Isaiah 3
Living Bible
3 The Lord will cut off Jerusalem’s and Judah’s food and water supplies 2 and kill her leaders; he will destroy her armies, judges, prophets, elders, 3 army officers, businessmen, lawyers, magicians, and politicians. 4 Israel’s kings will be like babies, ruling childishly. 5 And the worst sort of anarchy will prevail—everyone stepping on someone else, neighbors fighting neighbors, youths revolting against authority, criminals sneering at honorable men.
6 In those days a man will say to his brother, “You have some extra clothing, so you be our king and take care of this mess.”
7 “No!” he will reply. “I cannot be of any help! I have no extra food or clothes. Don’t get me involved!”
8 Israel’s civil government will be in utter ruin because the Jews have spoken out against their Lord and will not worship him; they offend his glory. 9 The very look on their faces gives them away and shows their guilt. And they boast that their sin is equal to the sin of Sodom; they are not even ashamed. What a catastrophe! They have doomed themselves.
10 But all is well for the godly man. Tell him, “What a reward you are going to get!” 11 But say to the wicked, “Your doom is sure. You too shall get your just deserts. Your well-earned punishment is on the way.”
12 O my people! Can’t you see what fools your rulers are? Weak as women! Foolish as little children playing king. True leaders? No, misleaders! Leading you down the garden path to destruction.
13 The Lord stands up! He is the great Prosecuting Attorney presenting his case against his people! 14 First to feel his wrath will be the elders and the princes, for they have defrauded the poor. They have filled their barns with grain extorted from the helpless peasants.
15 “How dare you grind my people in the dust like that?” the Lord Almighty will demand of them.
16 Next he will judge the haughty Jewish women, who mince along, noses in the air, tinkling bracelets on their ankles, with wanton eyes that rove among the crowds to catch the glances of the men. 17 The Lord will send a plague of scabs to ornament their heads! He will expose their nakedness for all to see. 18 No longer shall they tinkle with self-assurance as they walk. For the Lord will strip away their artful beauty and their ornaments, 19 their necklaces and bracelets and veils of shimmering gauze. 20 Gone shall be their scarves and ankle chains, headbands, earrings, and perfumes; 21 their rings, jewels, 22 party clothes, negligees, capes, ornate combs, and purses; 23 their mirrors, lovely lingerie, beautiful dresses, and veils. 24 Instead of smelling of sweet perfume, they’ll stink; for sashes they’ll use ropes; their well-set hair will all fall out; they’ll wear sacks instead of robes.
All their beauty will be gone; all that will be left to them is shame and disgrace. 25-26 Their husbands shall die in battle; the women, ravaged, shall sit crying on the ground.
Isaiah 3
Amplified Bible
God Will Remove the Leaders
3 Listen carefully, the Lord God of hosts is removing from Jerusalem and from Judah
Both supply and support, the whole supply of bread
And the whole supply of water;
2
The brave man and the warrior [He is also removing],
The judge and the prophet,
The diviner and the elder,
3
The captain of fifty and the man of honor,
The counselor and the expert artisan,
And the skillful enchanter.
4
And I will make mere boys their princes,
And capricious (impulsive, unpredictable) children will rule over them.
5
And the people will be oppressed,
Each one by another, and each one by his neighbor;
The boy will be arrogant and insolent toward the elder
And the vulgar (common) toward the honorable [person of rank].
6
When a man takes hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying,
“You have a robe, you shall be our judge and ruler,
And this pile of ruins will be under your control,”
7
He will protest on that day, saying,
“I will not be a [a]governor;
For in my house there is neither bread nor clothing;
You should not make me a judge and ruler of the people.”
8
For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen,
Because their words and their actions are against the Lord,
To rebel against His glorious presence and defiantly provoke Him.
9
Their partiality testifies against them,
They display their sin like Sodom;
They do not even hide it.
Woe (judgment is coming) to [b]them!
For they have brought evil on themselves [as a reward].
10
Say to the righteous that it will go well with them,
For they will eat the fruit of their [righteous] actions.
11
Woe (judgment is coming) to the wicked! It shall go badly with him,
For what his hand has done shall be done to him.
12
O My people! Children are their oppressors,
And women rule over them.
