Isaiah 4: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Isaiah 4 opens with seven women in one day begging a single man to marry them, offering to feed and clothe themselves, only so their shame will be taken away. The chapter then turns to a time when the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and the land's crops will be the pride of Israel's survivors. Those left in Zion and Jerusalem, recorded among the living, will be called holy, after the Lord washes away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleanses Jerusalem's bloodstains. Over Mount Zion the LORD will create a cloud by day and fire by night, and a shelter for shade and protection from storm and rain.

Claim by Claim

1. 4:1
   • In that day seven women will take hold of one man.
   • The seven women will say that they will eat their own bread.
   • The seven women will say that they will wear their own clothing.
   • The seven women ask only to be called by the man's name.
   • The seven women ask the man to take away their reproach.
2. 4:2
   • In that day the sprout of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious.
   • In that day the fruit of the land will be a source of pride and splendor.
   • The beauty and splendor are for those of Israel who have escaped.
3. 4:3
   • He who is left in Zion will be called holy.
   • He who remains in Jerusalem will be called holy.
   • This applies to everyone written among the living in Jerusalem.
4. 4:4
   • The Lord will have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion.
   • The Lord will have rinsed away the bloodshed of Jerusalem from its midst.
   • The Lord does this by a spirit of judgment.
   • The Lord does this by a spirit of burning.
5. 4:5
   • The LORD will create over every site of Mount Zion a cloud by day.
   • The LORD will create over her assemblies a cloud by day.
   • What the LORD creates by day is a cloud and smoke.
   • The LORD will create the brightness of a flaming fire by night.
   • Over all the glory there will be a covering.
6. 4:6
   • There will be a shelter for shade by day from the heat.
   • The shelter will be a refuge and a hiding place from storm and from rain.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

4:1

To be "called by your name" meant to be married to the man and take his household's standing. Under the customs of the time a husband owed his wife food and clothing; these women offer to give that up and support themselves, asking only for the status of a wife. The "shame" is the disgrace that attached to a woman who was unmarried and childless. The verse continues the scene at the end of chapter 3, where the city's men have been killed in war so that women far outnumber them, the chapter break here was added by later editors, not by the writer.

4:2

"Branch" translates a Hebrew word meaning a shoot or sprout that grows out of a plant. In other prophetic books it becomes a title for a coming king descended from David, and it is often read that way here. But set beside "the crops the land produces" in the same sentence, it can equally mean the fresh growth the land itself puts out after the devastation described earlier. The Hebrew supports both readings and does not settle between them.

4:3

Zion was originally the fortified hill in Jerusalem; the name came to stand for the city as a whole and for its people. "Holy" here means set apart and belonging to God, not morally well-behaved. "Names written down among the living" pictures a civic register of citizens: to be on the list was to be counted as a living member of the city.

4:4

"The women of Zion" picks up Isaiah 3:16–24, where the wealthy women of Jerusalem are described walking in finery. "Bloodstains" means guilt for violence and killing; in Israelite thought spilled blood marked the place where it was shed until it was dealt with. The word translated "spirit" is Hebrew *ruach*, which means wind, breath, or spirit, so "a spirit of burning" may equally be a scorching wind or a fiery breath.

4:5

The cloud by day and fire by night recall the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire that went ahead of the Israelites when they left Egypt (Exodus 13:21–22). "The crowds that gather" refers to the assemblies of people convened for religious festivals. The word behind "covering" is *chuppah*, a canopy, the same word used for the canopy a bride and groom stood under at a wedding.

4:6

The word behind "shelter" is *sukkah*, a temporary hut made of branches: the kind of lean-to farmers threw up in the fields for shade at harvest, and the kind Israelites built and lived in during the autumn festival of booths.