Isaiah 3:16-26

At that time, enemies will attack and destroy *Jerusalem. God’s judgement will show itself in all that the people suffer.

• ‘Women’ is more accurately ‘daughters’ and so probably means all the inhabitants of *Jerusalem. ‘Jerusalem’ in the Hebrew language is a feminine (female) noun (a word that names a person or a thing).

Jerusalem ~ at the time of David and Solomon, the capital of the country called Israel. During the time of Isaiah, Jerusalem was the capital of the country called Judah.
Lord ~ God’s name in the Bible. In the original language, God’s names mean ‘head over all’ and ‘God always’.
rope ~ string that a workman has bound together, in order to increase its strength.

Isaiah: New *Heavens and a New Earth

Isaiah Begins to *Prophesy

Isaiah Chapter s 1 to 6

Gordon Churchyard

The words in brackets, […], are not in the *Hebrew Bible. They make the book easier to understand in English. Isaiah wrote his book in the *Hebrew language.

Chapter 3

The problems of society in Judah and Israel

v1 I will show you what the *Lord, the *LORD of Everything, [will do]. He will remove from Jerusalem and Judah everything that supports them. [He will take away] all their supplies of food and of water.

v2-3 [He will take away these people:]

• the strong man and the soldier

• the judge and the *prophet

• the *soothsayer and the older [leader]

• the captain of 50 [soldiers] and the very important man (3)

• the person that advises [people] and the skilled workman

• the person that uses magic.

v4 ‘And I, [the *LORD], will make boys their leaders and children will rule over them.’

v5 The people will be very cruel to each other. Man [will be] against man. Man [will be] against his neighbour. Young people will insult older people, and bad people will insult honourable people.

v6 Then a man will seize his brother in his father’s house [and he will try to persuade his brother. The man will say], ‘You have a coat. Therefore, you can be our leader! Then you can rule these piles of stones that used to be buildings!’

v7 [But] at that time [the brother] will refuse. He will say, ‘I cannot help! There is no food and no coat in my house. Do not make me a leader of people.’

v8 [That will happen because the leaders of] Jerusalem and Judah have tripped over. Then they have fallen down. Their words and actions are against the *LORD. They have insulted his wonderful *glory.

v9 The look on their faces shows what they are really like. They are clearly sinners (people that do wrong things), like the [people in] Sodom [city were]. They do not hide it. It is so sad! They have brought great trouble to themselves.

Notes

Remember that this section actually starts with Isaiah 2:22. There, Isaiah tells his people not to hope that men can help them. Here, he tells them some results of bad government. He continues to tell those things in all this section until Isaiah 4:1. Society is sick (Isaiah 1:23). Therefore, those things will happen. Some things may have happened already.

Verses 1-3 The word *Lord means ‘master’. The word *LORD is the special name for God that only his people use. There is a note about that under Isaiah 1:1. God will take away from his people what they need. When enemies come, there will be little food and water. Or there will be absolutely none. But Isaiah does not only mean food and water. He also means those that give food and water to the people. He means their leaders. Isaiah gives a list of those leaders. Some leaders are good, but some other leaders are not good. People called ‘soothsayers’ use magic to discover what will happen in the future.

Real *prophets bring messages from God. But in Judah there were also false *prophets, who told lies. When his people obey him, God sends good leaders. But the people in Judah had not obeyed God, so he decided to take the good leaders away. The list gives one example of each type of leader. However, Isaiah probably meant many people of each type.

Verse 4 Instead of good leaders, the people would have bad leaders. The leaders would have no experience, so God called them boys and children. Perhaps ‘boys’ meant young kings as well as other leaders. In 2 Kings 21:1, we read this. ‘Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king.’ Manasseh was king after Hezekiah. Hezekiah was a good king, but Manasseh was a bad king. Many Bible students think that Manasseh killed Isaiah.

Verse 5 The result will be that people do not obey the laws of their country. Instead, they will do whatever they like. People will be cruel to each other.

Verse 6 Some Bible students translate ‘seize’ as ‘ask’. But it means more than ‘ask’. It means ‘try to persuade’. Because the brother has a coat, people consider him as rich. Therefore he can be the leader of the group. Many silly things like that will happen, and Isaiah gives it as an example. An enemy probably destroyed the people’s buildings, so that now they are just a pile of stones.

Verse 7 The *Hebrew word here for ‘time’ can also mean ‘day’. Some Bible students translate the *Hebrew word for ‘help’ differently. They translate it as ‘cure’. They consider that society is sick. So it needs someone to cure it. In the *Hebrew Bible, ‘help’ here is the same word as in Isaiah 1:6. There we translated it as ‘put a bandage on’.

