Isaiah 54:6

For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(6) For the Lord hath called thee.—The words find their explanation, perhaps their starting-point, in the history of Hosea and Gomer (Hosea 1-3). The husband has punished the faithless wife by what seemed a divorce, but his heart yearns after her, and he takes her back again.

When thou wast refused.—Some critics render Can she be rejected . . .? with the implied answer. “No, that is impossible,” but the Authorised version is tenable, and gives an adequate meaning.

Benson Commentary

Isaiah 54:6-8. For the Lord hath called thee — To return and come again to him; as a woman forsaken — When thou wast like a woman forsaken by her husband, who had given her a bill of divorce; and grieved in spirit — For the loss of her husband’s favour and society, and for the reproach attending it; and a wife of youth — As affectionately as a husband recalleth his wife whom he married in her and his own youth, whom, though he might on some provocation put away, yet he soon repents of doing it, and his affection for her reviving, he invites her to return to him; when thou wast refused — Though for a time thou wast refused and rejected by him; saith thy God — Jehovah, who will again show himself to be thy God, and will renew his covenant with thee. For a small moment — For the space of some few years, as seventy years in Babylon, and some such intervals, which may well be called a small moment, in comparison of God’s everlasting kindness, mentioned in the next verse: have I forsaken thee — Withdrawn my favour and help from thee, and left thee in thine enemies’ hands. But with great mercies — Such as are very precious, and of long continuance; will I gather thee — From all the places where thou art dispersed, from all parts of the world. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee — I removed the means and pledges of my presence and kindness; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy, &c. — With kindness to thee, and thy seed, through all succeeding generations, in time, and to all eternity.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

54:6-10 As God is slow to anger, so he is swift to show mercy. And how sweet the returns of mercy would be, when God should come and comfort them! He will have mercy on them. God's gathering his people takes rise from his mercy, not any merit of theirs; and it is with great mercies, with everlasting kindness. The wrath is little, the mercies great; the wrath for a moment, the kindness everlasting. We are neither to despond under afflictions, nor to despair of relief. Mountains have been shaken and removed, but the promises of God never were broken by any event. Mountains and hills also signify great men. Creature-confidences shall fail; but when our friends fail us, our God does not. All this is alike applicable to the church at large, and to each believer. God will rebuke and correct his people for sins; but he will not cast them off. Let this encourage us to give the more diligence to make our calling and election sure.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For the Lord hath called thee - This is designed to confirm and illustrate the sentiment in the previous verse. God there says that he would be a husband to his people. Here he says, that although he had for a time apparently forsaken them, as a husband who had forsaken his wife, and although they were cast down and dejected like a woman who had thus been forsaken, yet he would now restore them to favor.

Hath called thee - That is, will have called thee to himself - referring to the future times when prosperity should be restored to them.

As a woman forsaken - Forsaken by her husband on account of her offence.

And grieved in spirit - Because she was thus forsaken.

And a wife of youth - The Septuagint renders this very strangely, 'The Lord hath not called thee as a wife forsaken and disconsolate; nor as a wife that hath been hated from her youth;' showing conclusively that the translator here did not understand the meaning of the passage, and vainly endeavored to supply a signification by the insertion of thee negatives, and by endeavoring to make a meaning. The idea is that of a wife wedded in youth; a wife toward whom there was early and tender love, though she was afterward rejected. God had loved the Hebrew people as his people in the early days of their history. Yet for their idolatry he had seen occasion afterward to cast them off, and to doom them to a long and painful exile. But he would yet love them with all the former ardor of affection, and would greatly increase and prosper them.

When thou wast refused - Or, that hath been rejected. Lowth, 'But afterward rejected.' It may be rendered, 'Although (כי kı̂y has often the sense of although) thou wert rejected,' or 'although she was rejected.' The idea is, that she had been married in youth, but had been afterward put away.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. called—that is, recalled: the prophetic past for the future.

forsaken—that had been forsaken.

when thou—or, "when she was rejected"; one who had been a wife of youth (Eze 16:8, 22, 60; Jer 2:2) at the time when (thou, or) she was rejected for infidelity [Maurer]. "A wife of youth but afterwards rejected" [Lowth].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The Lord hath called thee, to return and come again to him. As a woman forsaken; when thou wast like a woman forsaken. Or, as a husband recalleth his wife. Forsaken by her husband, who hath given her a bill of divorce.

Grieved in spirit, for the loss of her husband’s flavour and society, and for the reproach attending upon it.

And a wife of youth; or, and as (which note of similitude is supplied here by the LXX. and Chaldee interpreters, and is easily understood out of the foregoing clause, in which it is expressed) a wife of youth, i.e. as readily and affectionately as a husband recalleth his wife which no married in her and his own youth, of whom see on Proverbs 5:18, whom though he might through a sudden and violent passion put away, yet he soon repents of it, and his affections work towards her, and he invites her to return to him.

