Isaiah54chapter 54

Barrenness was a social catastrophe, not just a private grief. A woman with no children had no security in old age, no standing in the community, and no share in the future, and the word used for her condition — reproach — was a public one. This chapter opens by telling exactly such a woman to sing.

The enlargement is described as tent work, and it is practical. Lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. A goat-hair tent grows by adding panels, which means longer guy ropes reaching further out, and longer ropes pull harder, so the pegs have to be driven deeper. You cannot expand the tent without upgrading the anchors. Anyone who had pitched one knew that.

The marriage language does the emotional work: your Maker is your husband; for a small moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you. The woman is called forsaken and grieved in spirit, a wife of youth who was refused.

The guarantee is the flood. God swears this is like the waters of Noah to him — as he swore the waters would not cover the earth again, so he swears not to be angry with her. That oath had been holding for many centuries and was visible every time a rainbow appeared.

The rebuilt city is described in jewels: foundations laid with sapphires, battlements of rubies, gates of sparkling stones, and all the borders of precious stones. And the last promise is about weapons, with a workshop note attached: no weapon formed against you shall prosper — because I have created the smith who blows the coals in the fire and produces a weapon for its purpose. The armorer is on God's payroll too.