Isaiah 3:16-24

Washing Away Impurity

3:16 The Lord says,

“The women ¹  of Zion are proud.

They walk with their heads high ² 

and flirt with their eyes.

They skip along ³ 

and the jewelry on their ankles jingles. ⁴ 

3:17 So ⁵  the sovereign master ⁶  will afflict the foreheads of Zion’s women ⁷  with skin diseases, ⁸ 

the Lord will make the front of their heads bald.” ⁹ 

3:18 ¹⁰ At that time ¹¹  the sovereign master will remove their beautiful ankle jewelry, ¹²  neck ornaments, crescent shaped ornaments, 3:19 earrings, bracelets, veils, 3:20 headdresses, ankle ornaments, sashes, sachets, ¹³  amulets, 3:21 rings, nose rings, 3:22 festive dresses, robes, shawls, purses, 3:23 garments, vests, head coverings, and gowns. ¹⁴ 

3:24 A putrid stench will replace the smell of spices, ¹⁵ 

a rope will replace a belt,

baldness will replace braided locks of hair,

a sackcloth garment will replace a fine robe,

and a prisoner’s brand will replace beauty.

Isaiah 59:6

59:6 Their webs cannot be used for clothing;

they cannot cover themselves with what they make.

Their deeds are sinful;

they commit violent crimes. ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 64:6

64:6 We are all like one who is unclean,

all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in your sight. ¹⁷ 

We all wither like a leaf;

our sins carry us away like the wind.

Ezekiel 16:16

16:16 You took some of your clothing and made for yourself decorated high places; you engaged in prostitution on them. You went to him to become his. ¹⁸ 

Romans 13:12

13:12 The night has advanced toward dawn; the day is near. So then we must lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the weapons of light.

Ephesians 4:22

4:22 You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside ¹⁹  the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires,

Colossians 3:3

3:3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Jude 1:23

1:23 save ²⁰  others by snatching them out of the fire; have mercy ²¹  on others, coupled with a fear of God, ²²  hating even the clothes stained ²³  by the flesh. ²⁴ 

[3:16]  ¹ tn Heb “daughters” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV).

[3:16]  ² tn Heb “with an outstretched neck.” They proudly hold their heads high so that others can see the jewelry around their necks.

[3:16]  ³ tn Heb “walking and skipping, they walk.”

[3:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “and with their feet they jingle.”

[3:17]  ⁵ tn In the Hebrew text vv. 16-17 and one long sentence, “Because the daughters of Zion are proud and walk…, the sovereign master will afflict….” In v. 17 the Lord refers to himself in the third person.

[3:17]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in v. 18 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[3:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “the daughters of Zion.”

[3:17]  ⁸ tn Or “a scab” (KJV, ASV); NIV, NCV, CEV “sores.”

[3:17]  ⁹ tn The precise meaning of this line is unclear because of the presence of the rare word פֹּת (pot). Since the verb in the line means “lay bare, make naked,” some take פֹּת as a reference to the genitals (cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV, CEV). (In 1 Kgs 7:50 a noun פֹּת appears, with the apparent meaning “socket.”) J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:139, n. 2), basing his argument on alleged Akkadian evidence and the parallelism of the verse, takes פֹּת as “forehead.”

[3:18]  ¹⁰ sn The translation assumes that the direct quotation ends with v. 17. The introductory formula “in that day” and the shift from a poetic to prosaic style indicate that a new speech unit begins in v. 18.

[3:18]  ¹¹ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[3:18]  ¹² tn Or “the beauty of [their] ankle jewelry.”

[3:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “houses of breath.” HALOT 124 s.v. בַּיִת defines them as “scent-bottles”; cf. NAB, NRSV “perfume boxes.”

[3:23]  ¹⁴ tn The precise meaning of many of the words in this list is uncertain.

[3:24]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and it will be in place of spices there will be a stench.” The nouns for “spices” and “stench” are right next to each other in the MT for emphatic contrast. The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[59:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “their deeds are deeds of sin, and the work of violence [is] in their hands.”

[64:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and like a garment of menstruation [are] all our righteous acts”; KJV, NIV “filthy rags”; ASV “a polluted garment.”

[16:16]  ¹⁸ tc The text as written in the MT is incomprehensible (“not coming [plural] and he will not”). Driver has suggested a copying error of similar-sounding words, specifically לֹא (lo’) for לוֹ (lo). The feminine participle בָאוֹת (va’ot) has also been read as the feminine perfect בָאת (va’t). See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:228, n. 15.b, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:486, n. 137.

[4:22]  ¹⁹ tn An alternative rendering for the infinitives in vv. 22-24 (“to lay aside… to be renewed… to put on”) is “that you have laid aside… that you are being renewed… that you have put on.” The three infinitives of vv. 22 (ἀποθέσθαι, apoqesqai), 23 (ἀνανεοῦσθαι, ananeousqai), and 24 (ἐνδύσασθαι, endusasqai), form part of an indirect discourse clause; they constitute the teaching given to the believers addressed in the letter. The problem in translation is that one cannot be absolutely certain whether they go back to indicatives in the original statement (i.e., “you have put off”) or imperatives (i.e., “put off!”). Every other occurrence of an aorist infinitive in indirect discourse in the NT goes back to an imperative, but in all of these examples the indirect discourse is introduced by a verb that implies a command. The verb διδάσκω (didaskw) in the corpus Paulinum may be used to relate the indicatives of the faith as well as the imperatives. This translation implies that the infinitives go back to imperatives, though the alternate view that they refer back to indicatives is also a plausible interpretation. For further discussion, see ExSyn 605.

[1:23]  ²⁰ tn Grk “and save.”

[1:23]  ²¹ tn Grk “and have mercy.”

[1:23]  ²² tn Grk “with fear.” But as this contrasts with ἀφόβως (afobw") in v. 12 (without reverence), the posture of the false teachers, it most likely refers to reverence for God.

[1:23]  ²³ sn The imagery here suggests that the things close to the sinners are contaminated by them, presumably during the process of sinning.

[1:23]  ²⁴ tn Grk “hating even the tunic spotted by the flesh.” The “flesh” in this instance could refer to the body or to the sin nature. It makes little difference in one sense: Jude is thinking primarily of sexual sins, which are borne of the sin nature and manifest themselves in inappropriate deeds done with the body. At the same time, he is not saying that the body is intrinsically bad, a view held by the opponents of Christianity. Hence, it is best to see “flesh” as referring to the sin nature here and the language as metaphorical.