three things. From the species of the sin, because it is blasphemy against God: hence he says: therefore it has collapsed, because their tongue is against the Lord. Below 57: over whom have you sported, over whom have you opened wide your mouth, and put out your tongue? Second, from the novelty of the sin: hence he says: their devisings are against the Lord. Hosea 7: now their own devisings have surrounded them, they have been made before my face. Third, from the publication of the sin: hence he says: the recognition of their face; and this, because they made their sin, recognized from their face, known to others. It shall answer them, as a punishment as regards gesture. And as to the commending of the sin he says: and they have preached their sin as Sodom, that is, they have praised it. Jer. 2: you have made yourself a harlot's forehead, and you have refused to blush. It is expounded otherwise in the Gloss: the recognition of their face, that is, the knowledge of their sins, which they will have in the intellect, since the senses are in the face — it shall answer them, when they ask why they are punished. Or otherwise: the recognition of their face, that is, the remorse of conscience, shall answer them, as a punishment. And mystically this is referred to the sin by which, seeing Christ, they refused to recognize him, concerning which conscience will accuse them, according to what the Gloss says. And because the justice of God does not allow such grave evils to go unpunished, therefore woe to their soul, not only to their body: for evils have been rendered to them, in the foreknowledge of God; or the past tense is put for the future. And lest the punishment be thought to involve everyone, the justice of God in discerning the good from the evil is subjoined: and concerning this he does two things. First he sets down the reward of the good, saying, say to the just man — whoever he may be — that it shall be well with him, when others shall be damned, because he shall eat the fruit, that is, the reward, of his own devisings, as it were receiving the fruit of the good things he has thought out. For just as the wicked are solicitous to find ways by which sin may be committed, so too the good are solicitous to devise how they may be able to please God. 1 Cor. 7: he who is without a wife is solicitous for the things that are the Lord's, how he may please God. Ps. 127: because you shall eat the labors of your hands, you are blessed, and it shall be well with you. Second he sets down the punishment of the wicked, saying, woe to the wicked unto evil, that is, for the evil that impends over him. The retribution of his own hands — Ps. 9: the sinner is caught in the works of his own hands. My people. Here the oppression of the people is censured, according as it is the sin of the man who oppresses. And it is divided into two parts. In the first the vice of oppression is set down; in the second the judgment of punishment is brought in, at the words, the Lord stands up to judge. Now some oppressed the people in three ways. For first, the princes oppressed by violence, seizing: and as to this he says: they have despoiled my people, of their goods. Ezek. 22: they oppressed the people of the land with oppression, and seized violently; they afflicted the needy and the poor. Second, the women, drawing them on to concupiscence, and even to idolatry, as is said of Solomon, 3 Kings 11; and as to this he says: their women have ruled over them. Ecclus. 9: do not give a woman power over your soul, lest she enter in upon your strength. Third, the prophets, deceiving through the cunning of flattery; and as to this he says, my people; as if to say: I was accustomed to speak to you through the prophets; but because they are liars, I will speak to you through myself, lest it seem that it ought not to be believed, that a prophet speaks against a prophet. They deceive, by promising security. They lay waste, by furnishing occasion for guilt. Mic. 3: thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who bite with their teeth, and preach peace. Jer. 14: the prophets say to them: you shall not see the sword, and there shall be no famine among you; he will give you true peace in this place. He stands up to judge. Here judgment is brought in to punish the oppressors: and it is divided into two: in the first the judgment against the oppressing princes is set down; in the second, against the women, at the words, and the Lord said. The false prophets deceived in order to despoil the people; and therefore they have the same judgment as the princes. Ezek. 13: they profaned me among my people, for a handful of barley and a piece of bread. Concerning the first he does three things. First the judge is brought in: hence he says, he stands up to judge. Mic. 4: he shall judge many peoples. Dan. 7: the judgment sat, and the books were opened. Second the accused are brought in: hence he says: the Lord will come to judgment with the elders, namely the priests, and the princes, the kings and the leaders. Ezek. 34: I will judge between cattle and cattle, and between ram and he-goat. Third the cause is set down: and first the accusation of the plaintiff is brought in, when he says, you have devoured: Mic. 3: they have eaten the flesh of my people; second the rebuke of the judge is set down, when he says: why do you crush, by afflicting, and grind the faces of the poor, by wasting them with hunger? Amos 4: you do wrong to the needy, and you shall crush the poor. For God himself will be both the plaintiff and the judge. The fruit of the just man, which he renders: of his own operation, John 10: go and bear fruit, and let your fruit remain; of his own preaching, Hebrews, last chapter: let us offer the sacrifice of praise always to God, that is, the fruit of the lips of those confessing his name; of his own confession. Which he receives: of the remission of guilt, Is. 27: the iniquity of the house of Jacob shall be forgiven, and this is all the fruit, that his sin be taken away; of the participation of grace, Gal. 5: but the fruit of the spirit: charity, joy, etc.; of the contemplation of wisdom, Prov. 3: her acquisition is better than the trading of gold and silver, her first and purest fruits. Which he seeks: in the enjoyment of God, Song 2: his fruit is sweet to my throat; in the fellowship of the heavenly choir, Ezek. 36: mountains of Israel, put forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel; in the reception of the divine gift, Song 4: your shoots are a paradise of pomegranates, with the fruits of apples.”

