Isaiah 4:1

And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach. IN THAT DAY - the calamitous period described last chapter. SEVEN WOMEN - put for an indefinite number. So many men would be slain that there would be far more women than men; e.g., seven women, contrary to their natural bashfulness, would sue to (equivalent to "take hold of," ) one man to marry them. WE WILL EAT OUR OWN BREAD - foregoing the claim of maintenance, which the law () gives to wives, when a man has more than one. ONLY LET US BE CALLED BY THY NAME, TO TAKE AWAY OUR REPROACH - of being unwedded and childless; especially fel...

1._In that day shall seven women take hold of one man _He pursues the same subject, and unquestionably this discourse is immediately connected with what goes before. This verse certainly ought not to have been separated from the preceding. By this circumstance he describes more fully the nature of that desolation and calamity which he had formerly threatened against the Jews; for hypocrites; unless the threatening be conceived in strong terms, either disregard or palliate warnings, so that God’s severity never produces its proper effect upon them. From the effect, therefore, he describes the appalling nature of the approaching calamity, that they may not indulge the hope of making an easy escape. As if he had said, “Do not imagine that it will be of moderate extent, lessening your numbers in a small degree; for utter destruction awaits you, so that hardly _one man _will be found for _sev...

1 This first verse belongs to the third chapter. When the troubles should come upon the land, as the unmarried state was deemed reproachful among the Jews, these women would act contrary to common usage, and seek husbands for themselves....

CHAPTER IV _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_, 1. _Great blessedness of the remnant that shall be accounted worthy_ _to escape these judgments_, 2-4. _The privileges of the Gospel set forth by allusions to the_ _glory and pomp of the Mosaic dispensation_, 5, 6. NOTES ON CHAP. IV Verse Isaia

IN THAT DAY - The time of calamity referred to in the close of the previous chapter. This is a continuation of that prophecy, and there was no reason why these six verses should have been made a separate chapter. That the passage refers to the Messiah, is apparent from what has been stated in the note at the commencement of the prophecy Isaiah 2:1, and from the expressions which occur in the chapter itself; see the notes at Isaiah 4:2, Isaiah 4:5. SEVEN WOMEN - The number “seven” is used often to denote a “large” though “indefinite” number; Leviticus 26:28;...

EXPOSITION The existing division between Isaiah 3:1. and 4. is scarcely satisfactory. Isaiah 3:1 of Isaiah 4:1. belongs to the minatory portion of the section beginning with Isaiah 2:1 and terminating with Isaiah 4:6, and so stands connected in subject with Isaiah 3:1; which is wholly minatory; whereas the remainder of Isaiah 4:1. ...

AND IN THAT DAY SEVEN WOMEN SHALL TAKE HOLD OF ONE MAN,.... Not in the days of Ahaz, when Pekah, son of Remaliah, slew in Judah a hundred and twenty thousand men in one day, 2 Chronicles 28:6 as Kimchi thinks; for though there was then such a destruction of men, yet at the same time two hundred thousand women, with sons and daughters, were carried captive by the Israelites, 2 Chronicles 28:8 but in the days of Vespasian and Titus, and in the time of their wars with the Jews; in which were made such slaughters of men, that there were not enough left for every woman to have a husband; and therefore "seven", or a great many, sue to one man to marry them, contrary to their natural bashfulness. It is a tradition of the Jews, mentioned both by Jarchi and Kimchi, that Nebuchadnezzar ordered his a

CHAPTER 3 Judgments upon the Rulers and the Daughters Of Zion 1. _The judgment against the rulers (Isaiah 3:1)_ 2. _Jerusalem's sad condition (Isaiah 3:8)_ 3. _Jehovah's message (Isaiah 3:10)_ 4. _The worldliness of the daughters of Zion (Isaiah 3:16)_ 5. _Their humiliation in judgment (Isaiah 3:24; Isaiah 4:1)_ This chapter describes the corrupt conditions among the professing people of God in Isaiah's day. A similar corruption and worldliness pr

ISAIAH 3:16 TO ISAIAH 4:1. THE LUXURIOUS LADIES OF JERUSALEM AND THEIR DOOM. As Amos attacked the women of Samaria for their luxury, made possible through the oppression of the poor (Amos 4:1), so Isaiah assails the luxury and haughtiness of the women. These West-end ladies, disdainful and affected, walking with short mincing steps, ogling the men with wanton glances, tinkling with their step-chains and making a clanging sound as they struck their ankle-rings together, will be smitten with leprous scab in their scalps, and be stripped bare of their finery. They will then offer a hideous contrast to their present magnificence for perfume the stench of scabs, the rope of captivity for the girdle, baldness of mourning ...

AND. The Figure of speech _Polysyndeton_ (App-6) links this verse on to the preceding chapter. IN THAT DAY. Not emphatic, or at the beginning of the verse. THE BRANCH: i.e. Messiah. So the Chaldee paraphrase has it. Hebrew. _zemach._ Not the same word as in Isaiah 11:1. See the Structure of "the Four Gospels" preceding the Structure of MATTHEW; and note the application of this expression to the Gospel of JOHN and the notes there. Used there to connect the four Titles of Messiah: MATTHEW: the _King_ (Zechariah 9:9 with Jeremiah 23:5; Jeremiah 23:6). MARK: the _Servant_ ...