Isaiah 32:11

Isa 32:11 Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird [sackcloth] upon [your] loins.

Ver. 11. Tremble, ye women.] Adhortatio ad poenitentiam, saith Hyperius; an exhortation to repentance, {a} not unlike that of St James, {Jas 4:9-10} "Afflict yourselves, and weep and mourn; let your laughter be turned into mourning, your joy into heaviness."

{a} Trepidate, O tranquillae. - Tremel.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Isa_32:11

Be troubled, ye careless ones

Besetting sins may be the defects of virtues

The besetting sins of either sex are its virtues prostituted.

A mans greatest temptations proceed from his strength; but the glory of the feminine nature is repose, and trust is the strength of the feminine character, in which very things, however, lies all the possibility of womans degradation. (Prof g. A. Smith, D. D.)

The careless sinner reproved

I. I am to EXPOSTULATE WITH THOSE WHO ARE CARELESS IN THE CONCERNS OF RELIGION AND THEIR SOULS. The following things are submitted to your consideration:--

1. The importance of religion, which is neglected by you.

2. The beneficial proofs of the Divine agency which surround you.

3. Your personal obligations to God are neither few nor small.

4. The grand display of the love of God in giving His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, &c.

5. The certainty of judgment and a future state.

II. We are now to ADDRESS THESE EXPOSTULATIONS TO THE CONSIDERATION OF YOUTH, MANHOOD, AND AGE. (A. Shanks.)

An alarm to the careless

To be careless in temporal things is generally regarded as a very serious defect or offence. How much more so when one is careless in spiritual things! Yet this is characteristic of great numbers who hear the Gospel. Is there no cause for alarm? A careless attitude and habit towards God and Christ and salvation are--

1. Unreasonable,

2. Hazardous.

3. God-provoking. (J. M. Sherwood.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A CALL TO THE CARELESS

Isa_32:11. Be troubled, ye careless ones [1192]

[1192] See outlines on chap. Isa_1:3, p. 7–12.

I. Who are the careless ones in our own day?

1. Those who neglect the Bible. Its main object is to arouse the attention of sinners. Claims and deserves attention. That man is indifferent to the welfare of his country who never examines the principles of its constitution, the character of its laws, &c. So he who neglects the Bible can never be regarded as a serious man. He is careless on the most momentous of all subjects.

2. Those who neglect prayer. All who have any proper feeling towards God must regard this as a solemn duty. Nature teaches its necessity and importance, the Scriptures enjoin it with great earnestness (Luk_18:1; 1Th_5:17).

3. Those who neglect the Sabbath. This “made for man,” appointed for his convenience and spiritual good. An institution of unspeakable importance as regards eternity—in fact, no religion without it.

4. Those who neglect the institutions of the sanctuary. Those anxious to know “what they must do to be saved” always prize the preaching of the Gospel. On the other hand, as the interest in religion declines, so will be our indifference to the means of grace. See you one who makes his attendance on God’s house a matter of convenience, who avails himself of any trifling excuse to be absent, &c., there is a careless one. So also with those who are so absorbed in the pursuits of this life, so as to have neither leisure nor disposition to attend the place of prayer.

5. In a word, those are careless ones who live in impenitence and unbelief. Repentance and faith in Christ. The great interest of the soul cannot be secured without these, and no man can be said to take heed to the things that belong to his peace, without obeying Christ’s commands concerning them.

II. Why such ought to be troubled. Those who are indifferent are disposed to remain so—carelessness perpetuates itself. Still there are reasons why such should be troubled.

1. The fact that you are careless is a ground of alarm. Carelessness, an evidence of our ignorance of the true condition of the soul in the sight of God. Something truly frightful in false security where the danger is real and great. With such this fancied security is the most alarming symptom. The sinner suffering from a disease which no human skill can remove—in danger of eternal death. How fearful then the indifference, how appalling the apathy of such!

2. This indifference indicates a state of mind in which every blessing will be abused, and every warning neglected. A habit of body that would render everything received for nourishment or for medicine useless would be dreadful; what, then, of that moral disease which perverts every gift and makes the diversified means which God employs accomplish nothing for our good?

3. You ought to be troubled when you reflect what it is you are careless about, viz., your salvation. The man who is indifferent about his health, or regardless of his temporal interest, is unwise; what, then, of one who hazards the salvation of his soul by neglect? Salvation is offered in Christ—indifference is unbelief. Why so eager after the acquisition of wealth, and indifferent about the true riches?

4. Another cause of alarm is the exposure of your present position. Neglect of the Gospel ensures destruction (Heb_2:3). This apathy a crime for which no amiableness or morality can atone.

5. No more powerful means will be employed to awaken you to the concerns of your soul. God disclaims any responsibility for your loss (Isa_5:4; Mat_23:37). Ministers have preached, Christian friends have entreated, the Holy Spirit has been sent down, and still you are careless. The very heathen will rise up in judgment. If one rising from the dead would not make those hear who had Moses and the prophets, what shall awaken those who have Christ and the apostles?

