December 2025

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 53: The Redeemed of Yahweh

In Isaiah chapter 41 the Word of Yahweh turned from the events surrounding Judah and Jerusalem, and began to address the isles and coastlands, which are the places where the children of Israel would be found after the time of the Assyrian captivities. Many had also escaped Palestine by sea, and others had settled the Mediterranean coasts much sooner, which we had discussed in relation to The Burden of Tyre much earlier in Isaiah’s writing, where Yahweh had also admonished them, that they would not be forgotten. However, from that chapter forward, the context in the narrative of Isaiah really has no clear break until the opening verse of chapter 49, where the Word of Yahweh once again begins to addresses the same people and says “Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far,” so even that is not really a break in the context at all but seems to be more of a reminder of who it is that He is addressing. Then, while He had addressed the isles and coastlands, at the same time Yahweh continually addressed Jacob and Israel, so they remain His subject and concern throughout Isaiah, and it cannot be imagined that He is speaking to any people other than Israel in captivity. None of the promises found throughout these chapters of Isaiah are relevant to any other people. The isles or coastlands who would await His law and His light are the places where He had expected to find the children of Israel. 

This is illustrated even further where chapter 50 opens, and the children of Israel in captivity are challenged to produce their mother’s bill of divorcement, their mother being an allegory for their nation, and again here in chapter 51 where in the opening verses they are told to look to their ancestors, Abraham and Sarah. So nearly eight hundred years after the time of Isaiah, when Paul of Tarsus had written his epistle to the Romans, he explained in Romans chapter 4 that the promise the Abraham’s seed had already become many nations by his time was fulfilled “as it is written”, and he told his readers that Abraham was their forefather, according to the older Greek manuscripts, or their father, in the medieval Byzantine manuscripts, “as pertaining to the flesh”, so Abraham was their natural, genetic forefather, as well as the forefather of the remnant of Judah in Judaea. The Israelites of the captivity who had forsaken the law, for which reason they were sent into captivity, had become the “uncircumcision” of Paul’s epistles, while the Israelites of Judaea who had aspired to keep the law were the “circumcision” of his epistles. 

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 52: The Comfort of Zion

While discussing Your Mother’s Divorcement, where we had taken a phrase that is found in the opening verse of Isaiah chapter 50 for the title of our discussion of the chapter, we had seen that even in their state of bereavement, having been put away by Yahweh their God, who had been the Husband of their nation, the children of Israel had nevertheless been given hopes of redemption and deliverance. Then, for most of the balance of that chapter, there is a description which, in hindsight, is clearly a Messianic prophecy describing a man who would suffer shame and reproach, but who would ultimately overcome his enemies by the power of God. In the final verses of the chapter, those who fear Yahweh and obey His servant, the promised Messiah, would have hope, but those who were self-reliant and would attempt to walk in their own light, rather than await the light of God, would die in sorrow. 

In the course of our discussion of that chapter, we hope to have illustrated the fact that the allegory of the marriage relationship between Yahweh God and the children of Israel as a nation is really much more than an allegory: it is a fact of history which transcends history itself. It is certain in many ways in Scripture, that Yahweh God does not care for the standards set by men. According to His Word, He is both the Husband and the King of the children of Israel, and that arrangement began in the wedding vows taken at Sinai which are described in the Book of Exodus. 

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 51: Your Mother’s Divorcement 

In our last discussion of Isaiah and the final portion of Isaiah chapter 49, we hope to have demonstrated how the children of Israel had moved to A Place of Their Own, as the prophet Nathan had much earlier communicated to king David, in 2 Samuel chapter 7, and as Isaiah had prophesied in that chapter, where he also indicated that in captivity, the children of Israel would multiply greatly, and their enemies would shrink from them, in verse 19 where we read: “19 For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away.” Then he indicated that they would seek to migrate to a different location, where we then read: “20 The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.” The subsequent verses then describe Israel as “desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro”, which is also indicative of their becoming a migratory people and leaving the places of their captivity and making a new home in another land.

In recent portions of this Commentary, we have already cited Isaiah chapter 66 in reference to this outcome, where we read in reference to these same people: “19 And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the [Nations].” As we had said, all of these places are located in the north and west, from the coasts of the Black Sea to Anatolia and then west to modern Italy and Iberia. Historically, beginning about a hundred years after the time of Isaiah, from the fall of Assyria the people known as Khumri or Kimmerians did migrate in that direction, and they were followed by their kindred for several centuries, who were also known by the names Sakae, Scythian and Galatae, but later as Saxons, Goths, Alans or or by numerous other and later names.