Isaiah 3:16-26

b. THE WOMEN

TEXT: Isaiah 3:16 to Isaiah 4:1

16

Moreover Jehovah said, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet;

17

therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and Jehovah will lay bare their secret parts.

18

In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets and the cauls, and the crescents;

19

the pendants, and the bracelets, and the mufflers;

20

the headtires, and the ankle chains, and the sashes, and the perfume boxes, and the amulets;

21

the rings, and the nose jewels;

22

the festival robes, and the mantles, and the shawls, and the satchels;

23

the hand-mirrors, and the fine linen, and the turbans, and the veils.

24

And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet spices there shall be rottenness; and instead of a girdle, a rope; and instead of well set hair, baldness; and instead of a robe, a girding of sackcloth; branding instead of beauty.

25

Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war,

26

And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she shall be desolate and sit upon the ground.

Isaiah 4:1

And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name; take thou away our reproach.

QUERIES

a.

What are mincing steps?

b.

Why was God displeased with the finery of the women?

c.

Why would seven women plead with one man to become his wife?

PARAPHRASE

In addition to the foregoing judgments, Jehovah will judge the haughty women of Judah who walk along with their noses in the air, looking suggestively and seductively at men with their eyes; mincing and affecting their steps so that the tinkling bracelets on their ankles will direct attention to them. Because of their unashamed haughtiness, the Lord will strike them with repugnant scabs and wounds to ornament their heads, and those who delight in immodest exposure the Lord will permit to be immodestly exposed at the hands of vile men. No longer shall they call attention to themselves by tinkling as they walk. For the Lord will strip away their facade of beauty when He takes away their anklets, amulets, crescents, pendants, bracelets, veils, headdresses, armbands, sashes, perfume boxes, charms, rings and nose jewels, holiday dresses, overtunics, cloaks, ornate purses and combs, mirrors, lovely lingerie, beautiful dresses and veils. Instead of smelling of perfume, they shall stink; for sashes they shall wear ropes like prisoners and slaves; their well-kept hair will begin to fall out; they will wear sackcloth instead of robes. Their beauty will be marred with the branding iron of their captors. Their husbands shall die in battle; the women alone and helpless, shall mourn. The city herself shall be desolate and alone and have nothing left to do but sit and mourn. At that time so few men will be left alive that seven women, all fearing childlessness, will all fight over one man and say, Let us all become your wives! We will furnish our own food and clothing-only give us a name and children.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 3:16 THE REASON: Wantonness (i.e., undisciplined; unruly; unchaste; lewd; licentious; extravagant; arrogant recklessness) of the women. The daughters of Zion means the women of the covenant nation. The women were haughty and proud and concerned with luxurious adornment of themselves in order to bring attention to themselves. This is immodesty! They copied every fad and fashion of their heathen neighbors. Outstretched necks probably means walking with the nose in the air. Mincing steps means to walk with short little steps so as to affect primness or daintiness. It was all exaggeration in order to draw attention to themselves. Fabulous amounts of money were spent on adornment. Many hours of each day were wasted by these women primping and beautifying themselves. When women are wholly vain and self-centered, the cancer of moral decay has begun to consume a nation or a people. Proper adornment and true beauty in women should never call attention to themselves but should direct the beholder's attention to God and His Son. When women cultivate beauty only for itself, they are infringing upon and detracting from the glory of God. Such vainglory might be expected in women of the world, but the daughters of Zion (which today is the church) must exemplify the beauty of holiness!

Is Isaiah, or the Bible, against all feminine or masculine adornment? Hardly! It is the misuse of adornment against which the Bible speaks. In fact, God has made certain parts of the human body to be alluring and attractive. The Song of Solomon gives a great deal of detail about both natural beauty of the human body and the adornment of it. But the Song does not indicate such beauty and adornment should be used for prideful purposes, rather for God-ordained purposes of love.
When one pauses to consider the disparity between the billions of dollars spent each year by American females (and males) on vain and selfish cosmetics and clothing and the few dollars given each year to the work of the Gospel which transforms men and women into the beauty of holiness, one wonders what God must think!

