Isaiahchapter 50
11 verses · Isaiah · 8th century BC · The Prophets
This is what the LORD says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of My creditors did I sell you? Look, you were sold for your iniquities, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
Introduction
Isaiah, The Prophets, Isaiah Overview.
Isaiah wrote this chapter for exiles who believed God had divorced them and sold them off. It opens with God asking for the papers that would prove it. The middle of the chapter is the third song of the Servant, who speaks as a pupil taught each morning and as a man who suffers without turning back. The chapter ends by setting two ways of walking in the dark before the hearer. Listen for the courtroom language, and for the Servant's confidence that his case is safe. The Gospels record the insults this song describes being done to Jesus.
Context
- Who
- Exiles who believed God had divorced them and sold them off
- What
- God's answer to the charge that He had divorced Israel, and the third Servant Song.
- Where
- Spoken to the exiles, with scenes drawn from a court, a teacher's house and a place of beating.
- When
- Spoken about 700 to 690 BC by the book's own reading.
- Why
- To show that Israel's exile came from its own sins, and that the obedient Servant trusts God through suffering.
Historical context
The opening is legal and specific. A man could dismiss his wife only by handing her a written certificate of divorce, and a debtor could be forced to hand children over to a creditor in payment. God asks to see the paperwork: where is your mother's certificate of divorce, whom did I sell you to? No document exists, because there was no divorce and no sale. You sold yourselves for your iniquities, he says, which in that legal world was also a real thing a desperate man did.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The servant's training is described as a daily lesson. The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to the weary; he wakens me morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear as the learned. That is a pupil in a teacher's household, up at dawn for the day's recitation, every day, for years.
The suffering is described by the specific humiliations of that culture, not by generic violence. I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from shame and spitting. Plucking a man's beard was a calculated insult in the Near East, since the beard was the sign of adult male dignity, and spitting in the face was the standard public act of contempt.
Against it, one hard image: I have set my face like a flint. Flint is the stone tool-makers used because it does not crumble; it fractures cleanly and keeps an edge.
The chapter ends with a small, sharp parable of self-help. Who among you fears the LORD and walks in darkness with no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD. And then the alternative: all of you who kindle a fire and walk in the light of your own fire and the sparks you have lit, you will lie down in sorrow. A man in the dark can wait for dawn, or he can strike a torch and travel by the light of a handful of sparks.
Significance
The exiles' theory about themselves was that God had thrown them away. The chapter answers with a court challenge and then with a question about power: is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? Have I no power to deliver?
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And the servant's answer to the beating is not defiance but confidence in a verdict: he is near who justifies me; who will contend with me? Let us stand together. He goes to a beating like a man going to a trial he knows he wins.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts sets this chapter in one prophetic reading of the annual cycle. It is read as the Haftarah of Eikev, Isaiah 49:14 to 51:3, in both rites, on the Sabbath of the portion Deuteronomy 7:12 to 11:25. A congregation keeping that cycle hears the verses of each reference read aloud after the Torah portion of its Sabbath.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the first verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Mishpatim 11:3. Under the sixth verse it carries Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Noah 37, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Tazria 13:2 and Midrash Tanchuma, Tazria 9:1. Under the eighth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Devarim 3:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Devarim 3:1.
How it is read
Two commentators on this chapter carry English in the corpus. Rashi is quoted from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY, and every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern. Ibn Ezra is quoted from the version Sefaria titles Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873, which it reports as Public Domain.
The bill of divorce in the first verse draws Ibn Ezra's longest note on the chapter, and it reconciles two prophets. Jeremiah 3:8 speaks of a bill of divorce given. Ibn Ezra reads that as the kingdom of the ten tribes, while "Isaiah speaks of the kingdom of the house of David, which will be restored by Messiah" (Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 50:1:2). He reads the drying of the sea in the next verse as proof that the power of God will not fail in redeeming Israel (Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 50:2:2).
