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.
(As for) my people, children (are) their oppressors, and women rule over them - (see Isaiah 3:4.)
Oppressors - literally, exactors; i:e., exacting princes (Isaiah 60:17). They who ought to be protectors are exactors: as unqualified for rule as "children," as effeminate as "women." Perhaps it is also implied that they were under the influence of their harem, the women of their court.
O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err - Hebrew, they which call thee blessed (meashreka); namely, the false prophets, who flatter the people with promises of safety in sin: as the political 'rulers,' are meant in the first clause.
And destroy the way of thy paths (Jeremiah 6:16) - the right way set forth in the law. "Destroy" - Hebrew (Billeehu), swallow up; i:e., cause so utterly to disappear that not a vestige of it is left.