Isaiah 50

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 50:5

The Servant claimed to have always responded obediently to whatever God had spoken (cf. John 8:29). Clearly, the Servant could not be Israel or any mere human person or group of people. Opening the ear is something that God had done for Him; He had given the Servant the ability and the desire to hear and respond obediently to the Word of God. On the other hand, the Servant had not turned back from it once He had heard it (cf. Exodus 4:13; Jonah 1:3; Jeremiah 20:9; Jeremiah 20:14). read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 50:6

Disdain and abuse are the inevitable consequences of obeying God consistently by declaring His messages. All the true servants of the Lord experience this to some extent (2 Timothy 3:12). This is only the second reference to the Servant as a sufferer (cf. Isaiah 49:7). This theme receives major exposition in the fourth Servant Song. The Servant said He gave Himself over to this type of treatment. It is one thing to endure such treatment, but it is quite another to gladly submit to it without... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 50:7

The Servant counted on the help of Almighty God and so refused to feel disgraced; He knew that God would vindicate Him for being faithful to His calling. He had not suffered because He was guilty, as submitting to public humiliation meekly might suggest to observers, but in spite of His innocence. Earlier in this book, Isaiah instructed the Israelites to trust God, rather than the nations, when faced with attack by a hostile enemy (chs. 7-39). The Servant modeled that trust for God’s servant... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 50:8-9

The Servant could, if He chose to do so, stand up in court and declare His righteousness. No one, such as a prosecuting attorney, could condemn Him by showing Him to be wicked (cf. John 18:38). God would stand near Him as His defense attorney and would vindicate Him (cf. 1 John 2:1-2). The beginning of Jesus’ vindication was His resurrection (cf. Acts 2:23-24; Acts 3:15; Acts 13:29-30).The end of those who falsely accused the Servant, would be a slow but inevitable wasting away and... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 50:10

The Lord (Isaiah 50:11) now addressed the Israelites through Isaiah again (cf. Isaiah 50:1). He picked up the "whos" from Isaiah 50:8-9 and asked who among His people feared the Lord and obeyed the instruction of the Servant. Fearing the Lord and obeying the Servant are synonymous. The Israelites too, like the Servant, were walking in darkness, not the darkness of sin but the darkness of being called by God to a mission that involved suffering and misunderstanding (cf. Isaiah 50:6; Isaiah 42:6;... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 50:10-11

Walking in light or darkness 50:10-11This short pericope is another transition. It connects with the third Servant Song, but it introduces a new speaker and develops a different topic. The new subject is the importance of listening to the Servant and the Lord. read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 50:11

The Lord contrasted the way of sorrow, in this verse, with the way of trust, in Isaiah 50:10. The Israelites who refused to trust God and obey the Servant in their dark mission, and instead tried to escape the dark by lighting their own fires, would experience torment. They would encounter this if they refused to trust God for deliverance from the Babylonians, and they would encounter it in their larger relationship with God. The Lord would send them torment, not vindication (cf. Isaiah... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 50:1-11

1. The children of Zion (Isaiah 49:20-21) are addressed. Their servitude is not irrevocable; Jehovah has not formally repudiated Zion (Deuteronomy 24:1); nor, though they had to learn by discipline, can any creditors claim His people as slaves (2 Kings 4:1): cp. Jeremiah 24:4-6; Ezekiel 37.2, 3. The imagery is from the exodus from Egypt. 2. Wherefore.. answer] These clauses emphasise the hopelessness of Israel’s case from a human point of view. Only the divine power could effect the deliverance... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 50:1

L.(1) Where is the bill . . .?—The thought seems suggested by Isaiah 49:14, but expands in a different direction. Both questions imply a negative answer. Jehovah had not formally repudiated the wife (Judah) whom he had chosen (Deuteronomy 24:1) as he had done her sister Israel (Jeremiah 3:8;·Hosea 2:2). He had no creditors among the nations who could claim her children. On the law of debt which supplies the image, comp. Exodus 21:7; 2 Kings 4:1; Nehemiah 5:5. The divorce, the sale, were her... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 50:2

(2) Wherefore, when I came . . .?—The “coming” of Jehovah must be taken in all its width of meaning. He came in the deliverance from Babylon, in a promise of still greater blessings, in the fullest sense, in and through His Servant, and yet none came to help in the work, or even to receive the message. (Comp. Isaiah 63:3.) Not that He needed human helpers. In words that remind us, in their sequence, of the phenomena of the plagues of Egypt, the prophet piles up the mighty works of which He is... read more

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 50:5

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 50:6

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 50:7

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 50:8-9

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 50:10

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 50:10-11

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 50:11

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 50:1-11

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 50:1

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 50:2

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