507. Fuel Gathered by Women

From: Manners and Customs of the Bible By: James M. Freeman

Isaiah 27:11 • 1 min. read • grade level: 9

Isaiah 27:11¹¹When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favor. (Isaiah 27:11). When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire.

In the East it is the business of women and children to gather fuel. This is the reason the statement is so explicitly made here that “the women” shall come and set them on fire. It has an odd sound to us, for the question naturally arises why women rather than men are mentioned; but to the people of Isaiah’s time the expression was perfectly natural, as it is to the people of the East today.

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