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Isaiah 50 · a question people ask

Does 50:1 say the LORD wrote a bill of divorce?

In the text

The verse asks it as a question and doesn't show a bill: "Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away? Or to which of my creditors have I sold you?" (50:1). Then it gives the reason for what happened: "Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and your mother was put away for your transgressions" (50:1). It doesn't name the mother or the children, and it doesn't say whether a bill was ever written. These notes add no answer the verse doesn't give, and apply nothing in it to any marriage today.

The verses

“The LORD says, “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away? Or to which of my creditors have I sold you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and your mother was put away for your transgressions.”
Isaiah 50:1 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Isaiah 50

Isaiah 50: Morning by morning

In 50:4 the tongue and the ear are both "of those who are taught", one Hebrew word twice, with the ear woken "morning by morning". And in 50:6-7 the face not hidden "from shame and spitting" is the face set "like a flint", while Strong's traces that shame to the verb of "I have not been confounded".

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions