Inverted Blason

Borrowing from the Song of Songs, Isaiah describes Judah the Bride from head to foot.  He moves from head to heart to foot and back to head (1:5-6).  Four body parts are mentioned (3 different, with “head” used twice).  He is inspecting Judah to the four corners.

Instead of a beautiful and seductive bride, though, she has become filled with blemishes and oozing sores.  The four body parts are matched by the fourfold description of her illness: wounds, bruises, puetrefying, sores (v. 6).

Judah has become completely unsound.  The word is metom , and related to the root tamam , “to be complete.”  She is imperfect, full of blemishes, and, unlike the Bride of the Song, wholly unsuitable as bridal food for Yahweh.