Isaiah 3:25-1

They Will Also Lose Their Menfolk (Isaiah 3:25 to Isaiah 4:1).

These women will also lose their menfolk in the troubles that are coming, so that they will have no one to protect them and provide them with their luxuries. How different things would have seemed if they had only trusted in Yahweh.

Isaiah 3:25 to Isaiah 4:1

‘Your men will fall by the sword,

And your might in war,

And her gates will lament and mourn,

And she will be desolate and sit on the ground.

And seven women will take hold of one man in that day,

Saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing,

Only let us be called by your name.

You, take away our reproach.” '

The switch in persons and subject is common in Hebrew writings. From speaking of the women he now speaks to them, and then about their ‘mother' Zion, and then again about them, all in three sentences.

Part of the consequence of their way of living and of their deliberately ignoring His instruction, is that not only will they suffer themselves as in Isaiah 3:24, but they will also lose their men, those who are their ‘might', their strength and protection. Thus will the gates of Zion mourn. The gates, where there would usually be an open space, probably the only one in the town as houses crowded in on each other, (such cities were rarely the result of planning), were the place to which people went for public and communal activity. So they will weep together there, languishing on the ground (compare Isaiah 47:1).

‘Seven women.' Seven is the number of divine completeness and perfection. Here the idea is ironic. Such a group of women will plead with one man to give them his name, even though they promise that they will not be financially dependent on him. There will be so few men that it will be the only way that they can achieve desired fulfilment. Not to be married was seen as a reproach and a shameful thing.

So the passage (Isaiah 3:1 to Isaiah 4:1) ends as it began with those who have sinned having no one to look to because they have forsaken Yahweh, the men are leaderless and oppressed, the women destitute and husbandless. But while in one sense it is His doing, it is quite apparent that they have brought it on themselves, assisted by the behaviour of those who are set over them.