mantles--fuller tunics with sleeves, worn over the common one, reaching down to the feet.
wimples--that is, mufflers, or hoods. In [Ru 3:15], "veils"; perhaps here, a broad cloak, or shawl, thrown over the head and body.
crisping pins--rather, money bags ([2Ki 5:23]).
23. glasses--mirrors of polished metal ([Ex 38:8]). But the Septuagint, a transparent, gauze-like, garment.
hoods--miters, or diadems ([Is 62:3]; [Zec 3:5]).
veils--large enough to cover the head and person. Distinct from the smaller veils ("mufflers") above ([Ge 24:65]). Token of woman's subjection ([1Co 11:10]).
24. stink--arising from ulcers ([Zec 14:12]).
girdle--to gird up the loose Eastern garments, when the person walked.
rent--the Septuagint, better, a "rope," an emblem of poverty; the poor have nothing else to gird up their clothes with.
well-set hair--([1Pe 3:3], ).
baldness--([Is 3:17]).
stomacher--a broad plaited girdle.
sackcloth--([2Sa 3:31]).
burning--a sunburnt countenance, owing to their hoods and veils being stripped off, while they had to work as captives under a scorching sun ([So 1:6]).
25. Thy men--of Jerusalem.
26. gates--The place of concourse personified is represented mourning for the loss of those multitudes which once frequented it.
desolate ... sit upon ... ground--the very figure under which Judea was represented on medals after the destruction by Titus: a female sitting under a palm tree in a posture of grief; the motto, Judæa capta ([Job 2:13]; [La 2:10], where, as here primarily, the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar is alluded to).
Chapter 4
[Is 4:1-6].
that day--the calamitous period described in previous chapter.
seven--indefinite number among the Jews. So many men would be slain, that there would be very many more women than men; for example, seven women, contrary to their natural bashfulness, would sue to (equivalent to "take hold of," [Is 3:6]) one man to marry them.
eat ... own bread--foregoing the privileges, which the law ([Ex 21:10]) gives to wives, when a man has more than one.
reproach--of being unwedded and childless; especially felt among the Jews, who were looking for "the seed of the woman," Jesus Christ, described in [Is 4:2]; [Is 54:1], ; [Lu 1:25].
2. In contrast to those on whom vengeance falls, there is a manifestation of Jesus Christ to the "escaped of Israel" in His characteristic attributes, beauty and glory, typified in Aaron's garments ([Ex 28:2]). Their sanctification is promised as the fruit of their being "written" in the book of life by sovereign love ([Is 4:3]); the means of it are the "spirit of judgment" and that of "burning" ([Is 4:4]). Their "defense" by the special presence of Jesus Christ is promised ([Is 4:5], ).
branch--the sprout of Jehovah. Messiah ([Jr 23:5]; ; [Zec 3:8]; ; [Lu 1:78], Margin). The parallel clause does not, as Maurer objects, oppose this; for "fruit of the earth" answers to "branch"; He shall not be a dry, but a fruit-bearing branch ([Is 27:6]; [Eze 34:23-27]). He is "of the earth" in His birth and death, while He is also "of the Lord" (Jehovah) ([Joh 12:24]). His name, "the Branch," chiefly regards His descent from David, when the family was low and reduced ([Lu 2:4], 7, 24); a sprout with more than David's glory, springing as from a decayed tree ([Is 11:1]; ; [Re 22:16]).
excellent--([He 1:4]; ).
comely--([So 5:15], ; [Eze 16:14]).
escaped of Israel--the elect remnant ([Ro 11:5]); () in the return from Babylon; (2) in the escape from Jerusalem's destruction under Titus; (3) in the still future assault on Jerusalem, and deliverance of "the third part"; events mutually analogous, like concentric circles (Zec 12:2-10; 13:8, 9, &c.; 14:2; [Eze 39:23-29]; [Joe 3:1-21]).
3. left in Zion--equivalent to the "escaped of Israel" ([Is 4:2]).
shall be called--shall be ([Is 9:6]).
holy--([Is 52:1]; ; [Re 21:27]).
written--in the book of life, antitypically ([Php 4:3]; [Re 3:5]; ). Primarily, in the register kept of Israel's families and tribes.
living--not "blotted out" from the registry, as dead; but written there as among the "escaped of Israel" ([Da 12:1]; [Eze 13:9]). To the elect of Israel, rather than the saved in general, the special reference is here ([Joe 3:17]).
4. When--that is, After.
washed--([Zec 13:1]).
filth--moral ([Is 1:21-25]).
daughters of Zion--same as in [Is 3:16].
purged--purified by judgments; destroying the ungodly, correcting and refining the godly.
blood--([Is 1:15]).
spirit--Whatever God does in the universe, He does by His Spirit, "without the hand" of man ([Job 34:20]; [Psa 104:30]). Here He is represented using His power as Judge.
burning--([Mt 3:11], ). The same Holy Ghost, who sanctifies believers by the fire of affliction (Mal 3:2, 3), dooms unbelievers to the fire of perdition ([1Co 3:13-15]).
5. create--The "new creation" needs as much God's creative omnipotence, as the material creation ([2Co 4:6]; [Ep 2:10]). So it shall be in the case of the Holy Jerusalem to come ([Is 65:17], ).
upon--The pillar of cloud stood over the tabernacle, as symbol of God's favor and presence ([Ex 13:21], ; [Psa 91:1]). Both on individual families ("every dwelling") and on the general sacred "assemblies" ([Le 23:2]). The "cloud" became a "fire" by night in order to be seen by the Lord's people.
upon all the glory--"upon the glorious whole"; namely, the Lord's people and sanctuary [Maurer]. May it not mean, "Upon whatever the glory (the Shekinah spoken of in the previous clause) shall rest, there shall be a defense." The symbol of His presence shall ensure also safety. So it was to Israel against the Egyptians at the Red Sea ([Ex 14:19], ). So it shall be to literal Jerusalem hereafter ([Zec 2:5]). Also to the Church, the spiritual "Zion" ([Is 32:18]; [33:15-17]; [He 12:22]).
tabernacle--Christ's body ([Joh 1:14]). "The word 'tabernacled' (Greek for 'dwelt') among us" ([Joh 2:21]; [He 8:2]). It is a "shadow from the heat" and "refuge from the storm" of divine wrath against man's sins ([Is 25:4]). Heat and storms are violent in the East; so that a portable tent is a needful part of a traveller's outfit. Such shall be God's wrath hereafter, from which the "escaped of Israel" shall be sheltered by Jesus Christ ([Is 26:20], ; ).