Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 50:1

"Thus saith Jehovah, Where is the bill of your mother`s divorcement, wherewith I have put her away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities were ye sold, and for your transgressions was your mother put away." — Isaiah 50:1 (ASV)

Thus says the Lord – This was addressed to the Jews in Babylon, who were suffering under his hand. They might have been inclined to complain that God had treated them with as much caprice and cruelty as a man did his wife when he gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away without any just cause.

Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement? God here speaks of himself as the husband of his people, having married the church to himself, denoting the tender affection he had for his people. This figure is frequently used in the Bible. Thus in Isaiah 62:5: ‘As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee;’ ‘For thy Maker is thy husband’ (Isaiah 54:5); ‘Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you’ (Jeremiah 3:14). Thus in Revelation 21:9, the church is called ‘the bride, the Lamb’s wife.’ (Compare to Ezekiel 16): See Lowth on Hebrew poetry, Lec. xxxi.

The phrase ‘bill of divorcement’ refers to the written document or instrument that a husband was legally obliged to give his wife when he chose to send her away. Moses probably found this custom of divorce already existing among the Jews and in surrounding nations. Since it was difficult, if not impossible, to remove it at once, he permitted it because of the hardness of the Jews’ hearts (Deuteronomy 24:1).

It probably originated from the erroneous views that then prevailed about the nature of the marriage compact. It was widely regarded as substantially like any other compact, where the wife was purchased from her father. Consequently, because she had been purchased, the husband claimed the right to dismiss her whenever he pleased. Moses nowhere defines the causes for which a man might send away his wife but left these to be judged by the people themselves. However, he regulated the way it could be done. He ordained a law designed to act as a significant check on the husband's hasty feelings, caprice, and passions.

He intended that, if this right were exercised, it should not be a matter of mere excited feeling for the husband; instead, he should take time to deliberate on it. Therefore, he ordained that in all cases a formal written document should be executed, releasing the wife from the marriage bond and leaving her free to follow her own inclinations regarding future marriages (Deuteronomy 24:2).

It is evident that this would work significantly in the wife's favor, and in checking and restraining the husband's excited passions (see Jahn’s Bib. Antiq. Section 160; Michaelis’ Commentary on the Laws of Moses, vol. i. pp. 450-478; ii. 127-40. Ed. Lond. 1814, 8vo.).

In the passage before us, God says that he had not rejected his people. He had not been governed by the caprice, sudden passion, or cruelty that husbands often showed. There was a just cause for why he had treated them as he had, and he did not regard them as the children of a divorced wife. The phrase ‘your mother’ here is used to denote the ancestry from whom they were descended. They were not regarded as the children of a disgraced mother.

Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Among the Hebrews, a father had the right, by the Law of Moses, if he was oppressed with debt, to sell his children (Exodus 21:7; Nehemiah 5:5). Similarly, if a man had stolen anything and had nothing to make restitution, he could be sold for the theft (Exodus 22:3). Also, if a man was poor and unable to pay his debts, he could be sold (Leviticus 25:39; 2 Kings 4:1; Matthew 18:25). On the subject of slavery among the Hebrews and the Mosaic laws regarding it, see Michaelis’ Commentary on the Laws of Moses, vol. ii. pp. 155 and following.

In this passage, God says that he had not been governed by any such motives in his dealings with his people.

He had not dealt with them as a poor parent sometimes felt compelled to do when selling his children, or as a creditor did when a man was unable to pay him. He had been governed by different motives and had punished them only because of their transgressions.

Ye have sold yourselves – That is, you have gone into captivity only because of your sins. It has been your own act, and you have thus become slaves to a foreign power only by your own choice.

Is your mother put away? – This retains the figure of speech concerning divorce. The nation has been rejected and allowed to go into exile only because of its transgressions.