Isaiah 3:17-26

3:17 So ¹  the sovereign master ²  will afflict the foreheads of Zion’s women ³  with skin diseases, ⁴ 

the Lord will make the front of their heads bald.” ⁵ 

3:18 ⁶ At that time ⁷  the sovereign master will remove their beautiful ankle jewelry, ⁸  neck ornaments, crescent shaped ornaments, 3:19 earrings, bracelets, veils, 3:20 headdresses, ankle ornaments, sashes, sachets, ⁹  amulets, 3:21 rings, nose rings, 3:22 festive dresses, robes, shawls, purses, 3:23 garments, vests, head coverings, and gowns. ¹⁰ 

3:24 A putrid stench will replace the smell of spices, ¹¹ 

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.

3:25 Your ¹²  men will fall by the sword,

your strong men will die in battle. ¹³ 

3:26 Her gates will mourn and lament;

deprived of her people, she will sit on the ground. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 24:7-12

24:7 The new wine dries up,

the vines shrivel up,

all those who like to celebrate ¹⁵  groan.

24:8 The happy sound ¹⁶  of the tambourines stops,

the revelry of those who celebrate comes to a halt,

the happy sound of the harp ceases.

24:9 They no longer sing and drink wine; ¹⁷ 

the beer tastes bitter to those who drink it.

24:10 The ruined town ¹⁸  is shattered;

all of the houses are shut up tight. ¹⁹ 

24:11 They howl in the streets because of what happened to the wine; ²⁰ 

all joy turns to sorrow; ²¹ 

celebrations disappear from the earth. ²² 

24:12 The city is left in ruins; ²³ 

the gate is reduced to rubble. ²⁴ 

Jeremiah 25:10-11

25:10 I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness, to the glad celebration of brides and grooms in these lands. ²⁵  I will put an end to the sound of people grinding meal. I will put an end to lamps shining in their houses. ²⁶  25:11 This whole area ²⁷  will become a desolate wasteland. These nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years.’ ²⁸ 

Hosea 3:4

3:4 For the Israelites ²⁹  must live many days without a king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred fertility pillar, without ephod or idols.

[3:17]  ¹ 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]  ² tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in v. 18 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

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

[3:17]  ⁴ tn Or “a scab” (KJV, ASV); NIV, NCV, CEV “sores.”

[3:17]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[3:18]  ⁸ tn Or “the beauty of [their] ankle jewelry.”

[3:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “houses of breath.” HALOT 124 s.v. בַּיִת defines them as “scent-bottles”; cf. NAB, NRSV “perfume boxes.”

[3:23]  ¹⁰ tn The precise meaning of many of the words in this list is uncertain.

[3:24]  ¹¹ 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.

[3:25]  ¹² tn The pronoun is feminine singular, suggesting personified Zion, as representative of its women, is the addressee. The reference to “her gates’ in v. 26 makes this identification almost certain.

[3:25]  ¹³ tn Heb “your strength in battle.” The verb in the first clause provides the verbal idea for the second clause.

[3:26]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “she will be empty, on the ground she will sit.” Jerusalem is personified as a destitute woman who sits mourning the empty city.

[24:7]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “all the joyful in heart,” but the context specifies the context as parties and drinking bouts.

[24:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the joy” (again later in this verse).

[24:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “with a song they do not drink wine.”

[24:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the city of chaos” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV). Isaiah uses the term תֹּהוּ (tohu) rather frequently of things (like idols) that are empty and worthless (see BDB 1062 s.v.), so the word might characterize the city as rebellious or morally worthless. However, in this context, which focuses on the effects of divine judgment, it probably refers to the ruined or worthless condition in which the city is left (note the use of the word in Isa 34:11). For a discussion of the identity of this city, see R. Chisholm, “The ‘Everlasting Covenant’ and the ‘City of Chaos’: Intentional Ambiguity and Irony in Isaiah 24,” CTR 6 (1993): 237-53. In the context of universal judgment depicted in Isa 24, this city represents all the nations and cities of the world which, like Babylon of old and the powers/cities mentioned in chapters 13-23, rebel against God’s authority. Behind the stereotypical language one can detect various specific manifestations of this symbolic and paradigmatic city, including Babylon, Moab, and Jerusalem, all of which are alluded or referred to in chapters 24-27.

[24:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “every house is closed up from entering.”

[24:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “[there is] an outcry over the wine in the streets.”

[24:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “all joy turns to evening,” the darkness of evening symbolizing distress and sorrow.

[24:11]  ²² tn Heb “the joy of the earth disappears.”

[24:12]  ²³ tn Heb “and there is left in the city desolation.”

[24:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and [into] rubble the gate is crushed.”

[25:10]  ²⁵ sn Compare Jer 7:24 and 16:9 for this same dire prediction limited to Judah and Jerusalem.

[25:10]  ²⁶ sn The sound of people grinding meal and the presence of lamps shining in their houses were signs of everyday life. The Lord is going to make these lands desolate (v. 11) destroying all signs of life. (The statement is, of course, hyperbolic or poetic exaggeration; even after the destruction of Jerusalem many people were left in the land.) For these same descriptions of everyday life applying to the end of life see the allegory in Eccl 12:3-6.

[25:11]  ²⁷ tn Heb “All this land.”

[25:11]  ²⁸ sn It should be noted that the text says that the nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years, not that they will lie desolate for seventy years. Though several proposals have been made for dating this period, many ignore this fact. This most likely refers to the period beginning with Nebuchadnezzar’s defeat of Pharaoh Necho at Carchemish in 605 b.c. and the beginning of his rule over Babylon. At this time Babylon became the dominant force in the area and continued to be so until the fall of Babylon in 538 b.c. More particularly Judah became a vassal state (cf. Jer 46:2; 2 Kgs 24:1) in 605 b.c. and was allowed to return to her homeland in 538 when Cyrus issued his edict allowing all the nations exiled by Babylon to return to their homelands. (See 2 Chr 36:21 and Ezra 1:2-4; the application there is made to Judah but the decree of Cyrus was broader.)

[3:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “sons of Israel” (so NASB); KJV “children of Israel”; NAB “people of Israel” (likewise in the following verse).