Read & explore together
The Women of Jerusalem
Isaiah 32:9–20 is a prophetic warning that begins with comfortable listeners and moves toward loss, desolation, and then renewal. The passage teaches that ease without heed can be shaken, yet God’s future includes justice, peace, and fruitful life.
Understanding the passage
The setting of this message
In this passage, Isaiah directly addresses women who are at ease and careless, calling them to listen. He announces failed vintage and harvest, grief over fields and city, and a deserted palace. The turning point comes when the Spirit is poured on us from on high, bringing justice, righteousness, peace, and settled life.
Isaiah 32:9–20Main takeaway
This prophecy warns against careless ease and points to lasting peace only where God’s Spirit brings righteousness.
Explore the message
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01A call to listen before trouble comesThe passage opens with strong commands: rise up, hear, and give ear. The women are described as “at ease” and “careless”, showing a settled comfort that Isaiah challenges.
Explanation
The passage opens with strong commands: rise up, hear, and give ear. The women are described as “at ease” and “careless”, showing a settled comfort that Isaiah challenges. He says trouble is coming within a set time, because the vintage will fail and the harvest will not come.
02Grief over what is being lostIsaiah calls these listeners to tremble, be troubled, and put on sackcloth, signs of mourning in the passage.
Explanation
Isaiah calls these listeners to tremble, be troubled, and put on sackcloth, signs of mourning in the passage. Their grief is linked to pleasant fields and fruitful vines. The loss is not small or private, because thorns and briers will cover the land, even in joyful homes and the joyous city.
03Desertion until the Spirit is poured outThe warning reaches the city itself: palace, crowded places, hill, and watchtower are left empty and given over to animals and flocks.
Explanation
The warning reaches the city itself: palace, crowded places, hill, and watchtower are left empty and given over to animals and flocks. This condition lasts “until” a change comes from God. The turning point is not human effort here, but the Spirit poured on us from on high, changing the land’s condition.
04Righteousness brings peace and settled lifeAfter the Spirit is poured out, justice and righteousness mark the renewed land. The passage then states their result plainly: peace, quietness, confidence, safe dwellings, and quiet resting places.
Explanation
After the Spirit is poured out, justice and righteousness mark the renewed land. The passage then states their result plainly: peace, quietness, confidence, safe dwellings, and quiet resting places. Even with mention of hail and a levelled city, the ending blesses those who sow beside all waters and who send out the feet of the ox and the donkey.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What words show that Isaiah is challenging a false sense of security at the start?
Look for repeated descriptions and commands in the opening verses, especially the words “at ease”, “careless”, “rise up”, “hear”, and “give ear”.
02How does the passage mark the turning point from desolation to hope?
Notice the word “until” and ask what event changes the condition of the land and city in the text itself.
03According to this prophecy, what grows out of righteousness?
Read the sequence carefully: righteousness is followed by peace, quietness, confidence, and peaceful habitation.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Isaiah 32:9–20
9Rise up, you women who are at ease! Hear my voice! You careless daughters, give ear to my speech!
10For days beyond a year you will be troubled, you careless women; for the vintage will fail. The harvest won’t come.
11Tremble, you women who are at ease! Be troubled, you careless ones! Strip yourselves, make yourselves naked, and put sackcloth on your waist.
12Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
13Thorns and briers will come up on my people’s land; yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city.
14For the palace will be forsaken. The populous city will be deserted. The hill and the watchtower will be for dens forever, a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks,
15until the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is considered a forest.
16Then justice will dwell in the wilderness; and righteousness will remain in the fruitful field.
17The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.
18My people will live in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting places,
19though hail flattens the forest, and the city is leveled completely.
20Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out the feet of the ox and the donkey.