Tremble, you women that are at ease; be troubled, you careless ones: strip you, and make you bore, and gird sackcloth on your loins.
be troubled
Isaiah 2:19,21 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth…
Isaiah 22:4,5 Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people…
Isaiah 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
strip
Isaiah 20:4 So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
Isaiah 47:1-3 Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate…
Deuteronomy 28:48 Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.
and gird
Isaiah 3:24 And it shall come to pass, that 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; and burning instead of beauty.
Isaiah 15:3 In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every one shall howl, weeping abundantly.
Jeremiah 4:8 For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.
tremble, you daughters of complacency.
The repetition of "tremble" emphasizes the urgency and seriousness of the warning. "Daughters of complacency" highlights a generational issue of indifference and self-satisfaction. Complacency in the Bible is often associated with a false sense of security and neglect of God's commands (Zephaniah 1:12). This phrase serves as a reminder that complacency can lead to spiritual and physical downfall, urging the people to repent and turn back to God.
Strip yourselves bare and put sackcloth around your waists.
This imagery of stripping and wearing sackcloth is a traditional expression of mourning and repentance in the ancient Near East. Sackcloth, a coarse material, was worn during times of grief or penitence (Jonah 3:5-6). The act of stripping bare symbolizes vulnerability and the removal of earthly comforts, signifying a return to humility and dependence on God. This call to action is a prophetic gesture urging the people to acknowledge their sins and seek God's mercy before the impending judgment.
• The opening command carries the idea of sudden, holy fear. God wants His people to feel the shock of coming judgment, not shrug it off.
• Isaiah earlier described such fear when he wrote, “But to this one I will look: to him who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Isaiah 66:2).
• Joel issued a similar wake-up call: “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on My holy mountain” (Joel 2:1).
• The point: a genuine sense of alarm is the first step toward repentance.
• The prophet singles out well-to-do women in Jerusalem who enjoyed a life of ease while ignoring the spiritual and social decay around them.
• Amos warned a comparable group, “Woe to you who are at ease in Zion” (Amos 6:1).
• Zephaniah echoed it: God “will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men who are complacent” (Zephaniah 1:12).
• Comfort is not sinful, but unchecked comfort dulls spiritual perception. Isaiah confronts that dullness head-on.
• The second imperative intensifies the first. It is not enough to feel a momentary shiver; sustained trembling reveals a heart awakened to God’s seriousness.
• Jesus applied this urgency to the women who followed Him to the cross: “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me; weep for yourselves and for your children” (Luke 23:28).
• Paul urged believers to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12).
• True faith never treats God’s warnings lightly.
• Complacency is a false peace that says, “Everything is fine,” when it is not.
• Proverbs notes, “The complacency of fools will destroy them” (Proverbs 1:32).
• Jesus rebuked Laodicea for the same attitude: “You say, ‘I am rich…’ but you do not realize that you are wretched” (Revelation 3:17-19).
• Isaiah labels complacency as a spiritual family trait—passed to “daughters.” It must be broken, not inherited.
• Removing outer garments symbolized laying aside pride and self-sufficiency.
• When Nineveh heard Jonah’s message, “the king…laid aside his robe” (Jonah 3:6).
• James calls believers to similar honesty: “Purify your hearts…be miserable and mourn and weep” (James 4:8-10).
• God’s grace meets us only where pretenses are dropped.
• Sackcloth was rough, dark fabric worn by those in mourning or repentance.
• Nehemiah recorded, “The Israelites assembled…wearing sackcloth and with dust on their heads” (Nehemiah 9:1).
• Jesus reminded unrepentant towns that “Tyre and Sidon would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes” (Matthew 11:21).
• The waist—center of the body—suggests repentance must gird all of life, not just surface gestures.
Isaiah 32:11 is a divine alarm clock. God confronts a comfortable, self-satisfied group and commands a sequence: wake up, feel holy fear, admit complacency, strip away pride, and embrace genuine repentance. The verse calls every believer to examine ease that numbs the soul and to replace it with heartfelt sorrow over sin—preparing the way for God’s promised restoration.
(11) Tremble, ye women that are at ease . . .--The words find at once a parallel and a contrast in those spoken to the daughters of Jerusalem in Luke (Luke 23:28-30). The call to repentance includes their stripping themselves of their costly finery, and putting on the "sackcloth" (the word is implied, though not expressed in the Hebrew), which was the outward symbol of repentance (Jonah 3:5-8). The words, it may be noted, are masculine, the call not being limited to the women.Verse 11. - Tremble... be troubled. The repetition of this verse is, as usual, emphatic. Its object is to impress those whom the prophet is addressing with the certainty of the coming judgment. Strip you, and make you bare; i.e. "bare your breasts," in preparation for the beating which is to follow (see the comment on the next verse).