“Here God proceeds in his controversy with his people. Observe, I. The ground of his controversy. It was for sin that God contended with them; if they vex themselves, let them look a little further and they will see that they must thank themselves: Woe unto their souls! For they have rewarded evil unto themselves. Alas for their souls! (so it may be read, in a way of lamentation), for they have procured evil to themselves, Isa 3:9. Note, The condition of sinners is woeful and very deplorable. Note, also, It is the soul that is damaged and endangered by sin. Sinners may prosper in their outward estates, and yet at the same time there may be a woe to their souls. Note, further, Whatever evils befals sinners it is of their own procuring, Jer 2:19. That which is here charged upon then is, 1. That the shame which should have restrained them from their sins was quite thrown off and they had grown impudent, Isa 3:9. This hardens men against repentance, and ripens them for ruin, as much as anything: The show of their countenance doth witness against them that their minds are vain, and lewd, and malicious; their eyes declare plainly that they cannot cease from sin, Pe2 2:14. One may look them in the face and guess at the desperate wickedness that there is in their hearts: They declare their sin as Sodom, so impetuous, so imperious, are their lusts, and so impatient of the least check, and so perfectly are all the remaining sparks of virtue extinguished in them. The Sodomites declared their sin, not only by the exceeding greatness of it (Gen 13:13), so that it cried to heaven (Gen 18:20), but by their shameless owning of that which was most shameful (Gen 19:5); and thus Judah and Jerusalem did: they were so far from hiding it that they gloried in it, in the bold attempts they made upon virtue, and the victory they gained over their own convictions. They had a whore's forehead (Jer 3:3) and could not blush, Jer 6:15. Note, Those that have grown impudent in sin are ripe for ruin. Those that are past shame (we say) are past grace, and then past hope. 2. That their guides, who should direct them in the right way, put them out of the way (Isa 3:12): "Those who lead thee (the princes, priests, and prophets) mislead thee; they cause thee to err." Either they preached to them that which was false and corrupt, or, if they preached that which was true and good, they contradicted it by their practices, and the people would soon follow a bad example than a good exhortation. Thus they destroyed the ways of their paths, pulling down with one hand what they built up with the other. Que te beatificant - Those that call thee blessed cause thee to err; so some read it. Their priests applauded them, as if nothing were amiss among them, cried Peace, peace, to them, as if they were in no danger; and thus they caused them to go on in their errors. 3. That their judges, who should have patronized and protected the oppressed, were themselves the greatest oppressors, Isa 3:14, Isa 3:15. The elders of the people, and the princes, who had learning and could not but know better things, who had great estates and were not under the temptation of necessity to encroach upon those about them, and who were men of honour and should have scorned to do a base thing, yet they have eaten up the vineyard. God's vineyard, which they were appointed to be the dressers and keepers of, they burnt (so the word signifies); they did as ill by it as its worst enemies could do, Psa 80:16. Or the vineyards of the poor they wrested out of their possession, as Jezebel did Naboth's, or devoured the fruits of them, fed their lusts with that which should have been the necessary food of indigent families; the spoil of the poor was hoarded up in their houses; when God came to search for stolen goods there he found it, and it was a witness against them. It was to be had, and they might have made restitution, but would not. God reasons with these great men (Isa 3:15): "What mean you, that you beat my people into pieces? What cause have you for it? What good does it do you?" Or, "What hurt have they done you? Do you think you had power given you for such a purpose as this?" Note, There is nothing more unaccountable, and yet nothing which must more certainly be accounted for, than the injuries and abuses that are done to God's people by their persecutors and oppressors. "You grind the faces of the poor; you put them to as much pain and terror as if they were ground in a mill, and as certainly reduce them to dust by one act of oppression after another." Or, "Their faces are bruised and crushed with the blows you have given them; you have not only ruined their estates, but have given them personal abuses." Our Lord Jesus was smitten on the face, Mat 26:67. II. The management of this controversy. 