Isaiah 4

The Branch, the Cloud, and the Canopy

After the burning comes cleansing, and Zion becomes a sanctuary sheltered by the Lord’s own presence.

c. 740–730 BC; looking to the last days Also in 2 Ne. 14 Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

Isaiah 4 is only six verses long, and it closes the unit that began in chapter 2.

Isaiah 4 is only six verses long, and it closes the unit that began in chapter 2. Its first verse actually belongs with chapter 3 (the chapter divisions in our Bible were added in the Middle Ages): it finishes the portrait of Jerusalem after the disaster, when so many men have died in war that women are desperate for husbands.

Then everything turns. Verses 2–6 return to the glorious future of 2:2–4, but now we learn how the proud city of chapter 3 becomes the holy Zion of chapter 2: through a Branch, a washing, and a burning that purifies rather than destroys.

Nephi quoted this chapter as 2 Ne. 14.

The thread through the chapter

Chapters 2–4 have been a long journey downhill. The proud have been humbled, the supports removed, and the finery stripped away.

Chapters 2–4 have been a long journey downhill. The proud have been humbled, the supports removed, and the finery stripped away. Chapter 4 is the journey back up, and the logic of how Zion is made is compressed into five verses.

First comes a new source of glory. In chapter 3 the glory of Jerusalem was jewelry and fine clothing. Now it is “the branch of the LORD,” which is “beautiful and glorious” (verse 2). The people’s beauty was taken away, and the Lord supplies a beauty of His own.

Second comes a remnant made holy. Those who are left are “called holy,” and every one is “written among the living” (verse 3). The survivors aren’t just lucky. They are recorded and set apart.

Third comes a washing. The Lord washes the filth of the daughters of Zion (the same daughters of Zion as in 3:16) “by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning” (verse 4). The fire that seemed only destructive in chapter 3 turns out to have been a refining fire.

Fourth comes His presence. The cloud by day and fire by night, which once led Israel through the wilderness and rested on the tabernacle, now rests over every dwelling place in Zion (verse 5). The whole city has become a temple.

The progression is the path of every disciple: humbled, given a new source of beauty in Christ, cleansed by the Spirit, and sheltered by the Lord’s presence. That’s what it means to become Zion.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verse 1

Seven women and one man

In plain words

So many men will die in battle that seven women will cling to one surviving man and say, “We’ll provide our own food and clothes. Just marry us so we won’t be disgraced.”

1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

History & Setting #

Why seven women want one husband

This verse concludes chapter 3. War has killed so many men (Isa. 3:25) that the survivors are vastly outnumbered.

This verse concludes chapter 3. War has killed so many men (Isa. 3:25) that the survivors are vastly outnumbered. Seven, the number of completeness, here suggests “a great many.” In ancient Israel a husband was obligated to provide food and clothing for his wife (Ex. 21:10). These women offer to give up that right. They will support themselves if only they can bear his name.

Their “reproach” is the shame of being unmarried and childless, a deep disgrace in that culture (Gen. 30:23; Luke 1:25). The verse is a picture of devastation, not a model of marriage. The proud “daughters of Zion” who once paraded through the streets (Isa. 3:16) are now reduced to begging for a name.

Verses 2–6

Zion cleansed and sheltered

In plain words

In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the land’s fruit will be the pride of those who survive in Israel. Everyone left in Zion will be called holy, everyone recorded among the living in Jerusalem, once the Lord has washed away the filth of Zion’s daughters and cleansed Jerusalem’s bloodguilt with a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire. Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and its gatherings a cloud by day and a blazing fire by night, a canopy over all its glory. It will be a shelter: shade from the heat, and a refuge and hiding place from storm and rain.

2 In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.

Witness of Christ #

The Branch

“Branch” (tsemach) means a sprout or shoot, something new growing out of the ground or from a stump.

“Branch” (tsemach) means a sprout or shoot, something new growing out of the ground or from a stump. Later prophets make it a title of the Messiah: Jeremiah speaks of “a righteous Branch” raised up to David (Jer. 23:5), and Zechariah twice calls the coming one “the BRANCH” (Zech. 3:8; Zech. 6:12). Isaiah uses related imagery for the “rod out of the stem of Jesse” (Isa. 11:1).

Many readers therefore see Jesus Christ here: He is “beautiful and glorious,” the true glory of Zion after all its false glories have been stripped away. The parallel phrase, “the fruit of the earth,” may also point to the renewed fruitfulness of the land in the day of restoration. Both meanings fit: the Lord’s Branch and the land’s fruit flourish together.

