Isaiah 3:17
in Isaiah 3the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will make their foreheads bare.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and Jehovah will lay bare their secret parts.
KJV
Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts.
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This verse in Isaiah 3
Commentary
9 notes on this verse(Verse 17) On that day the Lord will take away the ornament of the shoes. On which day? The Jews believe it to be the captivity of Babylon. We are more convinced that it is when they were captured by the Romans and lost all their clothing, gems, gold, jewelry, and various furnishings. Or, by the metaphor of women, it is said that all the adornment of cities was destroyed. Understand the ornaments of cities in the streets and porticoes, in the marketplace and gymnasiums, and in public walls.
This site's exposition
the Lord will bring sores
on Isaiah 3:17-23
Judgment falls on the finery just described: verses 18 to 23 list more than twenty items taken away. The older commentators treat this fullest list of dress in the book as a real inventory. Its length is the point, a whole wardrobe built for display removed piece by piece.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
But shouldest thou enter into a church, thou geest forth, without getting anything but countless leers, and revilings, and curses, not from the beholders only, but also from the prophet. For straightway Isaiah, that hath the fullest voice of all, as soon as he hath seen thee, will cry out, "These things saith the Lord against the princely daughters of Sion; because they walked with a lofty neck, and with winkings of the eyes, and in their walking, trailing their garments, and mincing at the same time with their feet; the Lord shall take off their bravery, and instead of a sweet smell there shall be dust, and instead of a stomacher, thou shalt gird thyself with a cord." These things for thy gorgeous array. For not to them only are these words addressed, but to every woman that doeth like them.
The Medieval Church1 voice
118. The Lord will make bald. Here he threatens punishment: and first, as to the removal of adornments; second, as to the comfort of men, where it says, your fairest men also shall fall by the sword (Isa 3:25). Concerning the first, he does two …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion,.... This is opposed to the lifting up of their heads in that haughty manner they did, and to the binding, and plaiting, and curling of their hair, which now will fall off, through the scab or leprosy upon them, or must be obliged to be shaven off. And the Lord will discover their secret parts; the Vulgate Latin renders it, "their hair", which is their glory, 1Co 11:6. The Targum is, "and the Lord shall take away their glory".
It is not at all material to enquire what sort of ornaments these respectively were and whether the translations rightly express the original words; perhaps 100 years hence the names of some of the ornaments that are now in use in our own land will be as little understood as some of those here mentioned now are.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab - There is some diversity of rendering to this expression. The Septuagint reads it: ‘The Lord will humble the principal daughters of Zion’ - those who belong to the court, or to the families of the princes. The Chaldee, ‘The Lord will prostrate the glory of the daughters of Zion.’ The Syriac is the same. The Hebrew word שׂפח s'ı̂phach, translated ‘will smite with a scab,’ means to “make bald,” particularly to make the hair fall off by sickness.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
smite with a scab--literally, "make bald," namely, by disease. discover--cause them to suffer the greatest indignity that can befall female captives, namely to be stripped naked, and have their persons exposed (Isa 47:3; compare with Isa 20:4).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
The Lord will smite “Will the Lord humble” - ταπεινωσει, Septuagint; and so Syriac and Chaldee. For שפח sippach they read שפל shaphal. Instead of יהוה Yehovah, many MSS. have אדני Adonai. Will discover their secret parts “Expose their nakedness” - It was the barbarous custom of the conquerors of those times to strip their captives naked, and to make them travel in that condition, exposed to the inclemency of the weather; and the worst of all, to the intolerable heat of the sun. But this to the women was the height of cruelty and indignity; and especially to such as those here described, who had indulged themselves in all manner of delicacies of living, and all the superfluities of ornamental dress; and even whose faces had hardly ever been exposed to the sight of man. This is always mentioned as the hardest part of the lot of captives. Nahum, Nah 3:5, Nah 3:6, denouncing the fate of Nineveh, paints it in very strong colors: - “Behold, I am against thee, saith Jehovah, God of hosts: And I will discover thy skirts upon thy face; And I will expose thy nakedness to the nations; And to the kingdoms thy shame. And I will throw ordures upon thee; And I will make thee vile, and set thee as a gazing-stock.”
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְשִׂפַּ֣ח | vesipach | and he will make scabby | H5596 → | |
| אֲדֹנָ֔י | ʾadonai | [the] Lord | H136 → | 440 times |
| קָדְקֹ֖ד | kadekod | scalp of | H6936 → | |
| בְּנ֣וֹת | benot | [the] daughters of | H1323 → | 588 times |
| צִיּ֑וֹן | tziyon | Zion | H6726 → | 154 times |
| וַיהוָ֖ה | vayahweh | and Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| פָּתְהֵ֥ן | patehen | forehead their | H6596 → | |
| יְעָרֶֽה׃ ס | yeareh | he will lay bare | H6168 → | 15 times |
וְשִׂפַּ֣חand he will make scabby
vesipachH5596 →
אֲדֹנָ֔י[the] Lord
ʾadonaiH136 →440 times
קָדְקֹ֖דscalp of
kadekodH6936 →
בְּנ֣וֹת[the] daughters of
benotH1323 →588 times
צִיּ֑וֹןZion
tziyonH6726 →154 times
וַיהוָ֖הand Yahweh
vayahwehH3068 →6520 times
פָּתְהֵ֥ןforehead their
patehenH6596 →
יְעָרֶֽה׃ סhe will lay bare
yearehH6168 →15 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 13:22And if you ask yourself, “Why has this happened to me?” It is because of the magnitude of your iniquity that your skirts have been stripped off and your body has been exposed.
it leads to
- Nahum 3:5
“Behold, I am against you,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show your nakedness to the nations and your shame to the kingdoms.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 16:10–11
When you tell these people all these things, they will ask you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this great disaster against us? What is our guilt? What is the sin that we have…
- Jeremiah 5:19
And when the people ask, ‘For what offense has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ You are to tell them, ‘Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods…
- Deuteronomy 7:17
You may say in your heart, “These nations are greater than we are; how can we drive them out?”
- Hosea 2:10
And then I will expose her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of My hands.
- Nahum 3:5
Through
Isaiah 20:4so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old alike, naked and barefoot, with bared buttocks—to Egypt’s shame.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 13:22
And if you ask yourself, “Why has this happened to me?” It is because of the magnitude of your iniquity that your skirts have been stripped off and your body has been exposed.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Isaiah 19:4
I will deliver the Egyptians into the hands of harsh masters, and a fierce king will rule over them,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.
- Jeremiah 13:26
So I will pull your skirts up over your face, that your shame may be seen.
- Jeremiah 13:22
About Isaiah
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Isaiah; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah; John Chrysostom, Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 89; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.