1. God himself is the prosecutor (Isa 3:13): The Lord stands up to plead, or he sets himself to debate the matter, and he stands to judge the people, to judge for those that were oppressed and abused; and he will enter into judgment with the princes, Isa 3:14. Note, The greatest of men cannot exempt or secure themselves from the scrutiny and sentence of God's judgment, nor demur to the jurisdiction of the court of heaven. 2. The indictment is proved by the notorious evidence of the fact: "Look upon the oppressors, and the show of their countenance witnesses against them (Isa 3:9); look upon the oppressed, and you see how their faces are battered and abused," Isa 3:15. 3. The controversy is already begun in the change of the ministry. To punish those that had abused their power to bad purposes God sets those over them that had not sense to use their power to any good purposes: Children are their oppressors, and women rule over them (Isa 3:12), men that have as weak judgments and strong passions as women and children: this was their sin, that their rulers were such, and it became a judgment upon them. III. The distinction that shall be made between particular persons, in the prosecution of this controversy (Isa 3:10, Isa 3:11): Say to the righteous, It shall be well with thee. Woe to the wicked; it shall be ill with him. He had said (Isa 3:9), they have rewarded evil to themselves, in proof of which he here shows that God will render to every man according to his works. Had they been righteous, it would have been well with them; but, if it be ill with them, it is because they are wicked and will be so. Thus God stated the matter to Cain, to convince him that he had no reason to be angry, Gen 4:7. Or it may be taken thus: God is threatening national judgments, which will ruin the public interests. Now, 1. Some good people might fear that they should be involved in that ruin, and therefore God bids the prophets comfort them against those fears: "Whatever becomes of the unrighteous nation, let the righteous man know that he shall not be lost in the crowd of sinners; the Judge of all the earth will not slay the righteous with the wicked (Gen 18:25); no, assure him, in God's name, that it shall be well with him. The property of the trouble shall be altered to him, and he shall be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger. He shall have divine supports and comforts, which shall abound as afflictions abound, and so it shall be well with him." When the whole stay of bread is taken away, yet in the day of famine the righteous shall be satisfied; they shall eat the fruit of their doings - they shall have the testimony of their consciences for them that they kept themselves pure from the common iniquity, and therefore the common calamity is not the same thing to them that it is to others; they brought no fuel to the flame, and therefore are not themselves fuel for it. 2. Some wicked people might hope that they should escape that ruin, and therefore God bids the prophets shake their vain hopes: "Woe to the wicked; it shall be ill with him, Isa 3:11. To him the judgments shall have sting, and there shall be wormwood and gall in the affliction and misery." There is a woe to wicked people, and, though they may think to shelter themselves from public judgments, yet it shall be ill with them; it will grow worse and worse with them if they repent not, and the worst of all will be at last; for the reward of their hands shall be given them, in the day when every man shall receive according to the things done in the body.”

