Beauty removed

Isaiah gives us a long list of ornaments and jewelry removed from the daughters of Zion (3:18-23). Like all biblical lists, this one is worth counting up.

There are two ways of counting. When we count words (beginning with “beauty” in v 18, tiph’arah ), we get 24, double the number of Israel’s tribes. When we combine the words that form into phrases (“house of soul” – bayit ha-nephesh , v. 20; “nose rings,” v. 21), we get 22, the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Yahweh is removing the ornaments from the daughters of Zion from aleph to tav.

The list contains too many echoes of the tabernacle texts to be accidental. “Beauty” (v. 18) is used in the phrase “garments of glory and beauty” in Exodus 28:2, and to describe the beauty of the temple in 1 Chronicles 22:5. “Bonnet” or “headdress” (v. 10) is part of the priestly equipment (Exodus 39:28). Though rings appear regularly in the Bible, the highest concentration of the word occurs in Exodus, which uses the word some 30 times to describe different sorts of rings on the tabernacle curtains. Even when there is not an exact verbal similarity, Isaiah’s items sound like priestly ornaments – the references to ankle chains and tinkling bells can’t help but reminds us of the high priest’s robe, and the priests wear diadems. The daughters of Zion are dressed like priests, but their priestly garb is being stripped off. Perhaps Isaiah is satirically depicting not only the fashion show that occurs in upper class neighborhoods of Jerusalem, but the prostitution of Judah’s worship: Zion’s daughters deck and doll themselves up, in hopes that Yahweh will be responsive. He is, but not in the way they hoped.