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.
(Isa 4:1)
While a few
early Latter-day Saints used this text as a “proof text” to support the
biblical basis for plural marriage (e.g., Orson Pratt in his debate with Rev.
Dr. J.P. Newman [Chaplain of the US Senate]), this is based on eisegesis. As
Hoyt Brewster, a very traditional Latter-day Saint noted:
This scripture is not, as some have supposed,
a rallying call for polygamy; but rather it is a description of very adverse
conditions. So many men will have been killed in wars (see Isaiah 3:25) that
there will be a shortage of eligible marriage partners for single women. “Seven
women” (symbolically meaning “many”) will propose marriage to “one man.”
Contrary to law, which requires the husband to provide for the wife (Exodus
21:10), in these desperate times the women will pledge to provide the
necessities of life for themselves. (Hoyt W. Brewster, Jr., Isaiah Plain and Simple: The Message of
Isaiah in the Book of Mormon [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1995], 36-37)