When thou wast refused; when thou wast in a desolate estate, and hadst been for some time rejected by me, then I recalled thee. Or, although thou wast refused, or dismissed, or despised by me, and that justly; yet I had mercy upon thee, and freely offered reconciliation to thee. Saith thy God; who will again be, and still show himself to be, thy God, and will renew his covenant with thee.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit,.... That has lost her husband by death, is solitary upon it, is like one forsaken, and mourns for the loss of him; or is forsaken by a living husband, rejected by him, having a bill of divorce from him, and so she grieves at his unkindness to her, and the reproach cast upon her; as such an one was the church when it was first constituted, when the members of which it consisted were called out of the world by the grace of God, and formed into a church state; almost as soon as ever they were thus embodied together, Christ was taken from them by death, and they were left alone, and filled with grief and trouble: the apostles and first preachers of the Gospel were persecuted from place to place, and all of them lost their lives for the cause in which they were engaged; and the church endured grievous persecutions during the three first centuries, when she seemed to be forsaken of God, and was greatly oppressed and grieved in spirit. Some understand this of the Gentiles, and of their state and condition when called, as described in Ephesians 2:10, but rather it may be interpreted of the Jews, now cut off and forsaken; and who, when they come to be sensible of their case, will be grieved and mourn, even when they shall be called and converted in the latter day; but I think the first sense is best:

and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God; or, "and as a wife of youth (m)"; whom a man marries in his youth, and she a young woman herself, which makes it the more grievous to be despised, refused, and forsaken, or to seem to be so. The words may be rendered thus, "and", or "but, a wife of youth thou art, though thou wast despised" (n), or "refused, saith thy God"; that is, though thou hast been seemingly despised and cast off, my providential dispensations towards thee may be so interpreted by thyself and others; yet I am thy God, thy Maker, Redeemer, and Husband, and thou art as dear to me as the wife of a man's youth, for whom he has the most passionate love; and which agrees with what follows.

(m) , Sept.; sic Arab. & Targum; "et velut foeminam", Tigurine version, Castalio; "et ut uxorem", Vitringa. (n) "quamvis spreta sis", Junius & Tremellius; "fueris", Piscator.

Geneva Study Bible

For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a {h} wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.

(h) As a wife who was forsaken in your youth.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. Although Zion is temporarily estranged from Jehovah, she is yet a “wife of youth” holding a permanent place in her husband’s affections.

For the Lord hath called thee] i.e. “calls thee” now (Cheyne, “hath recalled thee”). The reference is not to the first espousals of the nation at the exodus, but to the renewal of conjugal intercourse in the restoration from exile.

as a wife (R.V.) forsaken and grieved in spirit] neglected by her husband, and left to her own bitter reflexions, but not cast off. Cf. Hosea 3:3.

and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused] R.V. “even a wife of youth, when she is cast off.” The clause is difficult. Probably it is an exclamation: and a wife of youth—can she be rejected? (so Cheyne, after Ewald); it is impossible that she should be finally disowned.

a wife of youth] one who has been wooed and won in youth; Proverbs 5:18; Malachi 2:14 f.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - For the Lord hath called thee; i.e. recalled thee to himself - summoned thee to return, and once more resume the office of a wife. As a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit; i.e. as one whom her husband has cast off, and whose spirit is grieved by the repudiation. No doubt a large number of the captives had the same spirit of penitence as Daniel (Daniel 9:5-19). A wife of youth. One wooed and won in youth, therefore more dearly loved, more regretfully repudiated, more joyfully restored when seen to be penitent. When thou wast refused; rather, when she has been cast off. Jehovah takes back Israel into the old relationship, as a man takes back "the wife of his youth," when she has been for a long time "cast off." Isaiah 54:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

And this relation He now renews. "For Jehovah calleth thee as a wife forsaken and burdened with sorrow, and as a wife of youth, when once she is despised, saith thy God." The verb קרא, which is the one commonly used in these prophecies to denote the call of grace, on the ground of the election of grace, is used here to signify the call into that relation, which did indeed exist before, but had apparently been dissolved. קראך is used here out of pause (cf., Isaiah 60:9); it stands, however, quite irregularly for the form in ēkh, which is the one commonly employed (Judges 4:20; Ezekiel 27:26). "And as a wife:" ואשׁת is equivalent to וּכאשׁת. The hypothetical תמּאס כּי belongs to the figure. Jehovah calls His church back to Himself, as a husband takes back the wife he loved in his youth, even though he may once have been angry with her. It is with intention that the word נמאסה is not used. The future (imperfect) indicates what partially happens, but does not become an accomplished or completed fact: He is displeased with her, but He has not cherished aversion or hatred towards her.