Isaiah 50
BSB
Israel’s Sin
1This 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.
2Why was no one there when I arrived?
Why did no one answer when I called?
Is My hand too short to redeem you?
Or do I lack the strength to deliver you?
Behold, My rebuke dries up the sea;
I turn the rivers into a desert;
the fish rot for lack of water
and die of thirst.
3I clothe the heavens in black
and make sackcloth their covering.”
The Servant’s Obedience
(Matthew 27:27–31; Mark 15:16–20; Luke 22:63–65; John 19:1–15)
4The Lord GOD has given Me
the tongue of discipleship,
to sustain the weary with a word.
He awakens Me morning by morning;
He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.
5The Lord GOD has opened My ears,
and I have not been rebellious,
nor have I turned back.
6I offered My back to those who struck Me,
and My cheeks to those who tore out My beard.
I did not hide My face from scorn and spittle.
7Because the Lord GOD helps Me,
I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set My face like flint,
and I know that I will not be put to shame.
8The One who vindicates Me is near.
Who will dare to contend with Me?
Let us confront each other!
Who has a case against Me?
Let him approach Me!
9Surely the Lord GOD helps Me.
Who is there to condemn Me?
See, they will all wear out like a garment;
the moths will devour them.
10Who among you fears the LORD
and obeys the voice of His Servant?
Who among you walks in darkness
and has no light?
Let him trust in the name of the LORD;
let him lean on his God.
11Behold, all you who kindle a fire,
who array yourselves with firebrands,
walk in the light of your fire
and of the firebrands you have lit!
This is what you will receive from My hand:
You will lie down in a place of torment.
Introduction
Isaiah 50
In this chapter, I. Those to whom God sends are justly charged with bringing all the troubles they were in upon themselves, by their own wilfulness and obstinacy, it being made to appear that God was able and ready to help them if they had been fit for deliverance (Isa 50:1-3). II. He by whom God sends produces his commission (Isa 50:4), alleges his own readiness to submit to all the services and sufferings he was called to in the execution of it (Isa 50:5, Isa 50:6), and assures himself that God, who sent him, would stand by him and bear him out against all opposition (Isa 50:7-9). III. The message that is sent is life and death, good and evil, the blessing and the curse, comfort to desponding saints and terror to presuming sinners (Isa 50:10, Isa 50:11). Now all this seems to have a double reference, 1. To the unbelieving Jews in Babylon, who quarrelled with God for his dealings with them, and to the prophet Isaiah, who, though dead long before the captivity, yet, prophesying so plainly and fully of it, saw fit to produce his credentials, to justify what he had said. 2. To the unbelieving Jews in our Saviour's time, whose own fault it was that they were rejected, Christ having preached much to them, and suffered much from them, and being herein borne up by a divine power. The "contents" of this chapter, in our Bibles, give this sense of it, very concisely, thus: - "Christ shows that the dereliction of the Jews is not to be imputed to him, by his ability to save, by his obedience in that work, and by his confidence in divine assistance." The prophet concludes with an exhortation to trust in God and not in ourselves.
Cross-references: Isa 50:1 · Isa 50:4 · Isa 50:5 · Isa 50:6 · Isa 50:7 · Isa 50:10 · Isa 50:11