◄ Isaiah 3:6 ►
A man will seize his brother within his father's house: "You have a cloak--you be our leader! Take charge of this heap of rubble."
Study Bible
A man
The Hebrew word for "man" here is "אִישׁ" (ish), which often denotes an individual of significance or responsibility. In the context of Isaiah, this term can imply a person who is expected to take on leadership or authority. Historically, during times of crisis in ancient Israel, the call for a man to lead was a call for someone to rise above the chaos and provide guidance and stability.

will seize
The Hebrew root for "seize" is "תָּפַשׂ" (taphas), which means to grasp or take hold of. This word suggests a sense of urgency and desperation. In the societal breakdown described in Isaiah, people are so desperate for leadership that they will forcibly take hold of anyone who appears capable of leading, even if that person is reluctant or unqualified.

his brother
The term "brother" (אָח, ach) in Hebrew can refer to a literal sibling or a fellow member of the community. This indicates the breakdown of societal structures where familial and communal bonds are strained. The desperation for leadership extends even to those who are close, highlighting the pervasive nature of the crisis.

in his father’s house
This phrase suggests a return to familial roots and traditional structures. The father's house represents a place of origin, authority, and inheritance. In ancient Israel, the father's house was a symbol of stability and continuity. The appeal to someone within this context underscores the desire to restore order through established familial lines.

You have a cloak
The cloak (כְּסוּת, kesut) is a symbol of authority and respectability. In ancient times, a cloak was not just a garment but a sign of one's status and role in society. The fact that possession of a cloak is enough to be considered for leadership reflects the dire situation where external appearances are mistaken for true capability.

you be our leader
The plea for leadership is a central theme in this verse. The Hebrew word for leader (קָצִין, qatsin) implies a ruler or commander. This reflects the people's longing for someone to guide them through turmoil. It is a call for order amidst chaos, a cry for someone to take charge and restore righteousness.

this ruin
The word "ruin" (מַכְשֵׁלָה, makhshelah) denotes a state of downfall or disaster. It captures the essence of the societal collapse that Isaiah is addressing. The ruin is not just physical but moral and spiritual, indicating a comprehensive breakdown of the community's values and structures.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Isaiah
The prophet who authored the book, delivering God's messages to the people of Judah and Jerusalem.

2. Judah and Jerusalem
The primary audience of Isaiah's prophecies, representing the Southern Kingdom of Israel.

3. The Brother
Represents the people of Judah seeking leadership in times of chaos and desperation.

4. The Father’s House
Symbolizes the familial and societal structures that are breaking down.

5. The Cloak
A symbol of authority or responsibility, indicating the desperation for leadership.
Teaching Points
Desperation for Leadership
In times of societal breakdown, people often seek leadership from anyone who appears to have authority, even if they are unqualified.

Symbolism of the Cloak
The cloak represents authority and responsibility. In our lives, we must discern who we allow to lead us and ensure they are godly and wise.

The Role of Godly Leadership
True leadership should be rooted in godly principles. As Christians, we are called to seek leaders who align with biblical values.

The Consequences of Poor Leadership
The chaos described in Isaiah 3:6 serves as a warning of the consequences when leadership is based on desperation rather than divine guidance.

Personal Responsibility
Each believer has a role in upholding godly standards within their community, ensuring that leadership reflects biblical truths.
Bible Study Questions
1. What does the desperation for leadership in Isaiah 3:6 reveal about the spiritual state of Judah at the time?

2. How can we apply the symbolism of the cloak in our own lives when choosing leaders or taking on leadership roles?

3. In what ways does the societal chaos described in Isaiah 3:6 compare to situations in the world today?

4. How can we ensure that our leaders, both in the church and in society, are aligned with biblical principles?

5. Reflect on a time when you or your community faced a leadership crisis. How did you see God working through that situation, and what biblical principles guided you?
Connections to Other Scriptures
1 Samuel 8
The Israelites demand a king, showing a similar desperation for leadership.

Judges 21:25
Describes a time when "everyone did what was right in his own eyes," reflecting societal chaos.

Proverbs 28:2
Discusses the instability of a land with many rulers, connecting to the lack of effective leadership.

Matthew 9:36
Jesus sees the crowds as "harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd," paralleling the need for godly leadership.

Ezekiel 34
God condemns the shepherds of Israel for failing to lead, promising to be the true shepherd.
Sermons
A Picture of AnarchyE. Johnson Isaiah 3:1-7
National and Spiritual AnarchyW. Clarkson Isaiah 3:1-8
A Foolish Ruler: Justinian Ii (Of ConstantinopleIsaiah 3:4-8
Juvenile Government a CurseF. Delitzsch.Isaiah 3:4-8
Puerile GovernmentJ. A. Alexander.Isaiah 3:4-8
A Reason for Refusing RulershipIsaiah 3:6-7
Clothing in the EastR. Macculloch.Isaiah 3:6-7
Government Going A-BeggingIsaiah 3:6-7
I Will not be an HealerF. Delitzsch.Isaiah 3:6-7
Let This Ruin be Under Thy HandR. Macculloch.Isaiah 3:6-7
Seeking to Transfer RulershipJ. Parker, D. D.Isaiah 3:6-7
People
Isaiah
Places
Jerusalem, Sodom, Zion
Topics
Brother, Brothers, Charge, Chief, Cloak, Clothing, Condition, Father's, Garment, Hast, Heap, Hold, Home, Indeed, Layeth, Lays, Leader, Mantle, Puts, Responsible, Ruin, Ruins, Rule, Ruler, Sad, Saying, Says, Takes
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Isaiah 3:1-7

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Library
A Paradox of Selling and Buying
'Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.'--ISAIAH iii. 3. THE first reference of these words is of course to the Captivity. They come in the midst of a grand prophecy of freedom, all full of leaping gladness and buoyant hope. The Seer speaks to the captives; they had 'sold themselves for nought.' What had they gained by their departure from God?--bondage. What had they won in exchange for their freedom?-- only the hard service of Babylon. As Deuteronomy puts it: …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Marching Orders
'Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord. 12. For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your reward.'--ISAIAH iii. 11, 12. These ringing notes are parts of a highly poetic picture of that great deliverance which inspired this prophet's most exalted strains. It is described with constant allusion to the first Exodus, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Christian view of Sorrow
"A man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief" Is. Iii. 3. There is one great distinction between the productions of Heathen and of Christian art. While the first exhibits the perfection of physical form and of intellectual beauty, the latter expresses, also, the majesty of sorrow, the grandeur of endurance, the idea of triumph refined from agony. In all those shapes of old there is nothing like the glory of the martyr; the sublimity of patience and resignation; the dignity of the thorn-crowned Jesus. …
E. H. Chapin—The Crown of Thorns

The Personal History of Herod - the Two Worlds in Jerusalem.
It is an intensely painful history, [581] in the course of which Herod made his way to the throne. We look back nearly two and a half centuries to where, with the empire of Alexander, Palestine fell to his successors. For nearly a century and a half it continued the battle-field of the Egyptian and Syrian kings (the Ptolemies and the Seleucidæ). At last it was a corrupt High-Priesthood - with which virtually the government of the land had all along lain - that betrayed Israel's precious trust. …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

How those are to be Admonished who Praise the Unlawful Things of which they are Conscious, and those who While Condemning Them, in no Wise Guard
(Admonition 32.) Differently to be admonished are they who even praise the unlawful things which they do, and those who censure what is wrong, and yet avoid it not. For they who even praise the unlawful things which they do are to be admonished to consider how for the most part they offend more by the mouth than by deeds. For by deeds they perpetrate wrong things in their own persons only; but with the mouth they bring out wickedness in the persons of as many as there are souls of hearers, to …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

