GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
ISAIAH 3:24-26
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24 This is what will be: Instead of a perfume, a rotten stench. Instead of a sash, a rope. Instead of done-up hair, baldness. Instead of fine clothing, sackcloth. Instead of beauty, branding. 25 Your men will fall by the sword, your heroic women in battle. 26 The gates of Zion will mourn and lament. Destitute, she will sit on the ground.
The Lord’s judgment on the wicked women of Judah continues here by showing that after their lovely clothes and jewelry are taken away, there is still more to come. Or rather, more to be removed.
Their perfumes will be replaced by a rotten stench. The perfumes of the ancient world would probably be so overpowering to our nostrils that we would become upset and gag. Bathing with soap and water was not a luxury that the wealthy appreciated (the poor often washed in rivers and lived a generally more healthy life). Bathsheba’s rooftop bath was the act of a soldier’s wife, not of a princess. This led to many exotic and pungent things crushed and stirred into various oils. But all of that would be exchanged in the wrath of God for a rotten stench. More than the stink of an unwashed body, this was the stench of disease and death.
A sash? A rope. This is probably a reference to the binding rope of a captive rather than a cord or belt for a dress. It is the mark of a captive; an exile. This is a prophecy of what was very soon to transpire.
Baldness in a woman was a mark of mourning and grieving. Micah says, “Shave your heads and cut off your hair in mourning for the children… make yourselves as bald as the buzzard, for they will be taken from you into exile” (Micah 1:16). Sackcloth was also an important part of grief and mourning. But the item that jumps out at us here at the end of the chapter is the threat of branding. According to the research of Mallory Ditchey (Columbia University, Body Language: Tattooing and Branding in Ancient Mesopotamia), branding was used on slaves for (1) marking their human or divine ownership, (2) a method of punishment for recaptured runaway slaves, (3) and often done in multiple languages to ensure the maintenance of social order across many nations. The Egyptians often marked prisoners of war. The Law of Moses forbade tattoos or branding (Leviticus 19:28), and although that law is no longer in force for Christians, one should be careful about marking one’s body, especially with regard to giving offense at the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 8:12-13).
Verse 25 reverses the usual threat of the loss of loved ones. Usually (almost always) the men are the warriors and the women are seen as mothers and wives (Judges 21:10; 2 Kings 8:12). Here, the men “fall by the sword,” but then so do “your heroic women.” This is the word gabor “mighty man,” but clearly in the feminine gender, something like the valiant woman of Proverbs 31:10, where many readers may remember I translated “heroic wife” based on the context and circumstances in my family at the time. Apart from this verse, there is no other evidence that the Israelites used women as regular soldiers in ancient times. Perhaps this, like the rest of the passage, shows the inversion of the nation and the upside-down experience of this punishment on the people.
Even the gates of the city are in mourning, but in the most unique image of the chapter, Jerusalem herself “sits destitute,” no longer a mighty fortress atop a high mountain, but a grieving girl sitting in the dust by the roadside.
God gives his people many gifts. But he wants us to remember that, as Jesus said, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded” (Luke 12:48). This applies to physical gifts, to talents, and to spiritual gifts as well. What do we do with the things God gives to us? “There is nothing that God wants less,” Luther told his class, “than that we be haughty in connection with these gifts, whether physical or spiritual, which he gives us. But he wants us to humble ourselves in his sight.” He loves our repentance over these and every one of our sins, and he rejoices with the angels when we do (Luke 15:6). “Be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all” (Titus 3:1-2).
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Isaiah 3:24-26 Your heroic women