Isaiah 4

Isaiah 4:1

Jerome: (Chapter IV, Verse 1) And in that day, seven women will take hold of one man, saying: We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach. When the most beautiful of the city of Jerusalem fall by the sword and the strong ones perish in battle, and its gates mourn and lament; and it becomes desolate due to the scarcity of people, with the warriors being killed, seven women will take hold of one man, desiring to have offspring in Zion and descendants in Jerusalem. They say that they have food and clothing, only so that they will not appear without a husband and be subject to the curse that is written: Cursed is the barren woman, who does not bear children in Israel (Deuteronomy 7). Zacharias also agrees with this interpretation: In those days, ten men from all the languages of the nations will seize the hem of a Jewish man, saying: We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you (Zech. VIII, 23). The number seven and ten are familiar to the Jews due to the Sabbath and the Ten Commandments of the law, and therefore they often use them; although according to the ambiguity of the Hebrew language, which interprets the word Saba () as both seven and several or an oath, it may not mean seven in this passage, but rather several. This according to the letter. However, in the coming of the Lord and Savior, the seven women, that is, the seven graces of the Holy Spirit, of whom the same Prophet will speak in the following words: A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. (Isaiah 11:1-2) They will lay hold of Jesus, whom they have long desired, for they could find no other in whom they could find eternal rest. And John the Baptist confirms in the Gospel: And he who sent me said to me: Upon whom you see the Holy Spirit descending and remaining upon him, he is the one (John 1:33). In Zachariah, we also read about a stone with seven eyes, and in a golden candlestick, seven lamps and seven tubes, and two olive trees on either side of the lampstand, firmly rooted (Zechariah 3). However, the grace of the Holy Spirit, possessing all things, does not need explanation. But because he always suffered reproach among men, while no one living was seeking the gifts of the Holy Spirit, therefore they desire to invoke the name of Jesus, so that what was imperfect in the Law may be fulfilled in the Gospel. — Commentary on Isaiah

Victorinus of Pettau: “And He had in His right hand seven stars.” He said that in His right hand He had seven stars, because the Holy Spirit of sevenfold agency was given into His power by the Father. As Peter exclaimed to the Jews: “Being at the right hand of God exalted, He hath shed forth this Spirit received from the Father, which ye both see and hear.” Moreover, John the Baptist had also anticipated this, by saying to his disciples: “For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him. The Father,” says he, “loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hands.” Those seven stars are the seven churches, which he names in his addresses by name, old calls them to whom he wrote epistles. Not that they are themselves the only, or even the principal churches; but what he says to one, he says to all. For they are in no respect different, that on that ground any one should prefer them to the larger number of similar small ones. In the whole world Paul taught that all the churches are arranged by sevens, that they are called seven, and that the Catholic Church is one. And first of all, indeed, that he himself also might maintain the type of seven churches, he did not exceed that number. But he wrote to the Romans, to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Thessalonians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians; afterwards he wrote to individual persons, so as not to exceed the number of seven churches. And abridging in a short space his announcement, he thus says to Timothy: “That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the Church of the living God.” We read also that this typical number is announced by the Holy Spirit by the month of Isaiah: “Of seven women which took hold of one man.” The one man is Christ, not born of seed; but the seven women are seven churches, receiving His bread, and clothed with his apparel, who ask that their reproach should be taken away, only that His name should be called upon them. The bread is the Holy Spirit, which nourishes to eternal life, promised to them, that is, by faith. And His garments wherewith they desire to be clothed are the glory of immortality, of which Paul the apostle says: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on mortality.” Moreover, they ask that their reproach may be taken away-that is, that they may be cleansed from their sins: for the reproach is the original sin which is taken away in baptism, and they begin to be called Christian men, which is, “Let thy name be called upon us.” Therefore in these seven churches, of one Catholic Church are believers, because it is one in seven by the quality of faith and election. Whether writing to them who labour in the world, and live of the frugality of their labours, and are patient, and when they see certain men in the Church wasters, and pernicious, they hear them, lest there should become dissension, he yet admonishes them by love, that in what respects their faith is deficient they should repent; or to those who dwell in cruel places among persecutors, that they should continue faithful; or to those who, under the pretext of mercy, do unlawful sins in the Church, and make them manifest to be done by others; or to those that are at ease in the Church; or to those who are negligent, and Christians only in name; or to those who are meekly instructed, that they may bravely persevere in faith; or to those who study the Scriptures, and labour to know the mysteries of their announcement, and are unwilling to do God’s work that is mercy and love: to all he urges penitence, to all he declares judgment. — Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John