“The shew of their countenance doth witness against them,.... The word translated "shew" is only used in this place. Some derive it from "to know", in the conjugations Piel and Hiphil; and render it, "the knowledge of their countenance" (f); that is, that which may be known by their countenances; the countenance oftentimes shows what is in the heart, the cruel disposition of the mind, the pride and vanity of it, the uncleanness and lasciviousness that is in it; to this our version agrees, and which is confirmed by the Chaldee paraphrase, "the knowledge of their countenance in judgment doth testify against them;'' as they appear there, so it may be judged of them; their guilt flies in their face, and fills them with shame and confusion; and so the Septuagint and Arabic versions render it, "the shame of their face"; but others derive it from which has the signification of hardness in the Arabic language, and as it is thought by some to have in Job 19:3 and render it, "the hardness of their countenance"; so R. Joseph Kimchi, and others (g), meaning their impudence (h); not only their words and actions, but their impudent looks, show what they are; which agrees with what follows: and they declare their sin as Sodom, and hide it not; commit it openly, without fear or shame; glory in it, and boast of it, as the Jews did in their crucifixion of Christ, and their evil treatment of him: woe to their soul, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves; they have brought upon themselves, soul and body, the just recompence of reward; they have been the cause of their own ruin, and have wronged their own souls. (f) "cognitio vultus eorum", Munster, Vatablus, V. L. (g) "Obfermatio", Janius & Tremellius; "durities", Piscator. (h) So Schindler renders the Arabic word, "hacar", impudence. Vid. Castel. Lexic. col. 846.”

“show--The Hebrew means, "that which may be known by their countenances" [GESENIUS and WEISS]. But MAURER translates, "Their respect for person"; so Syriac and Chaldee. But the parallel word "declare" favors the other view. KIMCHI, from the Arabic, translates "their hardness" (Job 19:3, Margin), or impudence of countenance (Jer 3:3). They have lost not only the substance of virtue, but its color. witness--literally, "corresponds" to them; their look answers to their inner character (Hos 5:5). declare-- (Jde 1:13). "Foaming out their own shame"; so far from making it a secret, "glorying" in it (Phi 3:19). unto themselves--Compare "in themselves" (Pro 1:31; Pro 8:36; Jer 2:19; Rom 1:27).”

“But Israel, instead of walking in the consciousness of being a constant and favourite object of these majestic, earnestly admonishing eyes, was diligently engaged in bidding them defiance both in word and deed, not even hiding its sin from fear of them, but exposing them to view in the most shameless manner. - "The look of their faces testifies against them, and their sin they make known like Sodom, without concealing it: woe to their soul! for they do themselves harm." In any case, the prophet refers to the impudence with which their enmity against God was shamelessly stamped upon their faces, without even the self-condemnation which leads in other cases to a diligent concealment of the sin. But we cannot follow Luzzatto and Jos. Kimchi, who take haccârath as used directly for azzuth (impudence), inasmuch as the Arabic hakara (hakir‛a), to which Kimchi appeals, signifies to be astonished and to stare (see at Job 19:3). And in this case there would be nothing strange in the substantive form, which would be a piel formation like בּלּהה חטּאה. But it may be a hiphil formation (Ewald, 156, a); and this is incomparably the more probable of the two, as hiccir panim is a very common phrase. It signifies to look earnestly, keenly, or inquiringly in the face of a person, to fix the eye upon him; and, when used of a judge, to take the part of a person, by favouring him unjustly (Deu 1:17; Deu 16:19). But this latter idea, viz., "their acceptance of the person, or partiality" (according to Pro 24:23; Pro 28:21), is inadmissible here, for the simple reason that the passage refers to the whole nation, and not particularly to the judges. "The look of their faces" (haccârath p'nēhem) is to be understood in an objective sense, viz., the appearance (τὸ εἶδος, Luk 9:29), like the agnitio of Jerome, id quo se agnoscendum dat vultus eorum. This was probably the expression commonly employed in Hebrew for what we designate by a very inappropriate foreign word, viz., physiognomy, i.e., the expression of the face which reveals the state of the mind. This expression of their countenance testified against them (anah b', as in Isa 59:12), for it was the disturbed and distorted image of their sin, which not only could not be hidden, but did not even wish to be; in a word, of their azzuth (Ecc 8:1). And it did not even rest with this open though silent display: they spoken openly of their sin (higgid in its simplest meaning, palam facere, from nâgad, nagâda, to be open, evident) without making any secret of it, like the Sodomites, who publicly proclaimed their fleshly lusts (Gen 19). Jerusalem was spiritually Sodom, as the prophet called it in Isa 1:10. By such barefaced sinning they did themselves harm (gâmal, lit., to finish, then to carry out, to show practically). (Note: It may now be accepted as an established fact, that the verb gâmal is connected with the Arabic 'gamala, to collect together, 'gamula, to be perfect, kamala, kamula id., and gâmar, to finish (see Hupfeld on Psa 7:5, and Frst, Heb. Lex.).)”