Isaiah 3:23
in Isaiah 3and their mirrors, linen garments, tiaras, and shawls.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
the hand-mirrors, and the fine linen, and the turbans, and the veils.
KJV
The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails.
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This verse in Isaiah 3
Commentary
8 notes on this verse(Verse 23.) And needles, and mirrors, and linen cloths, and ribbons, and shawls. Women have needles, with which the arrangement of their hair is secured so that it does not flow too freely and become scattered. They also have mirrors, with which they contemplate their appearance and add to their adornment if anything is lacking. They have linen cloths, which are called coverings, and ribbons, with which their hair is tied, which are called ταινίας. They also have shawls, which we can call pallia: with which Rebecca herself was covered.
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 Fathers1 voice
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.
The Medieval Church1 voice
Second, things for discerning them, and looking-glasses, by which women discern whether they are well adorned: he made also the laver of brass, with the foot thereof, of the looking-glasses of the women that watched at the door of the tabernacle (Exod 38:8). Third, things …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
The glasses,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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 Exo 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.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
But the Septuagint, a transparent, gauze-like, garment. hoods--miters, or diadems (Isa 62:3; Zec 3:5). veils--large enough to cover the head and person. Distinct from the smaller veils ("mufflers") above (Ge 24:65).
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
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 color 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, etc. 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?”
The words behind it
4 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
Luke 16:19Now there was a rich man dressed in purple and fine linen, who lived each day in joyous splendor.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 16:49
Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and complacent; they did not help the poor and needy.
- Ezekiel 16:49
Through
Revelation 19:14The armies of heaven, dressed in fine linen, white and pure, follow Him on white horses.
it leads to
- Jude 1:14
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied about them: “Behold, the Lord is coming with myriads of His holy ones
- Revelation 7:9
After this I looked and saw a multitude too large to count, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes…
- Revelation 17:14
They will make war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will triumph over them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and He will be accompanied by His called and chosen…
- Revelation 19:8
She was given clothing of fine linen, bright and pure.” For the fine linen she wears is the righteous acts of the saints.
- Jude 1:14
Through
Exodus 38:8Next he made the bronze basin and its stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
it leads to
- 1 Samuel 2:22
Now Eli was very old, and he heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of…
- Luke 2:37
and then was a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.
- 1 Samuel 2:22
Through
Song of Solomon 5:7I encountered the watchmen on their rounds of the city. They beat me and bruised me; they took away my cloak, those guardians of the walls.
it leads to
- Song of Solomon 3:3
I encountered the watchmen on their rounds of the city: “Have you seen the one I love?”
- Song of Solomon 3:3
About Isaiah
This page draws on 9 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) and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.