Isaiah 4

travelled thither inform us. See Harris’s Collect, of Travels, par. i. p. 207. From the second verse the prophet describes the glorious state of the church, which should follow upon its restoration from those calamities described in the former chapter: and the words plainly point at the conversion of the Jews in the latter times of the world, and the flourishing state.of the church, which should follow upon it. This subject is more largely handled in the latter part of this prophecy, particularly chap. liv. lv. and so on to the end of the book.

Isaiah 4:1

J±ND in that day shall seven women take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel. This verse should have been continued. to the former chapter; for it contains another melancholyinstance of the calamitous circumstances which should attend the Jewish nation. Their young men are said to fall by the sword; (iii. 25.) so that there should be seven women to one man: who should take hold of him; u e. use importunity to be married, contrary to the natural modesty of their sex, and that upon hard and unusual conditions of maintaining themselves. Only let tis be called by thy name.] It is the custom of all nations for the wife to be called or distinguished by her husband’s name. Thus we read of Mary the wife of Cleophas, John xix. 25. So among the Greeks and Romans, Hectoris Andromache, Marcia Catonis. To take away our reproach.] Barrenness was thought a great reproach among the Jewish women, (see Luke i. 25.) and is threatened as a curse to them; (Hos.ix. 14.) as fruitfulness is promised for a blessing: (Deut. xxviii. 4.* Psal. cxxvii. 3.) Upon this account the Hebrew women generally married’ young, (see Selden’s Uxor. Hebraica, lib. ii. cap. 8.) and were very desirous of children. (See- Gen. xxx. 1. 1 Sam. i. 8.) Vcr.2. In that day.] Thisphrase often denotes in Isaiah, not the same time with that which was last mentioned, but an extraordinary season, remarkable for some signal events of Providence; called elsewhere, by way of excellence, the day of the Lord. (Compareii.il, 12. x.20. xvii. 7. xix. 18.) Just as that day denotes the day of judgment in the New Testament, as a time of all others the most remarkable. (See 2 Thess. i. 10. 2 Tim. i. 12. 18. iv. 8.) Mr. White is forced to own that the expression here cannot be meant of the same time mentioned ver. 1. though elsewhere he is willing to take advantage of the phrase, that he may the better confine the sense of the prophet to some particular juncture, in, or near, his own time: particularly in his notes upon xi. 11. xix. 18. But here even Grotius his leader differs from him, and acknowledges in his.-notes upon xiv. 21. " That it is usual for the prophets to pass fromthe threatenings that relate to their own times, to the promises which belong to the times of the gospel." We may farther observe, that the Scriptures speakof the exfraordinary appearances of Christ’s kingdom, as ushered in by great tribulations foregoing. (See xxiv.- 15. xxvi. 20, 21. Jer. xxx. 7. Dan. xii. 1. Matt. xxiv. 21.) Thus the saints are said to come out of great tribulation,* Rev. vii. 14. -and are here called the escaped, and sometimes 2u)Z6fxevoi, as it! is expressed in the Greek; (see note on i. 9.) those that are escaped, as it were, out of the fire. Shall the Branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious.]- The Messias is often called the Branch. See Jer. xxiii. 5. Zech. iii. 8. vi. 12. in all which places the Hebrew reads- Tsemah, as it does here. But the Septuagint, in the three last places, render it ^AvaroXfj, the east or morning light, and translate it to the same purpose in this place: concerning which sense of the word, see the note on xli.2… The church is likewise called the branch of God’s planting, lx.21. And the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely.] The spiritual blessings of the gospel are sometimes described under the emblems of fruitfulness and. plenty. (See xxvii. 6. xxx. 23.xxxii.20. xlv. 8. Psal.lxvin G.Joel iii. 18. Hos. ii. 22.) For them that are escaped of Israel.] Those Jews who are converted,, and escape that destruction which shall overtake the incredulous and disobedient. This maybe partly understood of those that were converted, by thepreaching of Christ and the apostles; and thereby escaped that vengeance which involved the rest of the nation.: (See < Acts ii. 40. 1 Thess. ii. 16.) But I conceive it is chiefly* meant of those Jews who shall be converted at the end of the. world, when the obstinate and incorrigible shall be de-. stroyed, and shall return home from their several disper- % sions. (Compare xxvii. 12, 13. xlv. 20. lxvi.,19. Ezek. xx. ■

Isaiah 4:3

And it shall come to pass, thathe that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem. Those that escape the common destruction of those ^ountrymcn. (See ver. 2.) SJiall be called holy.] This may relate to the great purity and holiness of the first professors of Christianity,, which the apostles often bear witness to, and glory of, in their writings. (See Acts iv. 33. 1 Cor. vi. 11. Philip, ii. 16. Colos. i. G. ii. 5. 1 Thess.i. 3,11.13.19,20. 2 Thess i. 4.) But the words look farther, to the conversion of the Jews in the latter times, and that abundant degree of grace and. sanctification which shall be conferred upon *them, after, that the transgressors and rebels are purged out of thern^ 3P2

And burning instead of beauty. The old English translation reads, sun-burning, byway of explication: their faces shall be exposed to the heat of the sun, either by their being made slaves, and forced to toil in the open air, or else in their transportation into foreign parts.

Her gates shall lament and mourn. As being solitary, and none passing through them, and the courts of judicature, that used to be kept there, being shut up. And she, beng desolate, shall sit upon the ground.] Sitting upon the ground is a sign of the deepest mourning and lamentation: (see Job ii. 13. Lament, ii. 10. Isa. xlvii. 1.) so Jerusalem is here described as a woman bereaved of her children, and lamenting over them in this melancholy posture. And thus she was represented in a medal coined by Vespasian’s order, after the destruction of that city by the Romans. (See Sir. Gregory’s Observat. chap. 5.)