Moreover Yahweh said, “Because the daughters of Zion are arrogant, and walk with outstretched necks and flirting eyes, walking to trip as they go, jingling ornaments on their feet;
therefore the Lord brings sores on the crown of the head of the women of Zion, and Yahweh will make their scalps bald.”
In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, the headbands, the crescent necklaces, the earrings, the bracelets, the veils, the headdresses, the ankle chains, the sashes, the perfume containers, the charms, the signet rings, the nose rings, the fine robes, the capes, the cloaks, the purses,
the hand mirrors, the fine linen garments, the tiaras, and the shawls.
It shall happen that instead of sweet spices, there shall be rottenness; instead of a belt, a rope; instead of well set hair, baldness; instead of a robe, a wearing of sackcloth; and branding instead of beauty.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv16, 23 They delighted then in slippers that did creak, or…
They delighted then in slippers that did creak, or had little plates sewed upon them, which tinkled as they went.
He meaneth the people because of the arrogancy and pride of their women, which gave themselves to all wantonness and dissolution.
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Which declared their pride.
As a sign, that they were not chaste.
Which showed their wantonness.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv16–24 Isa 3:16 Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters…
Isa 3:16 Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing [as] they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:
Ver. 16. Moreover the Lord saith.] He hath this other saying to the other sex, for the maintaining of whose pride and luxury their husbands and paramours exercised such cruelty, as before, in the reign of Henry II, King of France, A.D. 1554. Many were burned there for religion, as they said, but indeed to satiate the covetousness, and support the pomp of Diana Valentina, the king’s mistress, to whom he had given all the confiscation of goods made in the kingdom for cause of heresy. {a}
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Because the daughters of Zion.] The court ladies.
Are haughty.] Elatae, h. e., superbia inflatae, puffed up with pride, first in heart, and then in habit; for pride will bud. {Eze 7:10}
And walk.] Women should keep the house, saith Paul. {Tit 2:5} Sarah was in the tent, {Gen 17:9} and these professed to be her daughters, but were nothing like her, Modestia enim a superbia triumphata est.
With stretched forth necks.] Like cranes or swans, that they might show their fair foreheads, whereas nature hath given the submiss and modest visages.
And wanton eyes.] Heb., Lying or deceiving, viz., by their lewd, lascivious looks, twinkling and making signs. Some render it facie cerussata, with their painted faces, and counterfeit visages, whereby, to the reproach of their Maker, they would seem fairer than they are.
Walking and mincing as they go.] Or, Tripping or tabering, with an affected gait, after the manner of dancers. Or ruffling in their silks and taffetas, with which last word the original seems to have affinity. Others derive it from taph, a little child, and render it instar parvulorum ambulant, they take short steps, as little ones do, so nice they are in their gait and garb; elaborata quadam concinnitate gressum modulantes. {b}
Making a tinkling with their feet.] Going as if they were shackled, or as young colts that are to be broken and brought to a pace. Some think they wore bells about their legs, or spangles on their pantofles. Pope Sixtus Quartus was wont to give his harlot, Tyresia, pantofles covered with pearls.
{a} Hist. of Council of Trent, p. 387.
{b} Minutim et numerose passus conserunt. - Jac. Revius.
{c} A slipper; formerly applied very variously, app., at one time or another, to every sort of indoor slippers or loose shoes; esp. to the high-heeled cork-soled chopins; also to outdoor overshoes or goloshes; and to all manner of Oriental and non-European slippers, sandals, and the like.
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Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 The daughters of Zion; the women; as hitherto he…
The daughters of Zion; the women; as hitherto he reproved the men.
Walk with stretched forth necks; affecting stateliness, Psa 75:5, and to seem tall.
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Wanton eyes; or, as others, twinkling with their eyes in a lascivious manner.
Walking and mincing as they go, after the manner of loose and wanton persons. Making a tinkling with their feet, by some ornaments which they wore upon their shoes.
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Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v16 The prophet's business was to show all sorts of…
The prophet's business was to show all sorts of people what they had contributed to the national guilt and what share they must expect in the national judgments that were coming. Here he reproves and warns the daughters of Zion, tells the ladies of their faults; and Moses, in the law, having denounced God's wrath against the tender and delicate woman (the prophets being a comment upon the law, Deu 28:56), he here tells them how they shall smart by the calamities that are coming upon them. Observe,
I. The sin charged upon the daughters of Zion, Isa 3:16. The prophet expressly vouches God's authority for what he said. lest it should be thought it was unbecoming in him to take notice of such things, and should be resented by the ladies: The Lord saith it. "Whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, let them know that God takes notice of, and is much displeased with, the folly and vanity of proud women, and his law takes cognizance even of their dress." Two things that here stand indicted for - haughtiness and wantonness, directly contrary to that modesty, shamefacedness, and sobriety, with which women ought to adorn themselves, Ti1 2:9. They discovered the disposition of their mind by their gait and gesture, and the lightness of their carriage. They are haughty, for they walk with stretched-forth necks, that they may seem tall, or, as thinking nobody good enough to speak to them or to receive a look or a smile from them. Their eyes are wanton, deceiving (so the word is); with their amorous glances they draw men into their snares. They affect a formal starched way of going, that people may look at them, and admire them, and know they have been at the dancing-school, and have learned the minuet-step. They go mincing, or nicely tripping, not willing to set so much as the sole of their foot to the ground, for tenderness and delicacy. They make a tinkling with their feet, having, as some think, chains, or little bells, upon their shoes, that made a noise: they go as if they were fettered (so some read it), like a horse tramelled, that he may learn to pace. Thus Agag came delicately, Sa1 15:32. Such a nice affected mien is not only a force upon that which is natural, and ridiculous before men, men of sense; but as it is an evidence of a vain mind, it is offensive to God. And two things aggravated it here: 1. That these were the daughters of Zion, the holy mountain, who should have behaved with the gravity that becomes women professing godliness. 2. That it should seem, by the connexion, they were the wives and daughters of the princes who spoiled and oppressed the poor (Isa 3:14, Isa 3:15) that they might maintain the pride and luxury of their families.
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II. The punishments threatened for this sin; and they answer the sin as face answers to face in a glass, Isa 3:17, Isa 3:18. 1. They walked with stretched-forth necks, but God will smite with a scab the crown of their head, which shall lower their crests, and make them ashamed to show their heads, being obliged by it to cut off their hair. Note, Loathsome diseases are often sent as the just punishment of pride, and are sometimes the immediate effect of lewdness, the flesh and the body being consumed by it. 2. They cared not what they laid out in furnishing themselves with great variety of fine clothes; but God will reduce them to such poverty and distress that they shall not have clothes sufficient to cover their nakedness, but their uncomeliness shall be exposed through their rags. 3. They were extremely fond and proud of their ornaments; but God will strip them of those ornaments, when their houses shall be plundered, their treasures rifled, and they themselves led into captivity. The prophet here specifies many of the ornaments which they used as particularly as if he had been the keeper of their wardrobe or had attended them in their dressing-room. It is not at all material to enquire what sort of ornaments these respectively were and whether the translations rightly express the original words; perhaps 100 years hence the names of some of the ornaments that are now in use in our own land will be as little understood as some of those here mentioned now are. Fashions alter, and so do the names of them; and yet the mention of them is not in vain, but is designed to expose the folly of the daughters of Zion; for, (1.) Many of these things, we may suppose, were very odd and ridiculous, and, if they had not been in fashion, would have been hooted at. They were fitter to be toys for children to play with than ornaments for grown people to go to Mount Zion in. (2.) Those things that were decent and convenient, as the linen, the hoods, and the veils, needed not be provided in such abundance and variety. It is necessary to have apparel and proper that all should have it according to their rank; but what occasion was there for so many changeable suits of apparel (Isa 3:22), that they might not be seen two days together in the same suit? "They must have (as the homily against excess of apparel speaks) one gown for the day, another for the night - one long, another short - one for the working day, another for the holy-day - one of this colour, another of that colour - one of cloth, another of silk or damask - one dress afore dinner, another after - one of the Spanish fashion, another Turkey - and never content with sufficient." All this, as it is an evidence of pride and vain curiosity, so must needs spend a great deal in gratifying a base lust that ought to be laid out in works of piety and charity; and it is well if poor tenants be not racked, or poor creditors defrauded to support it. (3.) The enumeration of these things intimates what care they were in about them, how much their hearts were upon them, what an exact account they kept of them, how nice and critical they were about them, how insatiable their desire was of them, and how much of their comfort was bound up in them. A maid could forget none of these ornaments, though they were ever so many (Jer 2:32), but they would report them as readily, and talk of them with as much pleasure, as if they had been things of the greatest moment. The prophet did not speak of these things as in themselves sinful (they might lawfully be had and used), but as things which they were proud of and should therefore be deprived of.
III. They were very nice and curious about their clothes; but God would make those bodies of theirs, which were at such expense to beautify and make easy, a reproach and burden to them (Isa 3:24): Instead of sweet smell (those tablets, or boxes, of perfume, houses of the soul or breath, as they are called, Isa 3:20, margin) there shall be stink, garments grown filthy with being long worn, or from some loathsome disease or plasters for the cure of it. Instead of a rich embroidered girdle used to make the clothes sit tight, there shall be a rent, a rending of the clothes for grief, or old rotten clothes rent into rags. Instead of well-set hair, curiously plaited and powdered, there shall be baldness, the hair being plucked off or shaven, as was usual in times of great affliction (Isa 15:2; Jer 16:6), or in great servitude, Eze 29:18. Instead of a stomacher, or a scarf or sash, there shall be a girding of sackcloth, in token of deep humiliation; and burning instead of beauty. Those that had a good complexion, and were proud of it, when they are carried into captivity shall be tanned and sun-burnt; and it is observed that the best faces are soonest injured by the weather. From all this let us learn, 1. Not to be nice and curious about our apparel, not to affect that which is gay and costly, nor to be proud of it. 2. Not to be secure in the enjoyment of any of the delights of sense, because we know not how soon we may be stripped of them, nor what straits we may be reduced to.
IV. They designed by these ornaments to charm the gentlemen, and win their affections (Pro 7:16, Pro 7:17), but there shall be none to be charmed by them (Isa 3:25): Thy men shall fall by the sword, and the mighty in the war, The fire shall consume them, and then the maidens shall not be given in marriage; as it is, Psa 78:63. When the sword comes with commission the mighty commonly fall first by it, because they are most forward to venture. And, when Zion's guards are cut off, no marvel that Zion's gates lament and mourn (Isa 3:26), the enemies having made themselves masters of them; and the city itself, being desolate, being emptied or swept, shall sit upon the ground like a disconsolate widow. If sin be harboured within the walls, lamentation and mourning are near the gates.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv16–24 Moreover the Lord saith, because the daughters of Zion…
Moreover the Lord saith, because the daughters of Zion are haughty,.... The wives or daughters of the rulers, princes, or elders; these were "high", affected to look high and tall, and therefore stretched out their necks, and walked on tiptoes; or "were lifted up" with pride, which is the root and source of all the vanity expressed in their gesture and ornaments.
And walk with stretched forth necks or "throats"; looking high, and above others, and upon them with contempt and disdain; this is a sign of pride; see Psa 75:5,
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and wanton eyes; either winking with their eyes to others to follow them to their houses, as Kimchi interprets it; so Jarchi thinks it is expressive of their looks, as we, of wanton looks; and the Septuagint render it, "with winking of eyes"; so the Syriac and Arabic versions, or painting their eyes; so the Targum,
"they walk with their eyes painted,''
as Jezebel painted her face, Kg2 9:30 in the Talmudic language, is used (q) for vermilion, or red lead, with which they painted their eyes, as they did also with (r) black lead.
Walking and mincing as they go: jumping and dancing as children in the streets; or using the like gesture as those who beat upon a drum; or walking in even paces, in a soft and delicate manner; all which senses Kimchi (s) observes in the word. The whole is rendered by the Septuagint, "and in the walk of their feet", or as they walk "together, drawing their coats" upon the ground after them, which makes a noise. The Targum is, "with hair rolled up", bound up and plaited.
And making a tinkling with their feet; having a sort of bells hanging on them, as Kimchi thinks, which made a noise as they went. Of the word here used, and the sense of it; see Gill on Isa 3:18. The Targum renders it, "provoking with their feet"; either the lust of men; or the anger of the Lord, as the Syriac version; the Septuagint and Arabic versions, "playing with the feet".
(q) T. Bab. Roshhashanah, fol. 18. 1. Misn. Sabbat. c. 12. sect. 4. Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. (r) Targum on 2 Kings ix. 30. (s) Sepher Shorash. rad.
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John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 The daughters - The women; (hitherto he reproved the…
The daughters - The women; (hitherto he reproved the men). A tinkling - By some ornaments which they wore upon their shoes.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24 Verse 16. And wanton eyes - "And falsely setting…
Verse 16. And wanton eyes - "And falsely setting off their eyes with paint"] Hebrew, falsifying their eyes. I take this to be the true meaning and literal rendering of the word; from שקר shakar. The Masoretes have pointed it, as if it were from שקר sakar, a different word. This arose, as I imagine, from their supposing that the word was the same with סקר sakar, Chaldee, "intueri, innuere oculis; " or that it had an affinity with the noun סיקרא sikra, which the Chaldeans, or the rabbins at least, use for stibium, the mineral which was commonly used in colouring the eyes. See Jarchi's comment on the place. Though the colouring of the eyes with stibium be not particularly here expressed, yet I suppose it to be implied; and so the Chaldee paraphrase explains it; stibio linitis oculis, "with eyes dressed with stibium." This fashion seems to have prevailed very generally among the Eastern people in ancient times; and they retain the very same to this day.
Pietro delta Valle, giving a description of his wife, an Assyrian lady born in Mesopotamia, and educated at Bagdad, whom he married in that country, (Viaggi, Tom. I., Lettera 17,) says, "Her eyelashes, which are long, and, according to the custom of the East, dressed with stibium, (as we often read in the Holy Scriptures of the Hebrew women of old, Jer 4:30; Eze 23:40; and in Xenophon, of Astyages the grandfather of Cyrus, and of the Medes of that time, Cyropaed. lib. i.,) give a dark, and at the same time a majestic, shade to the eyes." "Great eyes," says Sandys, Travels, p. 67, speaking of the Turkish women, "they have in principal repute; and of those the blacker they be the more amiable; insomuch that they put between the eyelids and the eye a certain black powder with a fine long pencil, made of a mineral, brought from the kingdom of Fez, and called Alcohole; which by the not disagreeable staining of the lids doth better set forth the whiteness of the eye; and though it be troublesome for a time, yet it comforteth the sight, and repelleth ill humours." Vis ejus (stibii) astringe ac refrigerare, principalis autem circa oculos; namque ideo etiam plerique Platyophthalmon id appellavere, quoniam in calliblepharis mulierum dilatat oculos; et fluxiones inhibet oculorum exulcerationesque. "It is astringent in its virtue, and refrigerant, and to be chiefly employed about the eyes, and it is called Platyophthalmon, for being put into those ointments with which women beautify their eyes, it dilates them, removes defluxions, and heals any ulcerations that may be about the eyelids." - Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 6.
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Ille supercilium madida fuligine tactum
Obliqua producit acu, pingitque trementes
Attollens oculos
Juv. Sat. ii. 93.
One his eyebrows, tinged with black soot,
Lengthens with an oblique bodkin, and paints,
Lifting up his winking eyes.
