Isaiah 50:1

50:1 This is what the Lord says:

“Where is your mother’s divorce certificate

by which I divorced her?

Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? ¹ 

Look, you were sold because of your sins; ² 

because of your rebellious acts I divorced your mother. ³ 

Deuteronomy 32:19

A Word of Judgment

32:19 But the Lord took note and despised them

because his sons and daughters enraged him.

Joshua 7:11

7:11 Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenantal commandment! ⁴  They have taken some of the riches; ⁵  they have stolen them and deceitfully put them among their own possessions. ⁶ 

Proverbs 15:29

15:29 The Lord is far ⁷  from the wicked,

but he hears ⁸  the prayer of the righteous. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 5:25

5:25 Your misdeeds have stopped these things from coming. ¹⁰ 

Your sins have deprived you of my bounty.’ ¹¹ 

¹ sn The Lord challenges the exiles (Zion’s children) to bring incriminating evidence against him. The rhetorical questions imply that Israel accused the Lord of divorcing his wife (Zion) and selling his children (the Israelites) into slavery to pay off a debt.

² sn The Lord admits that he did sell the Israelites, but it was because of their sins, not because of some debt he owed. If he had sold them to a creditor, they ought to be able to point him out, but the preceding rhetorical question implies they would not be able to do so.

³ sn The Lord admits he did divorce Zion, but that too was the result of the nation’s sins. The force of the earlier rhetorical question comes into clearer focus now. The question does not imply that a certificate does not exist and that no divorce occurred. Rather, the question asks for the certificate to be produced so the accuser can see the reason for the divorce in black and white. The Lord did not put Zion away arbitrarily.

⁴ tn Heb “They have violated my covenant which I commanded them.”

⁵ tn Heb “what was set apart [to the Lord].”

⁶ tn Heb “and also they have stolen, and also they have lied, and also they have placed [them] among their items.”

⁷ sn To say that the Lord is “far” from the wicked is to say that he has made himself unavailable to their appeal – he does not answer them. This motif is used by David throughout Psalm 22 for the problem of unanswered prayer – “Why are you far off?”

⁸ sn The verb “hear” (שָׁמַע, shama’) has more of the sense of “respond to” in this context. If one “listens to the voice of the Lord,” for example, it means that he obeys the Lord. If one wishes God to “hear his prayer,” it means he wishes God to answer it.

⁹ sn God’s response to prayer is determined by the righteousness of the one who prays. A prayer of repentance by the wicked is an exception, for by it they would become the righteous (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 316).

¹⁰ tn Heb “have turned these things away.”

¹¹ tn Heb “have withheld the good from you.”