The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 239

EXPOSITION divorce" (Jer. ill. 8). But he hnd not re- OHAPTER L, pudiated Judah; and her children were wrong t.o suppose themselves altogether cast Thie chapter seemB tp be made up of off (see eh. xlix. H). They bod, iu fact, short fragments, 1vhich the collector, or by their tre.nsgressiolll!, tspeci11lly their collectors, of Isaiah's writings reg--..rded as idolatries, wilfully divorced themsel~cs, or too precious to be lost, and which they at any rate separnted tbemsel ves, from Go<l ; consequently here threw together, though but no sentence had gone forth from him to in reality they were detached utterances, bar reconciliation and return. Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you 1 o.nd are not even connected in subject• Neither has God exercised the right, re- matter. Vers. 1-3 a.re a rebulrn to the garded as inherent in a po.rent (Exod. xxi. exiles for deeming themselves wholly re- 7; 2 Kings iv. 11; Neh. vi. 5, 8), of sL"iling jected, and not rising to the ooce.sion now his children to a cre,litor. They Ell'e uot that deliverance is at hand. Vers. 4-9 snld-he has "t"ken no money for them" (Ps. xliv. 12; ob. Iii. 3); l\nd the llabyloni,rns carry on the account of "the Servant of tho nre thus not their rightful owners (eh. xlix. Lord" from oh. xlix. 12, further describing 24)-they are still God's childreo, bis pro- his humiliation, and declaring his stead- perty, nnd the objects or his care. For your fastness and his faith. Vere. 10, 11 a.re an iniquities . . . for your transgressions ; exhortation to weak believers generally, rather, by youT iniquities ... by yow· tmns- gTessions. Tile separation, such us it was, and contain an ell(lourugement o.nd a between God and his people was caused by warniog. their sins, not by e.ny act or bis. Ver. 1.-Where is the bill of your mother's Ver. 2.-Wherefore, when I came, was divoroement 1 On account of her persistent there no man 1 Such being the condition "backsliding," God had "put away Isrnel," of things; Judah ho.viug rejected me, not Judah's sister, and had" given her a bill of I them-why, "when I oe.mo" and IW.•  'l'HE BOOK or THE! PROPI-Ill:T ISAIAH. [olI, t, 1-11.