Isaiah 50:1-3

Isaiah 50:1. The third oracle meets another doubt which must have occurred to the exiles, viz., that the covenant relation between Jehovah and Israel has been broken beyond possibility of renewal. In Isaiah 50:1 this fear is dispelled by the help of two analogies from common life.

Whereis the bill … whom I have put away?] (better, as R.V., wherewith I have put her away). No such document exists. Although Jehovah has had good reason to adopt this extreme measure (Jeremiah 3:8), He has not done it, but has left the way open for a reconciliation. The effect of the "bill of divorcement" was to make the separation absolute and final; the woman was free to marry another, but could not after that be received back by her former husband (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). (A specimen of the form of words used by later Jews is given in Dalman's Aramäische Dialektproben, p. 5.) In Mohammedan law a man may divorce his wife twice and take her back without any ceremony, but a third divorce (or a triple divorce conveyed in one sentence) is final, unlessthe woman have contracted a fresh marriage in the interval and been released from it either by divorce or the death of the husband (Koran, Sura 2:229 f.; see Lane, Modern Egyptians, chap. 3). Both the Mosaic and the Mohammedan laws accord to a husband the unrestricted right of divorce, and for this reason the Jewish custom was pronounced by our Lord to be inconsistent with the true idea of marriage and a concession to the weakness of human nature (Matthew 19:3 ff.; Mark 10:2 ff.).

which of my creditorsis it &c. i.e. "what creditor of mine is there to whom" &c.? The selling of children into slavery in payment of a debt is another practice tolerated, though hardly approved, by the Law (Exodus 21:7; cf. 2 Kings 4:1; Nehemiah 5:5). Since it is inconceivable that Jehovah should have a creditor, so it is impossible that He should have surrendered His rights over His own children.

Behold, for your iniquities &c. This is the true explanation of the slavery of the children and the divorce of the mother, and this cause is removed by the offer of forgiveness (Isaiah 40:2). It is remarkable that the prophet does not, like Hosea and Ezekiel, directly attribute sin to the ideal mother of the nation, but only to the individual Israelites, to whom this whole expostulation is addressed (cf. Hosea 2:2).

For have you sold yourselvesrender with R.V. were ye sold (so again ch. Isaiah 52:3). The phrase is frequently used in the Book of Judges of the delivering of Israel into the power of its enemies (Judges 2:14 &c.).