English Standard Version
Isaiah 50:1
1Thus says the Lord: "Where is your mother's certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
Isaiah 50:1 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
- New International Version (NIV)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? Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Thus says the Lord: “Where is the certificate of your mother’s divorce, Whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? For your iniquities you have sold yourselves, And for your transgressions your mother has been put away.
- New Living Translation (NLT)This is what the Lord says: “Was your mother sent away because I divorced her? Did I sell you as slaves to my creditors? No, you were sold because of your sins. And your mother, too, was taken because of your sins.
Context of Isaiah 50:1
Thus says the Lord: "Where is your mother's certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away. 2Why, when I came, was there no man; why, when I called, was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst. 3I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering."
Read all of Isaiah 50Isaiah 50:1 word by word
כֹּ֣ה׀ אָמַ֣ר יְהוָ֗ה אֵ֣י זֶ֠ה סֵ֣פֶר כְּרִית֤וּת אִמְּכֶם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר שִׁלַּחְתִּ֔יהָ א֚וֹ מִ֣י מִנּוֹשַׁ֔י אֲשֶׁר־מָכַ֥רְתִּי אֶתְכֶ֖ם ל֑וֹ הֵ֤ן בַּעֲוֹנֹֽתֵיכֶם֙ נִמְכַּרְתֶּ֔ם וּבְפִשְׁעֵיכֶ֖ם שֻׁלְּחָ֥ה אִמְּכֶֽם׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
- Thus saithאָמַר'âmar · to sayH559
- the Lordיְהֹוָהyehôvâh · LORDH3068
- the billסֵ֫פֶרsêpher siphrâh · scroll: documentH5612
- of your mother’sאֵם'êm · motherH517
- divorcementכְּרִיתוּתkerîythûth · divorceH3748
- whom I have put awayשָׁלַחshâlach · to send: divorceH7971
- or which of my creditorsנָשָׁהnâshâh · to lendH5383
- to whom I have soldמָכַרmâkar · to sellH4376
- you? Behold, for your iniquitiesעָוֺן‛âvôn ‛âvôn · iniquity: crimeH5771
- yourselves, and for your transgressionsפֶּ֫שַׁעpesha‛ · transgressionH6588
Cross-references for Isaiah 50:1
- Deuteronomy 24:1"When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house,
- Jeremiah 3:1"If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the Lord.
- Hosea 2:2"Plead with your mother, plead— for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband— that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts;
- Mark 10:4They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away."
- Exodus 21:7"When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.
- Leviticus 25:39"If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave:
- Deuteronomy 32:30How could one have chased a thousand, and two have put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had given them up?
- 2 Kings 4:1Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves."
- Nehemiah 5:5Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards."
- Esther 7:4For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king."
- Psalms 44:12You have sold your people for a trifle, demanding no high price for them.
- Matthew 18:25And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.
- Isaiah 52:3For thus says the Lord: "You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money."
- Isaiah 59:1Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
- 1 Kings 21:25(There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited.
- 2 Kings 17:17And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.
Commentaries on Isaiah 50:1
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 1Thus saith the Lord - This chapter has been understood of the prophet himself; but it certainly speaks more clearly about Jesus of Nazareth than of Isaiah, the son of Amos. Where is the bill "Where is this bill" - Husbands, through moroseness or levity of temper, often sent bills of divorcement to their wives on slight occasions, as they were permitted to do by the law of Moses, Deuteronomy 24:1. And fathers, being oppressed with debt, often sold their…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 1Thus 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…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 1The rejection of the Jews. (Is. 50:1-3) The sufferings and exaltation of the Messiah. (Is. 50:4-9) Consolation to the believer, and warning to the unbeliever. (Is. 50:10,11) Verses 1-3 Those who have professed to be people of God, and seem to be dealt severely with, are apt to complain, as if God had been hard with them. Here is an answer for such murmurings; God never deprived any of their advantages, except for their sins. The Jews were sent into…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 1God was not responsible for the people's problems; their sin caused their exile (see also Isaiah 59:1–15). Jerusalem, the main city of Judah (Psalm 87:5–6), was destroyed, and the people of Judah went into exile in 586 BC.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1-111. Where ... mothers divorcement--Zion is "the mother"; the Jews are the children; and God the Husband and Father (Is 54:5; 62:5; Jr 3:14). 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; 2Ki 4:1; Ne 5:5) under pressure of his "creditors"; that it was…Read the comment
Topics related to Isaiah 50:1
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Isaiah 50
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
English Standard Version — © 2001 Crossway Bibles
Commentaries