Leaders of Judah and Jerusalem
3 For look, the Lord Yahweh of hosts is removing every source of support[a]
from Jerusalem and from Judah:
all of the supplies of bread
and all of the supplies of water,
2 mighty warrior and man of war,
judge and prophet,
and diviner and elder,
3 captain of fifty and the honorable men of rank,
and counselor and skillful magicians and skillful enchanter.
4 And I will make boys their princes,
and children shall rule over them.
5 And the people will be oppressed by each other[b]
and a man by his neighbor.
The boy will act arrogantly toward the elder,
and the dishonorable toward the honorable.
6 Indeed, a man will seize his brother
in the house of his father:
“You have a cloak;[c]
you shall be a leader for us,
and this heap of ruins shall be under your hand!”
7 He will lift up his voice on that day, saying,
“I will not be a healer;
in my house there is no bread
and there is no cloak.
You shall not make me the leader of the people!”
8 For Jerusalem has stumbled,
and Judah has fallen
because their speech and their deeds are against Yahweh,
defying the eyes of his glory.
9 The look on their faces testifies against them
and they declare their sin like Sodom;
they do not hide it.
Woe to their soul!
For they have dealt out evil to themselves.
10 Tell the innocent[d] that it is good
for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
11 Woe to the wicked![e] It is bad!
For what is done by his hands will be done to him.
12 My people—children are their oppressors,
and women rule over them.
My people, your leaders are misleading you,
and they confuse the course of your paths.
13 Yahweh takes his stand to conduct a legal case
and takes his stand to judge the peoples.
14 Yahweh enters into judgment with the elders of his people and its princes.
“And you! You have devoured the vineyard;
the spoil of the poor is in your houses!
15 Why[f] do you crush my people
and grind the face of the poor?”
declares[g] the Lord Yahweh of hosts.
The Pride of Jerusalem’s Women
16 And Yahweh said: “Because[h] the daughters of Zion are haughty,
and they walk with outstretched neck,
and they give flirting glances with their eyes,
mincing along as they go,[i]
and with their feet they rattle their bangles,[j]
17 the Lord will make the heads[k] of the daughters of Zion scabby,
and Yahweh will lay their foreheads bare.”
18 In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets
and the headbands and the crescent necklaces,
19 the pendants and the bracelets and the veils,
20 the headdresses and the armlets and the sashes,
and the perfume boxes[l] and the amulets,
21 the signet rings and the nose rings,
22 the festal robes and the mantles,
and the cloaks and the handbags,
23 and the mirrors and the linen garments,
and the turbans and the wraps.
24 And this shall happen: There will be
a stench instead of perfume,
and a rope instead of a sash,
and baldness instead of a well-set hairdo,
and a clothing wrap of sackcloth instead of a rich robe,
branding instead of beauty.
25 Your men shall fall by the sword,
and your warriors in battle.
26 And her[m] gates shall lament and mourn,
and she shall be banished;
she shall sit upon the ground.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 3:1 Literally “supplies and supplies”
- Isaiah 3:5 Literally “man by man”
- Isaiah 3:6 Literally “a cloak for you”
- Isaiah 3:10 Singular
- Isaiah 3:11 Singular
- Isaiah 3:15 Literally “What to you”
- Isaiah 3:15 Literally “declaration of”
- Isaiah 3:16 There are two Hebrew words for “because” here
- Isaiah 3:16 Literally “they go walking and mincing along”
- Isaiah 3:16 Literally “they tinkle with their feet”
- Isaiah 3:17 Hebrew “head”
- Isaiah 3:20 Literally “houses of the breath”
- Isaiah 3:26 That is, Jerusalem’s