Tremble, you women who are at ease! Be agitated, you careless ones!” (Isaiah 32:9-11a) The attitude of these women may remind us of those today who claim to serve God but who are not zealous in his service. Such ones are found in the religions of “Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots.” (Revelation 17:5) For example, members of Christendom’s religions are very much as Isaiah describes these “women.” They are “at ease,” complacent as to the judgment and agitation that will soon engulf them.

18. Who is instructed to “gird sackcloth upon the loins,” and why?

¹⁸ The call goes forth, then, to false religion: “Undress and make yourselves naked, and gird sackcloth upon the loins.

Isaiah 32:11b

The expression “Undress and make yourselves naked” does not appear to mean total disrobing. The ancient custom was to wear an outer garment over an undergarment. The outer garment was often a means of identification. (2 Kings 10:22, 23; Revelation 7:13, 14) The prophecy is thus commanding members of false religions to remove their outer garments​—their pretended identity as servants of God—​and to put on instead garments of sackcloth, symbols of mourning over their imminent judgment. (Revelation 17:16)