Both commentators read the speaker from the fourth verse on as the prophet. Rashi's Isaiah says the Lord gave him a tongue fit to teach, to set a time for the faint to hear the words of God (Rashi on Isaiah 50:4:1). The opened ear Rashi reads through the Pesikta of the Sabbath of comfort, where God recounts the prophets He sent before and Isaiah answers Here I am (Rashi on Isaiah 50:5:1 and 50:5:2).
The sixth verse, the back given to the smiters, carries a dialogue in Rashi. God says to Isaiah, "My children are obstinate; My children are bothersome". Isaiah may go on condition that he not become angry with them, and he accepts. Ibn Ezra reads it the same way (Rashi on Isaiah 50:6:1). "I did not care that I had to expose my back to strokes for the sake of His name" (Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 50:6:1). A Christian reader who reads this verse of Christ should know that both classical readings here take it as the prophet's own suffering. At the tenth verse Rashi reads the voice of His servant as the voice of the prophets (Rashi on Isaiah 50:10:1).
The corpus carries one further note on this chapter without an English text, marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. It stands cited and unquoted at Radak on Isaiah 50:1:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Eikhah Rabbah 1:3, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:91, Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 1:1:4 and Midrash Tanchuma, Mishpatim 11:3. It holds Sanhedrin 105a:3 there as well. On the second verse it holds Berakhot 6b:5, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 7:21:2, Midrash Tehillim 31:3 and Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:12:2. It holds Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Zuta 5:1 there as well. On the third verse it holds Berakhot 59a:15, Eikhah Rabbah 1:1, Eikhah Rabbah 3:10 and Ein Yaakov, Berakhot 9:27.
It holds Esther Rabbah 7:13 there as well. On the fourth verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Avodah Zarah 1:2:2, Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 8:6:10, Jerusalem Talmud Eruvin 5:1:3 and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 18:3. It holds Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Zuta 14:1 there as well. On the sixth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Noah 37, Midrash Aggadah, Deuteronomy 3:23:1, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Tazria 13:2 and Midrash Tanchuma, Tazria 9:1. It holds Pesikta DeRav Kahana 16:4 there as well. On the eighth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 12:1, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Devarim 3:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Devarim 3:1 and Midrash Tehillim 60:1.
On the tenth verse it holds Berakhot 6b:2, Berakhot 6b:3, Bereshit Rabbah 60:1 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Berakhot 1:22. It holds Ein Yaakov, Berakhot 1:33 there as well. On the eleventh verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 20:4, Bamidbar Rabbah 11:7, Bamidbar Rabbah 6:2 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Ketubot 12:4. It holds Ein Yaakov, Ketubbot 12:4 there as well. On the twelfth verse it holds Berakhot 58b:5. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Isaiah 50:2:1 to 50:11:2, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 50:1:1 to 50:9:1, Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873, reported Public Domain; Radak, Radak on Isaiah 50:1:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/isaiah/50.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, the Haftarah entries for Eikev (Isaiah 49:14 to 51:3).
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Where Is the Bill of Your Mother's Divorcement?
The LORD answers the exile with a legal question, “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce”, and asks to which creditor he sold his people. No such document and no such sale exist. The cause lies with Israel, “you were sold for your iniquities”.
Isaiah 50:1
“Thus saith the Lord - To the Jews in Babylon, who were suffering under his hand, and who might be disposed to complain that God had dealt with them with as much caprice and cruelty as a man did with his wife, when he gave her a writing of divorce, and put her away without any just cause. Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement? - God here speaks of himself as the husband of his people, as having married the church to himself, denoting the tender affection which he had for his people.”
