Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Isaiah 54:6

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Yahweh and Israel reunited (54:1-17)

Israel is likened to the wife of Yahweh. Her exile in Babylon was like a period of divorce when God separated her from him because of her sins. During this time she did not increase or prosper as a nation. She is now to return to God and to her homeland, where she will produce greater increase than in the days before the captivity. As an Arab has to enlarge his tent to accommodate more children, so Israel will have to enlarge its borders to accommodate this increase (54:1-3).
When Israel returns to her husband, she will no longer bear the shame of her separation. In love God will forgive her and take her back to himself (4-6). His discipline of Israel was only temporary, and now he looks forward to a glad reunion and a lasting relationship (7-8). He promises that he will not send the nation into such a shameful exile again (9-10).
The new Israel, built by God himself, will have the beauty of a city built of precious stones (11-12). God will teach his ways to those who dwell in the city, so that justice and righteousness become the most noticeable features of their way of life (13-14). God is the creator of the world and the controller of all human activity in the world. He will make sure that no one who fights against his people will be victorious (15-17).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth; and the reproach of thy widowhood shalt thou remember no more. For thy Maker is thy husband; Jehovah of hosts is his name: and the Holy One of Israel is thy Redeemer; the God of the whole earth shall he be called. For Jehovah hath called thee as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In overflowing wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting lovingkindness will I have mercy on thee, saith Jehovah the Redeemer."

The false understanding of this passage as a remarriage between God and the old Racial Israel which never in any sense whatever repented and which even rebelled against God's command to return to Judah, preferring to remain in Babylon, derives from a failure to see that it was only the "righteous remnant" who would receive this consolation, believe it, and return to Judah when God commanded it. The marriage of God here would not be with the old crowd at all but with the new group "the righteous remnant" so prominent in Isaiah; and from those "Israelites Indeed," who made up the nucleus of Those who followed Christ, and from whom the New Bride of Jesus Christ would be formed.

The thing that confuses some is that the glorious promises such as these, occurring throughout the prophecy are addressed to Israel, usually understood as the physical, fleshly, racial Israel; because, indeed, those who received these promises and honored them were racial Israelites; but as McGuiggan observed, "All such promises, while addressed to the nation at large, are the heritage only of those who commit themselves to God (Isaiah 54:17; Isaiah 55:6-7 and Isaiah 57:13)."Jim McGuiggan, p. 273. However, in all of God's promises, there is an implied condition, whether specifically stated or not, and that is the condition "provided that, those receiving the promises continue in the way of God." Thus, the Israelites who would not return to Judah, as well as all of them who would not accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, lost forever all rights and privileges of a saving relationship with God.

But Jews are racial descendents of Abraham! So what! So were the murderers of Jesus Christ (John 8); but Jesus called them the "sons of the devil," and stated categorically that, "If ye were Abraham's seed, ye would love me" (John 8:31-42).

Barnes' Notes on the Whole 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.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

6.For as a woman forsaken. He meets a doubt which might arise in the minds of believers amidst so distressing a calamity. It seemed as if the Lord had rejected them, so that they had nothing to look for but destruction. The Prophet therefore reminds them that they ought not to despair, because they have been thus forsaken; for God, according to his mercy, is ready to be reconciled, and is even willing to raise them from the dead. ⁽⁶⁵⁾

And a wife of youth. He employs this expression in order that, by this metaphor, he may more fully confirm their hearts in that hope; for the hearts of young husbands are more easily reconciled than the hearts of older husbands, being attracted, and, as it were, driven forward by youthful age and tender love. In like manner, he shows that God will be easily reconciled. “True, thou wast divorced; but the divorce shall not be of long duration. The Lord will show himself ready to be reconciled, and will even, of his own accord, be the first to invite thee to reconciliation.” ⁽⁶⁶⁾

(65) “Et mesmes vent redresser celuy qui est au sepulcher.” “And even wishes to revive him who is in the grave.”

(66) “He compares the Hebrew nation to ‘a wife of youth;’ that is, to a wife whom he married in youth, (Proverbs 5:18; Malachi 2:14) towards whom he retained his former love. Compare Isaiah 62:4.” ­ Rosenmuller.
“A wife of youth, not merely a young wife, but one married early.” ­ Alexander.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 54

Israel is to be restored as Jehovah's wife, chapter 54.

Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes ( Isaiah 54:1-2 );

God speaks of how He's just going to enlarge the nation and the people of Israel as He receives them again and places His blessing upon them once more.

For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more ( Isaiah 54:3-4 ).