"But none of those [Moorish] ladies," says Dr. Shaw, Travels, p. 294, fol., "take themselves to be completely dressed, till they have tinged the hair and edges of their eyelids with alkahol, the powder of lead ore. This operation is performed by dipping first into the powder a small wooden bodkin of the thickness of a quill; and then drawing it afterwards through the eyelids, over the ball of the eye." Ezekiel, Eze 23:40, uses the same word in the form of a verb, כחלת עניך cachalt eynayik, "thou didst dress thine eyes with alcahol;" which the Septuagint render εστιβιζου τους, οφθαλμους σου, "thou didst dress thine eyes with stibium;" just as they do when the word פוך phuch is employed: compare 2Kg 9:30; Jer 4:30. They supposed, therefore, that פוך phuch and כחל cachal, or in the Arabic form, alcahol, meant the same thing; and probably the mineral used of old for this purpose was the same that is used now; which Dr. Shaw (ibid. note) says is "a rich lead ore, pounded into an impalpable powder." Alcoholados; the word משקרות meshakkeroth in this place is thus rendered in an old Spanish translation. - Sanctius. See also Russell's Nat. Hist. of Aleppo, p. 102.
The following inventory, as one may call it, of the wardrobe of a Hebrew lady, must, from its antiquity, and the nature of the subject, have been very obscure even to the most ancient interpreters which we have of it; and from its obscurity must have been also peculiarly liable to the mistakes of transcribers. However, it is rather matter of curiosity than of importance; and is indeed, upon the whole, more intelligible and less corrupted than one might have reasonably expected. Clemens Alexandrinus, Paedag. lib. ii., c. 12, and Julius Pollux, lib. vii., c. 22, have each of them preserved from a comedy of Aristophanes, now lost, a similar catalogue of the several parts of the dress and ornaments of a Grecian lady; which, though much more capable of illustration from other writers, though of later date, and quoted and transmitted down to us by two different authors, yet seems to be much less intelligible, and considerably more corrupted, than this passage of Isaiah. Salmasius has endeavoured, by comparing the two quotations, and by much critical conjecture and learned disquisition, to restore the true reading, and to explain the particulars; with what success, I leave to the determination of the learned reader, whose curiosity shall lead him to compare the passage of the comedian with this of the prophet, and to examine the critic's learned labours upon it. Exercit. Plinian, p. 1148; or see Clem. Alex. as cited above, edit. Potter, where the passage, as corrected by Salmasius, is given.
Nich. Guel. Schroederus, professor of oriental languages in the University of Marpurg, has published a very learned and judicious treatise upon this passage of Isaiah. The title of it is, "Commentarius Philologico-Criticus de Vestitu Mulierum Hebraearum ad Iesai iii. ver. 16-24. Lugd. Bat. 1745." 4to. As I think no one has handled this subject with so much judgment and ability as this author, I have for the most part followed him, in giving the explanation of the several terms denoting the different parts of dress, of which this passage consists; signifying the reasons of my dissent, where he does not give me full satisfaction.
Bishop Lowth's translation of these verses is the following: -
18. In that day will the Lord take from them the ornaments,
Of the feet-rings, and the net-works, and the crescents;
19. The pendants, and the bracelets, and the veils;
20. The tires, and the fetters, and the zones,
And the perfume-boxes, and the amulets;
21. The rings, and the jewels of the nostrils;
22. The embroidered robes, and the tunics,
And the cloaks, and the little purses,
23. The transparent garments, and the fine linen vests,
And the turbans, and the mantles.
24. And there shall be instead of perfume, a putrid ulcer;
And instead of well-girt raiment, rags;
And instead of high-dressed hair, baldness;
And instead of a zone, a girdle of sackcloth;
And sun-burnt skin, instead of beauty.
The daughters of Zion - walk] What is meant by these several kinds of action and articles of dress cannot be well conjectured. How our ancestors understood them will appear from the following, which is the translation of these verses in my old MS. Bible: -
16. The doughteris of Syon wenteh with strught out necks, and in beckes (winking) of eegen, geeden and flappeden with hondis for joye, and geeden: and with theire feet in curyous goying geeden; 17. the Lord schall fully make ballid the top of the boughtris of Syon: and the Lord the her of hem schal naken. And for ournemente schal be schenschip.
18. In that day, the Lord schal don awey the ournement of Schoon and hoosis: 19. and beegis, and brochis, and armeerclis, and mytris; 20. and coombis,and rybanys and reversis at the hemmys, and oynment boris and ereringis; 21. and ryngis and jemmys in the frount hongynge; 22. and chaunginge clothis, and litil pallis, and scheetis, and prynys; 23. and scheweris, and neche hercheuys, and flyetis, and roketis; 24. and ther schal be for swot smel, stynke, and for gyrdil, a litl coord; and for crisp her, ballidnesse; and for brest boond and heyr.
Some of these things are hard to be understood, though I think this version as good as that of the very learned bishop: but there is little doubt that articles of clothing and dress bore these names in the fourteenth century.
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Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv16, 17, 18, 22 Isa 3:16. Moreover, the Lord saith — After God…
Isa 3:16. Moreover, the Lord saith — After God had reproved the rulers of the Jews for their iniquity, injustice, and rapacity in spoiling the people, “he draws an argument of the same kind from the pride and luxury of the noble matrons and virgins, whose ornaments, collected from the spoils of the people, were borne proudly and insolently by them; upon whom therefore he denounces judgments; for of these two parts consists this last period of his reproving discourse: urging, 1st, In this verse the crimes of luxury and wanton haughtiness; denouncing, 2d, The punishment with which God would pursue these crimes, Isa 3:17 to chap. 4:1:” see Vitringa and Dodd. Because the daughters of Zion are haughty — Proud and disdainful; and walk with stretched-forth necks — Affecting stateliness, (Psa 75:5,) and endeavouring to appear tall; and wanton eyes — Hebrew, משׂקרות, falsifying their eyes; that is, falsely setting off their eyes with paint, as Bishop Lowth translates it, observing that he takes it to be the true meaning and literal rendering of the word; walking and mincing as they go — Taking petty tripping steps in their walking, that they may appear the younger; making a tinkling with their feet — Dr. Waterland renders this clause, and with chains, or shackles, upon their feet. The prophet is thought, by some learned men, to “allude to a custom among the eastern ladies of wearing on their legs large hollow rings, or circles, with little rings hanging round them; the cavities of these rings being filled with small flints, which caused them to sound like bells on the least motion.” Bishop Lowth translates the last two clauses, “Mincing their steps as they go, and with their feet lightly tripping along.”
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Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv16–24 Moreover, the Lord saith - In the previous parts…
Moreover, the Lord saith - In the previous parts of this prophecy, the prophet had rebuked the princes, magistrates, and the people generally. In the remainder of this chapter, he reproves with great severity the pride, luxury, and effeminacy of the female part of the Jewish community. Some interpreters have understood this as designed to reprove the pride and luxury of the “cities” and “towns” of Judah, regarded as “daughters of Zion;” see the note at Isa 1:8. But this interpretation is far-fetched and absurd. On this principle everything in the Bible might be turned into allegory.
The daughters of Zion - Jewish females; they who dwelt in “Zion.” Perhaps he means particularly those who dwelt in Zion, the capital - or the females connected with the court. It is probable that the prophet here refers to the prosperous reign of Uzziah (2Ch 26:5, ...), when by successful commerce luxury would naturally abound.
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Are haughty - Are proud.
And walk with stretched-forth necks - Displaying the neck ostentatiously; elevating or extending it as far as possible. Septuagint, ὑψηλῷ τραχήλῳ hupsēlō trachēlō, with elevated or exalted neck; that is, with that indication of pride and haughtiness which is evinced by a lofty demeanour. ‘When the females dance (in India), they stretch forth their necks, and hold them away, as if their heads were about to fall from their shoulders.’ - “Roberts.”
And wanton eyes - עינים וּמשׁקרות ûmeshaqerôth ‛ēynāyı̂m. The word שׁקר shâqar usually means “to lie, to deceive,” and may here refer to the art of alluring by a wanton or fascinating glance of the eye. There has been great diversity of opinion about the meaning of this expression. Lowth proposes to read it, ‘and falsely setting off their eyes with paint,’ in allusion to a custom known to prevail in the East, of coloring the eye-lids with stibium, or the powder of lead ore. This was done the better to exhibit the white of the eye, and was supposed by many to contribute to the healthful action of the eye itself. This practice is known to prevail extensively now; but it is not clear that the prophet here has reference to it. The expression is usually interpreted to mean ‘deceiving with the eyes,’ that is, “alluring” or “enticing” by the motion of the eyes. The “motion” of the eyes is mentioned Pro 6:13-14 as one mode of “deceiving” a person:
He winketh with his eyes,
He speaketh with his feet,
He teacheth with his fingers;
Frowardness is in his heart,
He deviseth mischief continually.
Compare the notes at Job 42:14. The meaning here, doubtless, is, that they attempted to entice by the “motion” or “glance” of the eye. The Chaldee seems to have understood this of staining the eyes with stibium.
Mincing as they go - Margin, ‘Tripping nicely;’ that is, walking with an affected gait - a mode which, unhappily, is too well known in all ages to need a more particular description. Roberts, speaking of the dance in India, says, ‘Some parts of the dance consist of a tripping or mincing step, which they call tatte-tatee. The left foot is put first, and the inside of the right keeps following the heel of the former.’
And making a tinkling with their feet - That is, they adorn themselves with “ankle rings,” and make a tinkling or noise with them to attract attention. The custom of wearing rings on the fingers and wrists has been common every where. In addition to this, Oriental females often wore them on the “ankles” - a custom in itself not more unreasonable or absurd. The custom is mentioned by travelers in Eastern countries in more modern times. Thus, Michaelis says, ‘In Syria and the neighboring provinces, the more opulent females bind ligaments around their feet, like chains, or bracelets, united by small chains of silver and gold, and exhibit them by their sound as they walk.’ And Pliny (“Nat. Hist.,” lib. xxiii., ch. 12) says, ‘Silver has succeeded to gold in the luxury of the females who form bracelets for their feet of that, since an ancient custom forbids them to wear gold.’ Frequent mention is made of these ornaments, says Rosenmuller, in the Arabic and Persian poems. Roberts, speaking of the ornaments on the feet of females in India, says, ‘The first is a large silver curb like that which is attached to a bridle; the second is of the same kind, but surrounded by a great number of small bells; the third resembles a bracelet; and the fourth is a convex hoop, about two inches deep.’
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv16, 17, 18, 22, 24 Pace. Protestants, "and making a tinkling with their feet,"…
Pace. Protestants, "and making a tinkling with their feet," (Haydock) by means of little rings round their legs. (Calmet) Stridore ad se juvenes vocat. (St. Jerome, ep. xlvii.) --- The daughters of Sion, denote all the cities and villages which were defaced by the Chaldeans, and still more by the Romans, forty years after Christ. (St. Jerome) (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v16 B.—The judgment upon the godless women
B.—The judgment upon the godless women
Isa_3:16 to Isa_4:1
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16 Moreover the Lord saith,
Because the daughters of Zion are haughty,
And walk with stretched forth necks
And 1wanton eyes,
Walking and 2mincing 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 the Lord will 3discover their secret parts.
18 In that day the Lord will take away
The bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet,
And their 4cauls, and their round tires like the moon,
19 The 5chains, and the bracelets, and the 6mufflers,
20 The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands,
And the 7tablets, and the earrings,
21 The rings, and nose jewels,
22 The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles,
And the wimples, and the crisping pins,
23 The glasses, and the fine linen,
And the hoods, and the veils.
24 And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell, there shall be stink;
And instead of a girdle, a rent;
And instead of well set hair, baldness;
And instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth;
And burning, instead of beauty.
25 Thy men shall fall by the sword,
And thy 8mighty in the war.
26 And her gates shall lament and mourn;
And she being9 10desolate shall sit upon the ground.
Isa_4:1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying,
We will eat our own bread,
And wear our own apparel:
Only 11let us be called by thy name,
12To take away our reproach.
[For the different renderings of the commentator see the comment itself. On the importance of them see J. A. A’s note on Isa_3:18 below.—Tr.]
Exegetical And Critical
1. This section, too, has for its subject an event that cannot possibly coincide with the last judgment to which 2, refers. For that great day, the last of all, will not have to do with a mere sinking down from the heights of luxury and pride to the plane of poverty; it will not treat of the exchange of a girdle for a rope, of a mantle for a sack, nor of a defeat in war, nor of mournful sitting on the ruins of the city; there will be nothing said of wives wanting nothing beside the prop of a man. For in that day all will be over; the old world generally shall be out and out destroyed in order to make room for a new. Thus this section, too, makes the impression of being some declaration, meant originally to serve some special object, but inserted here in order to complete the grand picture of the future in this particular aspect. The Prophet had occasion once, and this may likely have been in the days of Uzziah or Jotham, to declare himself against the irruption of pomp of dress and luxury. This declaration, or at least a part of it, he pieces in here to his comprehensive prophecy of judgment. And he may do this. For whenever this denunciation against the arrogance of woman may have been fulfilled, such fulfilment always constitutes a part of the great whole of judgment which is to be completed with the judgment of the last day. The Prophet assumes in the prophecy that stands at the head (Isa_2:2-4), that Israel itself, too, must be subjected to a judgment. For only by a great process of refining can the mountain of Jehovah rise to the height which, according to Isa_2:2, it must attain, and only when Zion itself is full of the Spirit of God can it become the embodied ideal for all nations. How this refining is to take place in every respect and at different times is described in what follows up to Isa_4:1. In this description the Prophet makes use also of older utterances, which were perhaps too short to appear independently, and that might more suitably be joined in just here than elsewhere. Thus there was a section of this sort that referred to the men, Isa_3:1 sqq.; so now, too, we have one that has the women for a theme. The connecting formula, “and Jehovah said,” favors the view that this is a joined on piece. It would be quite superfluous if the discourse proceeded from one mould. Comp. on this the comment on Isa_3:16. The order of thought is as follows: The luxurious pride of the women, too, shall be humbled (Isa_3:16-17). In the day that this shall happen all their splendid garments shall be taken from them (Isa_3:18-23) and replaced by wretched ones to correspond (Isa_3:24). Their husbands, too, they shall lose in a brief space (Isa_3:25), lamenting and desolated, they shall sit in the gates (Isa_3:26); yea, their want shall be so great that seven women shall attach themselves to one man, without demanding support from him, only thereby to escape the misfortune of being unmarried (Isa_4:1).
[On Isa_3:16 sqq. “The Prophet here resumes the thread which had been dropped or broken at the close of Isa_3:12, and recurs to the undue predominance of female influence, but particularly to the prevalent excess of female luxury, not only as sinful in itself but as a chief cause of the violence and social disorder previously mentioned, and therefore to be punished by disease, widowhood, and shameful exposure. These two verses (16, 17), like the sixth and seventh, form one continued sentence. And Jehovah said (in addition to what goes before, as if beginning a new section of the prophecy), because the daughters of Zion (the women of Jerusalem, with special reference to those connected with the leading men,” etc.)—J. A. A.
On Isa_3:18. “As in other cases where a variety of detached particulars are enumerated simply by their names it is now very difficult to identify some of them. This is the less to be regretted, as the main design of the enumeration was to show the prevalent extravagance in dress, an effect not wholly dependent on an exact interpretation of the several items. The interest of the passage in its details is not exegetical but arch-æological.”—J. A. A.
