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Verse
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Isaiah 3:1
ESV For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, all support of bread, and all support of water;
NIV See now, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, is about to take from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: all supplies of food and all supplies of water,
NASB For behold, the Lord God of armies is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah Both supply and support, the entire supply of bread And the entire supply of water;
CSB Note this: The Lord God of Armies is about to remove from Jerusalem and from Judah every kind of security: the entire supply of bread and water,
NLT The Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, will take away from Jerusalem and Judah everything they depend on: every bit of bread and every drop of water,
KJV For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,

What does Isaiah 3:1 mean?

Chapter 3 picks up where Isaiah 2 left off. Isaiah is describing the harsh judgment to come on Jerusalem and Judah. He has shown that the people will lose everything they have been trusting in to meet their needs and bring them prosperity, especially their false idols (Isaiah 2:12–18) . Now in chapter 3 Isaiah says that the Lord will remove every good or strong leader from them as well.

Isaiah begins here by reminding his readers that God is the One who is doing this to them. He calls Yahweh "the LORD God of hosts," referring to the armies of angelic warriors the Lord commands (Psalm 103:19–21). The God who is strong enough to provide everything the people of Judah and Jerusalem need will use His great might to remove what His people need. This is a consequence of their faithlessness to Him.

God will take away their "support and supply" or their "stay and staff." Much of Isaiah takes the form of poetry, and he intentionally uses these two Hebrew words, mašʿēn and mašʿēnâ, as a wordplay because they sound similar. The idea is unmistakable: the Lord is going to remove everything that holds Judah up and keeps the people going.

This includes the most basic of needs, represented by bread and water. This may be a reference to a time of actual hunger and thirst coming to Jerusalem, perhaps during a siege. Some scholars suggest that Isaiah means this reference to be in the context of a metaphor for good men and good leadership, who were also taken away by Judah's conquerors (2 Kings 24:14).
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