Sources: “Christ, names of”, Bible Dictionary.

3 And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that 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 the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.

Restoration Insight #

The spirit of burning

Here is the chapter’s turning point. The “filth of the daughters of Zion” (the same proud women of Isa. 3:16–24) and the “blood of Jerusalem” (the guilt of Isa. 1:15) are washed and purged.

Fire as a purifier runs throughout scripture (Mal. 3:2–3; Isa. 1:25). John the Baptist promised that the Messiah would baptize “with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” (Matt. 3:11), and Nephi taught that after baptism by water “then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost” (2 Ne. 31:17). The burning that cleanses Zion is the same fire that sanctifies every disciple.

5 And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.

Imagery & Symbol #

The Exodus cloud over every home

Every Israelite knew this image. The Lord led Israel out of Egypt in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Ex. 13:21–22), and the same cloud filled the…

Every Israelite knew this image. The Lord led Israel out of Egypt in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Ex. 13:21–22), and the same cloud filled the tabernacle when it was dedicated (Ex. 40:34–38).

But notice what Isaiah changes. The cloud rests not only on the temple but “upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies.” In the latter-day Zion, every home and every gathering becomes holy ground where the Lord’s presence dwells. The Lord told the early Saints that His glory would rest on His house like a cloud (D&C 84:5), and the Kirtland Temple’s dedicatory prayer asked that the house be filled with His glory (D&C 109:12; D&C 109:37). Isaiah’s vision goes a step further: the glory that fills the temple spreads to the homes of Zion.

6 And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.

Restoration Insight #

A refuge from the storm

“Tabernacle” here is sukkah, a booth or shelter like the ones Israel built for the Feast of Tabernacles.

“Tabernacle” here is sukkah, a booth or shelter like the ones Israel built for the Feast of Tabernacles. The Lord’s presence becomes shade in the heat and cover in the storm. A covert is a hiding place.

The Lord used almost the same words for the stakes of Zion in the latter days: “that the gathering together upon the land of Zion, and upon her stakes, may be for a defense, and for a refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth” (D&C 115:6). Every stake of Zion is meant to be what Isaiah describes here.

Sources: “Stake”, Guide to the Scriptures.

Seeing Christ in Isaiah 4

The Branch of the Lord in verse 2 is Jesus Christ. He grew “as a root out of a dry ground” (Isa. 53:2), and He becomes Zion’s true beauty and glory. The cleansing “spirit of burning” in verse 4 is His work: He baptizes with fire and the Holy Ghost. The shelter in verses 5–6 is His presence. Isaiah later calls Him “an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest” (Isa. 32:2).

Notice the order. Christ doesn’t wait until Zion is clean to come to it. He is the one who makes it clean, and then He dwells over it like a cloud of glory.

Liken it to yourself

Chapter 3 stripped away false sources of beauty. What “glory” in my life would I be tempted to cling to if the Lord offered me His Branch in its place?
The cloud of the Lord’s presence rests over “every dwelling place” (verse 5). What would make my home a place where the Lord’s presence could rest? What would have to be washed away first?
The Lord calls stakes “a refuge from the storm” (D&C 115:6). How can I help make my ward and stake a shelter for someone who is in a storm right now?

Worth exploring next

The whole arc. Read Isa. 2:1–4 and Isa. 4:2–6 one after the other, then read what lies between them. How does the cleansing in chapter 4 answer the pride of chapters 2–3?
Fire that purifies. Trace the image of refining fire through Isa. 1:25, Isa. 4:4, Isa. 6:6–7, and Isa. 48:10. How does Isaiah’s own call in chapter 6 illustrate it?
Cloud and fire. Compare Ex. 40:34–38, Isa. 4:5, and D&C 84:5. What does it mean for the Lord’s glory to rest on a people and not just on a building?

This chapter elsewhere in scripture

Nephi’s text of this chapter (2 Ne. 14) reads differently from the King James Version in 4 verses. The BoM markers show the 2 where more than a small word changes.

2 Ne. 14 — Nephi quotes the whole chapter.
D&C 115:6 — The stakes of Zion as a refuge from the storm.

Sources & further reading

Donald W. Parry, Jay A. Parry, and Tina M. Peterson, Understanding Isaiah, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1998.
John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 2 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986–1998.
Victor L. Ludlow, Isaiah: Prophet, Seer, and Poet, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1982.
Donald W. Parry and John W. Welch, eds., Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, Provo, UT: FARMS, 1998.
Chapter 13: The Establishment of Zion (Isaiah 1–12), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

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