On Isa_3:26. “The gates of Ziou are said to mourn, by a rhetorical substitution of the place of action for the agent, or because a place filled with cries seems itself to utter them. She is described, not as lying, but as sitting on the ground. So on one of Vespasian’s coins, a woman is represented in a sitting posture, leaning against a palm-tree, with the legend Judœa Capta.”—J. A. A.]
2. Moreover the Lord—secret parts.
Isa_3:16-17. The formula “and the Lord saith” occurs in Isaiah on the whole, relatively not often. It occurs in all thirty-two times; of these, sixteen times in the historical chapters 36–39, where it indicates the actual exchange of words in conversation. Beside that, it is only employed where the Lord appears actually speaking, and speaks of Himself in the first person (comp. Isa_23:12; Isa_29:13; Isa_49:3; Isa_49:6; Isa_63:8). But in our passage Jehovah is immediately spoken of again in the third person. “The Lord will smite, the Lord will uncover” Isa_3:17. Moreover, in what follows, the Lord Is not introduced again as speaker. It is thus seen that by this formula what follows is only marked as God’s word so far as its contents are concerned, and not formally so. But as this is self-evident, it is further plain, that the formula is meant to serve as a transition, a link, a means of uniting. We recognize, therefore, in it a sign that here is a piece of an address, already on hand, that has been skilfully strung on here. As in Isa_2:11 it was said that all lofty looks shall be humbled and all haughtiness of men be bowed down, so the Prophet here with entire justice declares that also feminine arrogance must expect its share in this judgment. Are proud, etc., stands, therefore, in direct relation with the entire section Isa_2:6-17. What is said there in general of riches (Isa_3:7), of arrogance and haughtiness (Isa_3:11-12; Isa_3:17) of works of splendour (Isa_3:16), has its special application to the proud display of the women. But our passage stands in still closer connection with מַשְׁעֵנָה supportress Isa_3:1. We showed there that this expression points to the second half of this chapter where the women are spoken of. That these, too, are called “supports,” staffs, refers evidently to the fact that women, even in the commonwealth of Israel, played a considerable part. Let it be remembered that the Book of Kings expressly names the mother of each king. Individual women are designated as enjoying political influence in a high degree; Deborah (Judges 4); Bathsheba (1 Kings 1); Jezebel (1Ki_16:31 sqq.); Athaliah (2 Kings 11). We are expressly informed that Solomon’s wives had a bad influence over him (1Ki_11:3 sqq.). As long as a regular king ruled there must be a woman’s court household. If there were none such. then there would be surely no king. How closely kingdom and harem hung together, may be seen from the fact that the possession of the harem obtained as a sign that the royal dignity had been received. Therefore Absalom lay publicly with the coucubines of his father (2Sa_16:21). David, too, inherited the wives of Saul, and this is related in a connection (2Sa_12:8) that leads us to conclude that the fact must have been important to the recognition of David’s succession to the throne being a rightful one. Adonijah, after David’s death, begs for the hand of Abishag the Shunamite, and we see from Solomon’s reply that he regarded this request as an attempt to use the possession of the concubine as a step to the throne (1Ki_2:22). Comp. Michaelis,Mos. Recht, I. p. 207. Saalschuets,Das Mos. Recht, p. 85. According to this the harem was, in some measure, a political institution, an attribute of royalty as such, and in so far in a special sense a support of the life of the state. Yet if Isaiah here has especially in mind the royal ladies, that does not exclude the other noble and proud women from a share in his reproachs.
In וַתֵּלַכְנָה the imperfect with vav. consec. is not necessarily to be construed as aorist. The word מְשַׂקְּרוֹת is ἄπαξ λεγ. The root שָׂקַר even does not again occur in all the Old Testament. The Aramaic סְקַר may be most suitable to compare here, which means “intueri, conspicari.” The Piel then may have the meaning “blinking, winking:”עֵינַיִם stands in the accusat., like גָּרוֹן. There is indeed a סָקַרִ that means to color, to paint, whence also, the Chald., Abarbanel and others express this idea (Luther: with painted faces). But the custom of painting the eye-brows black is so universal a custom or the Orient, that it has been justly objected, Isaiah would hardly have spoken out against it. Moreover the rest of the reproachful expressions relate to bodily gestures. Buxtorfin Lex. Chald., Talm, et Rabb., p. 1542 cites the talmudic dictum: “Non creavit deus mulierum ex capite Adami, ne caput suum nimium ornaret and efferret; negue ex oculo, ne essetסַקְרָנִית, oculis omnia observans.”Hitzig, justly cites Plaut. Aulul. I. 1, Isaiah 2 : “circumspectatrix cum oculis tuis emissiciis,” although this is spoken of an old tramp with thievish propensities. Also טָפַף (from which טַףToppler, Tripler, Child) is ἄπ. λεγ. The tripping short steps are the necessary consequences of the step-chains which were fastened by means of a ring (עֶכֶם, Isa_3:18, again only in Pro_7:22) surrounding the leg above the ankle joint. The little chains themselves were called צְעָדוֹת Isa_3:20. The verb עִכֵּם, which occurs only here, is denominative. According to the context the meaning can be nothing else than; rattling the rings to make a noise, to clink. Comp. Herzog’sR. Encycl. VII. p. 731. As chastisement for such arrogance the daughters of Zion shall be punished with disgraceful disorders. Their proud head shall become scurfy, covered with scabs, thus loathsomely unclean (Lev_13:2; Lev_13:6-8; Lev_14:56). שִׂפַּח, (which, written with שׂ, occurs here only), is according to some a denominative from מִסְפַּחַת ,סַפַּחַת, scab. scurf (vid. Lev_13:14) Still it is possible שִׂפַח means, to make flow, suppurate, and thus deprive of the hair, and that, so derived, ספחת means the fluid scab or scurf. Comp., at Isa_37:30. Their shame, to whose impure pleasure those luxurious gestures were meant to minister, shall be disgracefully exposed (Isa_47:3; Jer_13:22; Jer_13:26; Eze_16:37, etc.). The singular פֹּת (from פּוּת ,פָּתָה פָתַח, pat-ere) occurs only here; the plural 1Ki_7:50 of the cardo femina from an obvious resemblance.—עָרָה (from which עֶרְוָה and עָרוֹתloca nuda (Isa_19:7) which does not occur in the Kal, means nudum esse, hence Piel to make bare, (in Isaiah again only Isa_22:6); Hiphil, (because what has been hitherto concealed, when it is laid bare, is at the same time poured out) effundere, (Isa_53:12), Niphal, effundi (Isa_32:15).
Without excluding the literal rendering of Isa_3:17, we may still construe the language first in an inexact sense and generalize it. In the day of judgment loathsome uncleanness shall take the place of the splendor of Zion’s daughters; disgrace and shame the place of their prond display. The Prophet has in this expressed something in general which he proceeds to specify in what follows. Feminine interest revolves chiefly around two poles: the decking out of the body and the surrender of the body to the husband; therefore about dress and husbands. Therefore the disgrace of the daughters of Zion in what follows is portrayed in these two respects. And first it is shown of what they shall be deprived in the way of dress (Isa_3:18-23), and what shall be given them instead (Isa_3:24).
3. In that day—instead of beauty.
Isa_3:18-24 “In that day,” refers back immediately to Isa_3:17. But we showed above that not the day of the last judgment is meant here, but only a prelude to it, which, of course, however, combines with the last judgment to make a unity of divine world-judgment. In that day, then, the Lord will take away the adornment (תפארת). All that follows is summed up-under this word. The word is found often in both parts of Isa_4:2; Isa_10:12; Isa_13:19; Isa_44:13; Isa_52:1; Isa_62:3; Isa_63:14, etc.). Concerning the עכסים comp., at Isa_3:16. Concerning the שׁביסים there are two views held. From Schroeder down a number of expositors (Rosenmueller, Winer, Ewald, Knobel, Drechsler) have taken the word for a kindred form of the Arabic schumeisa (diminutive of schems, the sun), the letters m and b being interchanged, as is common between these two kindred letters: Schroeder proves, besides, from Theoph,hist. pl. IX. 4 and Plin. H. N. XII. 14, Σαβις to have been a name of the sun among the Arabians. The meaning then would be little suns i.e., a metallic ornament shaped like a sun. That would suit very well to the following שׁהרן, crescents, as generally to the words that precede and follow, all of which designate metal ornaments. In as much as in the following list occur several expressions borrowed from the Arabic (comp. Drechsler on Isa_2:6), and this word in Hebrew is ἄπ λεγ., and even the root שָׁבַם does not again occur, so that word and thing both appear to be of foreign origin, I prefer this view. The other view takes שָׁבָם in the sense of שָׁבָץ and (Aram,) שְׁבָשׁ“plectere, to braid,” and שָבִים therefore, for opus reticulatum (LXX ἐμπλόκια) network. hair net: (Delitzsch, “ribbons for the forehead worn underneath the hair net, and braided of gold or silver thread:” Buxtorf, Lex. Chald., p. 2315, “Ornamentum,” etc., a peculiar ribbon ornament, extending in front from one ear to the other”). The שׂהרנים are lunulœ, μηνίσκοι, moonshaped, or rather half-moon shaped decorations. They are mentioned Jdg_8:21; Jdg_8:26 as neck ornaments of camels. That they had a moon shape appears from this, that sahro in the Syriac, schahr in the Arabic mean the moon. Here, too, therefore word and thing are certainly of foreign origin. ־וֹן is a diminutive ending, comp. אִישׁוֹן; Ewald § 167, a.—נְטִפוֹת (Jdg_8:26) from נָטַףto drop (comp. Exo_30:34, dropping resin, and Job_36:27) are a drop shaped ornament, as they were likely worn as pendants from the ears (ear drops). שֵׁרוֹת (ἄπ. λεγ,) from שָׁרַרtorquere, to twist, is torques, a collar, chain, not for the neck, however, but an armlet, bracelet, as is to be seen from the dialects. Onkelos,e.g., translates, Gen_24:22; Gen_24:30; Gen_24:47, the Hebrew word צָמִיד (the proper word for bracelet for the arm) by שֵׁירָא. Comp., too, שַׁרְשְׁרָה and שַׁרשָׁהchainsExod. Isa_28:14; Isa_28:22.—רְעָלוֹת (ἄπ. λεγּ) from רָעַלto tremble, wave, are veils, and that, as appears, of a costly kind: viz.Herzog,R. Encycl. VII. p. 728.—פְּאֵרִים are diadems, tiarœ., that are also elsewhere named as part of the head ornament of the priesthood (Exo_39:28; Eze_44:18), or of the dress of a bridegroom (Isa_61:10). What part of the head covering or what sort, is not clear.—צְעָדָה from צָעַד, to march, pace, on account of the etymology seems most naturally to mean the step chains (comp. on תּעכסנה, Isa_3:16). But 2Sa_5:24 and 1Ch_14:15, where the word occurs, it seems to mean “the stepping, walking along;” and Num_31:50; 2Sa_1:10אֶצְעָדָה designates arm bands, arm clasps, as one sees clearly in 2Sa_1:10 from the עַל־זְרֹעוֹ. Hence many expositors, both old and new, (among the last, Ewald), translate “arm clasps.” And yet it is only אֶצְעָדָה that has this meaning. The circumstance that צִעָדָה occurs twice in the sense of “walking along” is no obstacle to its meaning step-chainlets. For the abstract word could easily be taken in a concrete sense; the walking in the sense of the instrument of walking.—קִשֻּׁרִים from קָשַׁרto bind) are, according to Jer_2:32, comp. Isa_49:18, mentioned as pieces of a bride’s outfit. But whether the girdle is meant or bandages (perhaps the breastband, στηθόδεσμος LXX. in Jer_2:32) is uncertain.—בָּתֵּי הַנֶּפֶשׁ are smelling bottles. For בית often stands for receptacle, place of storage generally (comp. Exo_26:29; Job_8:17; Eze_41:9, and for the very common use of this word in Aram, and Rabb. language, see Buxtorf, Lex. p. 301 sqq.). נֶפֶשׁ, however is breath, scent (comp. Niphal הִנָּפֵשׁrespirare, to breathe out, Exo_23:12; Exo_31:17. עֲצַת נֶפִשׁ. fragrant wood, Pro_27:9; and the original passage Gen_1:20; Gen_1:30; Job_41:13). The expression occurs only here—לְחָשִׁים (comp. Isa_3:3; Isa_26:16) are instruments of magic, amulets.—טַבַּעַת from טָבַע, imprimere, is the ring, generally, and especially the signet ring. Comp. Gen_41:42; Exo_25:12; Exo_25:14, and many places beside in Exodus.—נִזְמֵי הָאַף are the nose rings which are in use in the East to the present day. Comp. Pro_11:22; Eze_16:12; WinerR. W. B. the word, nose-ring.
So far the prophet has named articles of embellishment made of metal. In what follows he chiefly enumerates articles of clothing proper.—The מַחֲלָצוֹת, according to Zec_3:4, are such as are the opposite of filthy garments, therefore stately, splendid clothes. According to the fundamental meaning (חָלַץ, extrahere, exuere) they are clothes that one takes off at home, comp. חֲלִיפוֹת. The expression appears to be one of general meaning, and occurs only here, and in the passage cited from Zech.—מַֽעֲטָפוֹת (properly covers, from עָטַףoperire) are mentioned only here. The word in Arabic signifies the second tunic, broader, longer and provided with sleeves, that corresponds to the Roman stola, the garment peculiar to women.—מִטְפַּחַת from טפחexpandere (Isa_48:13) is the great wide over all, shawl (Rth_3:15, the only place beside that the word occurs). חָרִיט is found beside only 2Ki_5:23, from which place it is seen that it means a bag or pocket that may serve to carry money.—גִּלְיֹנִים, according to LXX. would be διαΦανῆ Δακωνικά, i.e., Lacedæmonian gauze dresses that expose the body more than cover it. But גִּלָּיוֹן, Isa_8:1, is the smooth, polished tablet. Such served for mirrors, as the ancients knew nothing of glass mirrors. Travellers assure us that such mirrors in the form of small plates set in a ring are worn to this day. Comp. Herzog,R. Encycl. XIV., p. 666.—סְדִינִים are σινδόνες, i.e., garments of fine India linen. It is debated whether undergarments, such as shirts, are meant, or some sort of light thing to throw over one. The word is found again Jdg_14:12 sq.; Pro_31:24.—צְנִיפוֹת (from צָנַף, tegere, velare) are the head-band, turban. The word bands, turbans, occurs Isa_62:3; Job_29:14; Zec_3:5.—רָדִיר (from רָדַדspread, spread under, spread out, Isa_45:1; Psa_144:2; 1Ki_6:32) is the wide veil that covered over the rest of the clothes (Arab, rida ridat) Son_5:7.—But not only shall all תִּפְאֶרֶתadornment, Isa_3:18, be taken away, they shall also be replaced by worse things. Instead of בּשֶֹׁם, balsam, (product of the balsam bush, vid.Exo_30:23; Eze_27:22; 1Ki_10:10) מַק shall be given. This latter word is only found again Isa_5:24, where, however, it is written מָק, which has no effect on the meaning. The root מָקַק, diffluere is used of the flowing of matter from a wound; e. g.Psa_38:6. מַק seems therefore rather to mean matter than the dry decay. In place of חֲגוֹרָה (apron, Gen_3:7; girdle, Isa_32:11; 1Ki_2:5) shall be a rope, נִקְפָּה. The word is ἅπ. λεγ. There is conflict regarding the meaning. Some derive it from נָקַףpercutere, to strike (Isa_10:34; Isa_17:6) and take it in the sense of vulnus (so the Chald. and the most of the Jewish expositors). But this meaning does not well suit the context. It is better to derive it from נָקַף=circuire, gyrare, circle, gyrate (see Isa_29:1; Hiphil הִקִּיף). נִקְפָּה would be, then, feminine of נֵקֶף or נֶקֶף=turning around, i. e., that resulting from twisting. Delitzsch derives it from קָפַה, contorquere, but this does not occur in biblical idiom, which uses only קָפָא, to contract, congeal.
Instead of the artistically curled hair, shall baldness be given. מִקְשֶׁה (ἄπ. λεγ.,) in apposition with מַֽעֲשֶׂה is synonymous with מִקְשָׁהExo_25:18; Exo_25:31; Exo_25:36; Jer_10:5, opus tornatile, twisted, turned work. Baldness, compare 2Ki_2:23; for women it is doubly disgraceful. And instead of a splendid mantle, shall be given a girding of sackcloth. פְּתִינִיל, ἄπ. λεγ., is of uncertain derivation and meaning. Expositors waver between the derivation from פָּתַגamplum esse, with affix –ִיל (like כַּרְמִיל from כֶּרֶם) and that from פְּתִיdistance, גִּילfestival joy, and between the meanings fascia pectoralis (Vulg.) and broad mantle; yet the grammatical and hermeneutical grounds for the latter overbalance. מהגרת, too, is ἄπ. λεγ. Girding with sackcloth, as is known, is often mentioned as sign of the deepest mourning and humiliation: Gen_37:34, Isa_15:3; Isa_22:12; Jer_6:26, &c.
The conclusion of this list of mournful exchanges is made by the phrase: “Branding for beauty.” The words are strange. They appear disjointed and unsymmetrical. For וְ, and, is wanting which connects all the preceding members, and thus this small member of the sentence stands independent, and by its inversion (the thing given stands first) in contrast with all that goes before. It appears to me as if the prophet recalled a passage of the law wherein a number of exchanges or recompenses are defined by means of the preposition “instead of.” Such a passage is Exo_21:23-25. Among these specifications occurs, “burning for burning.” כּוִיָּה תַחַת כְּוִיָּה. The Prophet, however, was not speaking of jus talionis, therefore the idem per idem or idem pro eodem, “like for like,” did not suit his purpose. He speaks of the recompense that threatened the daughters of Zion. Among the things to be taken from them he had not mentioned beauty, the direct gift of nature, which to women is of the greatest price. He had to this point spoken only of productions of art. Now as beauty is יְפִי (in Isa. again only Isa_33:17), he might easily happen to think of כְּוִיָּה as a suitable rhyme for it. However, כְּוִיָּה itself does not rhyme, but a word of kindred root, properly its simple masculine form, כְּוִי, which appears only to have been used in the contracted form כִּי (comp. רִי ,צִי ,עִי ,אִי). Thus too the inversion explains itself. For as we find the words, they most resemble the passages in Exod.; much more than if they read “instead of beauty burning.” כִּי or כְּוִי is ἄπ. λεγ. Its root is כָּוָה“to burn,” and means, like כְּוִיָּה, and like the Arabic kej, the branded mark, στίγμα. If even it cannot be proved that it was customary to mark captives by branding them, that does not affect the matter. It was also not customary to offer them pus instead of balsam. Such traits of poetic speech must not be pressed. Enough if the thought in itself affords a suitable meaning. I think, therefore, the established meaning “brand mark,” which indicates a strong contrast with “beauty,” is not to be departed from, and we need not with Knobel understand “scratchings.”
4. The women—our reproach.
Isa_3:25 to Isa_4:1 But the misery of the daughters of Zion is not yet exhausted. Worse things yet must happen to them. They shall be robbed, too, of the men. From the singular suffix, it is seen that the Prophet Isa_3:25 now addresses Zion itself, thus not “the daughters of Zion,” Isa_3:16, but “daughter of Zion.” The loss of splendid garments is not to be understood as if only articles of luxury would be taken from the women of Zion. It is seen from Isa_3:25 that the blow is to be universal, falling upon all. Therefore all shall suffer under it: but the rich and noble most of all. The loss of the men however, shall concern all in equal measure. For this reason the Prophet no longer addresses the daughters, but the daughter of Zion. מְתִים does not appear to involve the notion of strength, manhood. For it is wont to stand where inferiority, lowness are predicated of the subject man. מְתֵי מִסְפָּר, people of number, a few, Gen_34:30, and often. מ׳ מְעַט Deu_26:5; Deu_28:62. מ׳ שָׁוְא Psa_26:4; מ׳ אָֽוֶז Job_22:15. מ׳ רָעָכ Isa_5:13 : and Isa_41:14מְתֵי יִשְׁרָאֵל stands directly parallel with תּוֹלַעַת יַעֲקבworm Jacob. It stands then as the antithesis of גְּבוּרָתֵןְthe troops, and designates not the manhood with emphasis, but only masculine individuals (people). גְּבוּרָה (a word of frequent occurrence in Isa_11:2; Isa_28:6; Isa_63:15, &c.) only here stands in a concrete meaning=troops. For Jer_49:35 there is no reason for taking it in any other than the usual abstract sense, strength.
And her gates, etc. Isa_3:26. אָנָה, to sigh, groan, occurs only here and Isa_19:8, where, too, it stands with אבל. The latter word is in general more frequent, and common, too, in Isaiah: 24:4, 7; Isa_33:9; Isa_66:10. Most expositors translate; “and her gates groan and lament.” With that פֶּתַחgate, is personified and used by metonymy for the assemblies in the gate, which is grammatically allowable. But I would make three objections: 1) It is surprising that we do not read, then, שַׁעַר, gate. For פֶּתַח is only the door opening (hence so often פתח השׁער, door of the gate, Jos_20:4; Jdg_9:35; Jdg_9:44 : 2Sa_10:8; Jer_1:15; Jer_19:2; Pro_1:21, etc.), while שַׁעַר stands for gate in its emphatic, and also its comprehensive meaning. 2) Does it not seem strange in this exposition, that the discourse suddenly turns from the women to speak of the totality of the people? For the gates do not represent the women alone, but the entire people; whence Drechsler justly calls attention to the fact that this exposition occasions “something fluctuating in the connection of ideas.” 3) פֶּתַח, times without number, stands as acc. localis to the question where? or whither? without a preposition, vid. Lexicon and Concordances. It comes very natural therefore to translate; “and they (the women) groan and sigh at her gates.” There they await, and there they receive the mournful intelligence. The suffix in פתחיה relates naturally to Zion addressed in the verse before.
The following words are obscure. וְנִקָּתָה can be nothing else than Niph. perf. 3 pers. fem., from נָקָהpurum esse. Niphal often occurs in the sense of culpa vacuum, immunem esse, which gives no sense here. Purificari here can only mean “swept out, cleared up, emptied, desolated.” In this sense the word does not again occur; only Zec_5:3, may in some degree be compared. Hofmann (Schriftbeweis II. 2, p. 503) translates: “on the bareness, off on the bare ground sits she.” But נקתה is neither participial nor nominal form. If now we translate: “and she was emptied, desolated, on the ground she sits,”—we must first remark concerning the construction, that Drechsler is right in connecting the two verbs so that the first contains an adverbial qualification of the second. Sitting on the ground is the posture of those mourning: Isa_47:1; Job_2:13; Lam_2:10. The subject of נקתה as well as of תשׁב is Zion, to which also the suffixes in Isa_3:25-26, refer. Therefore if the widows of Zion weep at the gates, Zion itself appears desolate and lies on the ground. Yet I confess that this exposition is not entirely satisfactory, although it fits the existing text. Perhaps the text is corrupt in נקתה.
At all events, according to Isa_3:25, a great scarcity of men exists. For the Hebrew woman that was the greatest misfortune. For in its most ancient parts the Old Testament knows no other genuine life than that on this earth, and thus no other continuation of living after death than by means of children. To be childless was, then, the same as being deprived of continuance after death. It corresponded to the being damned of the New Testament. Physical reasons, therefore, were not all that made marriage appear as a pressing necessity. It is now said here that seven women (notice the sacred number) shall lay hold of one man and, renouncing all claim of support and clothing, beg only the right to be called his wives.—Only let thy name, etc.—As the temple was called the house that bears the name of Jehovah, without however the temple being called Jehovah Himself, so, among the Hebrews, the wives were not called by the same name as their husbands, which would be to transfer modern customs to the ancients; but the name of the husband was named on her, when she was called this or that man’s wife. Comp. “Sarai, Abram’s wife,” Gen_12:17, “Rachel, Jacob’s wife,” Gen_46:19. Gesenius quotes the beautiful parallel from Lucan, Pharsal. II. 342, which was first adduced by Grotius.
——da tantum nomen inane
Connubii, Liceat tumulo scripsisse: Catonis
Marcia * * * * * * *
—Give only the empty name of marriage. Let my monument be inscribed: Cato’s Marcia.
אָסַף with the meaning “auferre, demere,” bear away, like Isa_16:10; Isa_57:1. As a parallel expression comp., too Zec_8:23. The division of chapters is evidently incorrect here. That the words “seven women,” etc., were carried over to chap. 4, as Vitringa remarks, happened because it was supposed that the seven women represented the seven graces of the Holy Spirit (Isa_11:1-2), thus Jerome and Cyril—or the believing women under the one man or Christ, the Branch, Isa_3:2.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_2:2. Domus Dei, etc. “The house of God is built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, who, themselves, too, are mountains, quasi imitators of Christ. (They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, Psa_125:1) Whence, also, upon one of the mountains Christ founded the Church and said: Thou art Peter, etc., Mat_16:18.” Jerome.——“We can understand Jerusalem by the mountain of God, for we see how the believing run thither, and how those that have accepted the testimony come thither and seize the blessing that proceeds thence. But we may also by the house of God understand the churches spread over land and sea, as we believe St. Paul, who says, ‘we are the house of God,’ Heb_3:6. And so we may recognize the truth of the prophecy. For the Church of God stands shining forth, and the nations, forsaking wickedness that has long had dominion over them, hasten to her and are enlightened by her.” Theodoret.——Ecclesia est, etc. “The church is a mountain exalted and established above all other mountains, but in spirit. For if you regard the external look of the church from the beginning of the world, then in New Testament times, you will see it oppressed, contemned, and in despair. Yet, notwithstanding, in that contempt it is exalted above all mountains. For all kingdoms and all dominions that have ever been in the world have perished. The church alone endures and triumphs over heresies, tyrants, Satan, sin, death and hell, and that by the word only, by this despised and feeble speech alone. Moreover it is a great comfort that the bodily place, whence first the spiritual kingdom should arise, was so expressly predicted, that consciences are assured of that being the true word, that began first to be preached in that corner of Judea, that it may be for us a mount Zion, or rule for judging of all religions and all doctrines. The Turkish Alcoran did not begin in Zion—therefore it is wicked doctrine. The various Popish rites, laws, traditions began not in Zion—therefore they are wicked, and the very doctrines of devils. So we may hold ourselves upright against all other religions, and comfort our hearts with this being the only true religion which we profess. Therefore, too, in two psalms, Psalms 2, 110, mount Zion is expressly signified: “I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion;” likewise: “The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion.” Luther.
2. On Isa_2:2. Luther makes emphatic, as something pertaining to “the wonderful nature of this kingdom,” that “other kingdoms are established and administered by force and arms. But here, because the mountain is lifted up, the nation shall flow (fluent), i.e., they shall come voluntarily, attracted by the virtues of the church. For what is there sweeter or lovelier than the preaching of the gospel? Whereas Moses frightens weak souls away. Thus the prophet by the word fluent, “flow,” has inlaid a silent description of the kingdom of Christ, which Christ gives more amply when He says: Mat_11:12, “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force,” i.e. “they are not compelled, but they compel themselves.” “Morever rivers do not flow up mountains, but down them; but here is such an unheard-of thing in the kingdom of Christ.”—Starke.
3. Luther remarks on “and shall say: come,” etc. “Here thou seest the worship, works and efforts and sacrifices of Christians. For they do only the one work, that they go to hear and to learn. All the rest of the members must serve their neighbors. These two, ears and heart, must serve God only. For the kingdom rests on the word alone. Sectaries and heretics, when they have heard the gospel once, instantly become masters, and pervert the Prophet’s word, in that they say: Come let us go up that we may teach him his way and walk in our paths. They despise, therefore, the word as a familiar thing and seek new disputations by which they may display their spirit and commend themselves to the crowd. But Christians know that the words of the Holy Ghost can never be perfectly learned as long as we are in the flesh. For Christianity does not consist in knowing, but in the disposition. This disposition can never perfectly believe the word on account of the weakness of the sinful flesh. Hence they ever remain disciples and ruminate the word, in order that the heart, from time to time, may flame up anew. It is all over with us if we do not continue in the constant use of the word, in order to oppose it to Satan in temptation (Matthew 4). For immediately after sinning ensues an evil conscience, that can be raised up by nothing but the word. Others that forsake the word sink gradually from one sin into another, until they are ruined. Therefore Christianity must be held to consist in hearing the word, and those that are overcome by temptations, whether of the heart or body, may know that their hearts are empty of the word.”
4. Vitringa remarks on the words, “Out of Zion goes forth the law,” Isa_5:3. “If strife springs up among the disciples concerning doctrine or discipline, one must return to the pattern of the doctrine and discipline of the school at Jerusalem. For יָצָא “shall go forth,” stands here only as in Luk_2:1, “There went forth a decree from Cæsar Augustus.” In this sense, too, Paul says, 1Co_14:36, “What? came the word of God out from you?” The word of God did not go forth from Corinth, Athens, Rome, Ephesus, but from Jerusalem, a fact that bishops assembled in Antioch opposed to Julius I. (Sozom. hist. eccl. III. 8, “the orientals acknowledged that the Church of Rome was entitled to universal honor—although those who first propagated a knowledge of Christian doctrine in that city came from the East”). Cyril took יָצָא in the false sense of κατελἐλοιπε τὴν Σιών, “has forsaken Zion.” When the Lord opened the understandings of the disciples at Emmaus, to understand the Scriptures and see in the events they had experienced the fulfilment of what was written concerning Him in the law, Prophets and Psalms, He cannot have forgotten the present passage. Of this we may be the more assured since the words: “Thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem.” Luk_24:46-47, point clearly to Isa_2:2-3 of our passage. Therefore too, Justin Martyr Apol. i. (commonly ii.), § 49, says: “But where the prophetic spirit predicts the future, he says: from Zion shall go forth the law, etc. And that this finally came to pass in fact, you may credibly assure yourselves. For from Jerusalem have men gone forth into the world, twelve in number, and these were unlearned, that knew not how to speak. But by the might of God they have proclaimed to all mankind that they were sent by Christ in order to teach all the word of God.”
“Zion is contrasted here with Mount Sinai, whence the law came, which in the Old Testament was the foundation of all true doctrine: But in the New Testament Mount Zion or Jerusalem has the privilege to announce that now a more perfect law would be given and a new Covenant of God with men would be established. Thus Zion and Jerusalem are, so to speak, the nursery and the mother of all churches and congregations of the New Testament.”—Starke.
5. Förster remarks on the end of Isa_2:3, that the gospel is the sceptre of Jesus Christ, according to Psa_110:2; Psa_45:7 (the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre). “For by the word Christ rules His church (Rom_10:14 sqq.).”
6. On Isa_2:4. “Pax optima rerum.” Foerster. The same author finds this prophecy fulfilled by Christ, who is our peace, who has made of both one, and broken down the partition that was between, in that by His flesh He took away the enmity (Eph_2:14). Foerster, moreover, combats the Anabaptists, who would prove from this passage that waging war is not permitted to Christians. For our passage speaks only against the privata Christianorum discordia. But waging war belongs to the publicum magistratus officium. Waging war, therefore, is not forbidden, if only the war is a just one. To be such, however, there must appear according to Thomas, part. 2 th. quœst. 40. 1) auctoritatis principis, 2) causa justa, 3) intentio bellantium justa, or ut allii efferunt: 1) jurisdictio indicentis, 2) offensio patientis, 3) intentio finem (?) convenientis.
7. On Isa_2:4. Jerome regarded the time of Augustus, after his victory at Actium, as the fulfilling of this prophecy. Others, as Cocceius, refer the words, “they shall turn their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks,” to the time of Constantine the Great; and the words “nation shall not lift up sword against nation” to the period of the restoration of religious peace in Germany,—finally the words: “they shall no more learn war,” to a future time that is to be hoped for. Such interpretations are, however, just as one-sided as those that look only for a spiritual fulfilment of prophecy. For how is an inward fulfilment of this promise of peace to be thought of which would not have the outward effects as its consequence? Or how is an outward fulfilment, especially such as would deserve the name, conceivable without the basis of the inward? Or must this peaceful time be looked for only in heaven? Why then does the promise stand here? It is a matter of course that there is peace in heaven: for where there is no peace there can be no heaven. The promise has sense only if its fulfilment is to be looked for on earth. The fulfilment will take place when the first three petitions of the Lord’s prayer are fulfilled, i.e. when God’s name shall be held holy by us as it in itself is holy, when the kingdom of God is come to everything, without and within, and rules alone over all, when the will of God is done on earth as in heaven. Christendom makes this prayer quite as much with the consciousness that it cannot remain unfulfilled, as with the consciousness that it must find its fulfilment on earth. For, if referred to heaven, these petitions are without meaning. Therefore there is a time of universal inward and outward peace to be looked for on earth. “It is not every day’s evening,” i.e. one must await the event, and our earth, without the least saltus in cogitando, can yet experience a state of things that shall be related to the present, as the present to the period of trilobites and saurians. If one could only keep himself free from the tyranny of the present moment! But our entire, great public, that has made itself at home in Philistia, lives in the sweet confidence that there is no world beside that of which we take notice on the surface of the earth, nor ever was one, nor ever will be.
8. On Isa_2:4. Poets reverse the figure to portray the transition from peaceful to warlike conditions. Thus Virgil, Georg. I. 2:506 sq.:
Non ullus aratro
Dignus honos, squalent abductis arva colonis.
Et curvæ rigidum falces conflantur in ensem.
Aeneide VII. 2:635 sq.:
Vomeris huc et falcis honos, huc omnis aratri
Cessit amor; recoquunt patrios fornacibus enses.
Ovid, Fast. I. 2:697 sqq.:
Bella diu tenuere viros. Erat aptior ensis
Vomere, cedebat taurus arator equo.
Sarcula cessabant, versique in pila ligones.
Factaque de rastri pondere cassia erat.
9. On Isa_2:5. As Isaiah puts the glorious prophecy of his fellow prophet Micah at the head, he illuminates the future with a splendid, shining, comforting light. Once this light is set up, it of itself suggests comparisons. The questions arise: how does the present stand related to that shining future? What difference obtains? What must happen for that condition of holiness and glory to be brought about? The Christian Church, too, and even each individual Christian must put himself in the light of that prophetic statement. On the one hand that will humiliate us, for we must confess with the motto of Charles V.: nondum! And long still will we need to cry: Watchman what of the night (Isa_21:11)? On the other hand the Prophet’s word will also spur us up and cheer us. For what stronger impulse can be imagined than the certainty that one does not contend in vain, but may hope for a reward more glorious than all that ever came into a man’s heart? (Isa_64:4; 1Co_2:9).
In the time of the second temple, in the evenings of the first days of the feast of Tabernacles, great candelabras were lighted in the forecourt of the temple, each having four golden branches, and their light was so strong that it was nearly as light as day in Jerusalem. That might be for Jerusalem a symbol of that “let us walk in the light of the Lord.” But Jerusalem rejoiced in this light, and carried on all sorts of pastime, yet it was not able to learn to know itself in this light, and by this self-knowledge to come to true repentance and conversion.
10. On Isa_2:8, “their land is full of idols.” “Not only images and pictures are idols, but every notion concerning God that the godless heart forms out of itself without the authority of the Scripture. The notion that the Mass is effective ex opere operato, is an idol. The notion that works are demanded for justification with God, is an idol. The notion that God takes delight in fasts, peculiar clothes, a special order of life, is an idol. God wills not that we should set up out of our own thoughts a fashion of worshipping Him; but He says: “In all places where I record My name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee,” Exo_20:24—Luther.
11. On Isa_2:9-21. When men have brought an idol into existence, that is just to their mind, whether it be an idolum manu factum, or an idolum mente excogitatum, there they are all wonder, all worship. “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” Then the idol has a time of great prosperity and glory. But sooner or later there comes a time when the judgment of God overtakes the idol and its servants. God suffers sin to become ripe like men let a conspiracy, like they let fruit ripen. But when the right time comes then He steps forth in such a fashion that they creep into mouse-holes to hide themselves, if it were possible, from the lightning of His eye and His hand. Where then are the turned-up noses, the big mouths, the impudent tongues? Thus it has often happened since the world began. But this being brought to confession shall happen in the highest degree to the puffed-up world at that day when they shall see that one whom they pierced, and whom they thought they might despise as the crucified One, coming in His glory to judge the world. Then they shall have anguish and sorrow, then shall they lament and faint away with apprehension of the things that draw nigh. But those that believed on the Lord in His holiness, shall then lift up their heads for that their redemption draws nigh. At that time, indeed, shall the Lord alone be high, and before Him shall bow the knees of all in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and all tongues must confess that Christ is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12. On Isa_2:22. Of what do men not make idols! The great industrial expositions of modern times often fill me with dismay, when I have seen how men carry on an actual idolatrous worship with these products of human science and art, as if that all were not, in the end, God’s work, too, but human genius were alone the creator of these wonders of civilization. How wickedly this so-called worship of genius demeans itself ! How loathsome is the still more common cultus of power, mammon and the belly!
13. On Isa_3:1 sqq. Causa σωστική, etc. “The saving cause of the commonwealth is the possession of men of the sort here mentioned, which Plato also knew, and Cicero from Plato, each of whom judge, commonwealths would be blessed if philosophers, i.e., wise and adept men were to administer them.”—Foerster. The same writer cites among the causes why the loss of such men is ruinous, the changes that thence ensue. All changes in the commonwealth are hurtful. Xenoph. Hellen. Isaiah 2 : “εἰσὶ μὲν πᾶσαι μεταβολαὶ πολιτειῶν θανατηΦόροι.” Aristot. Metaph. Isaiah 2 : “ᾱἱμεταβολαὶ πάντων ταραχώδεις.”
14. On Isa_3:1. “The stay of bread,” etc. Vitringa cites Horat. Satir. L. II., 3 5:153 sq.:
Deficient inopem venœ te, ni cibus atque
Ingens accedit stomacho fultura ruenti.
And on Isa_3:2 sq. he cites Cicero, who, De Nat. Deorum III., calls these “prœsidia humana,” “firmamenta reipublicœ.” On Isa_3:6 sq. the same author cites the following passage from Livy (26 chap. 6): “Cum fame ferroque (Capuani) urgerentur, nec ulla spes superesset iis, qui nati in spem honorum erant, honores detrectantibus, Lesius querendo desertam et proditam a primoribus Capuam summum magistratum ultimus omnium Campanorum cepit!” On Isa_3:9 he quotes Seneca: De vita beata, chap. xii.: “Itaque quod unum habebant in peccatis bonum perdunt peccandi verecundiam. Laudant enim ea, quibus erubescant, et vitio gloriantur.”
15. On Isa_3:4; Isa_3:12. Foerster remarks: Pueri, etc. “Boys are of two sorts. Some are so in respect to age, others in respect to moral qualifications. So, too, on the contrary there is an old age of two sorts: “For honorable age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years. But wisdom is the true gray hair unto men, and an unspotted life is the true old age.” Wis_4:8-9. Examples of young and therefore foolish kings of Israel are Rehoboam (“the young fool gambled away ten whole tribes at one bet” 1 Kings 12). Ahaz, who was twenty years of age when he began to reign (2Ki_16:2). Manasseh who was twelve years (2Ki_21:1,) and Amon who was twenty-two years (2Ki_21:19).
16. On Isa_3:7. Foerster remarks: Nemo se, etc. “Let no one intrude himself into office, especially when he knows he is not fit for it,” and then cites: “Seek not of the Lord pre-eminence, neither of the king the seat of honor. Justify not thyself before the Lord; and boast not of thy wisdom before the king. Seek not to be judge, being not able to take away iniquity.” Sir_7:4-6.”—“Wen aber Gott schickt, den macht er auch geschickt.”
17. On Isa_3:8. “Their tongue and their doings are against the Lord.” Duplici modo, etc. “God may be honored by us in two outward ways: by word and deed, just as in the same way others come short; “to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” Judges 15.—Vitringa.
18. On Isa_3:9. “They hide not their sin.” Secunda post, etc. “The next plank after shipwreck, and solace of miseries is to hide one’s impiety.”—Jerome.
19. On Isa_3:10. “Now He comforts the pious as in Psalms 2. His anger will soon kindle, but it shall be well with all that trust in Him. So Abraham, so Lot was delivered; so the apostles and the remnant of Judah when Jerusalem was besieged. For the Lord helps the righteous (Psa_37:17; Psa_37:39).”—Luther.
20. On Isa_3:13-14.
“Judicabit judices judex generalis,
Neque quidquam proderit dignitas papalis,
Sive sit episcopus, sive cardinalis,
Reus condemnabitur, nec dicetur qualis.”
“Rhythmi vulgo noti,” quoted byFoerster.
21. On Isa_3:16 sq. Usus vestium, etc. “Clothes have a four-fold use: 1) they are the badge of guilt, or souvenir of the fall (Gen_3:7; Gen_3:10; Gen_3:21); 2) they should be coverings against the weather; 3) they may be ornaments for the body, (Pro_31:22; Pro_31:25); 4) they may serve as a mark of rank (2Sa_13:18).—The abuse of clothes is three-fold; 1) in regard to the material, they may be costlier or more splendid than one’s wealth or rank admits of; 2) in respect of form, they may betray buffoonery and levity; 3) in respect to their object, they may be worn more for the display of luxury and pride than for protection and modest adornment.”—Foerster.
22. On Isa_4:2. “Germen Jehovae est nomen Messiœ mysticum, a nemine intellectum, quam qui tenet mysterium Patris et Christi. Idem valet quod filius propago Patris naturalis, in quo patris sui imago et gloria perfectissime splendet, Jessaiae in seqq. (Isa_9:5) בן ,ילד, filius, Joanni ὁ λόγενής τοῦ θεοῦ,ὁυἱὸς πρωὀτοκος μονογενής, processio Patris naturaλis. Est hic eruditi cujusdam viri elegans observatio, quae eodem tendit, quam non licet intactam praetermittere. Comparat ille inter se nomina Messiœ צמח דוד (Jer_23:5) et צמח יהוה in hoc loco. Cum autem prior appellatio absque dubitatione innuat, Messiam fore filium Davidis, docet posteriorem ἀναλογικῶς non posse aliud significare quam filium Jehovae, quod nomen Christi Jesu est μυστικώτερον, omni alio nomine excellentius. Addit non minus docte, personam, quae hic germen Jehovae dicitur, deinceps a propheta nostro appellari Jehovam (Isa_28:5).”—Vitringa. This exposition, which is retained by most Christian and orthodox commentators, ignores too much the fundamental meaning of the word צֶמַח, “Branch.” It is, nevertheless, not incorrect so far as the broader meaning includes the narrower concentrically. If “Branch of Jehovah” signifies all that is the personal offshoot of God, then, of course, that one must be included who is such in the highest and most perfect sense, and in so far the passage Isa_28:5 does not conflict with exposition given by us above.
[J. A. Alexander joins with Vitringa and Hengstenberg in regarding “the fruit of the earth,” as referring to the same subject as “the branch of the Lord,” viz.: the Messiah; and thus, while the latter term signifies the divine nature of the Messiah, the former signifies His human origin and nature; or if we translate “land” instead of earth, it points to his Jewish human origin. Thus appears an exact correspondence to the two parts of Paul’s description, Rom_1:3-4, and to the two titles used in the New Testament in reference to Christ’s two natures, Son of God and Son of Man.—Tr.].
23. On Isa_4:3-4. Great storms and upheavals, therefore, are needful, in order to make the fulfilment of this prophecy possible. There must first come the breath of God from above, and the flame of God from beneath over the earth, and the human race must first be tossed and sifted. The earth and mankind must first be cleansed by great judgments from all the leaven of evil. [J. A. Alexander, with Luther, Calvin, Ewald, maintains concerning the word Spirit in Isa_4:4, that “the safest and most satisfactory interpretation is that which understands by it a personal spirit, or as Luther expresses it, the Spirit who shall judge and burn.”—Tr.]. What survives these judgments is the remnant of which Isaiah speaks. This shall be holy. In it alone shall the Lord live and rule. This remnant is one with the new humanity which in every part, both as respects body and soul, will represent the image of Christ the second Adam. This remnant, at the same time, comprehends those whose names are written in the book of life. What sort of a divine book this may be, with what sort of corporal, heavenly reality, of course we know not. For Himself God needs no book. Yet if we compare the statements of the Revelation of John regarding the way in which the last judgment shall be held, with certain other New Testament passages, I think we obtain some explanation. We read Mat_19:28, that on the day of the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, the twelve apostles, too, shall sit on twelve thrones to judge the generations of Israel. And 1Co_5:2, we read that the saints shall judge the world. But, Rev_20:11, we find again the great white throne, whereon sits the great Judge of the living and the dead, after that, just before (Rev_4:4), it was said: “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them.” Afterwards it reads (Rev4:12): “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” And (Rev 4:15). “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” From this description there seems to me to result that the books necessarily are meant for those who are, by the Supreme Judge charged with the judgment of particular ones. To this end they need, in the first place, many books that contain the works of individuals. God has a book-keeping for the life of every man. This divine record will be produced to every single one at the day of judgment. Is he a Jew? by one of the twelve Apostles. Is he a heathen? by some other saint. No man shall be able to remonstrate against this account for it will carry the evidence of truth in itself, and in the consciences of those to be judged. Should such a protest occur, the arraigned will be referred to the book of life. This is only one. For it contains only names. After this manner will the separation be accomplished, spoken of in Mat_25:32 sq. For those whose names are found in the book of life go to the right side; the rest to the left. Then the great Judge Himself takes up the Word in the manner described in Mat_25:34 sqq., and calls the righteous to Himself, that they may inherit the kingdom that is prepared for them. But the wicked He repulses from Him into everlasting fire, that is prepared for the devil and his angels, in regard to which the account of the judgment in Matthew 25, as far as the end is concerned, harmonizes entirely with Rev_20:15.
24. On Isa_4:5-6. “The pillar of fire and cloud belongs to the miraculous graces by which the founding of the Old Testament kingdom of God was glorified just as the New Testament kingdom was by the signs that Jesus did, and by the charismata of the Apostolic time. But that appearance was quite appropriate to the state of developed revelation of that time. This had not reached the New Testament level, and not even the prophetic elevation that was possible under the Old Testament, but only the legal in which the divine stands outwardly opposed to the human. God is present among His people, but still in the most outward way; He does not walk in a human way among men; there is, too, no inward leading of the congregation by the Holy Spirit, but an outward conducting by a visible heavenly appearance. And, for these revelations to the whole people, God makes use entirely of nature, and, when it concerns His personal manifestation, of the elements. He does so, not merely in distinction from the patriarchal theophanies, …, but, particularly in contrast with heathenism, in order to accustom the Israelitish consciousness from the first not to deify the visible world, but to penetrate through it to the living, holy God, who has all the elements of nature at command as the medium of His revelation.”—Auberlen.
As at the close of John’s Revelation (chaps. 21, 22) we see the manifestation of the Godhead to humanity return to its beginning (Genesis 2, 3, 4), in as much as that end restores just that with which the beginning began, i.e. the dwelling of God with men, so, too, we see in Isa_4:5-6, a special manifestation of the (relative) beginning time recur again in the end time; the pillar of fire and cloud. But what in the beginning was an outward and therefore enigmatical and unenduring appearance, shall at last be a necessary and abiding factor of the mutual relation between God and mankind, that shall be established for ever in its full glory. There shall come a time wherein Israel shall expand to humanity and humanity receive power to become Israel, wherein, therefore, the entire humanity shall be Israel. Then is the tabernacle of God with men no more a pitiful tent, made of mats, but the holy congregation is itself the living abode of God; and the gracious presence of Almighty God, whose glory compares with the old pillar of fire and cloud, like the new, eternal house of God, with the old perishable tabernacle, is then itself the light and defence of His house.
25. On Isa_4:5-6. “But give diligence to learn this, that the Prophet calls to mind, that Christ alone is destined to be the defence and shade of those that suffer from heat and rain. Fasten your eyes upon Him, hang upon Him as ye are exhorted to do by the divine voice, ‘Him shall ye hear!’ Whoever hearkens to another, whoever looks to any other flesh than this, it is all over with him. For He alone shelters us from the heat, that comes from contemplating the majesty (i.e. from the terror that God’s holiness and righteousness inspire), He alone covers us from the rain and the power of Satan. This shade affords us a coolness, so that the dread of wrath gives way. For wrath cannot be there where thou seest the Son of God given to death for thee, that thou mightest live. Therefore I commend to you that name of Christ, wherewith the Prophet adorns Him, that He is a tabernacle for shade against the heat, a refuge and place of concealment from rain and tempest.”—Luther.—With some modification, we may apply here the comprehensive turn Foerster gives to our passage: 1) The dwelling of Mount Zion is the church; 2) the heat is the flaming wrath of God, and the heat of temptation (1Pe_4:12; Sir_2:4-5); 3) tempest and rain are the punishments of sins, or rather the inward and outward trials (Psalms 2.; Isa_57:20); 4) the defence or the pillar of cloud and fire is Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 10).
26. On Isa_5:1-7. This parable has a brother in the New Testament that looks very much like it. I might say: the head is almost the same. For the beginning of that New Testament parable (Mat_21:33; Mar_12:1), “A man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a wine-fat and built a tower,” is manifestly imitated after our passage. But here it is the vineyard that is bad, while there, in the New Testament, the husbandmen are good for nothing. Here the Lord appears as at once owner and cultivator of the vineyard; there the owner and cultivators are distinguished. This arises from the fact that the Lord Jesus apparently had in His mind the chiefs of the people, “the high-priests and elders” (Mat_21:23-24). From this it is manifest that here as there the vineyard is the nation. In Isaiah, however, the vineyard, that is to say the vine itself is accused. The whole people is represented as having equally gone to destruction. In the Synoptists, on the other hand, it is the chiefs and leaders that come between the Lord and His vineyard, and would exclude Him from His property, in order to be able to obtain it wholly for themselves, and divide it amongst them. Therefore there it is more the wicked greed of power and gain in the great that is reproved; here the common falling away of the whole nation.
27. Isa_5:8. Here the Prophet denounces the rich, the aristocracy, and capital. Thus he takes the part of the poor and lowly. That grasping of the rich and noble, which they display sometimes like beasts of prey, at other times gratify in a more crafty and legal fashion, the Prophet rebukes here in the sharpest manner. God’s work is opposed to every sin, and ever stands on the side of those that suffer oppression, no matter what may be their rank. God is no respecter of persons (Deu_10:17 sq.).
28. Isa_5:11-17. The morning hour, the hour when light triumphs over darkness, ought to be consecrated to works of light, as it is said: Aurora Musis amica, ἡώς τοι προΦέρει μἑυ, προφέρει δὲκαὶ ἕργου (Hesiod. ἑργ. κ. ήμ. 540) Morgenstund hat Gold im Mund. “It was,” says Foerster, “a laudable custom among the Persians, that the chamberlains entering in to their kings early in the morning, cried out with a loud voice: ‘Arise, O king, attend to business, as Mesoromastes commands.” On the other hand, “they that be drunken are drunken in the night,” 1Th_5:7 sq. So much the worse, then, when men do the works of night even in the early hour, and dare to abuse the light. “Plenus venter despumat in libidines,” says Augustine. In vino ἀσωτία (Eph_5:18). Corpus, opes, animam luxu Germania perdit. Melancthon. On Isa_5:15 Foerster cites the expression of Augustin: “God would not suffer any evil to be done in the world unless some good might thence be elicited.”
29. Isa_5:18. “Cords of vanity are false prejudices and erroneous conclusions. For example: no one is without sin, not even the holiest; God does not take notice of small sins; he that is among wolves must howl with them; a man cannot get along in the world with a scrupulous, tender conscience; the Lord is merciful, the flesh is weak, etc. By such like a man draws sin to him, binds his conscience fast, and resists the good motions of preventing grace. Thick cart-ropes signify a high degree of wickedness, the coarsest and most revolting prejudices. For example: God has no concern about human affairs; godliness delivers no one from misery and makes no one blessed; the threatenings of the prophets are not to be feared; there is no divine providence, no heaven, no hell (Deu_29:17-19). Out of such a man twists and knots a stout rope, with which he draws to him manifest blasphemy, entangles himself in it, so that often he cannot get loose, but is sold as a servant under sin (Rom_6:16; 1Ki_21:20; 1Ki_21:25).” Starke.
30. Isa_5:19. “The wicked mock at the patience and long-suffering of God, as if He did not see or care for their godless existence, but forgot them, and cast them out of mind (Psa_10:11), so that the threatened punishment would be omitted. They would say: there has been much threatening, but nothing will come of it; if God is in earnest, let Him, etc.; we don’t mind threats; let God come on if He will! Comp. Isa_22:12-13; Isa_28:21-22; Amo_5:18; Jer_5:12; Jer_8:11; Jer_17:15; Eze_12:21 sqq.” Starke.
31. Isa_5:20. “To make darkness of light, means to smother in oneself the fundamental truths that may be proved from the light of nature, and the correct conclusions inferred from them, but especially revealed truths that concern religion, and to pronounce them in others to be prejudices and errors. Bitter and sweet have reference to constitution, how it is known and experienced. To make sweet of bitter means, to recommend as sweet, pleasant and useful, what is bad and belongs to darkness, and is in fact bitter and distasteful, after one himself believes he possesses in the greatest evil the highest good.” Starke.
32. Isa_5:21. “Quotquot mortales” etc. As many as, taking counsel of flesh, pursue salvation with confidence of any sort of merit of their own or external privilege, a thing to which human nature is much inclined, oppose their own device to the wisdom of God, and, according to the prophet, are called wise in their own eyes (Isa_28:15; Isa_30:1-2; Jer_8:8-9; Jer_9:23 sq.; Jer_18:18). Vitringa.
33. Isa_5:26 sqq. The Prophet here expresses in a general way the thought that the Lord will call distant nations to execute judgment on Jerusalem, without having in mind any particular nation. Vitringa quotes a remarkable passage from the excerpts of John Antiochenus in Valesius (p. 816), where it is said, that immediately after Titus had taken Jerusalem, ambassadors from all the neighboring nations came to him to salute him as victor and present him crowns of honor. Titus refused these crowns, “saying that it was not he that had effected these things, but that they were done by God in the display of His wrath, and who had prospered his hands.” Comp. also the address of Titus to his soldiers after the taking of Jerusalem in Joseph. B. Jud. VII. 19.
HOMILETICAL HINTS
1. Isa_2:6-11. Idolatry. 1) What occasions it (alienation from God, Isa_2:6 a); 2) The different kinds: a. a coarse kind (Isa_2:6 b, Isa_2:8), b. a more refined kind (Isa_2:7); 3) Its present appearance (great honor of the idols and of their worshippers, Isa_2:9); 4) Its fate at last (deepest humiliation before the revelation of the majesty of God of all that do not give glory to Him (Isa_2:10; Isa_2:18).
2. Isa_2:12-22. The false and the true eminence. 1) False eminence is that which at first appears high, but at last turns out to be low (to this belongs impersonal as well as supersensuous creatures, which at present appear as the highest in the world, but at last, in the day of the Lord of Hosts, shall turn out to be nothing); 2) The real eminence is that which at first is inconspicuous and inferior, but which at last turns out to be the highest, in fact the only high one.
3. Isa_3:1-9. Sin is the destruction of a people. 1) What is sin? Resisting the Lord: a. with the tongue, b. with deeds, c. with the interior being (Isa_3:8-9); 2) In what does the destruction consist (or the fall according to Isa_3:8 a)? a. in the loss of every thing that constitutes the necessary and sure support of the commonwealth (Isa_3:1-3); b. in insecure and weak props rising up (Isa_3:4); c. in the condition that follows of being without a Master (Isa_3:5); d. in the impossibility of finding any person that will take the governance of such a ruinous state (Isa_3:6-7).
4. Isa_3:4. Insurrection is forbidden by God in express words, who says to Moses “that which is altogether just thou shalt follow,” Deu_16:20. Why may not God permit an intolerable and often unjust authority to rule a land for the same reason that He suffers children to have bad and unjust parents, and the wife a hard and intolerable husband, whose violence they cannot resist? Is it not expressly said by the Prophet “I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them?” “I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath,” Hos_13:11. Tholuck.
5. Isa_3:10-13. “Let us learn to distinguish between false and real comfort.” 1) False comfort deals in illusion: the real deals in truth; 2) The false produces a present effect; the real a lasting one; 3) The false injures the one comforted; the real is health to him.” Harms.
6. Isa_4:2-6. The holiness of God’s Church on earth that is to be looked for in the future. 1) Its preliminary: the judgment of cleansing and purifying (Isa_4:4); 2) What is requisite to becoming a partaker? a. belonging to the remnant (Isa_4:2-3); b. being written in the book of life (Isa_4:3); 3) The surety of its permanence: the gracious presence of the Lord (Isa_4:5-6).
7. Isa_5:21. The ruin of trusting in one’s own Wisdom 1) Those that have such confidence set themselves above God, which is: a. the greatest wickedness, b. the greatest folly; 2) They challenge the Divine Majesty to maintain its right (Isa_5:24).
Footnotes:
[1]Heb. deceiving with their eyes.
[2]Or, tripping nicely.
[3]Heb. make naked.
[4]Or, networks.
[5]Or, sweet balls.
[6]Or, spangled ornaments.
[7]Heb. houses of the soul.
[8]Heb. might.
[9]Or, emptied.
[10]Heb. cleansed.
[11]Heb. let thy name be called upon us.
[12]Or, Take thou away.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv16–24 Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, &c.--Luxury had…
Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, &c.--Luxury had become great in Uzziah's prosperous reign (Ch2 26:5).
stretched forth--proudly elevated (Psa 75:5).
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wanton--rather, "making the eyes to glance about," namely, wantonly (Pro 6:13) [MAURER]. But LOWTH, "falsely setting off the eyes with paint." Women's eyelids in the East are often colored with stibium, or powder of lead (see on Job 42:14; Jer 4:30, Margin).
mincing--tripping with short steps.
tinkling--with their ankle-rings on both feet, joined by small chains, which sound as they walk, and compel them to take short steps; sometimes little bells were attached (Isa 3:18, Isa 3:20).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 16. The course of thought which had been interrupted…
16. The course of thought which had been interrupted at Isa_3:12 is here resumed.
Moreover the Lord saith — In addition to what he had already said, as reasons for divine judgment yet to come on Judah and Jerusalem.
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Because the daughters of Zion — Or, the women of Jerusalem.
Are haughty — Are proud. In the prosperous reign of Uzziah there was not only much wealth, but probably it was generally diffused.
And walk with stretched forth necks — With ostentatious display of neck, perhaps to appear taller; the Septuagint, “with lofty neck.”
And wanton eyes — With fascinating glance of eyes, or with attempts to allure, as they walked.
And mincing as they go — Taking affectedly short steps.
Making a tinkling — With ankle-rings made of silver, or gold, or ivory; still used by upper class women in Syria, India, and Egypt.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv16–24 16. daughters of Zion] The “haughtiness” of the daughters…
16. daughters of Zion] The “haughtiness” of the daughters of Zion is displayed in their gestures as they walk abroad. They walk with outstretched neck, and ogling with their eyes; tripping along they go, and tinkling with their feet. The reference in the last words is to the jingling sound of the anklets (Isa_3:18) and the short chain uniting them (Isa_3:20); the latter also produced the tripping gait mentioned in the previous clause.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv16–24 (16) Because the daughters of Zion . . .—From…
(16) Because the daughters of Zion . . .—From the princes that worked evil, Isaiah turns to their wives, sisters, concubines, who were showing themselves degenerate daughters of Sarah and Rebecca. A like denunciation meets us in Isa_32:9-12, but this is without a parallel in the minuteness of its detail. It is as though the prophet had gone into the boudoir of one of the leaders of the fashions of Jerusalem, and taken an inventory of what he found there. Possibly we may trace the influence of the prophetess-wife of Isaiah (Isa_8:3), seeking to recall those of her own sex to a higher life. We note, on a smaller scale, a like teaching in the married apostle (1Pe_3:3-4). Twenty-one distinct articles are mentioned. Their names for the most part appear to have a foreign stamp on them. Then, as at other times, luxury imported its novelties, and the women of Judah took up the fashions of those of Tyre or Damascus or Philistia. It is not without interest to compare the protests of Juvenal (Sat. vi.), Dante (Purgat. xxiii. 106-111), Chrysostom, and Savonarola against like evils.
With stretched forth necks . . .—The corruption which the prophet paints showed itself then, as it has done in later times, in the adoption by the decent classes of society of the gait and glances of the harlots of alien birth (comp. Pro_7:9-21), with, perhaps, the difference of a certain affectation of coyness.
