The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.
Parallel translations
- WEB The look of their faces testify against them. They parade their sin like Sodom. They don’t hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought disaster upon themselves.
- BSB The expression on their faces testifies against them, and like Sodom they flaunt their sin; they do not conceal it. Woe to them, for they have brought disaster upon themselves.
- NKJV The look on their countenance witnesses against them, And they declare their sin as Sodom; They do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought evil upon themselves.
- NASB The expression of their faces testifies against them, And they display their sin like Sodom; They do not even conceal it. Woe to them! For they have done evil to themselves.
- NLT The very look on their faces gives them away. They display their sin like the people of Sodom and don’t even try to hide it. They are doomed! They have brought destruction upon themselves.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Their very faces betray their guilt as they flaunt their sin like Sodom, without shame. Their brazen, open wickedness brings disaster on themselves.
Overview
The loss of shame, parading sin openly, marks a deep moral corruption likened to Sodom. The 'woe' pronounced shows that they have invited their own ruin. Such hardened sinfulness highlights humanity's need for the transforming grace found only in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Gen 13:13But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.
- Gen 18:20–21And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
- Ps 73:6–7Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.
- Prov 30:13There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.
- 2 Kgs 9:30And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window.
- Isa 3:16Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:
- Lam 5:16The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
- Jer 44:16–17As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee.
- Rom 6:23For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- Gen 19:5–9And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
- Jer 3:3Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.
- 1 Sam 15:32Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past.
- Ps 10:4The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
- Prov 8:36But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.
- Jer 6:15Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.
- Ezek 23:16And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.
- Dan 7:20And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows.
- Hos 13:9O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 3:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.