Why is the barren woman in Isaiah 54:1 mentioned in comparison to the married woman considering that a woman could be married and barren?
Isaiah 54:1
NLT - 1 “Sing, O childless woman, you who have never given birth! Break into loud and joyful song, O Jerusalem, you who have never been in labor. For the desolate woman now has more children than the woman who lives with her husband,” says the Lord.
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Asked January 02 2017
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Sandra Ojeka
Supporter
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Tim Maas
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As I interpret this passage, God is not speaking of literal, individual women or children, or commenting on the relative states of human fertility, but is referring to nations, as indicated by Isaiah 54:5-8, where it is clearer that He is comparing His relationship with Israel to that of a husband to his wife. He is saying that, even though Israel (specifically Judah) had undergone past judgment and abandonment by God (which He compares to barrenness) through its seventy-year exile in Babylon, its future condition will be more blessed (using figurative children as a metaphor for those blessings). (Chapter 53, immediately prior to the chapter cited in the question, echoes this promise by speaking of the Redeemer that God will send to Israel.) (I think that there may also be a dual reference here (as in other prophetic passages) to the condition of Israel both in the relatively near-term historical future (that is, with the coming of the Messiah), and also in the end times, or at the close of the present age.)
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