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50 This is what the Lord says to his people:

‘Did I send your mother away,
    like a man sends away his wife?
Where is the paper to say
    why I have sent her away?
Did I sell you to pay people that I was in debt to?
Where is the paper that shows
    the reason for my debt?
Listen! I sold you because of your sins.
I sent your mother away
    because you have not obeyed me.[a]
Nobody was there to meet me,
    when I came to help you.
When I called out to you,
    nobody answered me.
Do you think that my arm is too weak to rescue you?
    Am I not strong enough to save you?
Look! I can speak to the sea so that it becomes dry!
    I can cause rivers to become deserts.
Then the fish die because they have no water.

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Footnotes

  1. 50:1 God is saying that he sent the Israelites away into exile because they did not obey him. That is why God is no longer there to keep Zion city safe. Zion is like a ‘mother’ for the Israelites. It is as if God has sent her away. She is no longer his ‘wife’. He has done all this because of the Israelite people's sins.

Israel’s Sin and the Servant’s Obedience

50 This is what the Lord says:

“Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce(A)
    with which I sent her away?
Or to which of my creditors
    did I sell(B) you?
Because of your sins(C) you were sold;(D)
    because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.
When I came, why was there no one?
    When I called, why was there no one to answer?(E)
Was my arm too short(F) to deliver you?
    Do I lack the strength(G) to rescue you?
By a mere rebuke(H) I dry up the sea,(I)
    I turn rivers into a desert;(J)
their fish rot for lack of water
    and die of thirst.

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