Isaiah 50:1-6

Israel's Sin and the Servant's Obedience

1 Thus says the LORD: "Where is ¹your mother's certificate of divorce, with which ²I sent her away? Or ³which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? ⁴Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.

2 ⁵Why, when I came, was there no man; why, when I called, was there no one to answer? ⁶Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? ⁷Behold, by my rebuke ⁸I dry up the sea, ⁹I make the rivers a desert; ¹⁰their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.

3 ¹¹I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering."

4 The Lord GOD has given ¹²me the tongue of those who are taught, that ¹³I may know how to sustain with a word ¹⁴him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

5 ¹⁵The Lord GOD has opened my ear, ¹⁶and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward.

6 ¹⁷I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

Isaiah 50:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 50

This chapter is a prophecy of the rejection of the Jews, for their neglect and contempt of the Messiah; and of his discharge of his office as Mediator, and fitness for it. The rejection of the Jews is signified by the divorce of a woman from her husband, and by persons selling their children to their creditors; which is not to be charged upon the Lord, but was owing to their own iniquities, Isa 50:1, particularly their disregard of the Messiah, and inattention to him, as if he was an insufficient Saviour; whereas his power to redeem is evident, from his drying up the sea and rivers below, and clothing the heavens above with black clouds, and eclipsing the luminaries thereof, Isa 50:2,3, his fitness for his prophetic office is expressed in Isa 50:4. His obedience to his Father, and his patience in sufferings, while performing his priestly office, Isa 50:5,6, and his faith and confidence in the Lord, as man and Mediator, that he should be helped, carried through his work, and acquitted; and not be confounded, overcome, and condemned, Isa 50:7-9, and the chapter is closed with an exhortation to the saints to trust in the Lord in the darkest times; and a threatening to such who trust in themselves, and in their own doings, Isa 50:10,11.

Cross References

• 1. Deuteronomy 24:1
• 2. Jeremiah 3:8; [Hosea 2:2]
• 3. [2 Kings 4:1; Matthew 18:25]
• 4. Isaiah 59:2
• 5. [Isaiah 42:18-23]
• 6. Isaiah 59:1; Numbers 11:23
• 7. Psalms 104:7; Psalms 106:9; Nahum 1:4; [Isaiah 19:5, 6]
• 8. [Exodus 14:21]
• 9. Joshua 3:16
• 10. [Exodus 7:18, 21]
• 11. Jeremiah 14:22; Revelation 6:12
• 12. [Exodus 4:11]
• 13. [Isaiah 40:1, 2]
• 14. [Matthew 11:28]
• 15. Psalms 40:6
• 16. [John 14:31; Philippians 2:8; Hebrews 5:8; Hebrews 10:7]
• 17. [Isaiah 53:5; Matthew 26:67; Matthew 27:26; Mark 15:19; Luke 22:63]