Isaiah 3:23

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹⁶The LORD says, "Because the daughters of Zion are haughty-walking with heads held high and wanton eyes, prancing and skipping as they go, jingling the bracelets on their ankles- ¹⁷the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will make their foreheads bare. ¹⁸In that day the Lord will take away the finery of their anklets and headbands and crescents, ¹⁹their pendants, bracelets, and veils, ²⁰their headdresses, ankle chains, and sashes, their perfume bottles and charms; ²¹their signet rings and nose rings, ²²their festive robes, capes, cloaks, and purses, ²³and their mirrors, linen garments, tiaras, and shawls.²⁴Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a belt, a rope; instead of styled hair, baldness; instead of fine clothes, sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding. ²⁵Your men will fall by the sword, and your warriors in battle.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

glasses: Exodus 38:8

fine linen: Genesis 41:42, 1 Chronicles 15:27, Ezekiel 16:10, Luke 16:19, Revelation 19:8, Revelation 19:14

veils: Genesis 24:65, Ruth 3:15, Song of Solomon 5:7

Cross-References

Genesis 2:5
Now no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth, nor had any plant of the field sprouted; for the LORD God had not yet sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.

Genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground-because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return."

Genesis 4:2
Later she gave birth to Cain's brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, while Cain was a tiller of the soil.

Genesis 4:12
When you till the ground, it will no longer yield its produce to you. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth."

Genesis 9:20
Now Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard.

Ecclesiastes 5:9
The produce of the earth is taken by all; the king himself profits from the fields.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The glasses,.... Looking glasses, by which they dressed themselves, see Exodus 38:8 and so Kimchi explains the word; but elsewhere e he says it signifies thin garments, so called because the flesh is seen through them, being so exceeding thin; which sense is favoured by the Septuagint version, which renders it by τα διαφανη

λακωνικα, garments which the Lacedemonians wore, which were so thin and transparent, that the naked body might be seen through them:

and the fine linen; of which several of their garments and ornaments were made, and particularly their veils, with which they veiled themselves, as Jarchi observes:

and the hoods; the word is used for a diadem and mitre,

Isaiah 62:3 the Targum renders it "crowns"; and such the Jewish women wore, Isaiah 62:3- : and particularly newly married women f:

and the veils; so the word is rendered in Song of Solomon 5:7 with which women covered their heads, either through modesty, or as a token of subjection to their husbands, see Genesis 24:65 but, according to the Targum and Kimchi, these were thin garments which women wore in summertime; Jarchi says they are the same which the French call "fermelan", and are of gold, which they put about the cloak the woman is covered with; perhaps they were a sort of umbrellas, to keep off the heat of the sun.

e Ib. (In Sepher Shorash.) rad. גלה. f Misn. Sota, c. 9. sect. 14.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The glasses - There is a great variety of opinion about the expression used here. That ancient Jews had “looking-glasses,” or mirrors, is manifest from the account in Exodus 38:8. These “mirrors” were made of polished plates of brass. The Vulgate and Chaldee understand this of “mirrors.” The Septuagint understands by it a “thin, transparent covering like gauze,” perhaps like silk. The word is derived from the verb “to reveal, to make apparent,” etc., and applies either to mirrors or to a splendid shining garment. It is probable that their excessive vanity was evinced by carrying small mirrors in their hands - that they might examine and adjust their dress as might be necessary. This is now done by females of Eastern nations. Shaw informs us that, ‘In the Levant, looking-glasses are a part of female dress. The Moorish women in Barabary are so fond of their ornaments, and particularly of their looking-glasses, which they hang upon their breasts, that they will not lay them aside, even when, after the drudgery of the day, they are obliged to go two or three miles with a pitcher or a goat-skin to fetch water.’ - “Burder.” In Egypt, the mirror was made of mixed metal, chiefly of copper, and this metal was so highly polished, that in some of the mirrors discovered at Thebes, the luster has been partially restored, though they have been buried in the earth for many centuries. The mirror was nearly round, inserted in a handle of wood, stone, or metal, whose form varied according to the taste of the owner. The picture in the book will give you an idea of the ancient form of the mirror, and will show that they might be easily carried abroad as an ornament in public; compare Wilkinson’s “Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians,” vol. iii., pp. 384-386.

And the fine linen - Anciently, the most delicate and fine garments were made from linen which was obtained chiefly from Egypt; see the note at Luke 16:19.

And the hoods - Or, “turbans.”

And the veils - This does not differ probably from the veils worn now, except that those worn by Eastern females are “large,” and made so as to cover the head and the shoulders, so that they may be drawn closely round the body, and effectually conceal the person; compare Genesis 24:65.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 3:23. The glasses — The conjunction ו vau, and - AND the glasses, is added here by forty-three of Kennicott's and thirty-four of De Rossi's MSS., and one of my own, ancient, as well as by many editions.

And the veils. - "The transparent garments."] Τα διαφανη Λακωνικα, Sept. A kind of silken dress, transparent, like gauze; worn only by the most elegant women, and such as dressed themselves elegantius quam necesse esset probis, "more elegantly than modest women should." Such garments are worn to the present day; garments that not only show the shape of every part of the body, but the very colour of the skin. This is evidently the case in some scores of drawings of Asiatic females now before me. This sort of garments was afterwards in use among the Greeks. Prodicus, in his celebrated fable (Xenoph. Memorab. Socr. lib. ii.) exhibits the personage of Sloth in this dress: Εσθητα δε, εξ ἡς αν μαλιστα ὡρα διαλαμποι: -

"Her robe betray'd

Through the clear texture every tender limb,

Height'ning the charms it only seem'd to shade;

And as it flow'd adown so loose and thin,

Her stature show'd more tall, more snowy white her skin."

They were called multitia and coa (scil, vestimenta) by the Romans, from their being invented, or rather introduced into Greece, by one Pamphila of the island of Cos. This, like other Grecian fashions, was received at Rome, when luxury began to prevail under the emperors. It was sometimes worn even by the men, but looked upon as a mark of extreme effeminacy. See Juvenal, Sat. ii., 65, &c. Publius Syrus, who lived when the fashion was first introduced, has given a humorous satirical description of it in two lines, which by chance have been preserved: -

"AEquum est, induere nuptam ventum textilem?

Palam prostare nudam in nebula linea?"