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Making a tinkling with their feet.—Small silver bells were fastened on the ankles, and so the beauties of Jerusalem carried, as it were, their music with them. The custom still exists in Syria and Arabia, though forbidden by the Koran. English nursery rhymes seem to recall a time when it was not unknown in Western Europe.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv16–24 The daughters of Zion. It is over-fanciful to go…
The daughters of Zion. It is over-fanciful to go beyond the plain meaning of the words here, and suppose allegory. "The daughters of Zion" are the female inhabitants of Jerusalem. Are haughty; or, proud like the men. (Isa_2:11, Isa_2:12, Isa_2:17) Walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes. Mr. Cheyne translates, "ogling eyes." Both actions indicate the desire to attract men"s attention, and are shameless and immodest. Walking and mincing as they go; i.e. taking short steps in an affectedly childish way. Making a tinkling with their feet. This meaning is generally accepted, though not very certain. It has been suggested that the anklets which they wore (ver. 18) had silver bells attached to them.
Vers. 16-24. The share which women have in producing the ruin of a nation.
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The influence of women upon men was intended to be helpful, (Gen_2:20) purifying, and refining. Woman is naturally more pure than man, more modest, more retiring, more instinctively right in her moral judgments. Good women exercise an extraordinary influence over the best men, who continually consult them in the most difficult crises of politics and diplomacy. They read men far better than men read one another, and are excellent counselors on many of the most important occasions. But as the power for good which they wield is great, so is their power for evil. Corruptio optimi pessima. Bad women are far worse than the worst men; and the ruin of a state is always partly, sometimes mainly, caused by its women. The sins of women chiefly noted by Isaiah in this passage are:
1. The vanity and love of admiration which show themselves in excessive attention to dress and ornament.
2. The wantonness and immodesty which sometimes characterize their conduct.
3. The pride and haughtiness which under certain circumstances they display. All these are corrupting influences in a state, and help forward its decay and ruin.
I VANITY AND LOVE OF ADMIRATION, AS SHOWN IN EXCESSIVE ATTENTION TO DRESS AND ORNAMENT. The desire to please is not in itself wrong, and attention to dress within certain limits is to be commended. A woman does not prove herself perfectly virtuous by being a sloven. But there is an attention to such matters and a quasi-devotion to them which is plainly excessive, and which has often the most injurious consequences. A tone of frivolity is engendered by much consideration of matters so trivial, which unfits a woman for dealing with the difficult problems of life and action. The management of her household and the training of her children, which are the principal duties, at any rate, of married women, are apt to be neglected by the woman of fashion, who dresses five times a day, and passes half her time at her toilet-table. Serious inroads are made upon a husband"s means, sometimes to the extent of actual ruin, by the extravagance of those who cannot bear to see any one better dressed than themselves. Selfishness, worldliness, littleness, are impressed on the character, all higher aims being set aside, and nothing sought but the admiration of the other sex.
II WANTONNESS AND IMMODESTY often follow on the love of admiration and grow out of it. A woman who courts admiration forgets the reserve which becomes her sex, and is tempted to enhance her charms by an indecorous display of them. Once let the limits of modesty be overstepped, and one defense falls after another. Facilis descensus Averni. Wanton glances (ver. 16) are succeeded by immodest words, and these lead on to immodest deeds; and at last every barrier is thrown down, and the world sees a Messalina or a Lucrezia Borgia. General immodesty in the women of a state is of infrequent occurrence; but where it occurs, is an almost certain indication of approaching social dissolution. The most flagrant instance is that of Rome. There, from the time of the establishment of the empire, the disorders of married and domestic life were excessive. "A kind of rivalry in impurity grew up between the two sexes; and there were more seducers than seduced of the female sex" (Dollinger, "Jew and Gentile," vol. ii. p. 257). "In Rome the women, deprived of all moral support, became just what the men made them, and so sank with them incessantly deeper and deeper" (ibid., p. 276). Historians generally, ascribe the fall of the Roman empire to no cause more than to the corruption of the Roman women.
III PRIDE AND HAUGHTINESS are not natural vices of women; but, when developed, they attain vast proportions, and lead on to great calamlties. Jezebel and Athaliah in Old Testament history, Amestris and Parysatis in Persian, Tanaquil in Roman, are examples of the power of women for evil, when they step out of their sphere, assume to direct the policy of states, dispense life and death, and lord it over the people of a kingdom. In such cases their haughtiness outdoes that of men, and provokes a more intense feeling of dissatisfaction and resentment. Revolution often follows, or in any case disaffection towards the government; and an additional element of danger is introduced, which becomes fatal under certain circumstances. Altogether, it would seem that women have quite as much influence as men towards producing the ruin of states, and are quite as responsible for political catastrophes.
Ver. 16-1Co_7:36) One of our poets has called up the picture of Venice and her women in old days of mirth and folly, which may be compared. "As for Venice and her people, merely born to bloom and drop, Here on earth they bore their fruitage mirth and folly were the crop. What of soul was left, I wonder, when the kissing had to stop? Dust and ashes!
Only the "sweet and virtuous soul" can give to woman an immortal charm, and ensure her from corrupting and being corrupted. J.
Vers. 16-26. The vanity of vanity.
The graphic pen of the prophet brings before us the thoughts
I THAT THE LAST AND SADDEST SYMPTOM OF NATIONAL DECLINE IS FOUND IN WOMANLY FOLLY. "Moreover... the daughters of Zion," etc. (ver. 16). Corruption may have spread far and done much evil work in the community, but there is hope for the city or the Church so long as the wives and the mothers, the daughters and the sisters, retain their moral and spiritual integrity. When that is gone all is gone. Purity and worth find their last retreat under the domestic roof; if they be driven thence they are doomed to die, and with them perish the prospects of the land.
II THAT PRIDE AND VANITY IN WOMAN ARE OFFENSIVE IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. His prophet here condemns them "because they are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks" (ver. 16); he also describes, evidently in the spirit of strong reprobation, the various articles and instruments of vanity (vers. 18-23). Here are denounced the two sins of pride and vanity the overweening estimate of self, and the foolish desire to excite the attention and the passing admiration of others. To be blind to our own defects and, at the same time, to magnify our own excellences, thus gaining and exhibiting a sense of our own goodness and importance quite beyond the measure of our deserts, such pride is hateful to God. (Psa_18:27 Psa_101:5 Pro_6:17 1Pe_5:5) And vanity is nearly as offensive as pride. To be studying, by every art, to attract the notice of our fellows, and to be peevishly, nervously anxious to secure their praise, instead of seeking first the approval of God and then the commendation of our own conscience, this is sinful in the sight of the holy and the true One. We may safely say
III THAT THESE ARE NOT ONLY HEINOUS OFFENCES AGAINST GOD, BUT PITIABLE MISTAKES IN THE SIGHT OF MAN.
1. Those who assume a worth to which they are not entitled, and hence walk arrogantly before the world, do not receive the tribute of honor which they claim; they only excite derision and contempt.
2. They who, by meretricious ornamentations of their person or their style, endeavor to draw to themselves admiring observation, only succeed in provoking the smile of pity or disdain.
IV THAT FRIVOLITY IN MAN OR WOMAN WILL MEET ITS DOOM IN THE DAY OF DIVINE PENALTY. (Vers. 24-26.) This will involve:
1. The removal of the sources of frivolous delight. These "the Lord will take away" (ver. 18). For how brief a day do the pleasures of sense last! How soon the sun goes down on the trivialities and temporalities with which the sons and daughters of men amuse themselves and waste their time!
2. A visitation answering to the folly (ver. 24). Sin finds itself paid in its own coin.
3. The sorrow which comes with a sense of desolation (ver. 26). The "arm of flesh" will fail; the human admiration and attention will soon pass. And if the esteem of the wise and the favor of God have been unsought, there is nothing left; everything is in ruins. C.
Dress and character.
The Word of God has sometimes things to say which it cannot be satisfied to address generally to mankind; it requires a more direct superscription for its message, and writes to men, to women, even sometimes to wives, maidens, mothers, widows, children. In the effort of Isaiah to produce a deep and general conviction of the national sin and disgrace and impending ruin, he singles out the women of that day; he bids us trace the influence of a godless luxury in their vain dressing, frivolous manners, and overloaded ornamentation and jeweler. He intimates that the nobler qualities of womanly mind and character were being lost in this great increase of frivolity and vanity; and he sets us upon imagining not only the present degradation of the land, but the yet deeper degradation that must come, the utter ruin of the generation that owned such women as mothers. Hallam says, "The love of becoming ornament is not perhaps to be regarded in the light of vanity; it is rather an instinct which woman has received from nature to give effect to those charms which are her defense; and when commerce began to minister more efficiently to the wants of luxury, the rich furs of the north, the gay silks of Asia, the wrought gold of domestic manufacture, illumined the halls of chivalry, and cast, as if by the spell of enchantment, that ineffable grace over beauty which the choice and arrangement of dress is calculated to bestow." God cannot be especially pleased with a clothing of wearisome drab; and he must know that when bright colors are forsworn, the vanity of the human heart will still find expression in shape and pattern. He is ever dressing the brown earth in garments of grass and flower, pluming the wings of his birds with varied tints; and making gorgeous with bars of gold and crimson and blue the sky at sun setting. There are a few simple rules of dress which at once commend themselves to Christian judgment.
I A CHRISTIAN SHOULD DRESS WITHIN REASONABLE EXPENSE, What is reasonable expense can never be settled by figures; it must always be left to individual decision; the utmost carefulness of one person may, relative to station, appear censurable extravagance to another person. But we may say this: any expenditure is unreasonable which deprives us of the means for meeting those higher claims which may be made upon us claims of
(1) food,
(2) family,
(3) education,
(4) hospitality,
(5) charity, or
(6) religion.
And all expenditure on luxurious dress is unreasonable, which prevents our laying aside something against the calamities, diseases, and old age of the future. Above all, dressing which involves the spending of money which belongs to our creditors is a lie towards men, and an insult to God. Archbishop Leighton says," Excessive costliness argues and feeds the pride of the heart, and defrauds, if not others of their dues, yet the poor of their charity, which in God"s sight is a due debt too; and far more comfort shalt thou have on thy death-bed, to remember that at such a time, instead of putting lace on my own back, I helped a naked back to clothing.
II A CHRISTIAN SHOULD DRESS ACCORDING TO THE BEST STANDARDS OF TASTE. Best, not necessarily newest. These you will discover, not by observing persons who are foremost in fashion, but by observing those persons for whom you have the most real respect. Whatever may be the class of society to which you belong, you can discern, within the limits of your sphere, the contrast between the dress of the shallow, the frivolous, and vain, and the dress of the thoughtful, the humble, and the worthy. Peter gives an idea of the standard of taste, in 1Pe_3:3-5.
III A CHRISTIAN SHOULD DRESS SUITABLY TO THE SPHERE IN LIFE WHICH SHE OCCUPIES, AND THE CLASS OF SOCIETY TO WHICH SHE BELONGS. If you do not act thus, you make yourself a caricature; you must be a hypocrite, trying to deceive people into the idea that you are what you know that you are not. Most people easily read the disguise, and put a low estimate on the persons who foolishly resort to it. We honor the men and women who bravely say, "My sphere in life may be humble, but it is honest, and therefore it is honorable. I am not ashamed to dress according to it. I can occupy my place, and look just myself, with the smile of God, and the approbation of all good men, upon me." Let servants dress as servants, maidens as maidens, married women as married, and the aged as aged. Each to herself be true.
IV A CHRISTIAN SHOULD DRESS SO AS TO SERVE GOD BY HER DRESS. Our dress has an influence on others-on those in our station, on those in classes of society below us, and on the children we meet. This mode of influence is to be laid in service on the Lord"s altar. Two points may be impressed from these considerations.
1. Dress reveals character. This is true of the character of each individual. We often take our notions of a person from her dress. Carelessness, untidiness, and uncleanliness, things which are very nearly akin to ungodliness, are revealed only by looking at some, so-called, well-dressed people. Self-conceit, passion, and temper are exhibited in others. Sometimes we see persons of whom we think very pityingly. Poor creatures! There is little inside the cozy dress but vanity, pride, and worldliness. And others as certainly tells us of the inward modesty, the delicacy, seriousness, refinement of their souls. Burns sings"Oh, wad some poo"er the giftie gic us, To see o"orsels as ithers see us!
And many of us have longed for the courage to tell others around us the impression which their dress was making upon us. If the looking-glass could speak, what surprising revelations it would make! It is true also of nations ; dress is characteristic. It is true of towns and districts in our own land. In some parts of our country, where wages are good, and imitation finery is cheap, we find sharp contrasts of color, commonness of material, rude bold shapes, and overloading of tinsel. In other parts where work is concerned with the more necessary articles required for man"s use, the taste is sober, the quality good, and ornamentation refined.
2. Dress cultures character. A woman feels right when she is well dressed, and in a sense is kept right by her dress. The beautiful in appearance wants the beautiful in conduct to match it. Plato says, "Behavior, and not gold, is the ornament of woman. For a woman who wishes to enjoy the favor of one man, good behavior is the proper ornament, and not dresses. You should have the blush upon your countenance, which is the sign of modesty, instead of paint, and worth and sobriety instead of gold and emeralds. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v16 The daughters of Zion are haughty
Isa_3:16-24
The daughters of Zion are haughty
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Wanton eyes
(twinkling with the eyes):--Compare the Talmudic witticism, God did not create the woman out of Adams ear, lest she might become an eavesdropper; nor out of Adams eye, lest she might become a winker.
(F. Delitzsch.)
The wanton eyes
The wanton eyes of A.V., or the ogling eyes of others, introduces an idea foreign to the connection. There seems no reference to immorality. It is the pride of beauty and attire, which has no mind for the Ruler above, which is punished with all that makes loathsome. (A. B. Davidson, LL. D.)
A mincing gait
The rendering should rather be tripping; for only such little steps can they take, owing to their pace chains, which join together the costly foot rings that were placed above the ankle. With these pace chains, which perhaps even then as now, were sometimes provided with little bells, they make a tinkling sound, clinking the ankle ornaments, by placing the feet in such a way as to make these ankle rings strike one another. (F. Delitzsch.)
Pride of beauty and attire reproved
The prophets business was to show all sorts of people what they had contributed to the national guilt, and what share they must expect in the national judgments that were coming. Here he reproves and warns the daughters of Zion, tells the ladies of their faults.
I. THE SIN CHARGED UPON THE DAUGHTERS OF ZION. The prophet expressly voucheth Gods Authority for what he said, lest it should be thought it was unbecoming him to take notice of such things, and should be ill resented by the ladies. The Lord saith it. Whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, let them know that God takes notice of, and is much displeased with, the folly and vanity of proud women; and His law takes cognisance even of their dress Such a nice affected mien is not only a force upon that which is natural, and ridiculous before men of sense, but, as it is an evidence of a vain mind, it is offensive to God. And two things aggravated it here--
1. That these were the daughters of Zion--the holy mountain--who should have carried themselves with the gravity that becomes women professing godliness.
2. That it should seem by the connection they were the wives and daughters of the princes who spoiled and oppressed the poor (Isa_3:14-15), that they might maintain this pride and luxury of their families.
II. THE PUNISHMENTS THREATENED FOR THIS SIN, and they answer the sin as face answers to face in a glass (Isa_3:17-18).
1. They walked with stretched forth necks. But God will smite with a scab the crown of their head, which shall lower their crests, and make them ashamed to show their heads, being obliged by it to cut off their hair.
2. They cared not what they laid out in furnishing themselves with great variety of fine clothes; but God will reduce them to such poverty and distress that they should not have clothes sufficient to cover their nakedness.
