Isaiah 3:15-17

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Isaiah 3:15 sn The rhetorical question expresses the Lord’s outrage at what the leaders have done to the poor. He finds it almost unbelievable that they would have the audacity to treat his people in this manner.
2. Isaiah 3:15 tn Heb Traditionally, the “Lord of hosts.” On the title “the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,” see the note at 1:9.sn The use of this title, which also appears in v. 1, forms an inclusio around vv. 1-15. The speech begins and ends with a reference to “the Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
3. Isaiah 3:16 tn Heb “daughters” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV).
4. Isaiah 3:16 tn Heb “with an outstretched neck.” They proudly hold their heads high so that others can see the jewelry around their necks.
5. Isaiah 3:16 tn Heb “walking and skipping, they walk.”
6. Isaiah 3:16 tn Heb “and with their feet they jingle.”
7. Isaiah 3:17 tn In the Hebrew text vv. 16-17 are one long sentence, “Because the daughters of Zion are proud and walk…, the Lord will afflict….” In v. 17 the Lord refers to himself in the third person.
8. Isaiah 3:17 tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here and in v. 18 is אֲדֹנָי (ʾadonay).
9. Isaiah 3:17 tn Heb “the daughters of Zion.”
10. Isaiah 3:17 tn Or “a scab” (KJV, ASV); NIV, NCV, CEV “sores.”
11. Isaiah 3:17 tn The precise meaning of this line is unclear because of the presence of the rare word פֹּת (pot). Since the verb in the line means “lay bare, make naked,” some take פֹּת as a reference to the genitals (cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV, CEV). (In 1 Kgs 7:50 a noun פֹּת appears, with the apparent meaning “socket.”) J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:139, n. 2), basing his argument on alleged Akkadian evidence and the parallelism of the verse, takes פֹּת as “forehead.”