As we go to the prophecy of Hosea we will find a very classic picture of how God took Israel as His own wife. How that she forsook Him, serving other gods, and how that God finally will redeem her back again to Himself and marry her once more and have that right relationship that He has always desired with her. And so here the same idea, "You'll not remember the reproach of your youth or your widowhood any more."

For thy Maker [God] is your husband; The LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. For the LORD hath called thee as a woman that is forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when you were refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee ( Isaiah 54:5-7 ).

The glorious grace of God, the glorious mercy of God. The glorious patience of God as He deals with His people, the nation Israel. And as for a moment, and a thousand years is as a day with the Lord, "for a moment I have forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather thee."

In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer. For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be angry with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, the hills shall be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee. O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make your windows of agates, and the gates of carbuncles, and all your borders of pleasant stones. And all of your children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness shalt thou be established: and thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth the instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. But no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD ( Isaiah 54:8-17 ).

"Their righteousness is of Me." Our righteousness is not of ourselves. It's not of our works. It's not by the works of righteousness that we have done but by His grace alone. God declares, "Their righteousness is of Me." Of course, the primary promise here is being made to the Israelite, to the nation of Israel, after He has re-gathered them and claimed them as His people. "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord." So that it goes beyond just Israel. And it comes to us as servants of the Lord; we find our righteousness in Christ. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The restored wife 54:1-10

The prophet emphasized the gracious character of Yahweh as the source of restoration for His people. Returning to the metaphor of the Lord’s people as his wife (Isaiah 51:17-20), Isaiah presented the joyful prospect of reconciliation due to the Servant’s work. Significantly, the name "Zion," which has been prominent in Isaiah 49:14 to Isaiah 52:8, does not appear again until Isaiah 59:20. Zion is the personification of Israel. In the present passage, however, the absence of the name "Zion" suggests that a larger field of God’s people is in view here, not just Israel but all the redeemed. However, the many allusions to Israel in this passage focus on a future for Israel. [Note: See J. Martin, pp. 1109-10, for an exposition that limits the people of God to Israel.] If the people of God are only Israel here, are they only Israel in Isaiah 52:13 to Isaiah 53:12? Did the Servant die only for Israel? Obviously He did not.

"The only appropriate response to a great work of God is joyous praise, which is exactly what we find here, not for the first time (cf. e.g., Isaiah 12:5; Isaiah 26:1; Isaiah 35:10; Isaiah 42:10-11), nor for the last (cf. Isaiah 61:10-11)." [Note: Grogan, p. 308.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The Lord called His people back to Himself, even though they had been unfaithful to Him (cf. Hosea). He would transform their attitude from that of an abandoned and brokenhearted wife, because her sins had separated her from her God, to that of a new bride whose relationship with her husband was unstained.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole 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 ואשת, ως γυναικα, Sept.; sic Arab. Targum "et velut foeminam", Tigurine version, Castalio; "et ut uxorem", Vitringa. n כי תמאס "quamvis spreta sis", Junius Tremellius "fueris", Piscator.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      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.   7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.   8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.   9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.   10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.

      The seasonable succour and relief which God sent to his captives in Babylon, when they had a discharge from their bondage there, are here foretold, as a type and figure of all those consolations of God which are treasured up for the church in general and all believers in particular, in the covenant of grace.

