Isaiah 50

This is what the LORD says: "Where is the divorce paper I gave your mother when I sent her away? Or which of my creditors did I sell you to? Look, you were sold because of your own sins, and your mother was sent away because of your wrongdoing.

1Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

Note"The LORD" printed in capitals stands in for the personal Hebrew name of God, which the King James translators replaced with a title. The divorce paper is a legal document: under Israelite law a husband who ended a marriage had to give the wife a written certificate of release, and without it she had no proof she was free to go. Selling children to a creditor was also a real legal practice (a debtor who could not pay could hand over his children to work off the debt as slaves. Both questions expect the answer "there is none": no document was ever written, no creditor was ever paid. The people are addressed as the children, and the nation) or the city Jerusalem, is pictured as their mother.

2Why was no one there when I came? Why did no one answer when I called? Is my arm too short to buy you back? Do I not have the strength to rescue you? Look: with one sharp word I dry up the sea and turn rivers into desert, so the fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.

2Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot 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 stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.

Note"Is my arm too short" is a Hebrew idiom for lacking the reach or power to act; it says nothing about the size of a limb. "Buy you back" translates the word for redeeming, paying the price to recover a relative or a piece of property that has passed into someone else's hands. Drying up the sea and turning rivers into desert echo the escape from Egypt through the sea and the crossing of the Jordan.

3I dress the heavens in black and cover them with sackcloth."

3I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.

NoteSackcloth was coarse, dark cloth woven from goat hair, worn next to the skin as a public sign of mourning or distress. The darkening sky is pictured as the heavens putting on mourning clothes.

4The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of someone who has been taught, so I know how to say the right word at the right time to a tired person. Morning by morning he wakes me; he wakes my ear to listen the way a student listens.

4The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.

NoteFrom here through verse 9 the speaker changes: an unnamed "I", identified only as the LORD's servant in verse 10, speaks instead of God. The King James has no quotation marks to mark the shift. "The tongue of someone who has been taught" translates a word meaning a pupil or disciple; the same word is used again at the end of the verse, so the speaker is both a learner and able to speak to others. "Wakes my ear" is an idiom for being roused to pay attention. Where the King James prints "Lord GOD," the Hebrew has a title plus the personal name of God.

5The Lord GOD has opened my ears, and I did not refuse him. I did not turn back.

5The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.

Note"Opened my ears", literally "dug open the ear", is an idiom for being made able and willing to hear an instruction. In Hebrew, hearing and obeying are the same word, so the phrase carries both.

6I offered my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from insults and spitting.

6I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.

NoteTearing out a man's beard was among the gravest humiliations in that culture: a beard marked adult standing, and it was cut or torn off prisoners and captives to shame them. Spitting in someone's face was a formal public act of contempt, used in legal settings as well as in insult.

7Because the Lord GOD helps me, I have not been disgraced. So I have set my face hard as flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.

7For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

Note"Set my face" toward something is a Hebrew idiom for fixing on a course of action and refusing to be turned aside from it.

8The one who declares me in the right is near. Who dares to argue against me? Let us stand and face each other. Who has a charge to bring against me? Let him come here.

8He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.

NoteThis verse and the next use courtroom language throughout. "Declares me in the right" is the verb for a judge acquitting an accused person. "Who has a charge to bring against me" is literally "who is the master of my case", the opposing party in a lawsuit. Standing and facing each other is what the two sides of a legal dispute do before a judge.

9Look, the Lord GOD helps me. Who then can declare me guilty? See, they will all wear out like a piece of clothing; moths will eat them up.

9Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.

NoteClothing was expensive and handed down through a family, and moth damage was the standard image for something valuable quietly destroyed over time rather than struck down at a blow.

10Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant? Whoever walks in the dark and has no light, let him trust in the name of the LORD and lean on his God.

10Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.

Note"Fears the LORD" is the ordinary Hebrew phrase for taking God seriously and holding him in awe; it does not mean being frightened of him. "His servant" points back to the speaker of verses 4-9. The Hebrew here can be divided in more than one way, either as a single question (who fears the LORD and yet walks in darkness?) or as two separate ones, and translations differ.

11But look, all of you who light a fire and surround yourselves with burning torches: go ahead, walk by the light of your own fire and by the torches you have lit. This is what you will get from my hand: you will lie down in pain.

11Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.

NoteThe word rendered "torches" means firebrands, burning sticks carried for light. The picture is of people kindling their own light rather than waiting in the dark and trusting, as verse 10 describes. "From my hand" is an idiom meaning "brought about by me." The final phrase is uncertain in Hebrew: it can be read as "you will lie down in pain" or as "you will lie down in a place of torment."