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The word "women" may not have been in the original Hebrew text. The Septuagint diverges greatly from the Masoretic Text, which was compiled several hundred years after the Septuagint:

O my people, your exactors strip you, and extortioners [ἀπαιτοῦντες] rule over you: O my people, they that pronounce you blessed lead you astray, and pervert the path of your feet.

What appears in the Masoretic text is אִשָּׁה (ishah), but the original Hebrew text was not vocalized and would have been something like אשה. A different vocalization of אשה produces אָשָׁה (ashah), meaning "userer" or "oppressor", which would have been closer to the Septuagint.

Also, the Jewish Publication Society in the Jewish Study Bible observed that a different emendation would make the text more consistent with v.4-5:

And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them. And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable.


All that having been said, there have been several Jewish and Christian commentaries based on the text children are their oppressors, and women rule over them, but they all seem to point to women ruling as a discredit of men (your first interpretation), rather than as a credit toward strong women (your third interpretation):

From the Talmud:

What is the meaning of the verse, As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them? Children are their oppressors, and women rule over them, because their men have abdicated their leadership role. As it is stated, The mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, and the diviner and the elder...they have all gone (Isaiah 3:2) - Sotah 11b

What is the meaning of the verse, As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them? Children are their oppressors, and women rule over them, because they have transgressed the Torah. As it is stated, For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory (Isaiah 3:8) - Sotah 12a.

Among the Christian commentaries the interpretations are similar. Jerome, for example, wrote "The meaning is not that women were the leaders, but that in the absence of men, who ought to have been leaders, women were forced to rule" (Commentary on Isaiah).

The word "women" may not have been in the original Hebrew text. The Septuagint diverges greatly from the Masoretic Text, which was compiled several hundred years after the Septuagint:

O my people, your exactors strip you, and extortioners [ἀπαιτοῦντες] rule over you: O my people, they that pronounce you blessed lead you astray, and pervert the path of your feet.

What appears in the Masoretic text is אִשָּׁה (ishah), but the original Hebrew text was not vocalized and would have been something like אשה. A different vocalization of אשה produces אָשָׁה (ashah), meaning "userer" or "oppressor", which would have been closer to the Septuagint.

Also, the Jewish Publication Society in the Jewish Study Bible observed that a different emendation would make the text more consistent with v.4-5:

And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them. And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable.

The word "women" may not have been in the original Hebrew text. The Septuagint diverges greatly from the Masoretic Text, which was compiled several hundred years after the Septuagint:

O my people, your exactors strip you, and extortioners [ἀπαιτοῦντες] rule over you: O my people, they that pronounce you blessed lead you astray, and pervert the path of your feet.

What appears in the Masoretic text is אִשָּׁה (ishah), but the original Hebrew text was not vocalized and would have been something like אשה. A different vocalization of אשה produces אָשָׁה (ashah), meaning "userer" or "oppressor", which would have been closer to the Septuagint.

Also, the Jewish Publication Society in the Jewish Study Bible observed that a different emendation would make the text more consistent with v.4-5:

And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them. And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable.


All that having been said, there have been several Jewish and Christian commentaries based on the text children are their oppressors, and women rule over them, but they all seem to point to women ruling as a discredit of men (your first interpretation), rather than as a credit toward strong women (your third interpretation):

From the Talmud:

What is the meaning of the verse, As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them? Children are their oppressors, and women rule over them, because their men have abdicated their leadership role. As it is stated, The mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, and the diviner and the elder...they have all gone (Isaiah 3:2) - Sotah 11b

What is the meaning of the verse, As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them? Children are their oppressors, and women rule over them, because they have transgressed the Torah. As it is stated, For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory (Isaiah 3:8) - Sotah 12a.

Among the Christian commentaries the interpretations are similar. Jerome, for example, wrote "The meaning is not that women were the leaders, but that in the absence of men, who ought to have been leaders, women were forced to rule" (Commentary on Isaiah).

Source Link
user33515
  • 13.1k
  • 1
  • 21
  • 83

The word "women" may not have been in the original Hebrew text. The Septuagint diverges greatly from the Masoretic Text, which was compiled several hundred years after the Septuagint:

O my people, your exactors strip you, and extortioners [ἀπαιτοῦντες] rule over you: O my people, they that pronounce you blessed lead you astray, and pervert the path of your feet.

What appears in the Masoretic text is אִשָּׁה (ishah), but the original Hebrew text was not vocalized and would have been something like אשה. A different vocalization of אשה produces אָשָׁה (ashah), meaning "userer" or "oppressor", which would have been closer to the Septuagint.

Also, the Jewish Publication Society in the Jewish Study Bible observed that a different emendation would make the text more consistent with v.4-5:

And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them. And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable.