And the mean man boweth down Some commentators read these words in immediate connection with what goes before, as if the Prophet were proceeding still farther to show the extent of their criminality. If we adopt this meaning, then by the mean man and the mighty man we must understand all the Israelites; as if the Prophet said that no man is pure and free from this stain. Others not improperly are of opinion that he repeats in other words what he had said about punishment, and that in this way he expresses the destruction which awaits a people forsaken by God. This will agree best with the scope of the passage, that all, both small and great, will speedily be overtaken by the ruin which lays low a whole nation; because amidst so great wickedness there was no reason to expect deliverance from the vengeance of God. Besides, in those two expressions, bow down and humble, there is a rapid allusion to that bowing down which he mentioned a little before, as if he had said, "They have bowed themselves down before idols, therefore God will lay them low under a vast weight of calamities." Yet I have no doubt that he likewise attacks their pride; for it was difficult to believe that a nation so abundantly supplied with wealth would, in a short period, be overwhelmed by calamities. Therefore forgive them not; or, thou wilt not forgive them. This latter clause is explained in two ways, though it does not much affect the real meaning which of the views you adopt; for the design of the Prophet is to show that towards such obstinate men God will not be appeased. If it be taken in the future tense, thou wilt not forgive them, the meaning will be more easily brought out; but if it be taken as a prayer, forgive them not, it will amount to the same thing; for we know that, when the prophets, inflamed by zeal for God, pour out prayers as under the dictation of the Spirit, they threaten just punishment against the ungodly: and we need not wonder that the Prophets offended by crimes so numerous and so shocking, kindles into such warmth that he consigns his countrymen to destruction; for nothing was more dear to him than the sacred honor of God. But at the same time it must be understood that he makes a tacit reservation of a remnant; because he does not here speak of every individual, but of the body of the people, which was so deeply infected by its vices that there was no hope of cure; otherwise it would have been unreasonable to give exhortations to repentance, and to hold out the hope of pardon to men who were incurable and thoroughly obstinate. The meaning therefore amounts to this, that the restoration of a new Church must not be expected till God has executed his judgments by destroying the temple.

And the mean man - That is, the man in humble life, the poor, the low in rank - for this is all that the Hebrew word here - אדם 'âdâm - implies. The distinction between the two words here used - אדם 'âdâm as denoting a man of humble rank, and אישׁ 'ı̂ysh as denoting one of elevated rank - is one that constantly occurs in the Scriptures. Our word "mean" conveys an idea of moral baseness and degradation, which is not implied in the Hebrew.
Boweth down - That is, before idols. Some commentators, however, have understood this of bowing down in "affliction," but the other is probably the true interpretation.
And the great man - The men in elevated rank in life. The expressions together mean the same as "all ranks of people." It was a common or universal thing. No rank was exempt from the prevailing idolatry.
Therefore forgive them not - The Hebrew is "future" - להם ואל־תשׂא ve'al-tis'â' lâhem. Thou wilt not "bear" for them; that is, thou wilt not bear away their sins (by an atonement), or 'thou wilt not forgive them;' - but agreeable to a common Hebrew construction, it has the force of the imperative. It involves a "threatening" of the prophet, in the form of an address to God 'So great is their sin, that thou, Lord, wilt not pardon them.' The prophet then proceeds, in the following verses, to denounce the certainty and severity of the judgment that was coming upon them.

Boweth down "Shall be bowed down" - This has reference to the preceding verse. They bowed themselves down to their idols, therefore shall they be bowed down and brought low under the avenging hand of God.
Therefore forgive them not - "And thou wilt not forgive them." - L.

And the mean man boweth down, and the great man (q) humbleth himself: therefore (r) forgive them not.
(q) He notes the nature of the idolaters who are never satisfied in their superstitions.
(r) Thus the prophet spoke being inflamed with the zeal of God's glory, and that he might fear them with God's judgment.

