Isaiah50
World English Bible · Public Domain
1Yahweh says, “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away? Or to which of my creditors have I sold you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and your mother was put away for your transgressions.
2Why, when I came, was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can’t redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea. I make the rivers a wilderness. Their fish stink because there is no water, and die of thirst.
3I clothe the heavens with blackness. I make sackcloth their covering.”
4The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary. He awakens morning by morning, he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
5The Lord Yahweh has opened my ear. I was not rebellious. I have not turned back.
6I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair. I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting.
7For the Lord Yahweh will help me. Therefore I have not been confounded. Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I won’t be disappointed.
8He who justifies me is near. Who will bring charges against me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.
9Behold, the Lord Yahweh will help me! Who is he who will condemn me? Behold, they will all grow old like a garment. The moths will eat them up.
10Who among you fears Yahweh and obeys the voice of his servant? He who walks in darkness and has no light, let him trust in Yahweh’s name, and rely on his God.
11Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who adorn yourselves with torches around yourselves, walk in the flame of your fire, and among the torches that you have kindled. You will have this from my hand: you will lie down in sorrow.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Isaiah 50.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The rejection of the Jews. (1-3). The sufferings and exaltation of the Messiah. (4-9). Consolation to the believer, and warning to the unbeliever. (10,11).
vv1-3
Those who have professed to be people of God, and seem to be dealt severely with, are apt to complain, as if God had been hard with them. Here is an answer for such murmurings; God never deprived any of their advantages, except for their sins. The Jews were sent into Babylon for their idolatry, a sin which broke the covenant; and they were at last rejected for crucifying the Lord of glory. God called on them to leave their sins, and prevent their own ruin. Last of all, the Son came to his own, but his own received him not. When God calls men to happiness, and they will not answer, they are justly left to be miserable. To silence doubts concerning his power, proofs of it are given. The wonders which attended his sufferings and death, proclaimed that he was the Son of God, Matt. 27:54.
vv4-9
As Jesus was God and man in one person, we find him sometimes speaking, or spoken of, as the Lord God; at other times, as man and the servant of Jehovah. He was to declare the truths which comfort the broken, contrite heart, those weary of sin, harassed with afflictions. And as the Holy Spirit was upon him, that he might speak as never man spake; so the same Divine influence daily wakened him to pray, to preach the gospel, and to receive and deliver the whole will of the Father. The Father justified the Son when he accepted the satisfaction he made for the sin of man. Christ speaks in the name of all believers. Who dares to be an enemy to those unto whom he is a Friend? or who will contend with those whom he is an Advocate? Thus St. Paul applies it, Rom. 8:33.
vv10-11
A child of God is afraid of incurring his displeasure. This grace usually appears most in believers when in darkness, when other graces appear not. Those that truly fear God, obey the voice of Christ. A sincere servant of God may for a long time be without views of eternal happiness. What is likely to be an effectual cure in this sad case? Let him trust in the name of the Lord; and let him stay himself upon the promises of the covenant, and build his hopes on them. Let him trust in Christ, trust in that name of his, The Lord our Righteousness; stay himself upon God as his God, in and through a Mediator. Presuming sinners are warned not to trust in themselves. Their own merit and sufficiency are light and heat to them. Creature-comforts are as sparks, short-lived, and soon gone; yet the children of this world, while they last, seek to warm themselves by them, and walk with pride and pleasure in the light of them. Those that make the world their comfort, and their own righteousness their confidence, will certainly meet with bitterness in the end. A godly man's way may be dark, but his end shall be peace and everlasting light. A wicked man's way may be pleasant, but his end and abode for ever will be utter darkness.
Key Words
כֹּה: properly, like this, i.e. by implication, (of manner) thus (or so); also (of place) here (or hither); or (of time) now
אָמַר: to say (used with great latitude)
אֵם: a mother (as the bond of the family); in a wide sense (both literally and figuratively (like father))
סֵפֶר: properly, writing (the art or a document); by implication, a book
כְּרִיתוּת: a cutting (of the matrimonial bond), i.e. divorce
אֲשֶׁר: who, which, what, that; also (as an adverb and a conjunction) when, where, how, because, in order that, etc.
שָׁלַח: to send away, for, or out (in a great variety of applications)
אוֹ: desire (and so probably in Proverbs 31:4); hence (by way of alternative) or, also if
מִי: who? (occasionally, by a peculiar idiom, of things); also (indefinitely) whoever; often used in oblique construction with prefix or suffix
נָשָׁה: to lend or (by reciprocity) borrow on security or interest
Cross References
Isaiah 50Paul adapts Isaiah's judicial vindication language ('Who shall lay anything to the charge...? It is God that justifieth').
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Legal background of a husband issuing a 'bill of divorcement' to dismiss his wife.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Illustrates the practice of parents selling children to creditors to pay off debts.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Literally fulfilled in the physical abuse and spitting Christ endured during His trial.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Mosaic law regarding a parent selling children under financial distress.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
God demonstrates His ultimate power by drying up the Red Sea at the Exodus.
Supported by JFB
Christ invites the spiritually 'weary' and heavy laden, fulfilling His comforting office.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Christ 'learned obedience' and was wakened as a learner through His sufferings.
Supported by JFB
Christ's perfect, non-rebellious obedience in taking a body to fulfill God's will.
Supported by JFB
Alludes to the Egyptian plague where the river dried and the fish stank.
Supported by JFB
Alludes to the plague of thick darkness covering Egypt's heavens.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
The heavens becoming black as sackcloth of hair during judgment.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Illustrates plucking of facial hair as the ultimate insult in Near Eastern culture.
Supported by JFB
Spitting in the face is highlighted as a supreme form of public humiliation.
Supported by JFB
Parallel imagery of adversaries waxing old like a garment and being eaten by moths.