What Does Isaiah 3:16 Mean in the King James?

Moreover 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:

Isaiah 3:16 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The word translated “haughty” carries the sense of becoming high, and the verse gives that height an outstretched neck and a choreographed walk.

THE MEANING

The daughters of Zion appear here as an image of self-elevation made bodily: necks held high, eyes turned to display, and steps arranged to sound. The verse speaks wherever the wish to be noticed turns ordinary movement into a performance of superiority. Its repeated language of walking makes the whole manner of moving part of the claim.

THE ROOT

גָּבְהוּ

gāḇəhû

GROWS FROM

גבה

gāḇah

Be high, rise, become lofty.

The word translated “haughty” is built on becoming high. The verse gives that elevation a posture, an extended neck, and makes visible in the body the height the word names.

ALSO GROWS

gāḇōah: High, tall.

גָּבֹהַּ

This branch carries the same vertical sense, linking the daughters’ bodily posture with the elevation in “haughty.”

gōḇah: Height, elevation.

גֹּבַהּ

This noun makes the root’s spatial image explicit: pride presents itself as a claim to height.

תֵּלַכְנָה

tēlaḵnāh

GROWS FROM

הלך

hālaḵ

Walk, go, move along.

“walk / walking / go” in this verse is tēlaḵnāh. The verse uses forms of one verb three times: “walk,” “walking,” and “go.” English distributes the motion across different words, while Hebrew holds it under one root, making the described display feel like one continuous choreography.

ALSO GROWS

hōlēḵ: One who walks or goes.

הוֹלֵךְ

This form keeps the physical walker under the same root as the repeated movements in the verse.

halikhah: Walking, going, a course of movement.

הֲלִיכָה

This branch names movement as a sustained course, matching the verse’s continuous display.

THE PATTERN

Human self-exaltation is exposed and brought low.

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

Proverbs 16:18 · KJVThe proverb places pride on a path toward a fall, echoing Isaiah’s image of self-exaltation carried in the body.

For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Luke 14:11 · KJVJesus names the reversal directly: the one who raises himself is brought low.

But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

James 4:6 · KJVJames sets the proud against the humble under God’s judgment and favor.

THE THREAD

The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.

Isaiah 2:11 · KJV

The word translated “haughty” here shares the root ⁨גבה⁩ (gāḇah, “be high”) with “lofty” and “haughtiness” in Isaiah 2:11. That verse’s image of lifted eyes opens this one further: the raised gaze and neck belong to a recurring picture of human height being lowered while the LORD alone is exalted.

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