Isaiah 3

The LORD said, Because the daughters of Zion are arrogant, outstretched necks, wanton eyes, mincing, tinkling feet. Wesley: the women; hitherto he reproved the men; tinkling by ornaments on the shoes.

The “daughters” are the women of Jerusalem. Haughty is pride in a walk. The men of 3:14 ground the poor; these daughters share the city’s lifted look (2:11).

Calvin: pride is the source; gait shows it. Stretched neck: as a downcast look is modesty, an unnaturally high look is insolence. Wandering eyes: unchaste eyes herald an unchaste heart. Tinkling: wanton gesture. He begins at the fountain so they cannot plead that dress is elegant while the mind is pure.

“Daughters”—the inward disease first. Zion’s daughters, haughty, necks, eyes, feet.

Therefore the Lord brings sores on the crown of the head of the women of Zion, and the LORD will make their scalps bald. Wesley: by giving her into the power of those enemies that shall strip her of all her raiment.

The humiliation of Zion’s proud women comes through war—enemies who strip the city—under the Lord’s “therefore.” The judgment answers the vanity described in v. 16.

Calvin: since words will not reform them, He advances in array. From head to foot, as their obstinacy ran from head to foot. He makes bald the crown where ornament was chiefly bestowed. The Lord himself exhibits the marks of vengeance in every part of the body.

The hand is His before it is the invader’s. Scab, heads, laid bare.

In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, the headbands, the crescents. Wesley: ornaments of those times; no need to parse each piece; some wore moon-shaped gear.

The day of 2:12 still historic. Finery is theirs until He takes it. Not a modern fashion fight.

Calvin: in that day—the appointed time. He searches the chests and brings the trifles to view so luxury cannot hide. Superfluity, not the body’s need, is on trial.

He removes what they stored. In that day God removes the anklets and crescents.

The earrings, the bracelets, the veils, the list continues. The taking continues down the list.

More of Judah’s actual jewelry. The Lord named them; we need not invent a campaign against bracelets.

Calvin: he enumerates because their curiosity in gathering ornaments was a world. The heap itself is the evidence.

The catalogue is the charge. The pendants, bracelets, and scarves are named one by one.

Headdresses, armlets, sashes, perfume boxes, and amulets. Wesley: tablets—boxes of perfumes.

Scent and charm together in Zion. Amulets sit beside the fortune-tellers of 2:6.

Calvin: from the head he comes to other parts. Perfume and amulet are not demanded by necessity. The list leaves them without excuse.

Luxury joined to superstition. Both sides agree: headdresses, perfume, amulets.

Wesley: nose-jewels fastened to the head, hanging to the beginning of the nose.

The rings worn in the city are taken too. A signet is a name; a nose ring is ornament. Both go.

Calvin: rings as part of the same world of ornament. What is the use of earrings and the rest beyond protecting the body? Superfluity has no plea.

God is still the one who takes them away. Both traditions see: signet, nose rings.

Wesley: pins of silver or gold for hair belong in this drawer of finery; here the verse names the fine robes and purses.

Feast-day dress of Zion’s daughters, not a slogan about closets.

Calvin: changeable suits and mantles—more than one garment for show. The palace of pride is a wardrobe.

He takes the feast clothes with the rest. The robes, mantles, cloaks, and purses go as well.

Mirrors, linen garments, turbans, and veils. Wesley: looking-glasses of burnished brass, not glass.

They looked; the Lord takes the looking-piece.

Calvin: glasses and fine linen and hoods complete the heap. No end to the contrivances; hence he speaks sharply.

“Mirrors”—the last of the finery. Both note: mirrors, linen, turbans, veils.

Wesley: girdles fine and costly; a rent—tattered garments; burning—sun they once guarded against with utmost care.

Reversals in a sacked city. Sackcloth and sun are war’s leftovers, not a lecture on cosmetics.

Calvin: things exceedingly opposite. Ungirded, torn, naked. Baldness against curls. Burning against beauty: fashionable ladies hardly expose themselves to the sun; he says this will happen. Men and women are to make a sober use of gifts; the Lord cannot endure extravagance.

He writes the opposite of what they stored.

Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty in the. Wesley’s city-wide stroke: the daughters’ men die in war.

“Men”—battle over Judah, not a gender war. Sword is still the mouth of the Lord (1:20). Husbands and mighty fall; the women of v. 16 are widowed by that fall.

Calvin: he directs the discourse to Jerusalem and the whole kingdom. After the women, he returns to the general doctrine. The whole strength brought down by wars. The body was infected; no part spared.

The same wrath that stripped finery takes the army.

Her gates shall lament and mourn. She shall be desolate and sit on the ground. Wesley: gates of Zion lament because no people go out or in; she sits like a woman bewailing husband and children.

The command to sit pictures an empty city. The daughter of Zion of 1:8 (booth, lodge, besieged) now sits on the dirt. The proud walk of v. 16 has nowhere left to mince.

Calvin: where crowds met, a dismal solitude. Public meetings were at the gates; they rejoice at a multitude and mourn at desolation. Jerusalem as a widow sitting on the ground, as mourners of that nation used to do. The city has lost her inhabitants.

The solitude is the last exhibit of the day. On this both agree: gates lament, empty, sit on the ground.