Isaiah 50:1

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Isaiah 50:1-3

Those who have professed to be the people of God, and yet seem to be dealt severely with, are apt to complain of God, and to lay the fault upon him, as if he had been hard with them. But, in answer to their murmurings, we have here, I. A challenge given them to prove, or produce any evidence, that the quarrel began on God's side, Isa. 50:1. They could not say that he had done them any wrong or had acted arbitrarily. 1. He had been a husband to them; and husbands were then allowed a power to... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 50:1

Thus saith the Lord ,.... Here begins a new discourse or prophecy, and therefore thus prefaced, and is continued in the following chapter: where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away ? these words are directed to the Jews, who stood in the same relation to the Jewish church, or synagogue, as children to a mother; and so the Targum interprets "your mother" by "your congregation", or synagogue; who were rejected from being a church and people; had a "loammi"... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 50:1

Thus saith the Lord - This chapter has been understood of the prophet himself; but it certainly speaks more clearly about Jesus of Nazareth than of Isaiah, the son of Amos. Where is the bill "Where is this bill" - Husbands, through moroseness or levity of temper, often sent bills of divorcement to their wives on slight occasions, as they were permitted to do by the law of Moses, Deuteronomy 24:1 . And fathers, being oppressed with debt, often sold their children, which they might do... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 50:1

Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement? On account of her persistent "backsliding," God had "put away Israel," Judah's sister, and had "given her a bill of divorce" ( Isaiah 3:8 ). But he had not repudiated Judah; and her children were wrong to suppose themselves altogether cast off (see Isaiah 49:14 ). They had, in fact, by their transgressions, especially their idolatries, wilfully divorced themselves, or at any rate separated themselves, from God; but no sentence had gone... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 50:1

Selling ourselves. " For your iniquities have ye sold yourselves." Reference is to the right which fathers in the East possessed, of selling their children into slavery; and also to the power of judges to condemn malefactors to slavery. The Jews sold themselves to work wickedness, and the judgment which came upon them, in their being sold into the hands of their Babylonian enemies, was consequently, in fact, their own work. They might say that they were sold; God convicts them by... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 50:1-3

Explanation of exile. The Lord would impress on his exiled people that their calamities found their explanation not in him but in themselves; and we shall find, when we look, that this is the account of our estrangement and distance from God. I. WHAT ACCOUNTED FOR ISRAEL 'S EXILE ? 1 . It was not any fickleness in God. He had not acted toward Israel as a husband often acted toward the wife of whom he was weary; there had been no changeableness on his part. 2 . It was ... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 50:1-11

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Isaiah 50:1

Thus saith the Lord - To the Jews in Babylon, who were suffering under his hand, and who might be disposed to complain that God had dealt with them with as much caprice and cruelty as a man did with his wife, when he gave her a writing of divorce, and put her away without any just cause.Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement? - God here speaks of himself as the husband of his people, as having married the church to himself, denoting the tender affection which he had for his people. This... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Isaiah 50:1

Isaiah 50:1. Thus saith the Lord God having, by his prophet, in the last three verses of the preceding chapter, comforted his people with an assurance of their deliverance from the tyrannical power of their enemies, here vindicates his justice in suffering them to be exposed thereto, showing that they were the causes of their own calamities. Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement? God had espoused the Jewish Church, the mother of the individuals of that people, to himself, in a... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Isaiah 50:1-3

Israel rebuilt (49:8-50:3)Once more God promises the return of the captive Jews to their homeland. God will protect them along the journey and help them as they rebuild their ruined country (8-10). Whether exiled in Babylon or scattered in other places, the people will return home amid much rejoicing (11-13).Some of the Jews thought God had forgotten them. God now shows that for him this is impossible (14-16). Israel will return and rebuild its homeland. Opponents who try to ruin Israel’s work... read more

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