For Yahweh has called you as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off,” says your God.
Parallel translations
- KJV For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.
- BSB For the LORD has called you back, like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit, like the rejected wife of one’s youth,” says your God.
- NKJV For the Lord has called you Like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, Like a youthful wife when you were refused,” Says your God.
- NASB “For the Lord has called you, Like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, Even like a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,” Says your God.
- NLT For the Lord has called you back from your grief— as though you were a young wife abandoned by her husband,” says your God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God has called His people back like a forsaken, grieved wife of one's youth. It matters because He restores the relationship rather than abandoning it.
Overview
The exile is likened to a young wife cast off and heartbroken, yet God recalls her to Himself. The tenderness of 'wife of youth' underscores His enduring affection despite estrangement. This reflects the gospel pattern of God seeking and restoring those who were alienated from Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Isa 62:4You will not be called Forsaken any more; nor will your land be called Desolate any more: but you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for Yahweh delights in you, and your land will be married.
- Eccl 9:9Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of vanity, which he has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity: for that is your portion in life, and in your labor in which you labor under the sun.
- Prov 5:18Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
- Hos 2:14–15“Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.
- Hos 2:1–2“Say to your brothers, ‘My people!’ and to your sisters, ‘My loved one!’
- Isa 49:14–21But Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.”
- Mal 2:14Yet you say, ‘Why?’ Because Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and the wife of your covenant.
- Isa 50:1–2Yahweh 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.
- 2 Cor 7:9–10I now rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you were made sorry to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly way, that you might suffer loss by us in nothing.
- Matt 11:28“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.
- 2 Cor 7:6Nevertheless, he who comforts the lowly, God, comforted us by the coming of Titus;
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 54:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.