Isaiah 50:3

3 I shall clothe (the) heavens with darknesses, and I shall set a sackcloth (to be) the covering of them.

Isaiah 50:3 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 50:3

I clothe the heavens with blackness
With gross and thick darkness; perhaps referring to the three days' darkness the Egyptians were in, ( Exodus 10:12-23 ) , or with thick and black clouds, as in tempestuous weather frequently; or by eclipses of the sun; there was an extraordinary instance of great darkness at the time of Christ's crucifixion, ( Matthew 27:45 ) and I make sackcloth their covering;
that being black, and used in times of mourning; the allusion may be to the tents of Kedar, which were covered with sackcloth, or such like black stuff. The fall of the Pagan empire, through the power of Christ and his Gospel, is signified by the sun becoming black as sackcloth of hair, ( Revelation 6:12 ) . Jarchi interprets this parabolically of the princes of the nations, when the Lord shall come to take vengeance upon them; as Kimchi does the sea, and the rivers, in the preceding verse, of the good things of the nations of the world, which they had in great abundance, and should be destroyed.

Isaiah 50:3 In-Context

1 The Lord saith these things, What is this book of forsaking of your mother, by which I let go her? either who is he, to whom I owe, to whom I sold you? [or whom is my creancer (or who is my creditor), to whom I sold you?] For lo! ye be sold for your wickednesses, and for your great trespasses I let go your mother. (The Lord saith these things, Where is the book of the forsaking, or for the divorcing, of your mother, by which I let her go? or who is he to whom I owed, and so to whom I sold you? For lo! ye were sold because of your wickednesses, and because of your great trespasses, I let your mother go.)

2 For I came, and no man was; I called, and none was that heard. Whether mine hand is abridged, and made little, that I may not again-buy? either strength is not in me for to deliver? Lo! in my blaming I shall make the sea forsaken, either desert, I shall set floods in(to) the dry place; fishes without water shall wax rotten, and shall die for thirst. (For I came, but there was no one there; I called, but no one heard me. Is my hand shortened, yea, is my power made so little, that I cannot redeem, or cannot rescue, you? or is strength not in me to save you? Lo! by my command I can make the sea into a desert, and I can make rivers into a dry place, and the fish grow rotten for a lack of water, and die of thirst.)

3 I shall clothe (the) heavens with darknesses, and I shall set a sackcloth (to be) the covering of them.

4 The Lord gave to me a learned tongue, that I know how to sustain him by (a) word that failed; early the father raiseth [up], early he raiseth [up] an ear to me, that I hear as a master. (The Lord gave me a learned tongue, so that I know how to sustain with a word him who faileth; early the Father raiseth up, yea, early he raiseth up an ear for me, so that I might hear like a master.)

5 The Lord God opened an ear to me; forsooth I against-say not, I went not aback. (The Lord God opened my ears; and I did not rebel, nor did I turn away from him.)