Isaiah 3:8 Study Bible: For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.

◄ Isaiah 3:8 ►

For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen because they spoke and acted against the LORD, defying His glorious presence.

Study Bible

For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen
This phrase indicates a significant moral and spiritual decline in the southern kingdom of Judah, with Jerusalem as its capital. Historically, this period was marked by social injustice, idolatry, and a departure from the covenantal laws given to Israel. The use of "stumbled" and "fallen" suggests not just a temporary misstep but a profound collapse in their relationship with God. This imagery is consistent with other prophetic literature, such as Lamentations 1:8, where Jerusalem's sin leads to its downfall. The fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC to the Babylonians is a historical fulfillment of this prophetic warning.

because they spoke and acted against the LORD
The people's rebellion is both verbal and behavioral, indicating a comprehensive rejection of God's authority. Speaking against the LORD could involve blasphemy, false prophecy, or the promotion of idolatry, as seen in Jeremiah 23:16-17. Acting against the LORD includes the violation of His commandments, such as those outlined in the Mosaic Law. This rebellion is reminiscent of the Israelites' behavior in the wilderness, as described in Numbers 14:1-4, where their complaints and actions demonstrated a lack of faith and trust in God.

defying His glorious presence
The phrase "His glorious presence" refers to the Shekinah glory, the manifest presence of God that dwelt in the Temple in Jerusalem. Defying this presence implies a direct affront to God's holiness and sovereignty. This defiance can be seen in the neglect of temple worship and the embrace of pagan practices, as condemned by prophets like Ezekiel (Ezekiel 8:6-18). Theologically, this defiance is a rejection of God's kingship, paralleling the rejection of Jesus Christ, who is described as the fullness of God's glory in John 1:14. The ultimate consequence of such defiance is separation from God, as seen in the exile of Judah.

Persons / Places / Events

1. Jerusalem
The capital city of Judah, representing the spiritual and political center of the Jewish people. In this context, it symbolizes the collective sin and rebellion of the nation.

2. Judah
The southern kingdom of Israel, which includes Jerusalem. It is often used to represent the people of God who have turned away from Him.

3. The LORD
The covenant God of Israel, Yahweh, who is holy and just. The people's actions are directly against Him.

4. Isaiah
The prophet who delivers God's message of judgment and hope to the people of Judah and Jerusalem.

5. Defiance against God's presence
This refers to the people's rebellion and disrespect towards God's holiness and authority.

Teaching Points

The Consequences of Rebellion
Just as Judah and Jerusalem faced consequences for their rebellion, we too must recognize that turning away from God leads to spiritual and sometimes physical downfall.

The Importance of Aligning Words and Actions with God’s Will
The people spoke and acted against the LORD. We must ensure our words and actions reflect our faith and obedience to God.

God’s Presence is Glorious and Demands Reverence
Defying God's glorious presence is a serious offense. We should cultivate a deep respect and reverence for God in our daily lives.

The Role of Prophets and Scripture in Guiding Us Back to God
Isaiah's role as a prophet was to call the people back to God. We should heed the warnings and teachings of Scripture to guide our lives.

Bible Study Questions

1. What specific actions and attitudes led to the downfall of Jerusalem and Judah, and how can we avoid similar pitfalls in our own lives?

2. How does the concept of defying God's glorious presence challenge us to evaluate our own relationship with God?

3. In what ways can we ensure that our words and actions align with God's will, and what practical steps can we take to achieve this?

4. How do the consequences faced by Judah and Jerusalem in Isaiah 3:8 relate to the blessings and curses outlined in Deuteronomy 28?

5. How can we apply the lessons from Isaiah 3:8 to strengthen our community's spiritual health and commitment to God?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Deuteronomy 28
This chapter outlines the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, providing a backdrop for understanding the consequences faced by Judah and Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 2:19
This verse speaks of the consequences of forsaking the LORD, similar to the themes in Isaiah 3:8.

Romans 1:21-23
Paul describes humanity's tendency to turn away from God, paralleling the rebellion seen in Judah and Jerusalem.

Sermons

Jerusalem is Ruined! -- Forfeited Privilege	J. Parker, D. D.	Isaiah 3:8
Ruinous Effect of Sin	C. Stanford.	Isaiah 3:8
The Eyes of His Glory	F. Delitzsch.	Isaiah 3:8
The Fall of the Campanile At St. Mark's, Venice	R. F. Horton, D. D.	Isaiah 3:8
The Secret of National Ruin	W. Clarkson	Isaiah 3:8
National and Spiritual Anarchy	W. Clarkson	Isaiah 3:1-8
A Foolish Ruler: Justinian Ii (Of Constantinople		Isaiah 3:4-8
Juvenile Government a Curse	F. Delitzsch.	Isaiah 3:4-8
Puerile Government	J. A. Alexander.	Isaiah 3:4-8
The Reasons of Judgment	E. Johnson	Isaiah 3:8-15

People

Isaiah

Places

Jerusalem, Sodom, Zion

Topics

Actions, Acts, Deeds, Defying, Destruction, Doings, Fallen, Falleth, Falling, Feeble, Glorious, Glory, Jerusalem, Judah, Moving, Presence, Provoke, Rebel, Ruined, Speech, Staggers, Stumbled, Stumbleth, Tongue, Wrath

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Isaiah 3:8

5829 defiance
7241 Jerusalem, significance

Isaiah 3:8-9

9250 woe

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

Links

Isaiah 3:8 NIV
Isaiah 3:8 NLT
Isaiah 3:8 ESV
Isaiah 3:8 NASB
Isaiah 3:8 KJV

Isaiah 3:8 Commentaries

Bible Hub