Isaiah 3:12 [As for] my people, children [are] their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause [thee] to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.
Ver. 12. As for my people.] Now the "people of my wrath, and of my curse"; Loammi, discovenanted, discarded.
Children are their oppressors.] Rulers he calleth them not, as being too good a name for them, but "oppressors"; and these were boys and women - i.e., such as were no wiser than children, nor had any more command of their passions than weak women, and were therefore unfit for government. Brunhild, the wife of Sigebert, king of Metz, Fridegund, the wife of Chilperic, and Katherine Medicis, wife of Henry II, are said to be the furies of France. a What work they made in that kingdom in their generations, by abusing their husbands' love and authority, histories are full. The like did Jezebel in Israel, Athalia in Judah, and Dame Alice Pierce here in England in King Edward III's days. This woman being the king's concubine, and presuming on his favour, whom in his old age she had subdued, grew so insolent, that she imprisoned Sir Peter la Mare, Speaker for the Parliament; intermeddled with courts of justice, and other offices, where she herself would sit to effect her desire, b which, though in all who are so exalted, are ever excessive, yet in a woman most immoderate, as having less of discretion, and more of greediness. Heliogabalus in a merriment set up a senate of women; but then their ordinances were correspondent, as what attire each woman should use, how they should take place, when salute, &c. But these in the text, working upon their husbands' impotencies, who were children, in the sense that Shechem, the son of Humor, is so called Gen 34:19 - neque distulit puer, a lad or a boy, because swayed not by right reason - but by blind affection, exacted of the poor people unreasonable tributes and pensions for the maintenance of their pride and luxury. Est haec ingens plaga, saith one; this is a great mischief to a State, such as Greece and Rome sometimes groaned under. Diophantus, the son of Themistocles, once boasted that he ruled all Greece, because he ruled his mother, she ruled his father, and he ruled Greece. Cato also complained, Mulieres regunt nos, nos Senatum, Senatus Romam, Roma orbem; our women, said he, rule us, we rule the senate, the senate the city, and the city the whole world.
O my people, they which lead thee.] c Or, Those that bless thee and pronounce thee happy, saying as do thy false prophets, those flatterers, because thou hast with thee the oracles and ordinances of God, the ceremonies and sacrifices, praising thee therefore, and promising thee all happiness, soothing thee up in thy sins, &c. Qui ducunt te, seducunt; who lead and seduce you, false guides they are, and
Destroy the way of thy paths.] Heb., They swallow up - that is, they hide from thee thy duty, and so harden thee in thy sin.
a Heyl. Cosmography.
b Dan. Hist., p. 257.
c Qui beatificant te., who blesses you.