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.
This is what the LORD says: Where is the divorce paper for your mother that shows I sent her away? Or which of my creditors did I sell you to pay off my debts? Look, you sold yourselves because of your sins, and your mother was sent away because of your wrongdoing.
God is saying that Israel's separation from Him wasn't His fault—they brought it on themselves through their own sin and rebellion.
📚 Historical Context
Isaiah was writing during a time when Israel faced threats of exile and deportation by foreign powers like Assyria and Babylon. In ancient Near Eastern culture, husbands could divorce wives with a written certificate, and parents could sell children to creditors to pay debts. God uses these familiar legal concepts to explain that unlike human relationships, He didn't abandon Israel due to His own failures or debts.
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