3771 — Seven Women Shall Take Hold of One Man
Please explain Isa. 4:1, “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.” Is this a prophecy of woman suffrage of to-day? J. S. To answer the last question first, we do not think it is. There are two general interpretations of the text. The first is that in the predicted wars of Isaiah 3 men will be so diminished in numbers that there will not be enough men for the women; so many women will be without husbands, that they will be willing to say to men that if their reproach can only be taken away, and they can be regarded as wives, they would be willing to unite seven with one; but in order to do this they would not be a burden upon the man. There are others who believe that it is a type of the last days; that the apostasy referred to in the previous chapters will then be dominant, the church is represented by a woman, and the seven women represent the entire church (that is, the apostate churches), and that these seven apostate churches will come to the one Man, Christ, simply ask for a nominal recognition in Christianity,—“Let us be called by Thy name; let us not be reproached among the people of the world.” Wearing their own garments would indicate that they are clothed in their own righteousness; eating their own bread, that they fed on their own false doctrines and conceptions of truth. It is reputation they are seeking, and not character. And then the prophecy tells us that there will be a remnant, a true church, a branch of the Lord, which will be beautiful and glorious.