Isaiah 32:12

12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines

Isaiah 32:12 in Other Translations

King James Version (KJV)
12 They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
English Standard Version (ESV)
12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,
New Living Translation (NLT)
12 Beat your breasts in sorrow for your bountiful farms and your fruitful grapevines.
The Message Bible (MSG)
12 Shed honest tears for the lost harvest, the failed vintage.
American Standard Version (ASV)
12 They shall smite upon the breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
GOD'S WORD Translation (GW)
12 Beat your breasts as you mourn for the fields, for the vines bearing grapes.
Holman Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
12 Beat your breasts [in mourning] for the delightful fields and the fruitful vines,
New International Reader's Version (NIRV)
12 Beat your chests to show how sad you are. The pleasant fields have been destroyed. The fruitful vines have dried up.

Isaiah 32:12 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 32:12

They shall lament for the teats
Either of the beasts of the field, that should be dried up, and give no milk, through the great drought that should be upon the land; or through the waste of the herbage by the enemy; or else of the women, their breasts and paps, which should afford no milk for their infants, through the famine that should press them sore, which would occasion great lamentation, both in mothers and children; though some think are to be understood of the fields, and are explained by them in the next clause; the fruitful earth being compared to a woman, its fields are like breasts or paps, which yield food and nourishment, but now should not afford any, and therefore there would be cause of lamentation. Jarchi interprets it, "they shall beat upon their breasts" F13 a gesture used in lamentation to express exceeding great grief and sorrow, ( Luke 18:13 ) ( 23:48 ) some, because the word rendered "lament" is of the masculine gender, and so not applicable to women, render the words in connection with the preceding verse ( Isaiah 32:11 ) thus,

``gird sackcloth on your loins, and on your mourning breasts'' F14;
though they may be interpreted indefinitely, "there shall be lamentation for the teats", among all sorts of people, men, women, and children: for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine;
as the fields are when covered with corn and grass, and the vines with clusters of grapes, but now should not be, either through drought, or by being foraged and trampled on by the enemy.
FOOTNOTES:

F13 So it is explained in T. Bab. Moed Katon, fol. 27. 2.
F14 So Castalio.

Isaiah 32:12 In-Context

10 In little more than a year you who feel secure will tremble; the grape harvest will fail, and the harvest of fruit will not come.
11 Tremble, you complacent women; shudder, you daughters who feel secure! Strip off your fine clothes and wrap yourselves in rags.
12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines
13 and for the land of my people, a land overgrown with thorns and briers— yes, mourn for all houses of merriment and for this city of revelry.
14 The fortress will be abandoned, the noisy city deserted; citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever, the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks,

Cross References 2

Scripture quoted by permission.  Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.  NIV®.  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica.  All rights reserved worldwide.