      I. Look back to former troubles, and in comparison with them God's favours to his people appear very comfortable, Isaiah 54:6-8; Isaiah 54:6-8. Observe, 1. How sorrowful the church's condition had been. She had been as a woman forsaken, whose husband was dead, or had fallen out with her, though she was a wife of youth, upon which account she is grieved in spirit, takes it very ill, frets, and grows melancholy upon it; or she had been as one refused and rejected, and therefore full of discontent. Note, Even those that are espoused to God may yet seem to be refused and forsaken, and may be grieved in spirit under the apprehensions of being so. Those that shall never be forsaken and left in despair may yet for a time be perplexed and in distress. The similitude is explained (Isaiah 54:7; Isaiah 54:8): For a small moment have I forsaken thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee. When God continues his people long in trouble he seems to forsake them; so their enemies construe it (Psalms 71:11); so they themselves misinterpret it, Isaiah 49:14; Isaiah 49:14. When they are comfortless under their troubles, because their prayers and expectations are not answered, God hides his face from them, as if he regarded them not nor designed them any kindness. God owns that he had done this; for he keeps an account of the afflictions of his people, and, though he never turned his face against them (as against the wicked, Psalms 34:16), he remembers how often he turned his back upon them. This arose indeed from his displeasure. It was in wrath that he forsook them and hid his face from them (Isaiah 57:17; Isaiah 57:17); yet it was but in a little wrath: not that God's wrath ever is a little thing, or to be made light of (Who knows the power of his anger?), but little in comparison with what they had deserved, and what others justly suffer, on whom the full vials of his wrath are poured out. He did not stir up all his wrath. But God's people, though they be sensible of ever so small a degree of God's displeasure, cannot but be grieved in spirit because of it. As for the continuance of it, it was but for a moment, a small moment; for God does not keep his anger against his people for ever; no, it is soon over. As he is slow to anger, so he is swift to show mercy. The afflictions of God's people, as they are light, so they are but for a moment, a cloud that presently blows over. 2. How sweet the returns of mercy would be to them when God should come and comfort them according to the time that he had afflicted them. God called them into covenant with himself when they were forsaken and grieved; he called them out of their afflictions when they were most pressing, Isaiah 54:6; Isaiah 54:6. God's anger endures for a moment, but he will gather his people when they think themselves neglected, will gather them out of their dispersions, that they may return in a body to their own land,--will gather them into his arms, to protect them, embrace them, and bear them up,--and will gather them at last to himself, will gather the wheat into the barn. He will have mercy on them. This supposes the turning away of his anger and the admitting of them again into his favour. God's gathering his people takes rise from his mercy, not any merit of others; and it is with great mercies (Isaiah 54:7; Isaiah 54:7), with everlasting kindness,Isaiah 54:8; Isaiah 54:8. The wrath is little, but the mercies are great; the wrath is for a moment, but the kindness everlasting. See how one is set over against the other, that we may neither despond under our afflictions nor despair of relief.

      II. Look forward to future dangers, and in defiance of them God's favours to his people appear very constant, and his kindness everlasting; for it is formed into a covenant, here called a covenant of peace, because it is founded in reconciliation and is inclusive of all good. Now,

      1. This is as firm as the covenant of providence. It is as the waters of Noah, that is, as that promise which was made concerning the deluge that there should never be the like again to disturb the course of summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, Isaiah 54:9; Isaiah 54:9. God then contended with the world in great wrath, and for a full year, and yet at length returned in mercy, everlasting mercy; for he gave his word, which was as inviolable as his oath, that Noah's flood should never return, that he would never drown the world again; see Genesis 8:21; Genesis 8:22; Genesis 9:11. And God has ever since kept his word, though the world has been very provoking; and he will keep it to the end; for the world that now is is reserved unto fire. And thus inviolable is the covenant of grace: I have sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, as I have been, and rebuke thee, as I have done. He will not be so angry with them as to cast them off and break his covenant with them (Psalms 89:34), nor rebuke them as he has rebuked the heathen, to destroy them, and put out their name for ever and ever,Psalms 9:5.

      2. It is more firm than the strongest parts of the visible creation (Isaiah 54:10; Isaiah 54:10): The mountains shall depart, which are called everlasting mountains, and the hills be removed, though they are called perpetual hills,Habakkuk 3:6. Sooner shall they remove than God's covenant with his people be broken. Mountains have sometimes been shaken by earthquakes, and removed; but the promises of God were never broken by the shock of any event. The day will come when all the mountains shall depart and all the hills be removed, not only the tops of them covered, as they were by the waters of Noah, but the roots of them torn up; for the earth and all the works that are therein shall be burned up; but then the covenant of peace between God and believers shall continue in the everlasting bliss of all those who are the children of that covenant. Mountains and hills signify great men, men of bulk and figure. Do these mountains seem to support the skies (as Atlas) and bear them up? They shall depart and be removed. Creature-confidences shall fail us. In vain is salvation hoped for from those hills and mountains. But the firmament is firm, and answers to its name, when those who seem to prop it are gone. When our friends fail us our God does not, nor does his kindness depart? Do these mountains threaten, and seem to top the skies, and bid defiance to them, as Pelion and Ossa? Do the kings of the earth, and the rulers, set themselves against the Lord? They shall depart and be removed. Great mountains, that stand in the way of the salvation of the church, shall be made plain (Zechariah 4:7); but God's kindness shall never depart from his people, for whom he loves he loves to the end; nor shall the covenant of his peace ever be removed, for he is the Lord that has mercy on his people. Therefore the covenant is immovable and inviolable, because it is built not on our merit, which is a mutable uncertain thing, but on God's mercy, which is from everlasting to everlasting.