1 Seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, "We will eat our own bread, and wear our own clothing: only let us be called by your name. Take away our reproach." 2 In that day, Yahweh's branch will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the beauty and glory of the survivors of Israel. 3 It will happen, that he who is left in Zion, and he who remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem; 4 when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from its midst, by the spirit of justice, and by the spirit of burning. 5 Yahweh will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy. 6 There will be a pavilion for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a refuge and for a shelter from storm and from rain.
The havoc occasioned by war, and those other calamities which the prophet had been describing in the preceding chapter, are represented as so terribly great that seven women should be left to one man, Isaiah 4:1. Great blessedness of the remnant that shall be accounted worthy to escape these judgments, Isaiah 4:2-4. The privileges of the Gospel set forth by allusions to the glory and pomp of the Mosaic dispensation, Isaiah 4:5, Isaiah 4:6.
INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 4
The "first" verse of this chapter Isaiah 4:1 seems more properly to belong to the preceding chapter, which declares such a scarcity of men, through the destruction of them in war, there predicted, that there should be seven women to one man; who, contrary to their natural modesty, would make suit to him; and, contrary to custom, propose to provide their own food and raiment, only desiring to be called by his name. After which, Isaiah 4:2, follows a prophecy of Christ, who is described by his names, the branch of the Lord, and the fruit of the earth; and by proper epithets of him, as such, beautiful, glorious, excellent, and comely; and by the persons to whom he is so, the escaped of Israel, to whom various blessings are promised; as the sanctification of them, the source of which is their election, and the means of it the spirit of judgment and burning, Isaiah 4:3 and the protection and preservation of them, by the Lord's creating, as for Israel of old, a cloud of smoke to rest upon them by day, and a shining of flaming fire by night, and by being himself a tabernacle to screen them from heat in the day, and a place of refuge to cover them from storm and rain, Isaiah 4:5.
(Isaiah 4:1) The havoc occasioned by war.
(Isaiah 4:2-6) The times of the Messiah.
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