Isaiah 3:12

Children are their oppressors. These words are sometimes thought to refer to the ages of the kings of Judah at this time, but that can hardly be true because the rulers during the time of Isaiah were not unusually young when they began to reign. Jotham was 25 when he came to the throne (2 Kings 15:33), Ahaz was 20 (2 Kings 16:2), and Hezekiah was 25 (2 Kings 18:2). Azariah (Uzziah), however, was only 16 when he came to the throne (2 Kings 15:2), but Isaiah’s ministry evidently did not begin till near the end of Azariah’s reign (see Isa. 6:1). Manasseh was 12 (2 Kings 21:1) and Josiah only 8 (2 Kings 22:1) when they began to rule. Since the kings of Isaiah’s time were not literally youths, it is not likely that such would be the case, literally, with their appointed officials. The meaning is that the rulers of the time were children in mental outlook and capacity. Experienced leadership was lacking, on the throne, in the home, and elsewhere. This was, of course, true particularly with Ahaz, who began to rule a few years after Isaiah received his call, and who was succeeded by the good king Hezekiah.

Women rule over them. Again the meaning is that the land was governed by men who were without any particular aptitude for rulership. Although the words “children” and “women” are not to be taken literally, the influence of the haughty and dissolute “daughters of Zion” described in vs. 16-24 must have exercised an indirect influence upon affairs of state through the leaders. Instead of helping their husbands, such women were a hindrance to them, and instead of teaching their children the ways of righteousness, they led them in paths of evil.

They which lead thee. A leader occupies a position of great responsibility, for where he leads, the people will follow. When leaders go in the wrong direction entire nations are led astray. The civil and religious leaders of Isaiah’s time were leading the professed people of God into paths of iniquity and destruction. The world today is under evil influences that are steadily but surely leading men along pathways of evil, whose end is eternal doom. Never in all the ages was right leadership of greater importance than it is today.