Verse 8 The *LORD reminded people why he was doing all that. He would take the leaders away because the people and leaders did not obey God. He would give worse leaders to the people, or he would give no leaders. God’s ‘*glory’ is part of what makes him great. It means that he is very wonderful. He shines brighter than the sun because of his *glory! In the *Hebrew Bible, ‘his wonderful *glory’ is actually ‘the eyes of his *glory’. It means that he can see all his people’s wrong deeds.

Verse 9 ‘Sinners’ are people that do not obey God’s rules. In other words, they *sin. And it is even worse here, because they were not ashamed about their *sin. They did not even try to hide their *sin! Their *sin may not have been the same as what the people in Sodom city did. Perhaps it was worse. But as in Sodom, there would be terrible punishment. The word ‘Sodom’ links this section with Isaiah 1:9 (problems in the nation). It also links it with Isaiah 1:10 (problems in religion).

v10 ‘Tell the good people that things will be well for them. They will enjoy the benefits of the good things that they have done.

v11 The wicked person will be very sad. He will have great trouble. [Here is the reason.] What he has done [to other people] will happen to him.

v12 Children are cruel to my people and women rule over them. My people, your leaders have not led you well. They have led you away from the [right] paths.’

v13 The *LORD stands up [in court] to accuse [his enemies]. He stands up as a judge over nations.

v14 The *LORD comes as judge over his people’s advisers. [He comes as judge] over leaders. [That is, anyone that leads other people. He accuses them that] they burned the *vineyard. Also, they kept what they stole from the poor people.

v15 The *Lord, who is the *LORD of Everything, asks [these things]:

• ‘Why do you beat my people into pieces?

• Why do you walk on the faces of the poor people?’

Notes

Verse 10 Some Bible students translate the beginning of the verse like this. ‘Happy are the good people, because things will be well for them.’ In order to do that, they make a small change in one *Hebrew word. Good people are people that obey God’s rules. Really, only God is very good. However, he considers people that try to obey him as good also.

Verse 11 The *Hebrew text actually has ‘What his hands have done’. It means ‘What he has done’, as people often use their hands to do things.

Verse 12 ‘My people’ means the people that live in Israel and Judah. And that includes the inhabitants of Judah’s capital, Jerusalem city. Children make trouble in order to get what they want. Verse 16 shows us the *sins of the women in Jerusalem and Judah. And verses 17-26 show us the results of those *sins. The right paths mean the things that people should do to obey God’s laws.

Verse 13 This verse describes something similar to what chapter 1 describes. We must imagine that we are in a court of law. Isaiah reminds us that God is like the judge in the court. God’s enemies are the people that he accuses. He says that they do not obey his rules. Here, however, God is a judge over nations. That means everybody, not just the *Jews. All this may be in the future. However, Isaiah sees it as if it is in the present. He is very sure that it will happen!

Verse 14 A *vineyard is a field where people grow *grapes. They use the *grapes to make wine. In Leviticus 19:9-10 and Deuteronomy 24:21, we learn this. When people picked *grapes, they had to leave some for the poor people. For that reason, people should not burn their *vineyards when they had picked their grapes. But here, they burned the *vineyard and also they stole *grapes from the poor people. This verse may mean something else also. In the Bible, a *vineyard is sometimes a description of God’s people, both Israel and Judah. ‘Burned the *vineyard’ may mean ‘destroyed Israel and Judah’. The army from Assyria would destroy Israel in 722 B.C. And the army from Babylon would destroy Judah in 587 B.C. (‘B.C.’ means ‘years Before Christ came to the Earth’.) However, the *prophet Isaiah is saying here that Israel and Judah would really destroy themselves. That was because they did not obey God’s rules.

Verse 15 The *LORD asks questions at the end of this section. Both questions probably mean ‘You are very unkind to the poor people in Judah’. Those poor people may possibly be the good people in verse 10. In that verse, we see that things will be well for good people. However, God’s enemies are often unkind to them.

v16 The *LORD says, ‘The *Daughters of Zion are very proud. They stretch up their necks when they walk. They glance to see [whether the men are noticing them]. They walk [so that men look at them]. The little bells on their ankles make a sound as they walk.

v17 Therefore the *Lord will make sore places on their heads. The *LORD will make their heads bald.

v18-23 At that time, the *Lord will take away the fine *jewellery that they wear. [Those things are] on their ankles, heads, necks, ears, arms, fingers and noses. He will take away their fine clothes and belts. [He will take away] their perfumes (substances that smell nice). And [he will take away their] charms (objects to prevent bad luck).

v24 Instead of perfume (a substance with a good smell), there will be a bad smell. Instead of a belt, there will be a rope (very thick string). Instead of fine hair, they will be bald. Instead of good clothes, [they will wear] rough hairy clothes. Instead of beauty, there will be only shame.

v25 Swords will kill your men. Your strong men will die in battle.

v26 And the [leaders at the] gates [of Zion (Jerusalem)] will be sad. And they will cry. The people in Zion (Jerusalem) will sit on the ground. [The city will be] empty.’

