Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Isaiah · About this commentary
The Daughters of Zion
Isaiah 3:16-26
16 Moreover Yahweh said, “Because the daughters of Zion are arrogant, and walk with outstretched necks and flirting eyes, walking daintily as they go, jingling ornaments on their feet; · WEB
Twenty-one items of jewelry listed one by one, and then a line of substitutions that takes each of them away.
Because the daughters of Zion are arrogant, and walk with outstretched necks and flirting eyes, walking daintily as they go, jingling ornaments on their feet Isaiah 3:16.
The passage is uncomfortable and its target should be stated exactly. It follows immediately on the judgment against the elders who had the plunder of the poor in their houses Isaiah 3:14, and these are the women of those houses. The charge is not femininity, and it is not ornament as such. It is the display of wealth taken from people who are being ground into the ground in the previous verse.
The verbs are all about being seen: outstretched necks, glancing eyes, small deliberate steps, anklets arranged to make a noise. What is described is a walk designed to be watched.
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 Isaiah 3:18–23.
Twenty-one items, listed without a pause, and the effect of reading it aloud is the point. It is an inventory being taken — the tedium is deliberate, because the accumulation is what is being described. Several of the words occur nowhere else in Scripture and their exact identification is uncertain; nothing in the passage depends on it.
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 Isaiah 3:24.
Five substitutions, each replacing something chosen with something imposed. A rope instead of a belt and a brand instead of beauty are the marks of a prisoner being led away, and that is what the passage has been building toward — the jewelry is removed by conquest rather than by repentance.
Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty in the war Isaiah 3:25.
The verse that turns the judgment. What actually happens to these women is that their husbands and sons are killed, and the chapter's harshness lands on them as bereavement.
Her gates shall lament and mourn. She shall be desolate and sit on the ground Isaiah 3:26.
The city itself takes the posture of a woman in mourning, sitting in the dust — which is where the passage leaves the daughters of Zion, and it is not triumphant about it.
held with reason What this mark means