O My people! Your leaders lead you astray
And confuse (destroy, swallow up) the direction of your paths.
God Will Judge
13
The Lord rises to contend,
And stands to judge the people.
14
The Lord enters into judgment with the elders of His people and their princes,
“For it is you who have devoured the vineyard [with your oppression, you have robbed the people and ruined the country];
The plunder of the poor is in your houses.
15
“What do you mean by crushing My people
And grinding the face of the poor?”
Declares the Lord God of hosts.
Judah’s Women Denounced
16
Moreover, the Lord said, “Because the daughters of Zion are proud
And walk with outstretched necks and seductive (flirtatious, alluring) eyes,
And trip along with mincing steps and an affected gait
And walk with jingling [c]anklets on their feet,
17
Therefore the Lord will afflict the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion with scabs [making them bald],
And the Lord will expose their foreheads (send them into captivity).”
18 In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, [braided] caps, crescent [head] ornaments, 19 dangling earrings, bracelets, and the hanging veils and scarves, 20 head wraps (turbans), [short, jingling] ankle chains, sashes, perfume boxes, amulets (charms), 21 signet [finger] rings, nose rings, 22 festival robes, outer tunics, shawls, handbags, 23 hand mirrors, [fine linen] undergarments, headbands, and veils [covering the entire body].
24
Now it will come to pass that instead of the sweet fragrance of spices there will be [the stench of] rottenness;
Instead of a belt, a rope;
Instead of well-set hair, baldness;
Instead of fine clothes, a robe of sackcloth;
And branding [of captives by the scorching heat] instead of beauty.
25
Your men will fall by the sword
And your mighty men in battle.
26
And Jerusalem’s gates will lament (cry out in grief) and mourn [as those who wail for the dead];
And she, being ruined and desolate, will sit upon the ground.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 3:7 Or binder of wounds.
- Isaiah 3:9 Lit their soul.
- Isaiah 3:16 Decorative chains attached from one ankle to the other to insure a measured gait.
Isaiah 3
Easy-to-Read Version
3 Understand what I am telling you: The Lord God All-Powerful will take away everything Judah and Jerusalem depend on. He will take away all the food and water. 2 He will take away all the heroes and soldiers. He will take away all the judges, the prophets, the fortunetellers, and the elders. 3 He will take away the army officers and important officials. He will take away the skilled counselors, the magicians, and those who try to tell the future.
4 He says, “I will put young boys in charge of you. They will be your leaders. 5 The people will turn against each other. Young people will not respect those who are older. The common people will not respect important leaders.”
6 At that time a man will grab one of his brothers from his own family and tell him, “You have a coat,[a] so you will be our leader. You will be the leader over all these ruins.”
7 But the brother will refuse and say, “I cannot help you. I don’t have enough food or clothes for my own family. You will not make me your leader.”
8 This will happen because Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen. They turned against the Lord. They said and did things against him, right in front of his glorious eyes.
9 The look on their faces shows that they are guilty. They are like the people of Sodom; they don’t care who sees their sin. But it will be very bad for them. They will get what they deserve.
10 Tell the good people who do what is right that good things will happen to them. They will receive a reward for what they do. 11 But it will be very bad for wicked people, because they, too, will get what they deserve. They will get what they did to others. 12 Even children will defeat my people, and women will rule over them.
My people, your guides lead you the wrong way, and they destroy the path you should follow.
God’s Decision About His People
13 Look, the Lord is standing to judge his people. 14 The Lord is ready to present his case against the elders and leaders of his people.
He says, “You people have burned the vineyard,[b] and what you stole from the poor is still in your houses. 15 What gives you the right to hurt my people? What gives you the right to push the faces of the poor into the dirt?” The Lord God All-Powerful said this.
16 The Lord says, “The women in Zion have become very proud. They walk around with their heads in the air, acting like they are better than other people. They flirt with their eyes and make tinkling sounds with their ankle bracelets as they take their quick little steps.”
17 The Lord will put sores on the heads of those women in Zion. The Lord will make their heads bald. 18 Then the Lord will take away everything they are proud of: the beautiful ankle bracelets, the necklaces that look like the sun and the moon, 19 the earrings, bracelets, and veils, 20 the scarves, the ankle chains, the cloth belts worn around their waists, the bottles of perfume, the charms,[c] 21 the signet rings, and the nose rings, 22 the fine dresses, robes, veils, and purses, 23 the mirrors, linen dresses, turbans, and long shawls.