Notes

Verses 16-17 ‘The Daughters of Zion’ can mean two things:

• The young women that live in Zion. Zion is another name for Jerusalem.

• The small towns and cities that are round Jerusalem. In other words, all the people that live in Judah.

In the first case, verse 16 means this. The young women in Jerusalem behave so that they attract the men. In the second case, it means that everybody is behaving in a very proud way. They want people to see that they are important. Also, they want people to see that they are very attractive. But God will do two things to them. Both these are things that show shame. Firstly, he will ‘make their heads bald’. But Bible students are not sure exactly what this phrase means here. It may also mean ‘show everybody the secret parts of their (those proud people’s) bodies’. Those are the parts that they use for sex. Enemies used to do those things to people when they caught people as prisoners.

Verses 18-23 Isaiah gives a long list of the things that the *Lord will take away from those women. Bible students are not sure what some *Hebrew words mean here. Most are things that make women look beautiful. ‘Jewellery’ means small objects that people wear to make them look beautiful. Those objects often contain valuable stones, such as diamonds. ‘Charms’ are objects that people use in magic. They wear those objects in order to keep away bad luck. The women wore such things on all the different parts of their bodies. ‘Perfumes’ were substances that made them smell nice.

Here is a possible list of what those things may have been:

• verse 18: *jewellery on their ankles; bands round their heads, and small crowns;

• verse 19: *jewellery that hung round their necks, and jewels (precious stones) on their arms; veils (pieces of cloth that cover the face);

• verse 20: fine hats; bands round their arms; pretty belts; perfumes (substances to make people smell nice); and charms (magic objects to keep away bad luck);

• verse 21: rings on their fingers, and rings in their noses;

• verse 22: fine dresses and skirts; coats and purses;

• verse 23: clothes that you can see through; clothes with good quality; the clothes included hats and veils (cloths to cover the face).

The ‘bands round their heads’ may be pretty hats. The ‘bands round their arms’ may be pretty material on their arms. The *LORD will take away all those things from those women. They will have nothing. They will be naked and someone will shave their heads (verses 16-17). If the ‘*Daughters of Zion’ means the towns and cities round Jerusalem, they will lose everything. Probably both meanings are true. Many Bible verses mean more than one thing, especially in Isaiah’s book. Notice that Isaiah does not say that those beautiful things are bad. Rather, the proud way in which the people wore them was wrong.

Verse 24 When an army won a battle, they took people away. They put a rope (very thick string) round them to lead them away. So this verse means that a foreign army would defeat the people in Judah. The women would be bald because their enemies would shave the women’s heads. That was something that showed shame. Then the women would not be beautiful; they would be ugly. The *Hebrew word for ‘shame’ probably means ‘a mark that an enemy burns onto people’.

Verse 25 Not only the women will suffer, but so will the men. The enemies will take the women away, but they will kill the men. So, both the meanings of ‘*Daughters of Zion’ are true! (Look at the note about verse 16.)

Verse 26 The *Hebrew text has ‘The gates will be sad’. The leaders of a town used to meet together at the town’s gates. So the text means that the leaders of the town will be sad. That is, if any leaders remain. The enemies will take most people away. They will leave only a few people. The *Hebrew text has ‘Zion will sit on the ground.’ But in this verse, Zion does not mean the buildings in Jerusalem. It means the people in that city. It also means the people in towns and cities round Jerusalem.

heavens ~ another word for ‘skies’. It can also mean the place where God lives and the skies above us.
prophesy ~ tell people what God is saying.
Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
LORD ~ a special name for God that only his servants should use. It is not a translation. It represents the Hebrew word YHWH. It probably means that God is always alive.
lord ~ master. When it has a capital L (that is, ‘Lord’) it is a name for God.
Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
LORD ~ a special name for God that only his servants should use. It is not a translation. It represents the Hebrew word YHWH. It probably means that God is always alive.
lord ~ master. When it has a capital L (that is, ‘Lord’) it is a name for God.
Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
prophet ~ someone who says what God is saying. There is a note at Isaiah 1:1.
soothsayer ~ someone that uses magic to find out what will happen in the future.
glory ~ something that shines and is wonderful. Especially, it is God’s splendid beauty.
sin ~ not to obey God. Or, what you do when you do not obey God.
vineyard ~ a field where people grow grapes.
grapes ~ fruits that people use to make wine.
Jews ~ the people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.
grapes ~ fruits that people use to make wine.
jewellery ~ pretty objects, for example precious stones and gold, that people wear.