Bible Strands
Isaiah 3:16
The LORD also says: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty—walking with heads held high and wanton eyes, prancing and skipping as they go, jingling the bracelets on their ankles—
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD addresses the daughters of Zion immediately after condemning the leaders who crush and grind the poor in Isaiah 3:15. He pronounces judgment on their arrogant posture and behavior before detailing the physical afflictions that will follow in Isaiah 3:17.
The words — The Hebrew גָּבְהוּ (ga.ve.Hu) literally means "they are haughty" or "they are lifted up," describing their proud stance. The phrase וַ/תֵּלַ֙כְנָה (va./te.Lakh.nah) translates to "and they have walked," emphasizing their deliberate, showy gait.
The thread — This critique of haughty women appears in Isaiah 32:9, where the Lord commands complacent daughters to listen. Ezekiel 16:49 links arrogance and complacency to Sodom's iniquity, while Proverbs 30:13 warns against a generation with haughty eyes and pretentious glances.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that external displays of pride and vanity are condemned alongside social oppression. It calls readers to examine their own postures and actions for signs of self-exaltation rather than humility.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:
Cross-references
- Isaiah 32:9 Stand up, you complacent women; listen to me. Give ear to my word, you overconfident daughters.
- Ezekiel 16:49 Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and complacent; they did not help the poor and needy.
- Proverbs 30:13 There is a generation—how haughty are their eyes and pretentious are their glances—
- Isaiah 4:4 when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains from the heart of Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire.
- Luke 23:28 But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.
- Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
- Song of Solomon 3:11 Come out, O daughters of Zion, and gaze at King Solomon, wearing the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding—the day of his heart’s rejoicing.
- Isaiah 1:8 And the Daughter of Zion is abandoned like a shelter in a vineyard, like a shack in a cucumber field, like a city besieged.
- Isaiah 3:18 In that day the Lord will take away their finery: their anklets and headbands and crescents;
- Isaiah 24:4 The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and fades; the exalted of the earth waste away.