Isaiah 3:1–15

Leaders of Judah and Jerusalem

3For look, the Lord Yahweh of hosts is removing every source of support^a

from Jerusalem and from Judah:

all of the supplies of bread

and all of the supplies of water,

²mighty warrior and man of war,

judge and prophet,

and diviner and elder,

³captain of fifty and the honorable men of rank,

and counselor and skillful magicians and skillful enchanter.

⁴And I will make boys their princes,

and children shall rule over them.

⁵And the people will be oppressed by each other^b

and a man by his neighbor.

The boy will act arrogantly toward the elder,

and the dishonorable toward the honorable.

⁶Indeed, a man will seize his brother

in the house of his father:

“You have a cloak;^c

you shall be a leader for us,

and this heap of ruins shall be under your hand!”

⁷He will lift up his voice on that day, saying,

“I will not be a healer;

in my house there is no bread

and there is no cloak.

You shall not make me the leader of the people!”

⁸For Jerusalem has stumbled,

and Judah has fallen

because their speech and their deeds are against Yahweh,

defying the eyes of his glory.

⁹The look on their faces testifies against them

and they declare their sin like Sodom;

they do not hide it.

Woe to their soul!

For they have dealt out evil to themselves.

¹⁰Tell the innocent^d that it is good

for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

¹¹Woe to the wicked!^e It is bad!

For what is done by his hands will be done to him.

¹²My people—children are their oppressors,

and women rule over them.

My people, your leaders are misleading you,

and they confuse the course of your paths.

¹³Yahweh takes his stand to conduct a legal case

and takes his stand to judge the peoples.

¹⁴Yahweh enters into judgment with the elders of his people and its princes.

“And you! You have devoured the vineyard;

the spoil of the poor is in your houses!

¹⁵Why^f do you crush my people

and grind the face of the poor?”

declares^g the Lord Yahweh of hosts.