Isaiah 3:19

The chains,.... According to Kimchi and R. Levi ben Gersom on Jude 8:26 these were drop bottles, or vessels of gold, in which were put stacte or balsam; and the former says here, they were such in

The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, Chains - Hebrew, hanªTiypowt (H5188), from naatap (H5197), to drop: pendants hanging about the neck and dropping on the breast.

Isaiah 3:19 The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers,Ver. 19. And the chains and the bracelets, &c.] The particulars of all their bravery we can say little unto upon certainty, since we are at this day ignorant of what ornaments and habiliments were then in use; and besides, the names here given unto them are such as the Jews themselves can hardly tell what to make of. It is a sad thing that the gauds and gaities of this age and country are such and so many, as that not six or seven verses, but so many whole chapters might be easily taken up in inventorying them. Lysander, a heathen, will rise up in judgment against many among us; for he would not allow his daughters to wear gorgeous attire, saying it would not make them so comely as common. That is very remarkable that is reported of Mr Foxe the martyrologue, that when a son of his, returning from his travels into foreign parts, came to him in Oxford, attired in a loose, outlandish fashion, Who are you? said his old father, not knowing him. He replied, I am your son. Oh, what enemy of thine, said he, hath taught thee so much vanity? The Hebrew word, beghed, for a garment, comes from baghad, which signifies to deal perfidiously or treacherously, perhaps because it is tegumentum et testimonium, not more a covering of man’ s shame than a testimony of his first sin in falling from God. So that a man or woman hath no more cause to brag about his fine clothes, or to be proud of them, than a thief of a silk rope, or than one hath of a plaster laid to his filthy Sore. Hist. of Mod. Div., by Lupton.

(19) The chains.—Better, as in Judges 8:26, where they are also ornaments of Midianite kings, earrings. These and the “bracelets “were probably of gold. The “mufflers” were the long flowing veil, or mantilla, worn so as to cover the head, as now in Spain, or Egypt, or Turkey.

19. The ear-drops (Judges 8:26, R.V. “collars”) and the arm-chains and the veils—the last (the Arabian ra‘l) is in two parts, one thrown back over the head from above the eyes, the other hanging down over the face.

The chains - Margin, “sweet balls.” The word used here is derived from the verb נטף nâṭaph, to drop, to fall in drops, or to distil,” as juice from a plant.

18, 19. In that day — The day of their coming punishment. Bravery — In Isaiah 4:2 this word means comely. It is applied to different things: in Isaiah 60:7, to the temple; in Isaiah 64:11, to Jerusalem.