Isaiah 4:1 - Exposition

Seven women shall take hold of one man. This verse has been well called a "companion picture to Isaiah 3:6 , Isaiah 3:7 ." As there, in the evil time of God's judgment, the despairing men are represented as" taking hold" of a respectable man to make him their judge, so now the despairing women "take hold" of such a man and request him to allow them all to be regarded as his wives. There has been such a destruction—men are become so scarce—that no otherwise can women escape the shame and reproach of being unwedded and childless. Our own bread will we eat . They do not ask him to support them; they are able and willing to support themselves. To take away ; rather, take thou away— the imperative mood, not the infinitive. Our reproach . Children were regarded as such a blessing in the ancient times that to be childless was a misfortune and a subject of reproach. Hagar "despised" the barren Sarai ( Genesis 16:4 ). Her "adversary provoked Hannah sore, because the Lord had shut up her womb" ( 1 Samuel 1:6 ). Compare the lament of Antigone, who views it as a disgrace that she descends to the tomb unwed. Among the Jews childlessness was a special reproach, because it took away all possibility of the woman being in the line of the Messiah's descent (comp. Isaiah 54:1-4 ).