Isaiah 4

Isaiah 4:1

In this chapter is foretold, 1. The foreremity of men that should be left in Jerusalem, ver. 1. 2. The referendum to peace and purity in the days of the Messiah, ver. 2—6.

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.

This verse properly belongs to the foregoing chapter, where the ravages of the sword are mentioned, and should be so great, that by reason of the few men left, contrary to the established rule of their sex, and the ordinance of God, seven women should take hold of one man, putting him to their bed, and commit to share him as their husband; and instead of expecting a main-

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tenance from him, offering to provide for themselves, as an argument to gain his comfort to their proposals; at any rate desiring to have a husband, and not to be compelled to a single life, which among the Jews was reckoned very repracticable. Perhaps it intimates also the immodesty of their hearts, as if the reproach of virginity to them was more irksome, than the reproach of vice. Note, As modesty as the great ornament of the female sea, the want of it makes them most detested and loathsome.

2. In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. 3. And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: 4. When the LORD shall have walked away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning; 5. And the LORD will create upon every dwelling-place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies a cloud, and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for upon all the glory shall be a defence. 6. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.

4 Chap. ix. 11. 1 Pl. xviii. 11. Rev. vi. 1 & viii. 2 Or to the after. iii. 4. 1 Mal. iii. 4. 1 Exod. viii. 11. 1 Zoch. ii. 2. 1 Ioh. & morning.