Isaiah 3:17-24 THE JUDGMENT: They will reap what they sow. Those who delight in immodest exposure will be rewarded with immodest exposure at the hands of vile men. Why are those women who delight in overtly attracting men by their immodesty always so shocked and offended when immodest and vulgar men demonstrate their attractions?! Laying bare their secret parts probably means they will be raped by pagan soldiers. Their indulgences will inevitably result in physical afflictions and loss of real beauty. There will be a loss of their luxury when their pagan neighbors, attracted by their exaggerated showiness, will plunder their jewels and finery.

a.

anklets: ornamental chains with bangles attached which made a tinkling sound when they minced along.

b.

cauls: front-bands, head-bands, amulets

c.

crescents: some sort of metallic jewelry in the shape of moons

d.

pendants: like small pearl earring, or tear-drop shaped earrings.

e.

bracelets: decorated bands to fit about the arms (or necks)

f.

mufflers: or veils, to muffle the face

g.

headtires: diadems, or circlets of gold or silver

h.

ankle chains: may have been chains designed to force short steps

i.

sashes: wide, gaudy, expensive bands of cloth around the waist

j.

perfume boxes: probably like the alabaster boxes of Luke 7:37 etc.

k.

amulets: charms, probably inscribed with incantations,

l.

rings: finger rings with jewels, etc.

m.

nose jewels: nose rings, (Cf. Esther 3:12; Genesis 41:42; Genesis 24:22; Genesis 24:47).

n.

festival robes: festal robes, state gowns, holiday dresses

o.

mantles: overtunics

p.

shawls: cloaks

q.

satchels: purses

r.

hand-mirrors: small metallic mirrors, highly polished metal

s.

fine linen: lingerie, undergarments of expensive cloth

t.

turbans: head wrappings, head garments

u.

veils: same as mufflers

Isaiah predicts that all this finery will be replaced with ugliness because of their selfish, haughty, unbelieving perversion of it all. Instead of rich sashes, they will wear the ropes of captivity and slavery around their waists; instead of intricately coiffed hair-dos, their hair will either fall out or be cut off by their enemies; instead of rich garments, they will be wearing the sackcloth of mourning; instead of beauty marks, they will wear the ugly scars of the branding-irons, (it was a practice of pagan armies in that day to brand or disfigure slavesespecially by castrating men and using branding-irons on womento forever mark them as slaves).

v. Isaiah 3:25 to Isaiah 4:1 FINAL DEGRADATION: With the moral decay Of womanhood comes the weakening of all the fibres of the nationincluding its men. When its male leaders become morally weak the nation becomes filled with rebellion, anarchy and conflict. War is a consequence. The male population will be destroyed in war (Cf. Lamentations 2:21). A great disproportion between the sexes will appear. Instead of the God-intended ratio of one woman for one man, there will be seven or more women for every male.

The great curse of the Hebrew female was to be unmarried and childless. (Cf. Sarah and Abraham, Hannah, etc.). It was the fear of a lack of seed that had led the daughters of Lot to act in the shameful manner described in Genesis 19:32 ff. Women to whom Isaiah preached would some day no longer live as normal womenthey would have no offspring since their husbands would be slain in the wars. For this reason they would abandon their natural modesty and take the initiative in a bold and shameful way, openly asking a man to marry them. Thus the order instituted in Eden is reversed. No longer is man the head of the wife. He does not seek her, but she him.

And so, womanhood, always the last stronghold of a people's morality, strength of character, and hope for the future, crumbles and falls into decadent disarray. With it goes the whole nation. God-fearing women have always been the handmaidens of the Lord (Moses-' mother; Samuel's mother; women judges; Ruth; Esther; John the Baptist's mother; Jesus-' mother, etc.). Godfearing women have wrought salvation of whole nations through their faith. But when women go bad, their degradation can cause such an upheavel in society that the very foundations of that society are destroyed.

QUIZ

1.

Why did the prophet condemn the women for adorning themselves?

2.

What is mincing?

3.

What is the meaning of laying bare their secret parts? -4. Is adornment categorically condemned by all the Bible?

5.

Why mention branding?

6.

Why were seven women concerned to marry one man?

7.

How important is God-fearing womanhood to any nation?