The elder and honored man is the head: This verse explains some of the figures used in the previous verse. The elder and honored man as the head, include all the respected community leaders, the leaders of the people. An elder is usually an older person, though not always very old (see the comments at 3.2). It is a term of respect. Honored man is literally “one whose face is lifted up,” that is, one who is respected. New American Bible has “noble,” while New Jerusalem Bible says “man of rank.” Both elder and honored man are probably masculine rather than generic terms. Even though these terms are singular in Hebrew, they may be rendered as plurals (so Good News Translation) since they refer to all the secular leaders.
And the prophet who teaches lies is the tail: Here the religious leaders as the tail are in view. The next verse accuses the leaders of misleading the people. This is the sense of the phrase the prophet who teaches lies. The lies refer to false teaching about Yahweh or about the situation in the community.
New Jerusalem Bible and Revised English Bible place this verse between parentheses (similarly New American Bible with square brackets), suggesting that it is a note or an explanatory comment added at a later date. It is not necessary to do this.
Translation examples for this verse are:
• The head stands for the elders and honored men;
the tail stands for the lying prophets.
• The elder and honored person is the head,
and the prophet who teaches falsely is the tail.
Contemporary English Version provides a helpful model for verses 14-15: “14 In one day he cut off their head and tail, their leaves and branches. 15 Their rulers and leaders were the head, and the lying prophets were the tail.” If necessary, these verses may be combined as follows:
• So in one day Yahweh [will] cut off from Israel the elder and honored man who is the head, as well as the lying prophet who is the tail. He [will] cut off palm branch and reed.
Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .