Circle Squared
A Textual Analysis of the Book of Mormon
Chapter 13: "Twinkle Toes"
Chapter Summary:
Judah and Jerusalem will be punished for their disobedience--The Lord pleads for and judges His people--The daughters of Zion are cursed and tormented for their worldliness--Compare Isaiah 3. About 559–545 B.C.
Continuing from the previous chapter, Isaiah offers an explanation for why god would leave the Jews to their own devices: they are like Sodom. I wonder if god would offer me the same courtesy. Oh wait, to Mormons this is a bad thing.
The way Nephi and Isaiah and Jacob have described their version of god, he sure comes across as petty and easily offended. That an omnipotent being could possibly be offended by the actions of mere mortals seems impossible to me. But theirs is not my god, and when you are making your own rules, surely logical contradictions are but a small obstacle for the irrational, gullible mind.
Isaiah drones on about "haughtiness", this time directing his metaphors to the women-folk. His description of prideful women is so absurd that I simply must cite at least part of it:
"Moreover, the Lord saith: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet--"
"Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts."
"...The chains and the bracelets, and the mufflers;"
"The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the ear-rings;"
"The rings, and nose jewels;"
If I didn't know better, I'd swear Isaiah was describing "Sunday best."
But don't think that because these humanoid peacocks are female they will escape god's wrath. He has a special punishment for such prancing well-dressed women:
"And it shall come to pass, instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle, a rent; and instead of well set hair, baldness; and instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth; burning instead of beauty."
So, because women dare to dress attractively in a patriarchal society where they depend upon men for their livelihood (a system which was outlined and endorsed in the law of Moses, which Nephi said just two chapters ago proves the existence of god), they will be punished with the opposite thing. Sounds fair.