6. This carelessness is induced, it is not natural. A long process of hardening the heart is gone through before such a state of apathy is reached. But once ours, it has all the force of habit, and is not easily broken up (Mat_11:21). This indifference is voluntary (Act_24:25). Felix might have taken a different course. No iron necessity binds men to the fatal course they take, but a perverse will and an unbelieving heart.

7. This carelessness is a state of mind that provokes God to withdraw His Spirit. Deeply criminal. No apathy in heaven, there ought to be none on earth. Must it not offend God, to say that He has failed to reveal Himself in a way to interest His creatures? And yet men can be interested in a novel while the Gospel is neglected. Under the old dispensation He said, “My people would not hearken to My voice, so I gave them up to their hearts’ lust.” What of those who then reject the ?Song of Solomon 8. This indifference will ultimately be broken up, and will aggravate condemnation a thousandfold. Though retribution sleep, it must come and will not tarry. The Jews were spared forty years after the Saviour had wept over their doomed city. So with the sinner; there comes a time when he can be indifferent no longer; the realities of judgment and eternity produce a conviction which will go on deepening for ever. How it will embitter the soul then to dwell upon this carelessness of the past. Recollection itself a source of misery. (Luk_16:25). What words can express the anguish of a soul thus reminded of lost opportunities, &c.?

Throw off this lethargy. From this moment seek the Lord with your whole heart, and call upon Him while He is near. Why run the desperate hazard of having to do all this on a dying bed?—Mark Tucker, D.D.: National Preacher, vol. vii. p. 138.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

32:11 Burlap was worn to show . . . grief, especially when mourning (see Ps 30:11). The Assyrian conquest of the farmlands of Judah and most of its cities (except Jerusalem) would cause rich people in the large cities to mourn.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

strip you--of your gay clothing. (See Isa 2:19, Isa 2:21).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 11. Gird sackcloth] שק sak, sackcloth, a word necessary to the sense, is here lost, but preserved by the Septuagint, MSS. Alex. and Pachom., and I. D. II., and edit. Ald. and Comp., and the Arabic and Syriac.

Tremble - be troubled - strip you] פשטה peshotah, רגזה regazah, &c. These are infinitives, with a paragogic ה he, according to Schultens, Institut. Ling. Hebr. p. 453, and are to be taken in an imperative sense.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(11) Tremble, ye women that are at ease . . .—The words find at once a parallel and a contrast in those spoken to the daughters of Jerusalem in Luke (Luk_23:28-30). The call to repentance includes their stripping themselves of their costly finery, and putting on the “sackcloth” (the word is implied, though not expressed in the Hebrew), which was the outward symbol of repentance (Jon_3:5-8). The words, it may be noted, are masculine, the call not being limited to the women.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. The speaker calls on his female auditors at once to assume the garb of mourners; so certain is the calamity. The word for “tremble” is in the masc. gender in the original, a not uncommon irregularity (Amo_4:1; Mic_1:13, &c.). Indeed the next verse presents an example.

strip ye, and make ye bare]—as Arabian women occasionally do in a paroxysm of grief or terror.

gird (sc. sackcloth) upon your loins] Cf. ch. Isa_3:24; 1Ki_21:27; 2Ki_6:30; Job_16:15.

The words “be troubled,” “strip,” “make bare” and “gird” represent anomalous forms in the Hebrew, which are the despair of grammarians. The imperative no doubt gives the right sense.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tremble, ye women that are at ease,.... Which may be considered either as an exhortation to repentance for their sins, of which, if a due sense was impressed on their hearts, would cause a trembling of body and mind, under a fearful expectation of divine wrath; or as a prediction, that though they were now quite tranquil and easy, and nothing disturbed them, yet such calamities would come upon them as would make them tremble:

be troubled, ye careless ones; or, "confident ones" (l); that live securely, trusting in their present wealth and riches, and confident that things will always continue as they are; be it known to you that trouble will come, and better it would be for you if you were now troubled for your sins, and truly repented of them, that the judgments threatened, and coming, might be prevented:

strip ye, and make you bare; of your fine clothes, and beautiful ornaments, in which they prided themselves, which used to be done in time of mourning, Eze 7:27 or it signifies that this should be their case, they would be stripped not only of their richest clothes and decorating jewels, but of their ordinary apparel, and left bare and naked by the enemy:

and gird sackcloth upon your loins; as a token of mourning; see Gen 37:34 the word "sackcloth" is supplied, as it is by Kimchi, and in the Syriac and Arabic versions; though some understand it as a direction to gird their loins for servile work, signifying what would be their condition and circumstances when taken and carried captive by the enemy; they would no longer live at ease, and in pleasure, as mistresses, but would serve as handmaids.

(l) "confidentes", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Strip ye, and make ye bare - That is, take off your joyful and splendid apparel, and put on the habiliments of mourning, indicative of a great calamity.

And gird sackcloth - (See the note at Isa 3:24).

