John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 3:15

"what mean ye that ye crush my people, and grind the face of the poor? saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts." — Isaiah 3:15 (ASV)

What do you mean that you beat my people to pieces? The Prophet also mentions other particulars, from which it is evident that they ruled in a haughty, cruel, and oppressive manner. It was not necessary that he should describe minutely everything deserving reproof in the princes, for from these few circumstances it is evident with what injustice, cruelty, and tyranny they ruled.

But to whom shall the poor turn except to the magistrate, who ought to be the father of his country and the protector of the wretched? For this reason, the Prophet employs a vehement interrogation, What? as if he had said, “What effrontery is this! What cruelty and barbarity, to abuse the lowly condition of the poor, so as to have no compassion on them!” By two comparisons, he then describes their cruel oppression mingled with pride.

Says the Lord Jehovah of hosts. So that the reproof may have all the weight it ought to have, he brings forward God as speaking; for there is an implied contrast: these things should not be viewed as coming from the mouths of men, but the accusation proceeds from God Himself, and He pursues those who are guilty of such injustice, and will eventually take vengeance on them.

Because those who have been exalted to any kind of honor conduct themselves so haughtily as to disdain every direction and advice, the Prophet therefore meets their pride by bringing forward the majesty of God, so that they may not dare to despise His earnest and severe threats.

Yet let us remember that this passage ought not to be understood as if the Prophet were speaking only about the mercy of God. For after having threatened vengeance indiscriminately on all, he particularly mentions their leaders to show that no man can escape the arm of God. Here he employs what is called “the argument from the greater to the less.”

How would the Lord spare the lowest of the people, when He punishes even the princes themselves because they have destroyed the vineyard?