ישעיהו ג

For lo!
The Sovereign GOD of Hosts
Will remove from Jerusalem and from Judah
Prop and stay,
Every prop of food
And every prop of water:

Soldier and warrior,
Magistrate and prophet,
Augur and elder;

Captain of fifty,
Magnate and counselor,
Skilled artisan and expert enchanter;

And I will make boys their rulers,
And babes shall govern them.

So the people shall oppress one another—
Each man oppressing his fellow:
The youth shall bully the elder;
And the despised [shall bully] the honored.

For should a man seize his brother,
In whose father’s house there is clothing:
“Come, be a chief over us,
And let this ruin be under your care,”

The other will thereupon protest,
“I will not be a dresser of wounds,
With no food or clothing in my own house.
You shall not make me chief of a people!”

Ah, Jerusalem has stumbled,
And Judah has fallen,
Because by word and deed
They insult GOD,
Defying God’s majestic glance.

Their partiality in judgment accuses them;
They avow their sins like Sodom,
They do not conceal them.
Woe to them! For ill
Have they served themselves.

(Hail the righteous, for they shall fare well;
They shall eat the fruit of their works.

Woe to the wicked, for they shall fare ill;
As their hands have dealt, so shall it be done to them.)

My people’s rulers are babes,
It is governed by women.
O my people!
Your leaders are misleaders;
They have confused the course of your paths.

GOD stands up to plead a cause,
And rises to champion peoples.

GOD will bring this charge
Against the elders and officers of this people:
“It is you who have ravaged the vineyard;
That which was robbed from the poor is in your houses.

How dare you crush My people
And grind the faces of the poor?”
—says my Sovereign GOD of Hosts.

GOD said:
“Because the daughters of Zion
Are so vain
And walk with heads thrown back,
With roving eyes,
And with mincing gait,
Making a tinkling with their feet”—

My Sovereign will bare the pates
Of the daughters of Zion,
GOD will uncover their heads.

In that day, my Sovereign will strip off the finery of the anklets, the fillets, and the crescents;

of the eardrops, the bracelets, and the veils;

the turbans, the armlets, and the sashes; of the talismans and the amulets;

the signet rings and the nose rings;

of the festive robes, the mantles, and the shawls; the purses,

the lace gowns, and the linen vests; and the kerchiefs and the capes.

And then—
Instead of perfume, there shall be rot;
And instead of an apron, a rope;
Instead of a diadem of beaten-work,
A shorn head;
Instead of a rich robe,
A girding of sackcloth;
A burn instead of beauty.

Her men shall fall by the sword,
Her force, in battle;

And her gates shall lament and mourn,
And she shall be emptied,
Shall sit on the ground.