Verse 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.

In that day — In that calamitous time.

Seven — Many. A certain number for an uncertain.

One man — Because few men shall survive that dreadful stroke.

Only — Own us for thy wives.

Our reproach — Virginity was esteemed a reproach; children, the usual fruit of marriage, being both an honour to their parents, and a blessing of God, especially to that people, from some of whose loins the Messiah was to spring.

Verse 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.

In that day — About that time: when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of Zion, by those dreadful judgments now described.

The branch — The Messiah.

The earth — The land which for the sins of the people was made barren, upon their return to Christ shall recover its fertility. Under this one mercy he includes all temporal blessings, together with spiritual and eternal.

For them — That shall survive all the forementioned calamities.

Verse 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:

Holy — Shall be really holy.

Jerusalem — Of the people living in or belonging to Jerusalem.

Verse 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.

When — This shall be accomplished when God hath throughly cleansed the Jewish nation from their sins.

The blood — The blood-guiltiness, and especially that of killing the Lord of life.

Burning — This is opposed to the former legal way of purification, which was by water. The Holy Spirit of old accompanied the preaching of the gospel, and did this work in part, and will do it fully. This spirit may well be called a spirit of judgment, because it executes judgment in the church, and in the consciences of men, separating the precious from the vile, convincing men of sin, and righteousness, and judgment. And the same spirit may be fitly called the spirit of burning, because he doth burn up and consume the dross which is in the church, and in the hearts of men, and inflames the souls of believers with love to God, and zeal for his glory.

Verse 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.

Create — Will in a marvellous manner produce, as it were by a new creation.

A cloud — A pillar of cloud and fire, like that wherewith he directed the Israelites, when they came out of Egypt: whereby he implies, that God would be their protector, and their glory.

The glory — Upon all that church and people, which God will make so glorious; upon all holy assemblies of sincere Christians.

Verse 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.

And there — Or, he, the Lord, shall be a tabernacle, to defend them from the heat of the sun, and other injuries of the weather.