Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word
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⚙ Annotations & References ▾
Passage sections 1 ▾
The Third Servant Song prophecy 50:4–50:11
Themes 12 ▾
Covenant 1 Sin 1 Judgment 1-2 Redemption 2 Sovereignty of God 2 Prayer 4 Wisdom 4 Shepherd 4 Suffering Servant 6-7 Faith 7, 10 Hope 7, 10 Obedience and Disobedience 10
Speakers 2 ▾
God divine 1 Isaiah human 2-11
Prophecies 3 ▾
The Obedient Servant 6-7 Smitten and Spat Upon 6 Bear Shame and Spitting 6
Historic voices 13 ▾
Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew 1× 1 Homilies on the Gospel of John 2× 2, 4 Homilies on the First Epistle to the Corinthians 1× 4 Summa Theologica 1× 5 Against Heresies (Adversus Haereses) 1× 6 Epistle of Barnabas 2× 6-9 First Apology 1× 6 Canons of Dort 1× 10 John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible 1× 1-11 Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary 1× 1, 4, 10 Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary 1× 2-11 Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament 1× 2, 4-5, 7-8, 10 On the Incarnation 1× 6
Manuscript witnesses 6 ▾
Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a) c. 125 BC Codex Sinaiticus Aleph c. AD 330-360 Codex Vaticanus B c. AD 300-325 Codex Alexandrinus A c. AD 400-440 Aleppo Codex (Crown of Aleppo) c. AD 930 Leningrad Codex (Codex Leningradensis) AD 1008
Cross-references 154 ▾
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What is Isaiah 50 about?

God asks where the bill of His people's divorce might be found, showing that it was their own sins, not any failure of His faithfulness, that sold them into exile. The Servant then speaks, telling how He was taught to sustain the weary with a word and how He gave His back to the smiters and His face to shame and spitting, yet was not confounded because the Lord GOD helped Him. Setting His face like a flint, He entrusts His vindication wholly to God and calls the faithful to walk in the LORD's light rather than the sparks of their own kindling. The Servant's willing endurance and steadfast trust hold out to a fainting people the pattern of obedient faith and point ahead to Christ, who set His face toward Jerusalem and bore reviling for our sake.

Historical backdrop

Assyria was the terror of the age, its armies driving west with siege ramps and cavalry, dragging conquered peoples into exile. In Isaiah's lifetime the northern kingdom fell and vanished, its ten tribes deported, and Sennacherib's host came up against the fortified cities of Judah until Jerusalem alone stood, surrounded. Isaiah prophesied in that shadow, in the court of Jerusalem across four kings, while the largest empire the world had yet seen closed its hand on the small kingdoms of the Levant.

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 50
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Isaiah 50
The Church Fathers on Isaiah 50
Cited by the confessions

Isaiah 50

Isaiah Chapter 50
50

1Thus saith Jehovah, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, wherewith I have put her away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities were ye sold, and for your transgressions was your mother put away. 2Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand 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 stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst. 3I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. 4The Lord Jehovah hath given me the tongue of them that are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as they that are taught. 5The Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away backward. 6I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting. 7For the Lord Jehovah will help me; therefore have I not been confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. 8He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand up together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.

9Behold, the Lord Jehovah will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? behold, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up. 10Who is among you that feareth Jehovah, that obeyeth the voice of his servant? he that walketh in darkness, and hath no light, let him trust in the name of Jehovah, and rely upon his God.

11Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that gird yourselves about with firebrands; walk ye in the flame of your fire, and among the brands that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of my hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.

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What is Isaiah 50 about?

God asks where the bill of His people's divorce might be found, showing that it was their own sins, not any failure of His faithfulness, that sold them into exile. The Servant then speaks, telling how He was taught to sustain the weary with a word and how He gave His back to the smiters and His face to shame and spitting, yet was not confounded because the Lord GOD helped Him. Setting His face like a flint, He entrusts His vindication wholly to God and calls the faithful to walk in the LORD's light rather than the sparks of their own kindling. The Servant's willing endurance and steadfast trust hold out to a fainting people the pattern of obedient faith and point ahead to Christ, who set His face toward Jerusalem and bore reviling for our sake.