In Isaiah 4:1 we read, "And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own...

Question

bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach."

1. Who are the 7 women?
2. Who is the man?
3. What is meant by "eat our own bread"?
4. What is meant by "wear our own apparel"?


Please be as specific as possible and give Scripture to support your answer. Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

It literally reads as though one man will have 7 women who has his name. It may be he has 7 wives. The women will not ask him for bread or clothes, they just want to be with him. Reproach means to be criticized so they want his name so people won't judge them as whores. Sorry, no scripture to support these statements, i just looked at it from a common sense point of view.

Answer 2

From reading Chapter 3 of Isaiah, we see that the Lord was going to take support away from Jersusalem and Judah.
Then the rest of the chapter details the conditions that will be there, such as stench instead of fragrances etc.
He states that they are haughty and he will take away their finery and they will be in sack cloth.
He was going to judge the people for turning from Him.
Zion would lament and mourn as she was destitute.

THEN Chapter 4

verse 1 indicates a repentence of 7 (usually a symbolic # that indictate completeness) They are no longer haughty they will eat bread and wear "our own apparel" not the flashy apparel of the "nations".
Then the rest of the chapter discusses the branch of the Lord being extended:
2 In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel. 3 Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem. 4 The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit [a] of judgment and a spirit [b] of fire. 5 Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over all the glory will be a canopy. 6 It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.

And there is glory of God again.

The man, could be Isaiah, as he was to bring this pronouncement to the Jews, and they would take hold of him and repent.

Don't think they were 7 specific women.
There is alot of detail in Chapter 3 about the kinds of haughty women there were there. So, it's more like those women of Jerusalem took hold of Isaiah, and repented.

Answer 3

Reading the previous 2 verses sheds more light on this verse.

Isa 3:25 Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war.
Isa 3:26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.
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.

It is talking about the numbers of men being diminished by war. So to answer you questions:

1. Who are the 7 women?
No one specifically. With the number of men being diminished, this is a prediction that the ratio of women to men would become 7 to 1

2. Who is the man?
A man surviving the war, part of the predicted diminished number of men.

3. What is meant by "eat our own bread"? and
"wear our own apparel"?
Food and clothing was supposed to be provided by the husband. (Exodus 21:10 If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.) Here, this is a prediction that the women will offer to the man to provide for herself, in order to entice the man to marry her.

Answer 4

The prophecy of Isaiah is largely concerning Jeresalem and Israel. God, through Isaiah, sent warnings about what would happen if Jerusalem continued unfaithful to God. (see Isaiah 3:25, 26)

It's important to take note of the ending verses of the preceding chapter (chapter 3) to get the setting for chapter 4. Isaiah has just pronounced God's judgement on Jerusalem, stating that Jerusalem's men will be killed in warfare. Thus, such a large number of ungodly men in Jerusalem will be killed that "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".

According to the law given to Israel, men were supposed to provide sustenance and clothing for his wife (Exodus 21:10). Hence, the seven women saying 'we'll eat out own bread and wear our own apparel' shows how desperate they are to find a husband. The Israeli custom was at that time that any woman who did not have a husband was looked down uppon. These women were willing to release their husband of his legal obligations.

Prior to God's judgement, the women of Jerusalem were haughty and prideful. Says Isaiah 3:16 "The daughters of Zion [Jerusalem] have become haughty and they walk with their throats stretched forth and ogling with their eyes." "Pride is before a crash" says Proverbs 16:18. As the scripture in Isaiah 4:1 shows, all those who are prideful and haughty will become humilated, because God opposes the haghty ones, but he gives undeserved kindness to the humble ones. -James 4:6

Answer 5

God describes the spiritual filth of much of the "daughter of Zion" (Jews) in Isaiah 3. He says that He will visit this "daughter" and take away her finery, humbling her. IN THAT DAY, there will only be 7 women for every man. IN THAT DAY, the "Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious" (verse 2). As you probably know, the Branch is the Messiah (Zech. 3:8 and 6:12, and Jeremiah 23:5 & 33:15, for example). Therefore, "that day" refers to the time after Jesus' glorious return! "Those of Israel who have escaped" (v. 2b) are the Jews who survive the Tribulation.

Because of the fierce fighting and judgements, most men will be killed. There will only be 1 man for 7 women -- meaning that 6 women are unmarried, which is a reproach and unacceptable. These women basically say to that man "we'll work to feed and clothe ourselves -- please, just marry us so we don't have to be single!"

Answer 6

is there a comma between seven and women? If so, then that changes the meaning a bit.

Number 3 and 4 I would assume means that the women will show that they are able to be on their own....or some such thing.

Answer 7

1
1 Seven women will take hold of one man on that day, saying: "We will eat our own food and wear our own clothing; Only let your name be given us, put an end to our disgrace!"
2
2 On that day, The branch of the LORD will be luster and glory, and the fruit of the earth will be honor and splendor for the survivors of Israel.
3
3 He who remains in Zion and he that is left in Jerusalem Will be called holy: every one marked down for life in Jerusalem.
4
When the Lord washes away the filth of the daughters of Zion, And purges Jerusalem's blood from her midst with a blast of searing judgment,
5
Then will the LORD create, over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her place of assembly, A smoking cloud by day and a light of flaming fire by night.
6
For over all, his glory will be shelter and protection: shade from the parching heat of day, refuge and cover from storm and rain.


Footnotes
1 [1] Seven women . . . one man: the disproportion of the sexes due to war leaves the female population almost without male partners. The women are eager to marry, not for support, but to avoid the disgrace of being childless.

2 [2] Branch of the LORD: divine blessings in general, which later culminated in the Messiah; cf Jeremiah 23:5; Zechariah 3:8; 6:12.

3 [3] Marked down for life: in God's list of his elect; cf Exodus 32:32.

Answer 8

If you go back to Isaiah 3, he is prophecying about to conquest of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, which would happen during Isaiah's lifetime. They people would taken prisoner and moved to Babylon for 70 years.

When the Babylonians took the city, they carried off all the single women to serve as slaves and for sexual purposes. But permitted the married women to remain with their husbands. Isaiah prophecied that the single women, not wanting to be sold as slaves or raped, which grab the single men (as many as seven women to a man) and beg him to marry them to protect them from slavery. Under Jewish law a man had to be able to show that he had the finances to cover his wifes food and clothes for the first year before they could marry. They would even be willing to provide their food and clothing, as long as he would marry them.

Answer 9

The analogy of 'spiritual harlotry' from Isaiah 3 continues, but the analogy here is about the true Bride of Christ, holding to "one man" as The Bridegroom, being Christ Jesus. The key word in this verse is ‘seven women’ who eat their ‘own bread’. This ‘bread’ is spiritual, in that it means Christ, for He is the True Bread of Life. These seven refer in the spiritual sense to God's elect, per the ‘seven thousand’ spoken of in I Kings 19, where Elijah was reassured of a remnant by God. The Lord told Elijah:

I Kings 19:18 "Yet I have left Me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him."

Again, ‘women’ is used to refer to the ‘daughters of My People’, or the elect. The part ‘We will wear our own apparel’ is put for clothing of ‘righteousness’ in a sense, different from the clothing of the ‘harlot’ of the last Chapter of Isaiah, which those wear who are ‘in bed’ with Satan by following him instead of our Father through Christ Jesus. That harlot clothing is in the spiritual sense, idolatry, or ‘spiritual adultery’ away from Christ our Lord.
You should realize who that ‘one man’ is above in Isaiah 4:1, which the ‘seven women’ take hold of, for He is Christ, and by His Name they are also called. Only by studying God’s Word chapter by chapter, and verse by verse will you learn to recognize these spiritual ‘key’ words, or phrases. In this one verse we have: ‘ in that day’ to refer to the return of Jesus Christ on earth; ‘seven women’ referring to God’s remnant, or elect; ‘our own apparel’ put for the righteous clothing of the elect, which is symbolic of good works here on earth (Rev. 7:9-17; 14:13); ‘bread’ is put for The Bread of Life; and ‘called by thy name’ is put for that ‘new name’ that Christ will write upon His elect in the eternity (Rev. 3:12).
This is how God communicates, so get used to it, sharpen up; these Biblical ‘key’ words should get your attention immediately, knowing that they refer to other parts of The Word. As stated before, chapter by chapter, verse by verse study will reveal these meanings, if you have ‘eyes to see and ears to hear’. If you’re locked into jumping around in The Word every Sunday, never covering It so that It flows in the mind, the most important part will be missing. If your Church is not teaching God’s Word this way, then it’s up to you to fill in the gaps.

Answer 10

Sounds like a feminist rally from the 40's.