Isaiah 50:3

3 induam caelos tenebris et saccum ponam operimentum eorum

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 haec dicit Dominus quis est hic liber repudii matris vestrae quo dimisi eam aut quis est creditor meus cui vendidi vos ecce in iniquitatibus vestris venditi estis et in sceleribus vestris dimisi matrem vestram

2 quia veni et non erat vir vocavi et non erat qui audiret numquid adbreviata et parvula facta est manus mea ut non possim redimere aut non est in me virtus ad liberandum ecce in increpatione mea desertum faciam mare ponam flumina in siccum conputrescent pisces sine aqua et morientur in siti

3 induam caelos tenebris et saccum ponam operimentum eorum

4 Dominus dedit mihi linguam eruditam ut sciam sustentare eum qui lassus est verbo erigit mane mane erigit mihi aurem ut audiam quasi magistrum

5 Dominus Deus aperuit mihi aurem ego autem non contradico retrorsum non abii