These four items conclude the list. Garments of gauze are garments made of cloth so fine that you can see the person’s body through them, so Good News Translation says “revealing garments.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “lace gowns.” New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, and New American Bible say “mirrors,” which follows one Septuagint manuscript, but “fine garments” is more probable here. Linen garments are of a higher quality than those made of other fabrics like wool. Linen is a high quality textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen garments could be used as material to sit or recline on or as curtains, but here they are clothing wrapped around the body. “Cotton garments” would be acceptable as a translation as long as the idea of a highly valued type of cloth is included. The Hebrew word rendered turbans refers to a woman’s headdress. It may be rendered “fine cloths wrapped around their heads.” The Hebrew word for veils refers to a fine cloth worn over the head and covering the face. A similar kind of veil is mentioned in Gen 24.65 and 38.14, 19, but the Hebrew word used there is different. Here it most likely refers to a garment of finer quality.

The list of twenty-one items simply ends in this way. It might be helpful to some readers to repeat the key verb “take way” from verse 18 at this point to close the subsection of verses 18-23. They may lose sight of it because of the long list. If so, a possible conclusion is “All these Yahweh will take away.”

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .