Isaiah 50

The Tongue of the Learned

The Lord denies that He has divorced His people, and the servant, who learns by listening morning by morning, gives his back to the smiters and sets his face like a flint.

Addressed to the exiles, c. 540 BC; read by Jacob to the Nephites in the mid-sixth century BC Also in 2 Ne. 7 Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

Chapter 50 continues the alternation begun in chapter 49 between Zion and the servant.

Chapter 50 continues the alternation begun in chapter 49 between Zion and the servant. It opens with the Lord answering an accusation from Zion’s children (verses 1–3), then gives the servant’s voice again in the third of the four Servant Songs (verses 4–9), and closes with an appeal to the audience to choose between the servant’s way and their own (verses 10–11).

The third song is the first in which the servant describes physical abuse. The first song (Isa. 42:1–4) presented his gentleness. The second (Isa. 49:1–6) voiced his discouragement. This one describes beating, humiliation, and spitting, and his resolve to endure them. The fourth song (Isa. 52:13–53:12) will take the suffering all the way to death. The word “servant” doesn’t actually appear in verses 4–9, but verse 10 refers back to “the voice of his servant,” and nearly all interpreters include the passage among the songs. Many critical scholars (Westermann, for example) compare it to the “confessions” of Jeremiah, in which a prophet complains of the persecution his message brings (Jer. 20:7–9), and suggest the servant here is the prophet himself.

In the Book of Mormon, Jacob, Nephi’s younger brother, read this chapter and the next as part of a two-day sermon to the Nephites (2 Ne. 6–10). He explained why: “they may be likened unto you, for ye are of the house of Israel” (2 Ne. 6:5). His text appears as 2 Ne. 7.

The thread through the chapter

Isaiah 50 is about listening. It sets two kinds of hearers side by side.

Isaiah 50 is about listening. It sets two kinds of hearers side by side.

The first are the Lord’s people in exile. They feel abandoned, as though God has divorced their mother or sold them to pay His debts. The Lord denies it: show Me the divorce papers. You sold yourselves (verse 1). The real problem is that “when I called, was there none to answer?” (verse 2). The Lord has power to redeem. What He hasn’t had is a people who respond.

The second hearer is the servant. He has “the tongue of the learned,” literally the tongue of a disciple, and he has it because every morning the Lord wakes his ear “to hear as the learned” (verse 4). He listens first, then speaks, and what he speaks is “a word in season to him that is weary.” His listening leads straight into suffering: “I gave my back to the smiters” (verse 6). But the servant who was “not rebellious” doesn’t turn back. He sets his face like flint and trusts that God will vindicate him in court (verses 7–9).

The chapter ends by asking the audience which kind of hearer they will be. Those who walk in darkness can trust in the Lord, as the servant did. Or they can light their own fires and walk by their own sparks, and “lie down in sorrow” (verses 10–11). The Lord called and no one answered. The servant answered, and it cost him everything. The reader is next.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–3

No divorce, no sale

In plain words

This is what the Lord says: Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce, showing that I sent her away? Or to which of My creditors did I sell you? No, you were sold because of your sins; your mother was sent away because of your rebellions. Why was no one there when I came? Why did no one answer when I called? Is My arm too short to rescue you? Do I lack the strength to save you? With a word I dry up the sea and turn rivers into desert; their fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst. I dress the sky in darkness and make sackcloth its covering.

1 Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

History & Setting #

No divorce papers, no debt

The exiles apparently felt that the Lord had ended the covenant. The Lord answers with two legal images from Israelite family law.

Divorce. Under Deut. 24:1–4 a husband who divorced his wife had to give her a written “bill of divorcement” (sēper kĕrîtût, literally a “document of cutting off”). Without the document there was no divorce. The Lord asks, in effect, “Show Me the papers.” There aren’t any. The separation is real, but it isn’t final. This is a bold answer, because Jeremiah had used exactly this image in the opposite direction: “I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce” (Jer. 3:8), speaking of the northern kingdom. Isaiah insists that for Zion, no such document exists.

Debt slavery. A debtor who couldn’t pay might have to sell his children into servitude (2 Kgs. 4:1; Neh. 5:5). Did the Lord sell Israel to pay His creditors? The question is absurd; God has no creditors. “For your iniquities have ye sold yourselves.”

The Book of Mormon opens the chapter with a sharper question: “Have I put thee away, or have I cast thee off forever?” (2 Ne. 7:1). The added words name the real fear behind the legal language. Paul answered the same fear in almost the same terms: “Hath God cast away his people? God forbid” (Rom. 11:1).

Sources: Shalom M. Paul, Isaiah 40–66: Translation and Commentary, Eerdmans Critical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012. Donald W. Parry and John W. Welch, eds., Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, Provo, UT: FARMS, 1998.

2 Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.

Word & Language #

A short arm

“Short of hand” is a Hebrew idiom for powerlessness, as “long arm” can mean reach and power in English.

“Short of hand” is a Hebrew idiom for powerlessness, as “long arm” can mean reach and power in English. When Moses doubted that the Lord could feed Israel meat in the wilderness, the Lord asked whether His hand had “waxed short” (Num. 11:23). Isaiah uses the idiom again in Isa. 59:1: “the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save.”

The proof offered is the Exodus: “at my rebuke I dry up the sea… their fish stinketh.” The stinking fish recall the first plague in Egypt, when “the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank” (Ex. 7:21), and the dried sea recalls the crossing (Ex. 14:21). The darkened heavens of verse 3 recall the ninth plague (Ex. 10:21–23).

The problem, then, is not the Lord’s power. It is the other half of verse 2: “when I called, was there none to answer?” The Book of Mormon turns the question into a flat statement: “when I came, there was no man; when I called, yea, there was none to answer” (2 Ne. 7:2). That sets up the contrast with the servant, who does answer.

3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.

Verses 4–9

The servant who listens

In plain words

The Lord God has given me the tongue of one who is taught, so that I know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning after morning He wakes me; He wakes my ear to listen like a student. The Lord God has opened my ears, and I have not rebelled or turned back. I offered my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from insults and spitting. Because the Lord God helps me, I will not be disgraced. That is why I have set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame. The One who vindicates me is near. Who will bring charges against me? Let us face each other in court. Who is my accuser? Let him confront me. The Lord God helps me. Who will condemn me? All of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.

4 The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.

Word & Language #

The tongue of a disciple

“The learned” in the King James is limmûdîm, from the verb lāmad, “to learn.”

“The learned” in the King James is limmûdîm, from the verb lāmad, “to learn.” It doesn’t mean scholars. It means those who have been taught, disciples or students. Isaiah uses the same word for his own disciples in Isa. 8:16 (“seal the law among my disciples”) and for Zion’s children in Isa. 54:13 (“all thy children shall be taught of the LORD”). The servant has the tongue of a disciple because he has the ear of a disciple: “he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.” His speaking comes from his listening, and his listening is daily, “morning by morning.”

The purpose of his teaching is pastoral. He knows how to “speak a word in season to him that is weary.” The verb translated “speak a word in season” (lāʿût) occurs only here and is uncertain; most modern translations render it “to sustain” or “to help.” Either way, the servant’s words are for the tired.

When Jesus taught in the temple, people wondered, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” He answered, “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me” (John 7:15–16). And His best-known invitation is addressed to exactly the audience of this verse: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

The Book of Mormon directs the promise to the audience: “a word in season unto thee, O house of Israel. When ye are weary he waketh morning by morning” (2 Ne. 7:4).

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Shalom M. Paul, Isaiah 40–66: Translation and Commentary, Eerdmans Critical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012. John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 2 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986–1998.

5 The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.

Witness of Christ #

An opened ear

Two chapters earlier, the Lord said of Israel, “from that time that thine ear was not opened” (Isa. 48:8).

Two chapters earlier, the Lord said of Israel, “from that time that thine ear was not opened” (Isa. 48:8). The servant is what Israel was not: his ear has been opened, and he did not rebel. The contrast is deliberate. The servant succeeds exactly where the people failed.

Ps. 40:6 uses the same image: “mine ears hast thou opened.” The Epistle to the Hebrews quotes that psalm (following the Septuagint) as the words of Christ when He came into the world: “Lo, I come… to do thy will, O God” (Heb. 10:5–7). The opened ear is the ear of obedience. In the Gospel of John, Jesus describes His whole ministry this way: “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge” (John 5:30).

“Neither turned away back” is the verse’s hinge. The next verse shows what not turning back will cost.

6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.

Witness of Christ #

“I gave my back to the smiters”

Three humiliations: beating on the back, which was the punishment for fools and criminals (Prov. 10:13; Prov. 26:3); tearing out the beard, a deep insult to a man in the ancient…

Three humiliations: beating on the back, which was the punishment for fools and criminals (Prov. 10:13; Prov. 26:3); tearing out the beard, a deep insult to a man in the ancient Near East (David’s envoys were humiliated by having half their beards shaved, 2 Sam. 10:4–5); and spitting in the face, the most public expression of contempt (Num. 12:14; Deut. 25:9).

The verb matters: “I gave.” The servant doesn’t merely suffer abuse. He offers himself to it. Jesus said the same of His life: “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself” (John 10:18).

The Gospel accounts of the Passion correspond closely to this verse. After the trial before the council, “did they spit in his face, and buffeted him” (Matt. 26:67); Pilate had Him scourged (Matt. 27:26); the soldiers “spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head” (Matt. 27:30). Nephi, who had seen it in vision centuries before, describes it with the same patient refrain: “they smite him, and he suffereth it; yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it” (1 Ne. 19:9).

Scholars who read the servant as Israel or as the prophet point out that prophets were in fact beaten and humiliated (Jer. 20:2; Jer. 37:15). That is true, and it is part of the pattern. Christians see the pattern’s fulfillment in the one who suffered it most completely. Handel set this verse in the middle of the aria “He was despised” in Messiah, where it has shaped how many people hear it.

7 For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

Liken It #

A face like flint

Flint is the hardest common stone in Israel; ancient tools and knives were made of it.

Flint is the hardest common stone in Israel; ancient tools and knives were made of it. To set one’s face like flint is to be immovable in purpose. The Lord gave Ezekiel the same kind of face for his difficult mission: “As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not” (Ezek. 3:9).

There is a striking contrast with chapter 48, where Israel’s stubbornness was a neck of iron and a “brow brass” (Isa. 48:4). Both are hard faces. But Israel’s was hardened against God; the servant’s is hardened because of Him: “For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded.” Firmness is not a virtue or a vice in itself. It depends on what one is firm about.

Luke seems to echo this verse when he describes Jesus turning toward Jerusalem and the cross: “he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51).

8 He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.

Word & Language #

The servant in court

Verses 8–9 use the language of a lawsuit. “Justifieth” (maṣdîq) is a legal term: to declare someone in the right, to acquit.

Verses 8–9 use the language of a lawsuit. “Justifieth” (maṣdîq) is a legal term: to declare someone in the right, to acquit. “Contend” (rîb) means to bring a case against. “Let us stand together” means “let us face each other before the judge.” “Adversary” is literally “master of my judgment,” the opposing party in a case. The servant has been beaten and spat upon, a verdict of contempt from human society. But he appeals to a higher court, where his Advocate is near.

Paul picked up this passage almost word for word to express the security of those who are in Christ: “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died” (Rom. 8:33–34). The servant’s confidence in his vindication becomes the believer’s confidence through the servant.

The Book of Mormon adds a line to the servant’s challenge: “Let him come near me, and I will smite him with the strength of my mouth” (2 Ne. 7:8). The servant’s only weapon is his word, which recalls “he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword” (Isa. 49:2).

9 Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.

Verses 10–11

Two ways to walk in the dark

In plain words

Who among you fears the Lord and listens to the voice of His servant? Whoever walks in darkness and has no light, let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. But all of you who light your own fires and arm yourselves with burning torches, go ahead and walk in the light of your fire and the torches you have lit. This is what you will receive from My hand: you will lie down in torment.

10 Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.

Liken It #

Walking in the dark

This verse admits something religious writing doesn’t always admit: a person can fear the Lord, obey the voice of His servant, and still walk “in darkness” with “no light.”

This verse admits something religious writing doesn’t always admit: a person can fear the Lord, obey the voice of His servant, and still walk “in darkness” with “no light.” Faithfulness doesn’t guarantee clarity. The counsel for that condition is simple: “trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.”

“Stay upon” is the same verb Isaiah used in chapter 48 of people who claimed to rely on God but didn’t (Isa. 48:2). Here is what real reliance looks like: continuing to lean on God when you can’t see anything.

Latter-day scripture has its own examples. Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail cried, “O God, where art thou?” (D&C 121:1) and received the answer that his adversity would be “but a small moment” (D&C 121:7). Alma taught that faith is precisely hope “for things which are not seen, which are true” (Alma 32:21).

The Book of Mormon text of this verse ends with the question: “Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light?” (2 Ne. 7:10). The line of counsel does not appear. The effect is to leave the question hanging and let verse 11 supply the warning.

Sources: Donald W. Parry and John W. Welch, eds., Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, Provo, UT: FARMS, 1998.

11 Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.

Imagery & Symbol #

Walking by your own sparks

The alternative to trusting God in the dark is to make your own light.

The alternative to trusting God in the dark is to make your own light. The people addressed here “kindle a fire” and surround themselves with “sparks” (zîqôt, probably burning arrows or firebrands). The Lord’s answer is ironic: go ahead, walk by your own light, and see where it takes you. “This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.”

Interpreters read the image in two ways, and both have support:

Self-made light. Those who refuse to walk in darkness with God manufacture their own illumination, their own wisdom and security. It turns out to be dim and short-lived.
Weapons against the servant. “Sparks” may be firebrands or flaming arrows, and the people who kindle them may be the servant’s persecutors from verses 6–9. Their weapons will turn back on them. This reading connects the verse to the lawsuit that precedes it.

Either way, the verse sets two paths side by side: darkness with God, or light without Him. The first ends in vindication; the second in sorrow. Nephi used similar language about trusting human wisdom: “Cursed is he that putteth his trust in man, or maketh flesh his arm” (2 Ne. 28:31).

Sources: John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 2 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986–1998. Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah, Anchor Bible, 3 vols. New York: Doubleday, 2000–2003.

Seeing Christ in Isaiah 50

No passage in the Old Testament comes closer to describing the Passion than verse 6. The one who “gave my back to the smiters” and “hid not my face from shame and spitting” is, for Latter-day Saints and for Christians generally, Jesus Christ, who was beaten, scourged, and spat upon, and who suffered it willingly (Matt. 26:67; 1 Ne. 19:9).

But the chapter shows more than His suffering. It shows the life that led there. He learned “morning by morning” with an opened ear. He spoke “a word in season to him that is weary.” He was “not rebellious, neither turned away back.” He set His face like a flint toward Jerusalem. And He trusted that the Father who justified Him was near. That is why Paul could turn the servant’s confident question into a promise to all believers: “It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?” (Rom. 8:33–34).

Liken it to yourself

The Lord said, “when I called, was there none to answer?” Where might He be calling me now, and how am I answering?
The servant’s tongue came from his ear, “morning by morning.” What does my own daily listening look like? Does what I say to others come from it?
Who in my life is weary and needs “a word in season”?
Is my firmness more like Israel’s iron neck or the servant’s flint face? How can I tell the difference?
When I walk in darkness with no light, am I more tempted to keep trusting, or to light my own fire?

Worth exploring next

The four Servant Songs. Read them side by side on The Servant Songs page and trace how the servant’s suffering grows.
Jacob’s sermon. Read 2 Ne. 6–8 and notice how Jacob introduces and frames Isaiah for the Nephites.
The Passion. Compare verse 6 with Matt. 26:59–68, Matt. 27:26–31, and 1 Ne. 19:7–10.
Justification in court. Read Isa. 50:7–9 alongside Rom. 8:31–39.
Faith in darkness. Read D&C 121:1–8, D&C 122:5–9, and Alma 32:21–43.

This chapter elsewhere in scripture

Nephi’s text of this chapter (2 Ne. 7) reads differently from the King James Version in 8 verses. The BoM markers show the 8 where more than a small word changes.

2 Ne. 7 — Jacob reads the whole chapter to the Nephites, with several significant differences.
Rom. 8:33–34 — Paul echoes the servant’s courtroom confidence.
Matt. 26:67 — They spit in His face and buffet Him.
1 Ne. 19:9 — Nephi describes the Savior’s suffering in the same terms.

Sources & further reading

Shalom M. Paul, Isaiah 40–66: Translation and Commentary, Eerdmans Critical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012.
John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 2 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986–1998.
Claus Westermann, Isaiah 40–66: A Commentary, Old Testament Library. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969.
Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah, Anchor Bible, 3 vols. New York: Doubleday, 2000–2003.
Brevard S. Childs, Isaiah, Old Testament Library. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001.
Donald W. Parry and John W. Welch, eds., Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, Provo, UT: FARMS, 1998.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
Chapter 17: The Gathering of Israel and the Coming of the Messiah (Isaiah 48–54), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

I’ve studied Isaiah 50