Isaiah 3

¹For, lo, the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, Is turning aside from Jerusalem, And from Judah, stay and staff, Every stay of bread, and every stay of water. ²Hero and man of war, judge and prophet, And diviner and elder, ³Head of fifty, and accepted of faces, And counsellor, and the wise of artificers, And the intelligent of charmers. ⁴And I have made youths their heads, And sucklings rule over them. ⁵And the people hath exacted—man upon man, Even a man on his neighbour, Enlarge themselves do the youths against the aged, And the lightly esteemed against the honoured. ⁶When one layeth hold on his brother, Of the house of his father, by the garment, ‘Come, a ruler thou art to us, And this ruin is under thy hand.’ ⁷He lifteth up, in that day, saying: ‘I am not a binder up, And in my house is neither bread nor garment, Ye do not make me a ruler of the people.’ ⁸For stumbled hath Jerusalem, and Judah hath fallen, For their tongue and their doings are against Jehovah, To provoke the eyes of His glory.

⁹The appearance of their faces witnessed against them, And their sin, as Sodom, they declared, They have not hidden! Woe to their soul, For they have done to themselves evil. ¹⁰Say ye to the righteous, that it is good, Because the fruit of their doings they eat. ¹¹Woe to the wicked—evil, Because the deed of his hand is done to him. ¹²My people—its exactors are sucklings, And women have ruled over it. My people—thy eulogists are causing to err, And the way of thy paths swallowed up. ¹³Jehovah hath stood up to plead, And He is standing to judge the peoples. ¹⁴Jehovah into judgment doth enter With elders of His people, and its heads: ‘And ye, ye have consumed the vineyard, Plunder of the poor is in your houses. ¹⁵What—to you? ye bruise My people, And the faces of the poor ye grind.’ An affirmation of the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, And Jehovah saith:

¹⁶‘Because that daughters of Zion have been haughty, And they walk stretching out the neck, And deceiving with the eyes, Walking and mincing they go, And with their feet they make a tinkling, ¹⁷The Lord also hath scabbed The crown of the head of daughters of Zion, And Jehovah their simplicity exposeth. ¹⁸In that day doth the Lord turn aside The beauty of the tinkling ornaments, And of the embroidered works, And of the round tires like moons, ¹⁹Of the drops, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, ²⁰Of the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, And of the bands, And of the perfume boxes, and the amulets, ²¹Of the seals, and of the nose-rings, ²²Of the costly apparel, and of the mantles, And of the coverings, and of the purses, ²³Of the mirrors, and of the linen garments, And of the hoods, and of the vails, ²⁴And it hath been, instead of spice is muck, And instead of a girdle, a rope, And instead of curled work, baldness, And instead of a stomacher a girdle of sackcloth. ²⁵For instead of glory, thy men by sword do fall, And thy might in battle. ²⁶And lamented and mourned have her openings, Yea, she hath been emptied, on the earth she sitteth!

Chapter 4