Isaiah 50:1 - Exposition

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 forth from him to bar reconciliation and return. Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you! Neither has God exercised the right, regarded as inherent in a parent ( Exodus 21:7 ; 2 Kings 4:11 ; Nehemiah 6:5 , Nehemiah 6:8 ), of selling his children to a creditor. They are not sold—he has "taken no money for them" ( Psalms 44:12 ; Isaiah 52:3 ); and the Babylonians are thus not their rightful owners ( Isaiah 49:24 )—they are still God's children, his property, and the objects of his care. For your iniquities … for your transgressions; rather, by your iniquities … by your transgressions. The separation, such as it was, between God and his people was caused by their sins, not by any act of his.