Isaiah 54:1-10, The Barren Wife

For thou shall forget the shame of thy youth,

And the reproach of thy widowhood shalt thou remember no more,

For thy Maker is thy husband,

The Lord of Hosts is his name;

Isaiah 54:4-5

Today’s Haftarah, Isaiah 54: 1-10 contains many oft-repeated quotes. It begins with “Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear” and ends with the verses made famous in Felix Mendlesohn’s oratorio, Elijah, “For the Mountains May Depart …” However, I have chosen to comment on the lines above, which are not as well known but should not be ignored.

It may come as a shock that the Book of Isaiah was not written by or about one person. Yes, there probably was an Isaiah. His name was Isaiah ben Amoz; he lived in the 8h century BCE and his writings warn that the behavior of the Israelites will be punished, probably by destruction and exile. He is the hero of Part One. 

The second part (Deutero-Isaiah, Chapters 40-55) is also known as the "Book of Consolation” and is believed to have been written during the 6th-century BCE Babylonian Exile. It seeks  to comfort the people after the destruction of the first Temple and their exile to Babylonia. There’s a third part as well, written after the return from exile. But that is not our concern today.

But let’s get back to today’s verses. As a woman, I am particularly interested in this depiction of Israel as a woman, a woman who is disgraced by being unable to give birth to a child. The text is somewhat confusing. It calls her “barren,” unable to have children. Yet the next line says, “For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord.”

Oops! Is she without children or without a husband? The text goes back and forth, referring to her “seed” in one verse, her “widowhood” in another.  However, Verse 5 gives us the answer: “For thy Maker is thy husband, The Lord of Hosts is his name.” God is the answer to her problem. If Israel trusts in God, she will be redeemed.

This reading is one of the Seven Haftarot of Consolation which are read between Tisha B’Av and Rosh Hashanah. They seek to comfort Israel after the saddest day on the Jewish calendar and to lead up to the forgiveness of the High Holy Days. But since when is Israel so exclusively female? When she sins, of course. The assumption here is that, if Israel is abandoned, she – like the barren wife – must have done something wrong. But, if she atones, God will forgive her.

As a modern Jewish woman, I suppose I should be offended that Israel is pictured here as female. However, we must remember that the writer lived at a time when women were decidedly second- class citizens, if they were citizens at all.  This is far from the only place in the Bible where women are presumed to be less important and more sinful than men. As a woman, does this aspect of the passage offend me? Perhaps it should. But there is so much of beauty in it that I choose to see it in the context of the age in which it was written. 

The final part of this passage is the magnificent poem memorialized in Mendlesohn’s oratorio Elijah, “For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed, But my kindness shall not depart from thee.” God will forgive Israel, no matter what she has done. Why? Because He is God.

It’s not the most logical passage in the Bible, but it is one of the loveliest. My solution is to rejoice in its beauty and move  on.