Isaiah 4:2

Bede: The Lord indeed gave of his generosity in that he arranged to liberate the human race from the crime of its transgression through his only-begotten Son. He gave of his generosity because with the grace of the Holy Spirit he consecrated for his entry the temple of a virginal womb. And our earth gave its fruit because the same virgin who had her body from the earth bore a son who was coequal to God the Father in his divinity but by the reality of [his] flesh consubstantial with her. Concerning this, Isaiah also, looking toward the time of human redemption, said, “On that day the branch of the Lord will be in magnificence and in glory, and the fruit of the earth will be sublime.” The branch of the Lord was in magnificence and glory when the undying Son of God, appearing temporally in the flesh as a bright light, poured out upon the world the greatness of his heavenly virtues. The fruit of the earth became sublime when the mortal flesh that God received from our nature, already rendered immortal in virtue of the resurrection, was raised up to heaven. — Homilies on the Gospels 1:4

Jerome: (Verse 2, 3) On that day, the Lord’s shoot will be in splendor and glory, and the fruit of the earth will be exalted, and those who have been saved from Israel will rejoice. And it will be, everyone who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who is recorded in life in Jerusalem. When the daughters of Zion have lost all their pride and all their adornment, and her gates have mourned and she herself is desolate, and all her warriors have perished in battle, to the point that many women can hardly find one man: then the shoot of the Christian name will arise, and the land will yield its fruit. And there will be rejoicing for those who have been saved from Israel, of whom it has been said before: Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have been like Sodom, and similar to Gomorrah (Isa. 1:9). And note that not all Israel will be saved, but the remnant of the people of Zion and the remainder in Jerusalem; all who are enrolled in life in Jerusalem, to whom the Lord also spoke: Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20). It signifies the Apostles and those who believed through the Apostles. — Commentary on Isaiah

Isaiah 4:4

Clement of Alexandria: The greatest cleansing is the spiritual washing that washes away the filth of the soul. The inspired word speaks of such a washing: “The Lord shall wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Israel and shall wash away the blood from their midst.” This refers to the blood of immortality as well as the killing of the prophets. He means by this purification, seen from the added phrase, “by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning.” The washing of the body, however, is physical and is accomplished only by water. In fact, it can even be done in fields far away from the baths. — The Instructor Book 3

Jerome: (Verse 4.) When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the blood of Jerusalem from its midst with the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, then the remnant of Israel shall be saved when their sins are forgiven in the baptism of the Savior and that blood is cleansed, the blood that the wandering people invoked upon themselves saying: His blood be upon us and upon our children (Matthew 27:25). Hence, we read above: When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood (Isaiah 1:15-16). And afterwards, provoking them to repentance, he brings forth this: Be washed, be made clean. And take note that the filth of the daughters of Zion will be washed away by the spirit of judgment, but the blood of Jerusalem will be washed away by the spirit of burning. For what is light is washed away, but what is heavier is burned up. Concerning this spirit of judgment and spirit of burning, John the Baptist spoke in the Gospel: I baptize you with water, but he who comes after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matthew 3:11). From this we learn that while man gives only water, God gives the Holy Spirit, by which both filth is washed away and the sins of blood are cleansed. — Commentary on Isaiah

Origen of Alexandria: Then there follows: “when the days of their purification were fulfilled, according to the law of Moses, they brought him to Jerusalem”. On account of the purification, he says, “of them”. Of whom, “of them”? If it had been written: on account of her purification, that is, of Mary, who had given birth, no question would arise, and we would boldly say that Mary, who was human, had need of purification after childbirth. But now, in that it says: “the days of their purification”, it seems to signify not one, but another or several. Did Jesus, then, have need of purification and was he unclean, or defiled with some filth? Perhaps I seem to speak rashly, but I am moved by the authority of the Scriptures. See what is written in Job: “no one is clean from filth, not even if his life should be of a single day”. He did not say: “no one is clean from sin,” but: “no one is clean from filth”. For filth and sins do not signify the same thing; and that you may know that filth means one thing and sin another, Isaiah teaches most plainly, saying: “the Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse the blood from their midst, by the spirit of judgment the filth and by the spirit of burning the blood”. Every soul that has been clothed with a human body has its own “filth”. And that you may know that Jesus too was made filthy by his own will, because for our salvation he had assumed a human body, listen to the prophet Zechariah saying: “Jesus was clothed with filthy garments”. — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF Luke 14

Origen of Alexandria: When one has recognized the differences in sins, one can see how the Lord says in Isaiah, “The Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion and will cleanse the blood from their midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning.” Filth is washed away by a spirit of judgment. Blood is washed away by a spirit of burning. Even if you have not committed a sin that leads to death, you have still sinned and have thereby become filthy. The Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and he will cleanse the blood from among them. A spirit of judgment will be the recompense for filth, and a spirit of burning will be a recompense for the blood. Whenever we commit heinous sins, we do not need lye or washing with soap; rather we need the spirit of burning. — HOMILIES ON Jeremiah 2:2

Isaiah 4:5

Jerome: (Verse 5) And the Lord will create (or created) over every place of Mount Zion, and where he is invoked, a cloud by day, and smoke and the brightness of a flaming fire at night. For in Christ there is a new creation, of which we read elsewhere: The old things have passed away: behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). Regarding this, the Septuagint translated: And he will come, and there will be every place of Mount Zion, and all the things that are around it, a cloud will cover during the day, and the light of a flaming fire at night. But who will come except him, of whom it is written: He will come from Zion to free them (Isaiah 59:20, according to the Septuagint). And of whom another prophet mentions: Yet a little while, and he who is to come will come, and will not delay (Habakkuk 2:3). When he comes, the people will be restored to their former happiness, which they once had in the desert; the Lord will lead them during the day with a pillar of cloud, and during the night with a pillar of fire (Exodus 13): so that they may not be disturbed either in prosperity or in adversity. And in the psalm it is said: By day the sun shall not scorch you, nor the moon by night (Ps. CXX, 6). But in this place smoke signifies not error and ignorance, but glory, according to what we shall read in the same prophet, according to the opinion of some: And the house was filled with smoke (Isaiah 6). And in Joel, concerning the grace of the Holy Spirit which descends upon the apostles, it is said: I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy (Joel II). And I will show wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and clouds of smoke (Acts 2:17). I think this signifies that which is said in the Psalms: He touches the mountains, and they smoke (Psalms 104:32). — Commentary on Isaiah

Isaiah 4:6

Jerome: (Verse 6) But protection is above all glory. And it will be a tabernacle for shade from the heat during the day, and for security and hiding from the whirlwind and rain. The Jews interpret this place as referring to Antichrist, whom they believe will be defended by the Lord from a mighty adversary represented by the whirlwind and storm. However, we refer everything to the first coming of Christ, of whom we also read in the Psalms: He protected me in the hiding place of His tabernacle; on a rock He exalted me (Psalms 27:9-10). On this rock, the Church is founded and is not shaken by any storm or overturned by any wind. The majority of the Jews understand both these things and all the things which are associated with them, concerning the captivity in Babylon and the return to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. — Commentary on Isaiah