And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself,.... Both high and low, rich and poor, bow down unto, humble themselves before, and worship idols made by the hands of men: the words for the "mean man" and "the great man" are and "Adam" and "Ish"; and which are also interpreted by Jarchi of little or mean men, and of princes and mighty ones:
therefore forgive them not; their sins of soothsaying, covetousness, and idolatry; and such that worship the beast and his image shall not be forgiven, but drink of the wine of divine wrath, and be tormented with fire for ever and ever, Revelation 14:9. These are either the words of the prophet to the Lord representing the church, and imprecating evils on antichristian worshippers; or of the angel to the Christian powers, exhorting them not to spare Babylon, Revelation 18:6 some refer these words to the mean and great men bowing down and humbling themselves, and read them in connection with them thus, "and lifts not up unto them"; that is, the head or soul; so Aben Ezra, who also observes, that the word "earth" may be wanting, and supplied thus, "and the earth shall not bear them"; they shall be destroyed from off it, both the idols and the worshippers of them. See Psalm 10:16.

mean--in rank: not morally base: opposed to "the great man." The former is in Hebrew, Adam, the latter, ish.
boweth--namely, to idols. All ranks were idolaters.
forgive . . . not--a threat expressed by an imperative. Isaiah so identifies himself with God's will, that he prays for that which he knows God purposes. So Revelation 18:6.

It was a state ripe for judgment, from which, therefore, the prophet could at once proceed, without any further preparation, to the proclamation of judgment itself."Thus, then, men are bowed down, and lords are brought low; and forgive them - no, that Thou wilt not." The consecutive futures depict the judgment, as one which would follow by inward necessity from the worldly and ungodly glory of the existing state of things. The future is frequently used in this way (for example, in Isaiah 9:7.). It was a judgment by which small and great, i.e., the people in all its classes, were brought down from their false eminence. "Men" and "lords" (âdâm and ish, as in Isaiah 5:15; Psalm 49:3, and Proverbs 8:4, and like άνθρωπος and ανήρ in the Attic dialect), i.e., men who were lost in the crowd, and men who rose above it - all of them the judgment would throw down to the ground, and that without mercy (Revelation 6:15). The prophet expresses the conviction (al as in 2-Kings 6:27), that on this occasion God neither could nor would take away the sin by forgiving it. There was nothing left for them, therefore, but to carry out the command of the prophet in Isaiah 2:10 : "Creep into the rock, and bury thyself in the dust, before the terrible look of Jehovah, and before the glory of His majesty." The glorious nation would hide itself most ignominiously, when the only true glory of Jehovah, which had been rejected by it, was manifested in judgment. They would conceal themselves in holes of the rocks, as if before a hostile army (Judges 6:2; 1-Samuel 13:6; 1-Samuel 14:11), and bury themselves with their faces in the sand, as if before the fatal simōm of the desert, that they might not have to bear this intolerable sight. And when Jehovah manifested Himself in this way in the fiery glance of judgment, the result summed up in Isaiah 2:11 must follow: "The people's eyes of haughtiness are humbled, and the pride of their lords is bowed down; and Jehovah, He only, stands exalted in that day." The result of the process of judgment is expressed in perfects: nisgab is the third pers. praet., not the participle: Jehovah "is exalted," i.e., shows Himself as exalted, whilst the haughty conduct of the people is brought down (shâphel is a verb, not an adjective; it is construed in the singular by attraction, and either refers to âdâm, man or people: Ges. 148, 1; or what is more probable, to the logical unity of the compound notion which is taken as subject, the constr. ad synesin s. sensum: Thiersch, 118), and the pride of the lords is bowed down (shach = shâchach, Job 9:13). The first strophe of the proclamation of judgment appended to the prophetic saying in Isaiah 2:2-4 is here brought to a close. The second strophe reaches to Isaiah 2:17, where Isaiah 2:11 is repeated as a concluding verse.

The great man - Men of all ranks fall down and worship idols.