World English Bible
- The LORD says, “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away? Or to which of my creditors have I sold you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and your mother was put away for your transgressions.
- Why, when I came, was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can’t 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 of thirst.
- I clothe the heavens with blackness. I make sackcloth their covering.”
- The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary. He awakens morning by morning, he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
- The Lord GOD has opened my ear. I was not rebellious. I have not turned back.
- I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair. I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting.
- For the Lord GOD will help me. Therefore I have not been confounded. Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I won’t be disappointed.
- He who justifies me is near. Who will bring charges against me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.
- Behold, the Lord GOD will help me! Who is he who will condemn me? Behold, they will all grow old like a garment. The moths will eat them up.
- Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant? He who walks in darkness and has no light, let him trust in the LORD’s name, and rely on his God.
- Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who adorn yourselves with torches around yourselves, walk in the flame of your fire, and among the torches that you have kindled. You will have this from my hand: you will lie down in sorrow.
Isaiah opens with a request for paperwork. In the ancient world, a divorce certificate made a separation official; people could also be sold to settle debts. God asks exiled Zion to produce either document. They cannot. Their sins have brought a real rupture, but no creditor has acquired God’s claim on them. Their suffering is not proof that he has signed them away.
Then comes a harder question: when God called, why did no one answer? The One who can dry up seas was not too weak to rescue them. Yet the next voice we hear belongs to a servant who learns to listen.
The World English Bible says God gives this servant the tongue of “those who are taught” (Isaiah 50:4). The Hebrew word, limmudim, can also suggest disciples. His gift is not a ready answer to every sorrow. Morning by morning, God wakes his ear before he opens his mouth. That order matters. Words that sustain the weary rarely come from the person quickest to explain their pain. They come from someone willing first to be taught.
And what does this listening cost? A beaten back, hair torn from his cheeks, spitting. In that culture, such treatment was a public assault on a person’s dignity, not only on his body (compare 2 Samuel 10:4–5). The servant obeys, yet obedience does not spare him disgrace. Christians hear here the steps of Jesus toward the cross. God’s faithfulness is not always visible as an escape from suffering. Sometimes we see it in the one who will not turn back.
The chapter’s last verses offer an unsettling choice. A person may fear God and still walk without light (v. 10). Isaiah does not accuse that person of failed faith. Instead, he warns those who make their own torches (v. 11). The God who clothes the heavens in blackness has not ceased to rule the night. We need not pretend darkness is daylight—but neither must we set fire to everything within reach to feel in control.
The servant endures accusation because the One who vindicates him is near. In Christ, that righteous servant has become the defender of the guilty (Romans 8:33–34). We need not make our own light or win our own case. We can listen, trust, and take the next faithful step.
For further reading: Deuteronomy 24:1; Luke 9:51;
Romans 8:33–34.
Hymn: “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded.”
Prayer: Lord, wake my ear before I speak. When I cannot see the way, keep me from false light. Teach me to trust your nearness and follow Jesus. Amen.