Isaiah 3:2

"The mighty man, and the man of war; the judge and the prophet, and the diviner and the elder; the captain of fifty and the honorable man, the counselor, and the expert artificer, and the skillful enchanter."

All of these popular supports of the nation were to be taken away as a result of the divine judgment, beginning, even then, to descend upon the apostate people, and destined, finally, to result in the complete overthrow and destruction of the Jewish state, defined in the prophets as "the sinful kingdom," resulting also in the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the deportation into captivity of its population. Further steps in the decline and judgment of Israel also appear in this chapter.

The enchanters and diviners mentioned here does not indicate that the prophets believed there was any authenticity in the claims of such persons, a question Isaiah skirted altogether in this passage; but all of the prophets invariably held that the consultation or use of such alleged sources of power was sinful. The message here speaks of the extreme state of Israel's apostasy in that such persons were considered the principal props of the nation. Cheyne pointed out the prophets of Israel asserted that, "The use of such magical powers was an act of rebellion against the God of gods."[5]