3. They were extremely fond and proud of their ornaments; but God will strip them of those ornaments, when their houses shall be plundered, their treasures rifled, and they themselves led into captivity.
4. They were very nice and curious about their clothes, but God would make those bodies of theirs a reproach and burden to them (Isa_3:24).
5. They designed by these ornaments to charm the gentlemen, and win their affections, but there shall be none to be charmed by them (Isa_3:25). (Matthew Henry.)
A Jerusalem fashion plate
This is a Jerusalem fashion plate. (T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.)
Comely clothing natural
That we should all be clad is proved by the opening of the first wardrobe in Paradise, with its apparel of dark green. That we should all as far as our means allow us be beautifully and gracefully apparelled is proved by the fact that God never made a wave but He gilded it with golden sunbeams, or a tree but He garlanded it with blossoms, or a sky but He studded it with stars, or allowed even the smoke of a furnace to ascend but He columned, and turreted, and doled, and scrolled it into outlines of indescribable gracefulness. When I see the apple orchards of the spring, and the pageantry of the autumnal forests, I come to the conclusion that if Nature ever does join the Church, while she may be a Quaker in the silence of her worship, she never will be a Quaker in the style of her dress. Why the notches of a fern ear or the stamen of a water lily? Why, when the day departs, does it let the folding doors of heaven stay open so long, when it might go in so quickly? (T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.)
Costume and morals
1. Much of the worldly costume of our time is the cause of the temporal and eternal ruin of a multitude of men.
2. Extravagant costume is the foe of all Christian almsgiving.
3. Is distraction to public worship.
4. Belittles the intellect. Our minds are enlarged, or they dwindle just in proportion to the importance of the subject on which they constantly dwell.
5. It shuts a great multitude out of heaven. You will have to choose between the goddess of fashion and the Christian God. (T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.)
God-defying extravagance of modern society
1. This wholesale extravagance accounts for a great deal of depression in national finances. Aggregates are made up of units, and so long as one-half of the people of this country are in debt to the other half, you cannot have a healthy financial condition.
2. The widespread extravagance accounts for much of the crime. It is the source of many abscondings, bankruptcies, defalcations, and knaveries.
3. It also accounts for much of the pauperism in the country. Who are the individuals and the families who are thrown on your charity? Who has sinned against them so that they suffer? It is often the case that their parents, or their grandparents, had all luxuries, lived everything up, more than lived everything up, and then died, leaving their families in want. (T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v16 Isa_3:16-17. Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of…
HAUGHTINESS
Isa_3:16-17. Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, … therefore the Lord will smite.
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A terrible doom is here denounced against the Jewish women, not because they were vicious, but because they were haughty. Haughtiness is found also in men, though in them its manifestations are somewhat different. It is therefore a question of universal interest. In what respects is haughtiness sinful?
I. The sinfulness of haughtiness is manifest in view of what it is. Webster defines it as “pride mingled with some degree of contempt for others; arrogance.” It is a compound iniquity, and as such is doubly offensive. In the chemical world two deadly ingredients may neutralise each other’s noxious qualities, and form a harmless and useful article: e.g., water, a compound of hydrogen and oxygen; common salt, a compound of chlorine and sodium. But it is never so in the moral world: combinations of iniquities are always especially offensive. How then must God look upon haughtiness, which is made up of two sins most emphatically denounced in His Word!
II. The sinfulness of haughtiness is manifest in view of its sources. Clearly it springs—
1. From a forgetfulness of our dependence upon God. Of what is it that we are so proud that we cannot conceal our pride? It is of gifts which we have received from God (1Co_4:7), and for the continued possession of which we are absolutely dependent on His will. Some are haughty because of what they are—beautiful, talented, &c.; others because of what they have—rank, money, &c.; others because of what they have done—on the field of battle, in art, literature, &c. But personal excellences, amplitude of possessions, or great success, should produce in us not self-exaltation, but gratitude to God. To be ungrateful is to be base; and as haughtiness is one of the flowers that spring from ingratitude, that evil root which has for its seed forgetfulness of our dependence upon God, it is base and hateful too.
2. From a forgetfulness of the purposes for which God has so richly endowed us. God endows and helps men, not for their own gratification, but that they may more effectually help others. This great law runs through the whole universe. The sun is filled with light, in order that it may be a light; the violet with perfume, in order that it may diffuse its perfume. So is it with ourselves. In proportion to our gifts we are stewards for God, and were intended to be channels of blessing: great gifts, therefore, should not cause us to swell with foolish arrogance, but should weigh us down with a solemn sense of our responsibility.
3. From a forgetfulness of our relation to our fellow-men. God is our Father, and all men are our brethren, but we forget this, and so we behave ourselves towards many as if they were made of an inferior clay. In a household, the children who have sight look not with scorn, but with compassion, on a sister who is blind; and if we remembered that all men are our brethren, our perception of their shortcomings as compared with ourselves would excite, not our pride, but our pity.
III. The sinfulness of haughtiness is manifest in view of its emphatic discord with the example of Christ. Every sin may be condemned on this ground, yet haughtiness is in an especial manner in flagrant contradiction to that embodiment and manifestation of excellence which we have in the character of our Lord. In His dealings with men, even the lowest and most degraded, who can detect one trace of arrogance? Notice especially, that while He never called attention to His temperance, His truthfulness, His prayerfulness, &c., He did point out meekness as the feature by which He was especially distinguished, and by which His followers were to resemble Him, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.”
1. We may see now why haughtiness, which we are so accustomed to treat as a trivial thing, is so emphatically condemned in God’s Word.
2. A very moderate acquaintance with human life is enough to teach us that haughtiness is a prolific source of sorrow, as well as a sin. It is so in those towards whom it is manifested; slights are resented as insults, and brooded over as bitter wrongs. It is so in those by whom it is manifested: the haughty meet with repeated mortifications, arising from the rejection of their claims to superiority [565] and they are frequently brought into perilous collision with persons of like temper. An intelligent self-interest would lead us to shun that which God denounces as a sin.
3. While haughtiness may be natural in the children of this world, it is a grave and alarming inconsistency in the professed followers of Jesus.
[565] A proud man layeth himself open to blows by his presumption, and, like bubbles of soap-water, the bigger he grows the weaker he is, and swells till he bursts.—Dumoulin.
FEMALE PRIDE AND LUXURY
Isa_3:16, Isa_4:1. Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, &c.
We have here a terrible denunciation of female pride and luxury. Consider—
I. ITS COMMONNESS. In almost every age and country there have been women such as are here described.
II. ITS CAUSES. There must be powerful causes to produce such a wide-spread effect. Like all things that are wrong, these evil things—the pride and luxury of so many women—are due to perversions of things that are right,—mainly, to certain things which are among the differentia of the female sex, such as—
1. A keener love of beauty than is common among men. The love of many women for soft textures and bright colours is as innocent, and free from all trace of personal vanity, as is the love of children for flowers.
2. A stronger yearning for admiration than is common among men. There are vain men, always on the outlook for indications of admiration, and they are simply contemptible. But it is an instinct of the true woman-nature to desire to be loved, and to value highly all things that tend to win love.
3. A recognition of the gifts of personal beauty. As a rule, women have more to be proud of in this respect than have men. If a woman is fair, she is simply a hypocrite if she pretends not to know it. Then there come in,
4. Rivalry, which in itself is a right thing, but becomes a harmful thing when women set themselves to out-dress each other.
5. Timidity, one of the graces of the female character, but that often leads to great evils. Few men have the courage to be singular, and fewer women sufficient self-reliance not to follow the fashion. But the pride and luxury of women is largely due also to the folly of men:—
(1.) Most men esteem and reward clothes more than character. Men are taken by such things as are mentioned in our text, and the fisher is not much to be blamed for adapting the bait to the taste of the fish.
(2.) Even of those men who condemn female luxury in the abstract, few have the courage to banish it from their own homes.
(3.) The lips of many men are sealed on this question by their own vices. They have their indulgences, and one of the prices which they pay for peace in their pursuit is silence as to this indulgence on the part of their wives and daughters. There is an unexpressed but wicked compromise on this matter.
III. ITS CONSEQUENCES.
1. The intellectual degradation of woman, the concentration of nearly all her thoughts on the question of dress.
2. The moral debasement of many women. For the means of gratifying their craving for luxury and display, how many have sold their virtue!
3. The destruction of that female influence which should always be exerted, and when exerted, is so powerful in aid of moral nobility. Sensual grossness in men is at once a cause and consequence of licentious vanity in women.
4. Commercial frauds, to which men resort to provide the means for the maintenance of the luxury of their homes.
Men and women are thus partakers in this sin, and as such, in the days of visitation, they shall suffer together (Isa_3:17; Isa_3:25; Isa_4:1) [568]
[568] Isa_4:1. The Jewess, like the ancient Roman, or modern Englishwoman, was called by her husband’s name; and she prized the honour of wedlock, and dreaded the reproach of childlessness, at least as much as either of these; but we most contrast the dignified expression of these feelings by Sarah, Hannah, and Elizabeth, nay, even that of the jealous and petulant Rachel, with the exhibition which the prophet now contemplates in his mind’s eye, in order to see the picture of social disorganisation which he sees. If a harem of wives and concubines was still a part of the king’s state in Isaiah’s time, though we have no proof of this, it is quite improbable that polygamy was the common custom of the nation, or that they had not long passed out of the half-civilised condition and habits for which Moses had provided in his laws for the protection of the female slaves whom a man might take at the same time for his wives; but now Isaiah says that these women, whose luxury and pride he has just described, will abandon even the natural reserve of their sex, and not only force themselves several upon one man, but declare that they will be content to share with each other a legalised concubinage in which they will not claim the concubine’s ancient right of bread and apparel, which the old law (Exo_21:10) had in express terms secured to her, if only they may bear his name. It need not be supposed that Isaiah anticipated the literal fulfilment of his words; we shall probably understand him better by taking this as an instance of that poetic or rhetorical hyperbole, which he so delights to use for the more forcible expression of his moral and political teaching. The mystery which some commentators have seen in the numbers “seven” and “one” in this passage, and which is even said to have occasioned the separation of this portion of the prophecy into a distinct chapter, perhaps makes worth while the obvious remark that it is nothing more than the wide-spread idiom of modern as well as ancient languages, by which a definite or round number is put for an indefinite. Seven is thus generally used by the Hebrews for any considerable number, as it was among the Egyptians and Persians, and is still said to be in the East. The Moguls are said to employ nine in like manner. So, in English, we put five or ten for any small, and a hundred for a large number, in conversation; though the genius of our language forbids such idioms in graver discourse.—Strachey, pp. 55, 56.
THE DESOLATING AND DISORGANISING POWER OF WAR
Isa_4:1. And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will at our own bread and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach [571]
[571] See note to preceding outline.
This verse gives us a vivid picture of the desolating and disorganising power of war. The 25th and 26th verses of the previous chapter say “Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn, and she being desolate shall sit on the ground.” This righteous chastisement has come. So often have the men been called into the field, so exterminating has been the carnage, as that now few men remain. The natural proportion of the sexes is disturbed. This disorganisation invades woman’s nature. Her natural modesty departs. With violent importunity seven women press marriage on one man. They will be no expense to him; they will earn their own food and raiment, if he will only give them his name in marriage. The writer of this outline has recently travelled in a land [Mexico] whose revolutions during the last fifty years have been so frequent as that he found parts of the country where the prophet’s words are true to-day. The men have been killed in battle. In some districts there are seven women to one man.
I. The tendency of sin is to produce war and to degrade women. The apostle James has described the genesis of war (Isa_4:1). Nations are but the aggregate of individuals. If the lusts of selfishness, greed, malice, &c., nestle like vipers in the hearts of individual men, they will be manifest in the nation.
1. Sin deteriorates man’s intellectual faculties. In its present unpurified condition, the human intellect is not inventive enough to discover those commercial relationships which will eventually bind in bonds of amity the nations of the world together.
2. Sin intensifies human selfishness. One of the most desolating wars of modern times originated in that gross selfishness which was too blind to see that it was a sin to hold property in man.
3. Sin intensifies human greed. “Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark,” is a despised threat. Again and again has war originated in greed of territory and lust of plunder.
4. Sin intensifies human ambition. In the heart of all great conquerors, from Nimrod to Napoleon, has lain the lust of unholy ambition. Their motto has ever been “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.”
5. Side by side with these lusts of selfishness, greed, ambition, &c, there has been a lack of justice and mercy. No mind having these latter sentiments healthily developed could “cry havock and let slip the dogs of war.” When the leaders of nations learn “to do justly and love mercy,” wars will be less common.
6. With war have come numerous evils to woman. The text describes some of them. Others come to the surface every day. Her husband has been forced from her side, or her sons have died on the battlefield; very bitter have been woman’s sorrows,—“Yea, a sword hath pierced through her own soul also.” And always where soldiers are multiplied in a land, and taken away from useful employment, women have been polluted and degraded. War and womanly degradation are inseparable evils.
II. It is the tendency of Christianity to produce peace and elevate woman.
1. To produce peace in its loftiest and widest sense Christ came into the world. The prophet Isaiah predicted Him as the Prince of Peace (Isa_9:6). At His birth angels sang, “Peace on earth, good-will to man” (Luk_2:14).
2. By His atoning work He has laid the foundation of peace between man and God, and consequently between man and man.
3. The direct influence of Christ’s religion is to restrain and destroy those evil propensities out of which wars originate—lust of greed, ambition, malice, &c. What is in the individual comes out in the community. As individuals and nations become truly Christian and form the majority, wars will cease.
4. Prophecy speaks of a time coming when the principles of Christianity shall be in the ascendant, and then men shall beat their swords into ploughshares, &c., &c. (chap. Isa_2:4).
5. As the gospel of peace advances in a land woman’s condition is always elevated. The Christian man honours woman as no other man does. As he grows into the stature of Christ, woman’s lot is always happier. Compare woman’s status in pagan, Mohammedan, and barbarous lands, with her status in Christendom.
III. Hence while the Gospel claims as its advocate every Christian man, it has special claims on the service of every pious woman.—Every good man is called upon to spread the blessings of Christianity as widely as possible. But there are some evils whose removal appeals specially to pious women. Every good woman should throw her influence into the aggregate of the peace spirit, as against that war spirit which in certain stages of civilisation seems so natural to man. All women should join together to make up an army of peace promoters, outnumbering the men of the sword. To relieve their sisters from sorrow and save them from degradation, should be the aim of all good women.—William Parkes.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv16, 18, 21, 24 the daughters of Zion
the daughters of Zion
Zion, meaning here the city of Jerusalem, is spoken of as if it were a woman with her daughters. AT: "the women of Zion" (See: Metaphor)
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with their necks extended
"in an arrogant way""
with flirting eyes
Looking at men in a way that makes the men think the women want sexual relations.
walking with tiny steps as they go
This is how they would walk to attract men, possibly because the bracelets on their ankles were connected by chains decorated with bells so they could not take normal steps.
translationWords
Yahweh
Zion
proud
lord
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv16–17 3:16–4:1 This passage applies the prophet’s teaching on arrogance…
3:16–4:1 This passage applies the prophet’s teaching on arrogance (see 2:11-12) to the people of Jerusalem. An alternate understanding is that this passage applies specifically to the women of Jerusalem.
3:16 The dramatic descriptions show how the people of Jerusalem loved their refined way of life. They openly displayed their proud self-reliance, power, and prestige. • Beautiful Zion: See “Zion” Theme Note.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.