Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Isaiah 3
Judgment on Jerusalem and Judah
Look! The Lord, the LORD of hosts,
is removing from Jerusalem and Judah
every support and supply:
all support of bread and water,
warrior and soldier,
judge and prophet,
diviner and elder,
captain of fifty and person of rank,
counselor, skilled craftsman,
and expert in charms.
“I will make boys their rulers;
capricious children will govern them.”
People will oppress one another,
each against a neighbor.
The young will bully the old,
the despised the honored.
A man will seize his brother in their father’s house:
“You have a cloak—be our leader!
Take charge of this heap of ruins.”
But that day he will protest:
“I cannot bind up your wounds!
My house has neither bread nor cloak.
Do not make me the people’s leader.”
Jerusalem has stumbled; Judah has fallen.
Their speech and deeds oppose the LORD,
defying his glorious presence.
Their faces testify against them;
like Sodom, they declare their sin without hiding it.
Woe to them!
They have brought harm on themselves.
Tell the righteous it will go well:
they will eat the fruit of their deeds.
Woe to the wicked! It will go badly:
what their hands have done will return to them.
My people—children oppress them,
and women rule over them.
My people, your guides mislead you;
they swallow up the path you should walk.
The LORD takes his stand to argue the case;
he rises to judge peoples.
The LORD enters judgment
with his people’s elders and rulers:
“You have devoured the vineyard!
Your houses hold what you stole from the poor.
What do you mean by crushing my people,
grinding the faces of the poor?”
declares the Lord GOD of hosts.
The LORD says:
“Because Zion’s daughters are proud,
walking with necks outstretched
and eyes that flirt,
taking mincing steps
and jingling their anklets,
the Lord will scab the heads of Zion’s daughters;
the LORD will expose their private parts.”
On that day the Lord will remove their finery: anklets, headbands, crescent ornaments,
earrings, bracelets, veils,
headdresses, ankle chains, sashes, perfume containers, amulets,
rings and nose jewels,
fine robes, mantles, wraps, purses,
mirrors, linen garments, turbans, and shawls.
Instead of perfume, rot;
instead of a sash, a rope;
instead of styled hair, baldness;
instead of a fine robe, sackcloth;
branding instead of beauty.
Your men will fall by the sword,
your warriors in battle.
Her gates will lament and mourn;
stripped bare, she will sit on the ground.