Isaiah 32:1-20
1 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.
2 And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a greata rock in a weary land.
3 And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.
4 The heart also of the rashb shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.
5 The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful.
6 For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
7 The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needyc speaketh right.
8 But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.d
9 Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear unto my speech.
10 Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women: for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come.
11 Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins.
12 They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasante fields, for the fruitful vine.
13 Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the housesf of joy in the joyous city:
14 Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the fortsg and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;
15 Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.
16 Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
17 And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.
18 And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;
19 When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place.
20 Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.
In this message the prophet describes the reign of the coming King, and then suddenly appeals to the women. He describes the reign of the King as establishment of order and creation of refuge and refreshment for all in distress. The beneficent effects of such a reign are restoration of sensibility and a true sense of values, in which men will know violence and call it by its right name, and recognize true nobility. Evidently conscious of how different were the circumstances in which he was exercising his ministry from those described, he appeals to the women. He calls them to abandon their ease and gird themselves with sackcloth before the devastation of the city. This in order to be restored by the outpouring of the Spirit.
This recognition for the second time of the influence of women in the course of this volume is a revelation of the prophet's keen insight and accurate apprehension of one of the most prolific causes of national disaster. A degraded womanhood always creates a dissipated and enervated manhood.