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Strip you, and make you bare; put off your ornaments, as God commanded upon a like occasion, Exo 33:5, that you may put on sackcloth instead of them, as mourners and penitents used to do.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. Strip you… sackcloth — This means to put on signs of grief. “Sackcloth” instead of daily gay apparel.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tremble... be troubled. The repetition of this verse is, as usual, emphatic. Its object is to impress those whom the prophet is addressing with the certainty of the coming judgment. Strip you, and make you bare; i.e. "bare your breasts," in preparation for the beating which is to follow (see the comment on the next verse).

Folk who are at ease.

Special reference is made to the women of the upper classes in Jerusalem, who were living in self-indulgence and extravagance, and setting mischievous example to all the women of the land. The coming woes would affect them all the more seriously because of the luxuries which they had gathered round themselves, and which had become to them fancied necessities. No doubt the idle, self-indulgent, and too often profligate conduct of these women greatly added to the pressure of the existing evils. It is suggested to us to consider how greatly; in every age, women represent and augment the evils of their times. Many a man has been ruined by his efforts to feed the pride, vanity, and luxury of these ease-loving, careless wives and daughters. And nations have lost their manhood in the moral decay of the "mothers" of the race. "When a land goes to ruin a great part of the blame of it rests upon the women. For they are more easily prompted to evil, as they are to good." But this "being at ease" describes the condition of what is called a "high state of civilization," when money is accumulated in the hands of the few, and these few, having no need to work, give themselves up to self-indulgence, manufacturing wants, and constantly craving for some excitement to relieve the dreadful ennui of life.

I MEN AND WOMEN SHOULD NOT BE AT EASE. There is work to be done. Work for all. It is put close to our hand. There are evils to fight evils so gigantic that every man and woman may have a place in the soldier-ranks. God worketh hitherto; Christ works; and woe to all who, in negligence or in rebelliousness, refuse to bear the yoke!

II MANY MEN AND WOMEN MUST MASTER THEMSELVES AND THEIR CIRCUMSTANCES IF THEY ARE TO CEASE TO RE AT EASE. For careless ways may have become fixed habits. We may have deceived ourselves into the idea that our "doing nothing," our busy idleness, is really doing something. We begin to take life into our hands for ordering, when we face the question, "What is life given me for?" "Life is real, life is earnest.

III GOD"S WOE SURELY COMES ON ALL WHO KEEP AT EASE, Our Lord pictured this in his parable of the "rich man and Lazarus." That rich man, living at ease, is not to be envied while he lived, for the woe of God lay on him, making bitterness for his many idle hours. Much less is he to be envied when his life is done, for the woe of God is on him there. "In hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments." "Tremble, ye women that are at ease! R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Strip - Put off your ornaments.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

He now speaks as if the event had already taken place, and calls upon them to express their sorrow and alarm by the usual signs of mourning. “Tremble ye careless (women), quake ye confiding (ones), strip you and make you bare, and gird (sackcloth) on your loins.”

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

General Information:

Isaiah continues speaking.

Tremble

shake from fear

at ease

"secure" or "carefree"

take off your fine clothes and make yourselves bare

Here "bare" does not necessarily mean naked, but to wear minimal covering such as undergarments. AT: "take off you fine clothes and make yourself unclothed" or "take off your fancy clothes" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

put on sackcloth around your waists

This is an act of grieving or mourning. AT: "put sackcloth around waists as you grieve" (See: Symbolic Action)

You will wail for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines

This means that they will cry out loudly as they grieve what happens to their fruitful fields and vines. AT: "You will wail because of what happens to your pleasant fields and fruitful vines" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

thorns and briers

See how you translated this phrase in Isaiah 5:6.

the once joyful houses

Here the houses are described as joyful because of the joyful people in them. AT: "your houses where you were once joyful" (See: Personification)

the city of revelry

"your joyful city." The word "revelry" means celebrating and partying.

translationWords

confidence

sackcloth

fruit

vine

people of God

joy

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

to be troubled (רְגָזָה) to be troubled. (This is an infinitive despite the absence of the ‘lammed.’)

to undress (פְּשֹׁטָה) to undress. (This too is an infinitive with the ‘lammed’ missing.)

and to bare (וְעֹרָה) An expression of ‘naked’ (עֶרְיָה) (Micah 1:11).

and to gird (וַחֲגוֹרָה) Therefore, the accent is before the last syllable, and so did Jonathan render: Undress and bare yourselves and gird on your loins. Since they will undress and bare themselves of their garments, they will not gird on their garments but on their loins.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

חרדו Tremble. Imperative masculine. Comp. תעירו ye stir (Song 2:7); תמצאו ye find (Ib. 5:8). It may be considered as an elliptical expression.

רגזה I have explained this word already. פשוטה וערה Strip you and make you bare. These words are to be explained in the same way. וערה And make you bare. Comp. עריה naked (Ez. 16:7). עריה תעור Thy bow will be made quite naked (Hab. 3:9). I think that women, daughters (ver. 9), are to be taken literally.

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.