Isaiah 3:19
in Isaiah 3their pendants, bracelets, and veils;
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
the pendants, and the bracelets, and the mufflers;
KJV
The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers,
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This verse in Isaiah 3
Commentary
7 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
The chains - Margin, “sweet balls.” The word used here is derived from the verb נטף nâṭaph, to drop, to fall in drops, or to distil,” as juice from a plant. Hence, it means that which “resembles drops” - as pearls, or precious stones, used as ornaments for the neck or ears. We retain a similar word as applicable to the ornaments of the ears, by calling them “drops.” The Chaldee renders this “chains,” and so also the Vulgate.
This site's exposition
Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion
on Isaiah 3:17-23
Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion turns judgment onto the very finery just described, and verses eighteen through twenty three list what will be taken away, more than twenty items of ancient Judean dress and adornment named by their own words, anklets, headbands and crescent ornaments, chains and bracelets and veils, bonnets, leg ornaments and perfume boxes, rings and nose jewels, festive robes, mantles, mirrors and fine linen. The list is the fullest catalogue of women's material culture in the whole book, and the older commentators treat it as real inventory of the period's fashion rather than invented excess, each item identifiable in the dress of the ancient Near East. Its very length is the point of the judgment, an entire wardrobe built for display removed piece by piece, nothing held back.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
A commentator
John ChrysostomHomily on the Gospel of Matthew 89 · Written in the 5th century.
proposed
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.
(Verse 18-21.) And necklaces, and torcs, and pendants, and bracelets, and headbands, and diadems, and girdles, and brooches, and perfume vials, and earrings, and rings and gems hanging from the forehead. It describes the necklaces of women, and through these the insignia of cities: or, according to the anagoge, the various ornaments of virtues. Women have tiny bulla-shaped pendants that resemble the moon, which we transfer to the ornaments of the Church, which is illuminated by the sun of justice.
The Medieval Church1 voice
Second, as to the neck: chains, certain adornments of the neck, which hang down to the breast and are given in honor of a victory: that grace may be added to your head, and a chain of gold to your neck (Prov 1:9). Third, as …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
The chains,.... According to Kimchi and R.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
chains--rather, pendants, hanging about the neck, and dropping on the breast. mufflers--veils covering the face, with apertures for the eyes, close above and loosely flowing below. The word radically means "tremulous," referring to the changing effect of the spangles on the veil.
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The words behind it
3 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.
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
Ezekiel 16:11I adorned you with jewelry, and I put bracelets on your wrists and a chain around your neck.
it leads to
- Genesis 24:47
Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She replied, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Genesis 24:22
And after the camels had finished drinking, he took out a gold ring weighing a beka, and two gold bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels.
- Genesis 41:42
Then Pharaoh removed the signet ring from his finger, put it on Joseph’s finger, clothed him in garments of fine linen, and placed a gold chain around his neck.
- Proverbs 1:9
For they are a garland of grace on your head and a pendant around your neck.
- Ezekiel 23:42
accompanied by the sound of a carefree crowd. Drunkards were brought in from the desert along with men from the rabble, who put bracelets on your wrists and beautiful crowns on your head.
- Genesis 24:47
Through
Genesis 24:22And after the camels had finished drinking, he took out a gold ring weighing a beka, and two gold bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 16:11–12
I adorned you with jewelry, and I put bracelets on your wrists and a chain around your neck.
- Exodus 32:2–3
So Aaron told them, “Take off the gold earrings that are on your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.”
- Ezekiel 16:11–12
Through
Genesis 38:18“What pledge should I give you?” he asked. She answered, “Your seal and your cord, and the staff in your hand.” So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became…
it leads to
- Genesis 38:25–26
As she was being brought out, Tamar sent a message to her father-in-law: “I am pregnant by the man to whom these items belong.” And she added, “Please examine them. Whose seal and cord…
- Genesis 38:25–26
About Isaiah
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Isaiah; 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) and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.