50:1 Thus saith the LORD, Where [is] the a bill of your
mother's divorcement, b whom I have put away? or which of
my creditors [is it] c to whom I have sold you? Behold,
for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your
transgressions is your mother put away.
(a) Meaning, that he has not forsaken her, but through her
own opportunity as in (Ho 2:2).
(b) Who would declare that I have cut her off: meaning,
that they could show no one.
(c) Signifying, that he sold them not for any debt or
poverty, but that they sold themselves to sins to buy
their own lusts and pleasures.
50:2d Why, when I came, [was there] no man? when I called,
[was there] none to answer? Is my hand e shortened at
all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver?
behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a
wilderness: their fish smelleth rotten, because [there is]
no water, and dieth for thirst.
(d) He came by his prophets and ministers, but they would
not believe their doctrine and convert.
(e) Am I not able to help you, as I have helped your
fathers of old, when I dried up the Red sea, and killed
the fish in the rivers, and also afterward in Jordan?
50:3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make f
sackcloth their covering.
(f) As I did in Egypt in token of my displeasure,
(Ex 10:21).
50:4 The Lord GOD hath given g me the tongue of the learned,
that I should know how to speak a word in season to [him
that is] h weary: he awakeneth morning by morning, he
awakeneth my ear to hear i as the learned.
(g) The prophet represents here the person and charge of
them that are justly called to the ministry by God's
word.
(h) To him that is oppressed by affliction and misery.
(i) As they who are taught, and made meet by him.
50:6 I gave my back to the k smiters, and my cheeks to them
that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and
spitting.
(k) I did not shrink from God for any persecution or
calamity. By which he shows that the true ministers of
God can look for no other recompense of the wicked, but
after this sort, and also that is their comfort.
50:10l Who [is] among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth
the voice of his servant, that walketh [in] darkness, and
hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and
rely upon his God.
(l) Showing that it is a rare thing that any should obey
correctly God's true ministers, though they labour to
bring them from hell to heaven.
50:11 Behold, all ye that kindle m a fire, that surround
[yourselves] with sparks: walk in the light of your fire,
and in the sparks [that] ye have kindled. This shall ye
have of my hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.
(m) You have sought consolation by your own devises, and
have refused the light and consolation which God has
offered: therefore you will remain in sorrow and not
be comforted.
