Covering for Shame or Glory

In Isaiah 3:16-4:6, Yahweh says that He will strip the daughters of Zion bare, but then in their nakedness, He says that they will be beautiful fruit (4:2), holy (4:3), cleansed/purged (4:3), and glorious (4:4). And over all the glory will be a “covering,” a “tabernacle,” a place of refuge from the sun and the rain (4:5-6).

For Israel to be stripped bare is for Israel to be returned to the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve were naked and not ashamed and where they had free access to God. In that state, God’s own glory and Spirit was the “covering” for Adam and Eve.

But after Adam and Eve sin they see their own nakedness and are ashamed. So they sew fig leaves together to cover their nakedness, but later God provides clothes for them. God wanted to be their covering; He wanted His glory to be their shelter. He gave them food and shelter in the garden, but they rebelled and sought to clothe themselves and feed themselves. They sought their own food and glory. This, Isaiah says, will still be the instinct of some even after Yahweh has stripped the daughters of Zion bare. They will plead with a man to give them his name but they will insist upon providing their own food and clothing (Is. 4:1).
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While it’s not the same word for “covering” in Genesis, the word is used in a few contexts that are similar. David flees Jerusalem in shame, “covering” his head and crying (2 Sam. 15:30). Haman’s head is “covered” in shame (Est. 6:12, 7:8). In Jeremiah people “cover” their heads in shame (14:3-4).

There will always be a covering, the question will always be which covering, whose glory will cover us? And in Isaiah, Yahweh says He will strip Jerusalem bare so that she might come back into the garden and be covered in the glory of the Spirit.