Isaiah 3:23

The glasses,.... Looking glasses, by which they dressed themselves, see Exodus 38:8 and so Kimchi explains the word; but elsewhere (e) he says it signifies thin garments, so called because the flesh

The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails. Glasses - mirrors of polished metal (Exodus 38:8).

The glasses; the looking-glasses, as we call them, though in truth they were not made of glass, but of bright and burnished brass.

Isaiah 3:23 The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails. Ver. 23.

(23) The glasses—i.e., the polished metal mirrors (as in Exodus 38:3; Job 37:18; 1 Corinthians 13:12; James 1:23), which the Eastern lady carried in her hand, that she might adjust her toilet. The LXX. rendering, “Laconian [Spartan] garments,” i.e., indecently transparent, is curious enough to deserve notice, as throwing light on the social life of Alexandria, if not of Israel. The fine linen—i.e., the chemise worn under the tunic next the skin. The Heb. sedξn, like the Greek σίνδων (Mark 14:51), seems to imply a commerce with India; so our muslin (mosul) and calico (calicut) bear record of their origin. In Sanscrit, sindhu is the term for fine linen. The hoods—i.e., the turbans which completed the attire, and over which was thrown the “vail,” or gauze mantle. Jewish women, however, did not veil their faces after the manner of those of Turkey and Arabia. The prophet seems to have carried his eye upward from the feet to the head, as he catalogued with indignant scorn the long list of superfluities. We may compare the warnings of 1 Timothy 2:9; 1 Peter 3:3. It is noticeable that stockings and handkerchiefs do not seem to have been used by the women of Judah.

Verse 23. The glasses] The conjunction ו vau, and - AND the glasses, is added here by forty-three of Kennicott's and thirty-four of De Rossi's MSS., and one of my own, ancient, as well as by many editions. And the veils. - "The transparent garments."] ΤαδιαφανηΛακωνικα, Sept. A kind of silken dress, transparent, like gauze; worn only by the most elegant women, and such as dressed themselves elegantius quam necesse esset probis, "more elegantly than modest women should." Such garments are worn to the present day; garments that not only show the shape of every part of the body, but the very colour of the skin. This is evidently the case in some scores of drawings of Asiatic females now before me. This sort of garments was afterwards in use among the Greeks. Prodicus, in his celebrated fable (Xenoph. Memorab. Socr. lib. ii.) exhibits the personage of Sloth in this dress: Εσθηταδε, εξἡςανμαλισταὡραδιαλαμποι: - "Her robe betray'd Through the clear texture every tender limb, Height'ning the charms it only seem'd to shade; And as it flow'd adown so loose and thin, Her stature show'd more tall, more snowy white her skin." They were called multitia and coa (scil, vestimenta) by the Romans, from their being invented, or rather introduced into Greece, by one Pamphila of the island of Cos. This, like other Grecian fashions, was received at Rome, when luxury began to prevail under the emperors. It was sometimes worn even by the men, but looked upon as a mark of extreme effeminacy. See Juvenal, Sat. ii., 65, &c. Publius Syrus, who lived when the fashion was first introduced, has given a humorous satirical description of it in two lines, which by chance have been preserved: - "AEquum est, induere nuptam ventum textilem? Palam prostare nudam in nebula linea?"

23. The mirrors (made of polished metal, see ch. Isaiah 8:1) and the shifts (Judges 14:12 f.) and the turbans and the overalls (a kind of veil, Son 5:7).

The glasses - There is a great variety of opinion about the expression used here. That ancient Jews had “looking-glasses,” or mirrors, is manifest from the account in Exodus 38:8.

23. Glasses — Mirrors made of polished metal, carried on the person. Fine linen — Inner wear, undergarments. Hoods — Turbans, mitres, diadems. Isaiah 60:3; Zechariah 3:5.