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Isaiah 50:1
“Thus saith the Lord - The scope of this and the next chapter, is to vindicate God's justice and to convince the Jews that they were the causes of their own calamities. Behold - You can blame none but yourselves and your own sins, for all your captivities and miseries.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Isaiah 50:1
“GESENIUS thinks that God means by the question to deny that He had given "a bill of divorcement" to her, as was often done on slight pretexts by a husband (De 24:1), or that He had "sold" His and her "children," as a poor parent sometimes did (Ex 21:7; Ne 5:5) under pressure of his "creditors"; that it was they who sold themselves through their own sins.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Isaiah 50:2-3
Is My hand too short to redeem you?: The LORD asks, “Why did no one answer when I called?”, and meets silence by asking whether “My hand” is “too short to redeem you”. He answers with the power that opened the exodus, “My rebuke dries up the sea”. Cosmic authority here serves the covenant argument.
Isaiah 50:2
“When God turned the waters of Egypt into blood he slew the fish, Ps. cv. The expression our Saviour sometimes used concerning the power of faith, that it will remove mountains and plant sycamores in the sea, is not unlike this; if their faith could do that, no doubt their faith would save them, and therefore they were inexcusable if they perished in unbelief.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 50:2
“Their fish stinketh “Their fish is dried up” - For תבאש tibaosh, stinketh, read תיבש tibash, is dried up; so it stands in the Bodl. MS., and it is confirmed by the Septuagint, ξηρανθησονται, they shall be dried up.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Barnes hears the black heavens as the storm clouds round Sinai, and Grotius, whom he cites, as the darkness sent on Egypt. Gill notes that sackcloth was black, the covering of mourning. Gill also recalls the darkness at the crucifixion of Christ.
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, Exo 10:12, 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, Mat 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.”
2 more voices on this verse
Isaiah 50:3
“I clothe the heavens with blackness - With the dark clouds of a tempest - perhaps with an allusion to the remarkable clouds and tempests that encircled the brow of Sinai when he gave the law. Or possibly alluding to the thick darkness which he brought over the land of Egypt (Exo 10:21; Grotius). In the previous verse, he had stated what he did on the earth, and referred to the exhibitions of his great power there.”
Isaiah 50:3
“We suppose the prophet Isaiah to say something of himself in these verses, engaging and encouraging himself to go on in his work as a prophet, notwithstanding the many hardships he met with, not doubting but that God would stand by him and strengthen him; but, like David, he speaks of himself as a type of Christ, who is here prophesied of and promised to be the Saviour.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
I Gave My Back to the Smiters, My Face to Shame
the tongue of discipleship: The Lord GOD has given the servant “the tongue of discipleship”, a disciple’s speech, “to sustain the weary with a word”. The gift is renewed daily, “He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple”. The listening ear comes first, and the word to the weary follows from it.
Isaiah 50:4
“God, who made man's mouth, gave Moses the tongue of the learned, to speak for the terror and conviction of Pharaoh, Exod. iv. He gave to Christ the tongue of the learned, to speak a word in season for the comfort of those that are weary and heavily laden under the burden of sin, Matt. xi. Grace was poured into his lips, and they are said to drop sweet-smelling myrrh.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 50:4
“Given me - This and the following passages may be in some sort understood of the prophet Isaiah, but they are far more evidently and eminently verified in Christ, and indeed seem to be meant directly of him.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The Lord GOD has opened My ears: “The Lord GOD has opened My ears, and I have not been rebellious”. The servant’s obedience answers the daily waking of verse 4. John Gill sets beside it the servant of Exodus 21:6, whose master would “pierce his ear with an awl” for service “for life”.
Isaiah 50:5
“The Lord God hath opened mine ear - This is another expression denoting that he was attentive to the import of the divine commission (see Psa 40:6). And I was not rebellious - I willingly undertook the task of communicating the divine will to mankind. The statement here is in accordance with all that is said of the Messiah, that he was willing to come and do the will of God, and that whatever trials the work involved he was prepared to meet them (see Psa 40:6-8; compare Heb 10:4-10).”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 50:5
“The Lord God hath opened mine ear,.... To hear most freely, and receive most fully, what is said by him, and to observe and do it: the allusion seems to be to the servant that had his ears bored, being willing to serve his master for ever, Exo 21:5 which phrase of boring or opening the ear is used of Christ, Psa 40:6. It is expressive of his voluntary obedience, as Mediator, to his divine Father, engaging in, and performing with the greatest readiness and cheerfulness, the great work of man's redemption and salvation.”
My back to those who struck Me: The servant says, “I offered My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who tore out My beard”. He names shame beside pain, “I did not hide My face from scorn and spittle”. The third Servant Song approaches, in smaller compass, the suffering of the fourth.
Isaiah 50:6
“Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ comes before us, when he would show [people] how to suffer, who when he was struck bore it patiently, being reviled he reviled not again, when he suffered he threatened not, but he gave his back to the smiters and his cheeks to buffetings, and he turned not his face from spitting; and at last, he was willingly led to death, that we might behold in him the image of all that is virtuous and immortal, and that we, conducting ourselves after these examples, might truly tread on serpents and scorpions and on all…”
Athanasius of Alexandria · written before 373 · Letter 10.7patristic
3 more voices on this verse
Isaiah 50:6
“I gave my back to the smiters,.... To Pontius Pilate, and those he ordered to scourge him, Mat 27:26. and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; of the beard; which, is painful, so a great indignity and affront.”
Isaiah 50:6
“And my cheeks to them that plunked off the hair - The greatest indignity that could possibly be offered. See the note on Isa 7:20 (note). I hid not my face from shame and spitting - Another instance of the utmost contempt and detestation. It was ordered by the law of Moses as a severe punishment, carrying with it a lasting disgrace; Deu 25:9. Among the Medes it was highly offensive to spit in any one’s presence, Herod.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Isaiah 50:6
“OF WHOM SPEAKETH THE PROPHET this? Of himself or of some other? We cannot doubt but what Isaiah here wrote concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Is not this one of the prophecies to which our Lord Himself referred in the incident recorded in the eighteenth chapter of Luke’s Gospel at the thirty-first verse? “Then he took unto him he twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.”
I have set My face like flint: The servant’s resolve rests on the LORD’s help, “Because the Lord GOD helps Me”, and “therefore I have set My face like flint”. Luke 9:51 echoes the language when Jesus “resolutely set out for Jerusalem”, where the Greek speaks of setting his face. The flint pictures fixed resolve.
Isaiah 50:7
“For the Lord God will help me - That is, he will sustain me amidst all these expressions of contempt and scorn. Shall I not be confounded - Hebrew, ‘I shall not be ashamed;’ that is, I will bear all this with the assurance of his favor and protection, and I will not blush to be thus treated in a cause so glorious, and which must finally triumph and prevail.”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 50:7
“And the Father was Christ's helper. For he did not allow or concede that his own Son should be completely shamed or overwhelmed. For they were punished, those who sought to take their punishment out on me as those who dare to fight with God.… For though being with us, he was the only-begotten Word of God. He put on an identical human likeness, by which reason alone he was believed to be of a nature with us. For every human being is subject to faults and sins, and no one alive is completely blameless.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on Isaiah 4:5.50:6-9patristic
Isaiah 50:8-9
The One who vindicates Me is near: The servant speaks as a defendant sure of the verdict. Paul draws on this language at Romans 8:33, “Who will bring any charge against God’s elect”, though he does not formally cite the verse. The accusers wear out like a garment, for “the moths will devour them.”
Isaiah 50:8
“Who will contend with me - The Bodleian MS. and another add the word הוא hu; מי הוא יריב mi hu yarib, as in the like phrase in the next verse; and in the very same phrase Job 13:19, and so likewise in many other places, Job 17:3; Job 41:1. Sometimes on the like occasions it is מי זה mi zeh, and מי הוא זה mi hu zeh, “Who is this one?” The word has probably been lost out of the present text; and the reading of the MSS. above mentioned seems to be genuine.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 50:8
“Justifieth - God will clear up my righteousness, and shew by many and mighty signs and wonders, that I lived and died his faithful servant. Let him come - l am conscious of mine own innocency, and I know that God will give sentence for me.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
the moths will devour them: Gill hears the repeat of verse 7 as certainty, and reads condemn as proving guilty and passing sentence. Barnes notes that Lord GOD stands for Lord Jehovah in the Hebrew. The garment the moths devour is the case of every accuser.
Isaiah 50:9
“Behold, the Lord God will help me,.... This is repeated from Isa 50:7; see Gill on Isa 50:7; to show the certainty of it, the strength of his faith in it, and to discourage his enemies: who is he that shall condemn me? make me out a wicked person (c), prove me guilty, and pass sentence upon me, when thus acquitted and justified by the Lord God?”
3 more voices on this verse
Isaiah 50:9
“The Lord God will help me - (See Isa 50:7). In the Hebrew this is, ‘The Lord Jehovah,’ as it is in Isa 50:7 also, and these are among the places where our translators have improperly rendered the word יהוה yehovâh (Jehovah) by the word ‘God.’ Who is he that shall condemn me? - If Yahweh is my advocate and friend, my cause must be right.”
Isaiah 50:9
“There is a person who runs down birth, describing it as subject to decay and death, who forces things and suggests that the Savior was speaking about having children in saying that we should not store treasure on earth, where it grows rusty and moth-eaten. And [this person] is not ashamed to set alongside these the prophet's words: "You shall all grow old like clothes, and the moth will feed on you." We do not contradict Scripture. Our bodies are subject to decay and are naturally unstable. Perhaps he might be prophesying decay to his audience because they were sinners.”
Clement of Alexandria · written before 215 · The Stromata Book 3patristic
Isaiah 50:9
“Those whom God employs he will assist, and will take care they want not any help that they or their work call for. God, having laid help upon his Son for us, gave help to him, and his hand was all along with the man of his right hand.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Walking in Darkness, or by Sparks of Your Own Kindling
Who among you fears the LORD: The song turns to the reader who “fears the LORD and obeys the voice of His Servant”. It names an obedient believer who “walks in darkness and has no light”. The answer is, “Let him trust in the name of the LORD; let him lean on his God.”
Isaiah 50:10
“Messiah exhorts the godly after His example (Isa 49:4, 5; 42:4) when in circumstances of trial ("darkness," Isa 47:5), to trust in the arm of Jehovah alone. Who is, &c.--that is, Whosoever (Jud 7:3). obeyeth . . . servant--namely, Messiah.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Isaiah 50:10
“In darkness - Not in sin, but in misery, that lives in a disconsolate and calamitous condition. Trust - Let him fix his faith and hope in the mercy, and faithfulness, of the Lord, declared in his word, and in his interest in God, who by the mediation of this servant is reconciled to him and made his God.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Isaiah 50:10
“They then tremble at his word ( ch. lxvi. 2 ) and are afraid of his judgments, Ps. cxix. He is one that obeys the voice of God's servant, is willing to be ruled by the Lord Jesus, as God's servant in the great work of man's redemption, one that yields a sincere obedience to the law of Christ and cheerfully comes up to the terms of his covenant.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
all you who kindle a fire: The song’s last verse turns from comfort to warning, addressed to “all you who kindle a fire, who array yourselves with firebrands”. They are told, “You will lie down in a place of torment”. Verse 10 offers trust and verse 11 self-made light, the two roads set before the reader.
Isaiah 50:11
“Behold, all ye that kindle a fire - This verse refers to the wicked. In the previous verse, the Messiah had called upon all the pious to put their trust in God, and it is there implied that they would do so. But it would not be so with the wicked. In times of darkness and calamity, instead of trusting in God they would confide in their own resources, and endeavor to kindle a light for themselves in which they might walk.”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 50:11
“They kindle a fire, and walk in the light of that fire. They depend upon their own righteousness, offer all their sacrifices, and burn all their incense, with that fire (as Nadab and Abihu) and not with the fire from heaven. In their hope of acceptance with God they have no regard to the righteousness of Christ.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Albert Barnes; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah; John Gill and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.