Understanding Seven Women Scrambling for One Husband

Isaiah 4:1
In that day seven women
will take hold of one man
and say, “We will eat our own food
and provide our own clothes;
only let us be called by your name.
Take away our disgrace!”

This text has been understood in many different ways. This suggests that the text has some difficulties in interpretation and we need to surmount those challenges. What does it mean for seven women to hold one man and plead to be wives by name but take care of themselves independently? Why has this text been hard to interpret and get one agreeable consistent meaning?

Some people see the seven women as seven churches. Seven churches plead with Christ to be identified with Him but have nothing to do with getting support and supplies from Him. This implies they are false churches that pretend to be Christian congregations but they are not. This interpretation assumes that since the prophetic books of Daniel and Revelation use a woman as a symbol of the church, it should be automatic so in this passage. Not all women in the Bible represent the church. The book of Isaiah does not use the symbolism of Daniel and Revelation. Therefore, the seven women are not the seven churches seeking to identify with Jesus.

Other people see the situation of seven women seeking to be married to one man as being a real event that will happen in the coming future. They believe that before the world ends, a time will come when women will desperately seek to identify with one man. They believe men will be few and women will be many creating a crisis. They, therefore, look at this as an end of the world sign. That perception is false because this passage does not address the end of times of the world.

The chapter divisions commonly used today were developed by Stephen Langton, an Archbishop of Canterbury. Langton put the modern chapter divisions into place in around A.D. 1227. The Wycliffe English Bible of 1382 was the first Bible to use this chapter pattern. Since the Wycliffe Bible, nearly all Bible translations have followed Langton’s chapter divisions. (https://www.gotquestions.org/divided-Bible-chapters-verses.html Accessed May 18, 2022)

The Hebrew Old Testament was divided into verses by a Jewish rabbi by the name of Nathan in A.D. 1448. Robert Estienne, who was also known as Stephanus, was the first to divide the New Testament into standard numbered verses, in 1555. Stephanus essentially used Nathan’s verse divisions for the Old Testament. Since that time, beginning with the Geneva Bible, the chapter and verse divisions employed by Stephanus have been accepted into nearly all the Bible versions. (https://www.gotquestions.org/divided-Bible-chapters-verses.html Accessed May 18, 2022)

For proper interpretation, we must bear in mind that chapters and verses were not always in the Bible. The chapter and verses should not limit you on where to begin reading. Some passages are best understood by reading the previous chapter or the next one. This is because the original writer is not the one who placed chapters and verses in the Bible. This passage in Isaiah chapter four can only be understood by reading the previous chapter. Chapter four is a continuation of the story that started in chapter three.

Isaiah Chapter three begins with an announcement that God is about to punish Jerusalem and Judah, Isaiah 3:1. God will punish them by making their youths and children be their leaders because of shortages of leaders, Isaiah 3:4 and Isaiah 3:6. God will cause people to oppress each other, Isaiah 3:5. God says He will punish the women of Zion because of their pride and arrogance. God will punish the women by giving them sores on their heads and snatching away their jewelry, Isaiah 3:16-24. God will cause men to die at war, Isaiah 3:25. This is where chapter three ends.

Men are dead at war, there is a shortage of men. Then chapter four begins right thereby telling us that these women who God is punishing, will be desperate for marriage. Men will have died at war as a punishment. Women are not dead, but they are desperate as a punishment. In their desperation, they will scramble for the few men and plead to just have his name to remove the shame of being unmarried when they should be.

Therefore the seven women scrambling for a husband is an event of that time when God punished Israel by sending them to the Babylonian captivity. The event is not in the future but in the past. It teaches us that God punishes evil. It teaches us that the evil will someday be so desperate.

Isaiah 3:10-11
(10) Tell the righteous it will be well with them,
for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds.
(11) Woe to the wicked!
Disaster is upon them!
They will be paid back
for what their hands have done.

The good news is that God has promised that even when everyone is in a crisis, it shall be well for the righteous. Even when there is a crisis of husbands, for the righteous it shall be well. But for the wicked God will unleash disaster of untold magnitude. It is safer and better to be among the righteous for the Bible says that it shall be well.

To be among the righteous, confess and repent your sins. At that very moment, you will be listed among the righteous. God promises that it shall be well for the righteous. May it be well today for you and me, in Jesus’ name, Amen!

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