Isaiah 4
Butler12. Cause thee to err.** There are persons whose company always betrays us into slandering or scoffing, or bitter envy, or hypocrisy, or some evil passion; there are places in which we cannot maintain, or have at least never yet maintained, even our usual regard to the will of God, and from which we return less disposed than we ought to remember Christ, or engage in any religious duty; there are books we read, or trains of thought we indulge in, which lower our tone and unhinge the mind for serious, vigorous and devout exercise. Now it is very often the case that it is quite at our option that we thus put ourselves in the way of temptation. Dods.
15. The Lord’s address to the elders of Israel is continued in a tone of indignant expostulation. “What mean ye” (literally, what is to you, equivalent in English to what have you—i.e., what right, what reason, what motive, what advantage) “that ye crush My people” (a common figure for severe oppression, Job 5:4; Prov. 22:22) “and grind the faces of the poor” (upon the ground, by trampling on their bodies, another strong figure for contemptuous and oppressive violence), “saith the Lord Jehovah of Hosts” (which is added to remind the accused of the sovereign authority, omniscience and omnipotence of Him by whom the charge is brought against them).
16,17. The prophet here resumes the thread which had been dropped or broken at the close of verse 12, and recurs to the undue predominance of female influence, but particularly to the prevalent excess of female luxury, not only as sinful in itself, but as a chief cause of the violence and social disorder previously mentioned, and therefore to be punished by disease, widowhood, and shameful exposure.
18-23. Although the prediction in verse 17 implies the loss of all ornaments whatever, we have now a minute specification of the things to be taken away. This specification had a double use: it made the judgment threatened more explicit and significant to those whom it concerned, while to others it gave some idea of the length to which extravagance in dress was carried.
25. The prophet now assigns as a reason for the grief predicted in verse 24, a general slaughter of the male population, the effect of which is again described in verse 26, and its extent in chap. 4:1, which belongs more directly to this chapter than the next. In the verse before us he first addresses Zion or Jerusalem didirectly, but again, as it were, turns away, and in the next verse speaks of her in the third person. A.
Chap. 4:1. In the current sentiments of the Hebrew people, the love of offspring was intensely strong, and the reproach of being childless and unmarried was extreme. The case here stated implies that the male population had been cut off by destructive wars, as said in chap. 3:25. Hence the usual numerical equality of the two sexes was broken up, and the greatest solicitude was felt for the future welfare of society. It therefore becomes one indication of great public calamity that seven women (a large indefinite number) should take hold (earnestly, if not violently) of one man, saying, “We will provide our own bread and clothing, only let us bear thy name; take away our reproach.”
2-6. The tone of discourse changes; the Messiah appears coming forth from God on the one hand, and on the other, born of woman, and so of the earth. The remnant who have escaped these fearful visitations of judgment are purified by discipline and become holy; are also shielded from every danger and protected from all evil by this glorious personage. They repose under His shadow and find in Him an everlasting and perfect refuge. H. C.—It is commonly agreed that this prediction has been only partially fulfilled, and that its complete fulfilment is to be expected, not in the literal Mount Zion or Jerusalem, but in those various assemblies or societies of true believers, which now possess in common the privileges once exclusively enjoyed by the holy city and the chosen race of which it was the centre and metropolis.
2. At this point the prophet passes from the tone of threatening to that of promise. Having foretold a general destruction, he now intimates that some should escape it, and be rendered glorious and happy by the presence and favor of the Son of God, who is at the same time the Son of Man. “In that day” (after this destruction) “shall the branch” (or offspring) “of Jehovah be for honor and for glory, and the fruit of the earth for sublimity and beauty, to the escaped of Israel.” A.
This conception of a shoot springing up from its root appears frequently in the Hebrew prophets. Isaiah uses various parallel terms, and not exclusively this one rendered branch. Thus, in 11:1 “a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots,” but even this word rendered branch is a new one. So also in chap. 53:2, “a tender plant, a root out of dry
ground.” But later prophets concentrate very much upon this word branch, as may be seen in Jer. 23 : 5, “I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper;” also Jer. 33 : 15, “I will cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David,” etc. So in Zech. 3 : 8, “I will bring forth my servant, Branch;” and also 6 : 12, “Behold the man whose name is Branch.” Thus remarkably the usage finally culminates in making this his proper name. No fact could more clearly prove an established Jewish usage of this term to denote their expected Messiah. This is the interpretation also of the Chaldee Paraphrast, one of the oldest records of Jewish opinion. The thing affirmed here of the Messiah, thought of as at first only a weak and tender shoot, is that He shall become a glory and honor, a thing of beauty and exaltation to all the escaped ones of Israel. From the most humble beginnings He shall rise to the loftiest dignity, to be admired, loved, adored as the glorious Deliverer and King of His people.