Yahweh will enter into judgment with the elders of his people and their leaders: “It is you who have eaten up the vineyard. The plunder of the poor is in your houses.
Parallel Translations
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Yahweh will enter into judgment with the elders of his people and their leaders: “It is you who have eaten up the vineyard. The plunder of the poor is in your houses.
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The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
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The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders of His people, and the princes thereof: 'It is ye that have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses;
Cross-references (14)
Passages linked to Isaiah 3:14 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Job 22:4 Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment?
- Job 24:9 There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor,
- Psalms 14:4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on Yahweh?
- Psalms 143:2 Don’t enter into judgment with your servant, for in your sight no man living is righteous.
- Isaiah 3:2-3 the mighty man, the man of war, the judge, the prophet, the diviner, the elder, the captain of fifty, the honorable man, the counselor, the skilled craftsman, and the clever enchanter.
- Isaiah 5:7 For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.
- Jeremiah 5:27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore they have become great, and grew rich.
- Amos 4:1 Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their husbands, “Bring us drinks!”
- James 2:6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts?
- Job 24:2-7 There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them. They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves. Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go out to their work, seeking diligently for food. The wilderness yields them bread for their children. They cut their food in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked. They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.
- Job 34:23 For he doesn’t need to consider a man further, that he should go before God in judgment.
- Micah 2:2 They covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.
- Micah 6:10 Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and a short ephah that is accursed?
- Matthew 21:33 “Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household, who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a wine press in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Meaning, that the rulers and governors had destroyed his…
Meaning, that the rulers and governors had destroyed his Church, and not preserved it, according to their duty.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 3:14 The LORD will enter into judgment with…
Isa 3:14 The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor [is] in your houses.
Ver. 14. The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients.] With the princes and rulers, each of which shall have cause to cry out,
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“ Iudex ante fui, nunc iudicis ante tribunal Sistor. ”
For ye have eaten up the vineyard.] Vos, non caret emphasi, "Ye," even "ye" that should have preserved it, and wrought in it, have depastured and destroyed my vineyard, that is, my Church, {as Isa 5:17} or poor men’s possessions, through your extortions and oppressions.
And the spoil of the poor is in your houses.] You are taken επ αυτοφωρω, {a} in the very act of your theft, as Cacus was, and Verres, &c.
{a} Deprehensi estis in furto. - Oecolamp.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The ancients; the princes or rulers, as it is…
The ancients; the princes or rulers, as it is explained in the next clause, who are oft called elders, because such were commonly and fitly chosen out of those who were ripe in years.
Eaten up; destroyed instead of preserving and dressing it, as you should have done.
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The vineyard; the church and commonwealth of Israel, which is oft called God’s vineyard, as Psa 80:8,14,15; Isa 5:1; Jer 2:21, &c., and here the vineyard, by way of eminency; or, the vineyard which was committed to your care to keep.
The spoil of the poor; the goods which you have violently taken away from the poor.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients…
The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof,.... Both civil and ecclesiastical; the princes, chief priests, and elders of the people, who set themselves and took counsel together against the Lord and his Christ; would not suffer the people to be gathered to him; sought his life, and at last took it away.
For ye have eaten up the vineyard, or burnt it (p); the house of Israel, and of Judah compared to a vineyard, in a following chapter; and so the Targum,
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"ye have oppressed my people;''
these are the husbandmen our Lord speaks of, that beat the servants that were sent for the fruits of the vineyard, and at last killed the heir, Mat 21:34.
The spoil of the poor is in your houses; the Pharisees devoured widows' houses, and filled their own, with the spoil of them, Mat 23:14.
(p) "succendistis", Vatablus, Montanus.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Ancients - The princes or rulers; such were commonly…
Ancients - The princes or rulers; such were commonly chosen out of those who were in ripe years. Eaten - Destroyed instead of preserving the church and commonwealth of Israel. Spoil - The goods which you have violently taken away from the poor.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 14. The vineyard. - "My vineyard"] כרמי carmi,…
Verse 14. The vineyard. - "My vineyard"] כרמי carmi, Septuagint, Chaldee, Jerome.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain With the ancients ... - With the old men,…
With the ancients ... - With the old men, the counselors.
Ye have eaten up the vineyard - Hebrew ‘Ye have burnt up’ - that is, you have oonsumed or destroyed it. By the vineyard is represented the Jewish republic or people; Psa 80:9-13; compare the notes at Isa 5:1-7. The princes and rulers had, by their exactions and oppressions, ruined the people, and destroyed the country.
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The spoil of the poor - The “plunder” of the poor; or that which you have taken from the poor by exactions and oppressions. The word “spoil” commonly means the plunder or booty which is obtained in war.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain ancients--Hence they are spoken of as "taken away" (Isa…
ancients--Hence they are spoken of as "taken away" (Isa 3:1-2).
vineyard--the Jewish theocracy (Isa 5:1-7; Psa 80:9-13).
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eaten up--"burnt"; namely, by "oppressive exactions" (Isa 3:12). Type of the crowning guilt of the husbandmen in the days of Jesus Christ (Mat 21:34-41).
spoil . . . houses-- (Mat 23:14).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 14. The parties are now distinctly named.
14. The parties are now distinctly named.
The ancients — The elders, heads of houses and tribes, responsible representatives of the people.
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Ye have — The address is direct. The charge is against these guides.
Eaten up the vineyard — Destroyed God’s Church by subverting its purity. Ye have “eaten” (literally, burnt) this up. The same in effect as if it stood, “Ye have robbed my people;” and thus it better accords with the word spoil, plunder; the evidence of which is, that it is in your houses.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 14. Those immediately arraigned are the “elders and princes,”…
14. Those immediately arraigned are the “elders and princes,” the authorities responsible for the national welfare.
for ye have eaten up] Rather, And you—ye have eaten up. The indignant remonstrance of Jehovah commences at this point. The image of the vineyard is fully explained in ch. Isa_5:1-7. The point of the accusation here is that those who should have kept the vineyard from the intrusion of wild beasts have themselves devoured it.
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the spoil … houses] the evidence of their sin.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The ancients... the princes. These were the chief oppressors.…
The ancients... the princes. These were the chief oppressors. They delivered the judgments, and it was by them that justice was perverted. Jehovah therefore enters specially into judgment with them. For ye have eaten up; rather, So ye have eaten up. Jehovah is supposed to address the unjust judges. He reproaches them with having "eaten up," or rather "scorched up," his vineyard, i.e. Israel, (comp. Isa_5:1-7) and taxes them with having still their ill-gotten gains in their houses. "So ye," he says, "have thus acted ye whose duty it was to have acted so differently."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain The Lord will enter into judgment
Isa_3:14
The Lord will enter into judgment
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God, the Friend of the poor
Whoever abandons the sanctuary, the poor should never go away; whoever closes the Bible, the poor man should keep it lying widely open; he should always have a Bible that opens easily, not stiffly, because it is well handled, and is the continual defence of men who cannot defend themselves.
(J. Parker, D. D.)
Isaiahs solemn reproof
Returning into the city he silently hovers in and out of the courts of revelry and feasting that open on to the narrow thoroughfares, watching the judges and honourable men of wealth, who had just come in from their ceremonial worship at the temple, to eat, to drink, to talk lewdly, and to amuse themselves with soothsayers and necromancers, and the haughty women, with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, and gay and sumptuous dresses, paid for with the money wrung from the impoverished tenantry of their spouses. As he watches and muses, the fire within his bones flames up, and he reminds them as he passes into the darkness, the spoil of the poor is in your houses! (F. Sessions.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 3:14 elders and rulers: Wickedness and abuse by ungodly…
3:14 elders and rulers: Wickedness and abuse by ungodly and incompetent leadership thwarts God’s purpose for his people (see also 3:12). Therefore, leaders come under more severe judgment because they bear responsibility for the welfare of those under them. • my vineyard: See the Song of the Vineyard (5:1-7).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.