Isaiah
Isaiah 4
Big idea: Six verses that turn, and the turn is architectural: over everything left in Zion, a cloud by day and a flaming fire by night — and over all of it, a canopy. The word is the one used for a wedding tent.
The cloud and fire are the wilderness pillars of Exodus 13:21, brought forward and stretched over a city rather than leading a march.
4:1–6 — Over all the glory will be a canopy
The opening verse belongs to chapter 3 and is its last picture: seven women taking hold of one man, offering to feed and clothe themselves and asking only to be called by his name to take away their reproach. It is a demographic detail — the men have been killed — and it is a marriage proposal that asks for nothing but a name.
1 Seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread, and wear our own clothing. Just let us be called by your name. Take away our reproach.” 2 In that day, Yahweh’s branch will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the beauty and glory of the survivors of Israel. 3 It will happen that he who is left in Zion and he who remains in Jerusalem shall be called holy, even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem, 4 when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from within it, by the spirit of justice and by the spirit of burning. 5 Yahweh will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, for over all the glory will be a canopy. 6 There will be a pavilion for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a refuge and for a shelter from storm and from rain.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).