Isaiah 50 Footnotes

50:1 The Lord asked his people, rhetorically, to produce the legal evidence that he had divorced them and sent them away; then he declared that they “were sold for [their] iniquities.” This appears to be a contradiction, yet the context of the passage makes clear that any such breach of the covenant was not the Lord’s purpose (“Do I have no power to rescue?” v. 2). The Lord demanded to be shown the hypothetical certificate in order to verify that it was not he who was to blame for this divorce; the separation was the result of Israel’s own rebellion, acting as an unfaithful “wife.”