Isaiah 3:16–4:1

^16–17God says, “Zion women are stuck-up,

prancing around in their high heels,

Making eyes at all the men in the street,

swinging their hips,

Tossing their hair,

gaudy and garish in cheap jewelry.”

The Master will fix it so those Zion women

will all turn bald—

Scabby, bald-headed women.

The Master will do it.

^18–23The time is coming when the Master will strip them of their fancy baubles—the dangling earrings, anklets and bracelets, combs and mirrors and silk scarves, diamond brooches and pearl necklaces, the rings on their fingers and the rings on their toes, the latest fashions in hats, exotic perfumes and aphrodisiacs, gowns and capes, all the world’s finest in fabrics and design.

²⁴Instead of wearing seductive scents,

these women are going to smell like rotting cabbages;

Instead of modeling flowing gowns,

they’ll be sporting rags;

Instead of their stylish hairdos,

scruffy heads;

Instead of beauty marks,

scabs and scars.

^25–26Your finest fighting men will be killed,

your soldiers left dead on the battlefield.

The entrance gate to Zion will be clotted

with people mourning their dead—

A city stooped under the weight of her loss,

brought to her knees by her sorrows.

¹4That will be the day when seven women

will gang up on one man, saying,

“We’ll take care of ourselves,

get our own food and clothes.

Just give us a child. Make us pregnant

so we’ll have something to live for!”