"But Whereunto Shall I Liken this Generation?"
Matth. xi. 16.--"But whereunto shall I liken this generation?" When our Lord Jesus, who had the tongue of the learned, and spoke as never man spake, did now and then find a difficulty to express the matter herein contained. "What shall we do?" The matter indeed is of great importance, a soul matter, and therefore of great moment, a mystery, and therefore not easily expressed. No doubt he knows how to paint out this to the life, that we might rather behold it with our eyes, than hear it with our …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Brief Memoir of Thomas Watson
Compiled by C. H. Spurgeon Thomas Watson's Body of Practical Divinity is one of the most precious of the peerless works of the Puritans; and those best acquainted with it prize it most. Watson was one of the most concise, racy, illustrative, and suggestive of those eminent divines who made the Puritan age the Augustan period of evangelical literature. There is a happy union of sound doctrine, heart-searching experience and practical wisdom throughout all his works, and his Body of Divinity is, beyond …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Of Civil Government.
OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. This chapter consists of two principal heads,--I. General discourse on the necessity, dignity, and use of Civil Government, in opposition to the frantic proceedings of the Anabaptists, sec. 1-3. II. A special exposition of the three leading parts of which Civil Government consists, sec. 4-32. The first part treats of the function of Magistrates, whose authority and calling is proved, sec. 4-7. Next, the three Forms of civil government are added, sec. 8. Thirdly, Consideration …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Letter Li to the virgin Sophia
To the Virgin Sophia He praises her for having despised the glory of the world: and, setting forth the praises, privileges, and rewards of Religious Virgins, exhorts her to persevere. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, to the Virgin Sophia, that she may keep the title of virginity and attain its reward. I. Favour is deceitful and beauty is vain; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised (Prov. xxxi. 31). I rejoice with you, my daughter, in the glory of your virtue, whereby, as I hear, you …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

"All Our Righteousnesses are as Filthy Rags, and we all do Fade as a Leaf, and Our Iniquities, Like the Wind, have Taken us Away. "
Isaiah lxiv. 6, 7.--"All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Not only are the direct breaches of the command uncleanness, and men originally and actually unclean, but even our holy actions, our commanded duties. Take a man's civility, religion, and all his universal inherent righteousness,--all are filthy rags. And here the church confesseth nothing but what God accuseth her of, Isa. lxvi. 8, and chap. i. ver. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"Thou Shalt Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother. "
From this Commandment we learn that after the excellent works of the first three Commandments there are no better works than to obey and serve all those who are set over us as superiors. For this reason also disobedience is a greater sin than murder, unchastity, theft and dishonesty, and all that these may include. For we can in no better way learn how to distinguish between greater and lesser sins than by noting the order of the Commandments of God, although there are distinctions also within the …
Dr. Martin Luther—A Treatise on Good Works

Concerning Salutations and Recreations, &C.
Concerning Salutations and Recreations, &c. [1273] Seeing the chief end of all religion is to redeem men from the spirit and vain conversation of this world and to lead into inward communion with God, before whom if we fear always we are accounted happy; therefore all the vain customs and habits thereof, both in word and deed, are to be rejected and forsaken by those who come to this fear; such as taking off the hat to a man, the bowings and cringings of the body, and such other salutations of that …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity

A Sermon on Isaiah xxvi. By John Knox.
[In the Prospectus of our Publication it was stated, that one discourse, at least, would be given in each number. A strict adherence to this arrangement, however, it is found, would exclude from our pages some of the most talented discourses of our early Divines; and it is therefore deemed expedient to depart from it as occasion may require. The following Sermon will occupy two numbers, and we hope, that from its intrinsic value, its historical interest, and the illustrious name of its author, it …
John Knox—The Pulpit Of The Reformation, Nos. 1, 2 and 3.

The Prophet Micah.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. Micah signifies: "Who is like Jehovah;" and by this name, the prophet is consecrated to the incomparable God, just as Hosea was to the helping God, and Nahum to the comforting God. He prophesied, according to the inscription, under Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. We are not, however, entitled, on this account, to dissever his prophecies, and to assign particular discourses to the reign of each of these kings. On the contrary, the entire collection forms only one whole. At …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Isaiah
CHAPTERS I-XXXIX Isaiah is the most regal of the prophets. His words and thoughts are those of a man whose eyes had seen the King, vi. 5. The times in which he lived were big with political problems, which he met as a statesman who saw the large meaning of events, and as a prophet who read a divine purpose in history. Unlike his younger contemporary Micah, he was, in all probability, an aristocrat; and during his long ministry (740-701 B.C., possibly, but not probably later) he bore testimony, as …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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