Isaiah 3
1 For lo! the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, removing from Jerusalem and from Judah, The stay and staff, —The whole stay of bread, And the whole stay of water:
The Commander of the armies of angels is about to take away from Jerusalem and [other places in] Judea everything that you depend on— all your food and water.
2 Man of might and man of war, —Judge and prophet And diviner and elder;
He will take away your heroes and your [other] soldiers, your judges and your prophets, people who do rituals to find out what will happen in the future and the elders,
3 Captain of fifty, and favourite; And counsellor and skilled artificer, And master of magical formulas;
army officers and [other] officials, advisors and skilled craftsmen and those who perform rituals to predict the future.
4 And I will appoint boys to be their princes, —And, petulant children, shall rule over them,
He will appoint boys to be your leaders; your children will rule you.
5 And the people will, tyrannise, Every man over his fellow-man, And every man over his friend, —And they will rage The boy against, the elder, And the despised, against, the honourable,
People will treat each other cruelly: people will fight against their neighbors. Young people will insult older people, and vulgar/dishonorable people will sneer at people who should be honored.
6 When a man shall lay hold, on his brother of the house of his father, [saying] —Clothing, hast thou, Become thou our, ruler, This downfall, be under thy hand,
At that time, someone will grab one of his brothers in his father’s house and say to him, “You have a coat, [which shows that you are respected]. [So] you be our leader! You rule this [city, which is now] a pile of ruins!”
7 He will swear, in that day, saying—I will take no control, When in mine own house, is neither food nor clothing, —Ye must not set me for a ruler of people!
[But] his brother will reply, “[No], I cannot help you, [because] I do not have [any extra] food or clothes in this house. [So] do not appoint me to be your leader!”
8 For stumbled hath Jerusalem, and, Judah, hath fallen, —Because, their tongue and their doings, are against Yahweh, Provoking his glorious presence,
Jerusalem and [the other towns in] Judah will be destroyed, because [everything] that the people do and say there opposes Yahweh, who is powerful and glorious, and they refuse to obey him. They rebel against him.
9 The show of their face, hath answered against them, And their sin—like Sodom, have they told, they have not concealed it. Alas for their souls! For they have requited to themselves, calamity.
They even show on their faces that [they oppose Yahweh]. They are proud of their sins, like [the people of] Sodom were [long ago]; they do not try to hide their sins. [Because of their sins], terrible things will happen to them, [but] they will bring those disasters on themselves.
10 Say ye to the righteous It is well! For the fruit of their doings, shall they eat:
[Yahweh told me to] tell the righteous people that good things will happen to them; they will enjoy the blessings that they will receive for their good deeds.
11 Alas! for the lawless, it is ill, For what his own hand hath matured, shall be done to him.
[But] terrible things will happen to wicked people; they will be (paid back/punished) for [the evil things that] [MTY] they have done.
12 My people! children, are their tyrants, And, women, rule over them, —My people! they who should lead thee forward, are causing thee to stray, Thy pathways, have they destroyed,
[Now], youths [who have become leaders] treat my people cruelly, and women rule over my people. My people, your leaders are misleading you; they are causing you to go down the wrong road [MET].
13 Yahweh hath taken his station to plead, —And is standing to judge peoples:
[It is as though] Yahweh has sat in his place in a courtroom and is ready to judge his people.
14 Yahweh, into judgment, will enter, With the elders of his people And their princes, —But ye, have consumed the vineyard, That which hath been robbed from the oppressed, is in your houses.
He will stand up to declare why the elders and rulers of his people should be punished: [he says], “The people of Israel are [like] [MET] a vineyard that I planted, but you have ruined it! Your houses are full of things that you have stolen from poor people.
15 What right have ye to crush my people, And the faces of the oppressed, to grind? Demandeth My Lord Yahweh of hosts—And Yahweh saith—
You should stop [RHQ] crushing my people! [It is as though] you are pushing the faces of poor people into the dirt!” [That is what] the Commander of the armies of angels says.
16 Because haughty are the daughters of Zion, And they walk with neck thrown back, and wanton eyes, —Tripping along as they go, And with their feet, making, a tinkling sound,
Yahweh says this: “The women of Jerusalem are haughty/proud; they walk around sticking their chins out, and flirting [with men] with their eyes. They walk with tiny steps with bracelets on their ankles that jingle.
17 Therefore will My Lord, smite with leprosy the crown of hair of the daughters of Zion, —And, as for Yahweh, their shame, will he lay bare!
So I, Yahweh, will cause sores to be on their heads, and I will cause those beautiful women in Jerusalem to become bald.”
18 In that day, will My Lord remove the finery—of the anklets, and the little suns and the little moons;
At the time [that Yahweh does that], he will strip away everything that the women of Jerusalem wear to make themselves beautiful—the ornaments on their ankles and their headbands, their crescent necklaces,
19 the pendants and the bracelets and the veils;
their earrings and bracelets and veils,
20 the chaplets and the armlets and the girdles, and the scent-cases, and the amulets;
their scarves and ankle bracelets and sashes, their perfumes and (charms/little things that they wear thinking that those things will protect them from evil),
21 the rings and the nose-jewels;
their signet rings and nose rings,
22 the robes, and the over-tunics, and the cloaks and the purses;
their nice robes and capes and cloaks and purses,
23 and the mirrors and the linen wraps, and the tiaras and the cloaks.
their mirrors and nice linen clothes and shawls.
24 And it shall come to pass—That instead of fragrance, a putrid odour, shall be, And instead of a girdle, an encircling rope, And instead of braided hair, baldness, And instead of a festal robe, a girding of sackcloth, Branding instead of beauty:
Instead of their having a nice smell from perfume, they will stink; instead of nice sashes, they will have ropes [around their waists because they will be captives]. Instead of having fancy hairdos, they will be bald. Instead of fancy/beautiful robes, they will wear rough sackcloth, and instead of being beautiful, they will be branded.
25 Thy males, by the sword shall fall, —And, thy mighty men, by the war;
Their husbands will be killed by [their enemies’] swords, and their soldiers [will also die] in battles.
26 And her gates shall mourn and lament, —And forsaken, on the ground, shall she sit.
People [PRS] will mourn and cry at the gates [of the city]. The city will [be like] [MET] a woman who sits on the ground because everything that she owned is gone.
