Isaiah 3:10

(Verses 10, 11.) Woe to their souls, for evil has been repaid to them. Speak to the righteous, for they are well, for they have eaten the fruit of their inventions. Woe to the wicked for evil, for the retribution of his hands will be upon him. According to the Hebrew and other interpreters, this is the meaning: Woe to them because they have received their own wickedness. Therefore, you who hear or read the book of the Prophet, praise the righteousness of God, for he has done good, for the wicked have consumed the labors of their hands.

Those who look upon their dispersion and the desolation of their city may not aptly say, "Woe to them, for they have imagined an evil imagination, saying against their own soul, let us bind the righteous man, because he is not pleasing to us." It is so true, for when they erred concerning the Scriptures, they did not know that "the one who digs a pit for his neighbor falls in it; and a serpent will bite the one who destroys a hedge."

It is the tribes, then, that are meant by the names of the patriarchs. From the tribe of Simeon come the scribes, from that of Levi the chief priests, who brought their wickedness to completion and filled up the entire measure of their fathers' ungodliness in the passion of the Lord. They took counsel against the Lord Jesus, to kill him, even as Isaiah says, "Alas for their souls! Because they have devised an evil counsel against themselves, saying. 'Let us bind the just one, for he is profitless to us.' " They killed the prophets and apostles who announced the coming of the Lord of salvation and preached his glorious passion and resurrection. Thereafter, in their greed and out of their desire for earthly wickedness, they fled from sharing in the divine, from chastity of body and moderation of spirit, contempt for money and profit in grace.

Again, they are to be admonished that if they are not afraid of being wicked; they should at least be ashamed of being seen for what they are. Often a sin that is concealed is avoided, because a mind that is ashamed to be taken for what it does not fear to be in fact is sometimes ashamed to be in fact what it avoids appearing to be. On the other hand, when a person is shamelessly and notoriously wicked, then, the more freely he commits every kind of evil, the more he thinks it lawful, and in imagining it lawful, he is thereby without doubt immersed in it all the more. Therefore, it is written, "They have proclaimed abroad their sin as Sodom, and they have not hid it." For if Sodom had concealed its sin, it would still have sinned, but in fear. But it had completely lost the curb of fear, in that it did not seek even darkness in its sinning. Therefore, it is said again, "The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is multiplied." For sin in words is sin in act, but sin that is cried out is sin committed with deliberation.

112. And lest the punishment be supposed to envelop everyone, to this is added the justice of God in the separation of the good from the wicked; and concerning this, he does two things. First, he places the recompense of the good, saying, say to …

In the midst of the chapter the prophet is directed how to address particular persons. (1.) To assure good people that it should be well with them, notwithstanding those general calamities,

Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him,....

THERE are two classes mentioned here, the righteous and the wicked. And into these two orders the Book of God is accustomed to divide the whole population of the globe. It speaks but little of upper and lower classes. It says but little concerning the various ranks into which civil and political institutions have divided the race of man—but from its first page to its last it is taken up with this grand division—the righteous and the wicked. Very early in human history we find the "Seed of the woman," and the "seed of the serpent."

Not salvation by works, but by fruit-bearing faith (Isa 45:24; GESENIUS and WEISS translate, Declare as to the righteous that, &c. MAURER, "Say that the righteous is blessed."

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

THERE are two classes mentioned here, the righteous and the wicked. And into these two orders the Book of God is accustomed to divide the whole population of the globe. It speaks but little of upper and lower classes. It says but little concerning the various ranks into which civil and political institutions have divided the race of man—but from its first page to its last it is taken up with this grand division—the righteous and the wicked. Very early in human history we find the "Seed of the woman," and the "seed of the serpent." And we meet with Cain, who was of that Wicked One, and slew his brother, because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. While the deluge destroys the ungodly, Noah floats in the ark in security as the representative of the righteous. And when the destroying angel smites the rebellious Egyptians, Israel feasts in safety upon the Passover. The two races have always been in existence and at enmity. Israel was oppressed in Egypt, attacked by Amalekites in the wilderness, beset by foes in Canaan and carried away captive into Assyria or Babylon. In the nation of Israel itself the very heart of the people was depraved by an idolatrous seed and at length eaten out by the hypocrisy of a generation of vipers who were of Israel, but were not the Lord's chosen. In our own age, when the Church of God is found among the Gentiles, we see still the broad mark of distinction between men who fear the Lord and men who fear Him not. The line of nature and the line of Divine Grace run the same as ever—the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent contend with each other still. And it is not the intent of God in His Providence that the line of demarcation should be withdrawn.

Say ye to the righteous - The meaning of this verse and the following is sufficiently plain, though expositors have given some variety of interpretation. They declare a great principle of the divine administration similar to what is stated in Isa 1:19-20. Lowth reads it, ‘Pronounce ye a blessing on the just; verily good (shall be to him).’ That it shall be well ... - The word rendered ‘well,’ means ‘good.’ The sense evidently is, that in the divine administration it shall be well to be righteous. The Septuagint has rendered this in a remarkable manner, connecting it with the previous verse: ‘Wo unto their soul, for they take evil counsel among themselves, saying, ‘Let us bind the righteous, for he is troublesome unto us:’ therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their doings.’ They shall eat ... - That is, they shall receive the appropriate “reward” of their works, and that reward shall be happiness. As a farmer who sows his field and cultivates his farm, eats the fruit of his labor, so shall it be with the righteous. A similar expression is found in Pro 1:31: Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, And be filled with their own devices. Also Jer 6:19: ‘I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thought;’ compare Gal 6:8.