What Does Isaiah 3:20 Mean in the King James?
The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings,
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The ornaments are not inert decoration: their Hebrew names carry the acts of beautifying, binding, and whispering.
THE MEANING
The verse names a visible arrangement of adornments worn on the body. Beneath the English list, the words carry ideas of beautifying, fastening, and whispering charms; what is worn has meanings beyond its appearance.
THE ROOT
פְּאֵרִים
peʾerim
GROWS FROM
פאר
p-ʾ-r
To adorn, beautify, or glorify.
The word rendered “bonnets” belongs to the same root family as words for beauty and glory. The Hebrew can hold an object of adornment and the act of beautifying together.
ALSO GROWS
paʾar: Adorn or glorify.
פָּאַר
The verb makes explicit the beautifying action already present in the bonnet’s name.
tifʾeret: Beauty, ornament, or glory.
תִּפְאֶרֶת
This related noun shows how the same root can name both an adornment and the beauty it expresses.
קִשֻּׁרִים
qishshurim
GROWS FROM
קשר
q-sh-r
To bind or tie.
The headbands are named through the action of binding. English gives the object; the Hebrew also carries the fastening that holds it in place.
ALSO GROWS
qashar: Bind or tie.
קָשַׁר
The verb names the action behind the headband.
qesher: A bond or tie.
קֶשֶׁר
This noun keeps the idea of fastening visible in the object’s root family.
הַלְּחָשִׁים
halleḥashim
GROWS FROM
לחש
l-ḥ-sh
To whisper or mutter; by extension, to charm or enchant.
The KJV renders these as “earrings,” while the Hebrew word is associated with whispering and charms. The root lets the list hold an added sense of spoken or whispered power alongside visible adornment.
ALSO GROWS
laḥash: Whisper or mutter.
לָחַשׁ
The verb supplies the word’s basic sound and action.
laḥash: A whisper, charm, or enchantment.
לַחַשׁ
This noun shows how the root’s whispering sense can extend to a charm or amulet.
THE PATTERN
Visible adornment is a layer that can be removed, while what matters beneath it remains.
In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon,And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.THE THREAD
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.The “bonnets” in Isaiah 3:20 and the “beauty” given here share the Hebrew root פאר (p-ʾ-r), associated with adornment and beauty. Here the root carries adornment into an exchange: beauty is given for ashes.
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