Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!
Woe and suffering fall upon a land when its king is a child and its rulers are childish, meaning childlike in character, judgment, ability and rule and unfit to govern. Judah illustrates this, for continued sin and transgression weakened its rulers until they were like children and left the nation vulnerable among other peoples and nations, a weakness caused by wickedness in high places. Isaiah explained this condition as God removing Judah's leaders and giving it childlike princes because the people's words and actions opposed the Lord.
At Worms and throughout the city and through Germany, the verse was set up, posted and displayed on gates and houses and in public places. There it applied to Germany under the youthful young Emperor Charles V, publicly rebuking and condemning him for weak submission to the controlling power of Rome in his handling of Luther's case, after rejecting the light of truth presented by Luther and yielding to worldly pride and policy. It openly supported and sustained Luther by denouncing the royal message against him as childish failure of kingship.
In that setting it warned that doing injustice to Luther, as a messenger of God, to please Rome would endanger the peace of the empire and even the stability of the throne. The popular enthusiasm for Luther behind that public warning convinced both the emperor and the Diet that any injustice shown to him would bring that danger.
Woe and suffering fall upon a land when its king is a child and its rulers are childish, meaning childlike in character, judgment, ability and rule and unfit to govern. Judah illustrates this, for continued sin and transgression weakened its rulers until they were like children and left the nation vulnerable among other peoples and nations, a weakness caused by wickedness in high places. Isaiah explained this condition as God removing Judah's leaders and giving it childlike princes because the people's words and actions opposed the Lord.
At Worms and throughout the city and through Germany, the verse was set up, posted and displayed on gates and houses and in public places. There it applied to Germany under the youthful young Emperor Charles V, publicly rebuking and condemning him for weak submission to the controlling power of Rome in his handling of Luther's case, after rejecting the light of truth presented by Luther and yielding to worldly pride and policy. It openly supported and sustained Luther by denouncing the royal message against him as childish failure of kingship.
In that setting it warned that doing injustice to Luther, as a messenger of God, to please Rome would endanger the peace of the empire and even the stability of the throne. The popular enthusiasm for Luther behind that public warning convinced both the emperor and the Diet that any injustice shown to him would bring that danger.