Isaiah 3:16-1

The Failure of Their Wives (Isaiah 3:16 to Isaiah 4:1).

Having described what will come on the men God now turns to the women, for they are no better.

These verses can be analysed as follows:

a Moreover Yahweh said, “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet (Isaiah 3:16).

b Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab, the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and Yahweh will lay bare their secret parts (Isaiah 3:17).

c In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their anklets, and the cauls and the crescents, the pendants and the bracelets (Isaiah 3:18 a).

d And the mufflers, the headtires and the ankle chains, and the sashes (Isaiah 3:18 a).

d And the perfume boxes, and the amulets, the rings and the nose jewels, the festival robes, and the mantles, and the shawls and the satchels (Isaiah 3:19).

c The hand mirrors and the fine linen, and the turbans and the veils (Isaiah 3:23).

b And it will come about that instead of sweet spices there will be rottenness, and instead of a girdle, a rope, and instead of well set air, baldness, and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth, branding instead of beauty (Isaiah 3:24).

a Your men will fall by the sword, and your mighty in war, and her gates will lament and mourn, and she will be desolate and sit on the ground. And seven women will take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing, only let us be called by your name. You, take away our reproach.” (Isaiah 3:25 to Isaiah 4:1)

In ‘a' we have a vividly descriptive picture of women walking in vanity, and in the parallel their desperation for a man to bear their children when their calamity comes. In ‘b' the Lord will smite them with a scab, and remove their glorious clothes from them, and in the parallel will be rottenness and baldness and branding and they will be clothed with sackcloth. And in c and d we have a listing of all that they treasure, which subsequently they will lose.