John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 3:13

"Jehovah standeth up to contend, and standeth to judge the peoples." — Isaiah 3:13 (ASV)

Jehovah stands up to plead. As long as wickedness rages without control, and the Lord sends no relief from on high, we think that He is idle and has forgotten His duty. Especially when the nobles themselves are spared, He appears to grant them liberty to commit sin, as if they were most sacred persons who must not be touched.

Accordingly, after complaining about the princes, he adds that the Lord will do what His authority demands and will not permit such flagrant crimes to pass unpunished. For there is hardly any conduct more offensive, or more suited to disturb our minds, than when the worst examples of every sort are publicly exhibited by magistrates, while no one utters a syllable against them, but almost all give their approval.

We then ask, Where is God, whose glory, a great part of which, consisting in authority, is taken away, ought to have been illustriously displayed by men of that rank? Isaiah meets this difficulty by saying, "Though the nation is wicked, yet because the princes themselves are very greatly corrupted and even pollute the whole nation by their vices, God sits as judge in heaven and will eventually call them to account and assign to every one his reward." Although he does not exempt the multitude from guilt, yet, so that the sources of the evils may be known, he particularly attacks the rulers and threatens them with the punishment they deserved.