24 Those women now have sweet-smelling perfume, but it will get moldy and stink. Now they wear belts, but then they will have only ropes to wear. Now they have their hair fixed in fancy ways, but then their heads will be shaved—they will have no hair.[d] Now they have party dresses, but then they will have only mourning clothes. They have beauty marks on their faces now, but then they will have another mark. It will be a mark burned into their skin to show that they are slaves.
25 Your men will be killed with swords. Your heroes will die in war. 26 There will be crying and sadness in the meeting places by the city gates. Jerusalem will sit there empty, like a woman who has lost everything to thieves and robbers and now just sits on the ground and cries.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 3:6 coat Or “robe.” This showed that a person was a leader of the people.
- Isaiah 3:14 vineyard A garden for growing grapes. Here, this probably means Judah.
- Isaiah 3:20 charms Things people wore on bracelets and necklaces. People thought these things would protect them from evil or danger.
- Isaiah 3:24 they will have no hair This means that they will become slaves.
Isaiah 3
The Message
Jerusalem on Its Last Legs
3 1-7 The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
is emptying Jerusalem and Judah
Of all the basic necessities,
plain bread and water to begin with.
He’s withdrawing police and protection,
judges and courts,
pastors and teachers,
captains and generals,
doctors and nurses,
and, yes, even the repairmen and jacks-of-all-trades.
He says, “I’ll put little kids in charge of the city.
Schoolboys and schoolgirls will order everyone around.
People will be at each other’s throats,
stabbing one another in the back:
Neighbor against neighbor, young against old,
the no-account against the well-respected.
One brother will grab another and say,
‘You look like you’ve got a head on your shoulders.
Do something!
Get us out of this mess.’
And he’ll say, ‘Me? Not me! I don’t have a clue.
Don’t put me in charge of anything.’
8-9 “Jerusalem’s on its last legs.
Judah is soon down for the count.
Everything people say and do
is at cross-purposes with God,
a slap in my face.
Brazen in their depravity,
they flaunt their sins like degenerate Sodom.
Doom to their eternal souls! They’ve made their bed;
now they’ll sleep in it.
10-11 “Reassure the righteous
that their good living will pay off.
But doom to the wicked! Disaster!
Everything they did will be done to them.
12 “Skinny kids terrorize my people.
Silly girls bully them around.
My dear people! Your leaders are taking you down a blind alley.
They’re sending you off on a wild-goose chase.”
A City Brought to Her Knees by Her Sorrows
13-15 God enters the courtroom.
He takes his place at the bench to judge his people.
God calls for order in the court,
hauls the leaders of his people into the dock:
“You’ve played havoc with this country.
Your houses are stuffed with what you’ve stolen from the poor.
What is this anyway? Stomping on my people,
grinding the faces of the poor into the dirt?”
That’s what the Master,
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says.
16-17 God says, “Zion women are stuck-up,
prancing around in their high heels,
Making eyes at all the men in the street,
swinging their hips,
Tossing their hair,
gaudy and garish in cheap jewelry.”
The Master will fix it so those Zion women
will all turn bald—
Scabby, bald-headed women.
The Master will do it.
18-23 The time is coming when the Master will strip them of their fancy baubles—the dangling earrings, anklets and bracelets, combs and mirrors and silk scarves, diamond brooches and pearl necklaces, the rings on their fingers and the rings on their toes, the latest fashions in hats, exotic perfumes and aphrodisiacs, gowns and capes, all the world’s finest in fabrics and design.
24 Instead of wearing seductive scents,
these women are going to smell like rotting cabbages;
Instead of modeling flowing gowns,
they’ll be sporting rags;
Instead of their stylish hairdos,
scruffy heads;
Instead of beauty marks,
scabs and scars.
25-26 Your finest fighting men will be killed,
your soldiers left dead on the battlefield.
The entrance gate to Zion will be clotted
with people mourning their dead—
A city stooped under the weight of her loss,
brought to her knees by her sorrows.
* * *
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