Isaiah 54:4 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 54:4
Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.
to fear · verb, qal jussive, 2nd person feminine singular
ashamed
תֵב֔וֹשִׁיte.Vo.o.shi
H954
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular
confounded
תִּכָּלְמִ֖יti.kal.Mi
H3637
properly · verb, niphal jussive, 2nd person feminine singular
shame
תַחְפִּ֑ירִיtach.Pi.ri
H2659
to blush · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular
forget
תִּשְׁכָּ֔חִיtish.Ka.chi
H7911
to mislay · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular
shame
בֹ֤שֶׁתVo.shet
H1322
shame (the feeling and the condition · noun, common feminine singular construct
youth
עֲלוּמַ֙יִךְ֙'a.lu.Ma.yikh
H5934
(only in plural as abstract) adolescence · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
remember
תִזְכְּרִיtiz.ke.ri-
H2142
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular
reproach
וְחֶרְפַּ֥תve.cher.Pat
H2781
contumely · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular construct
widowhood
אַלְמְנוּתַ֖יִךְ'al.me.nu.Ta.yikh
H491
concrete · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee…
1 Peter 2:6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him s…
Isaiah 61:7 For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the d…
Jeremiah 31:19 Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, bec…
Isaiah 45:16-17 They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols.
Isaiah 51:7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of t…
Isaiah 41:14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
Ezekiel 16:60-63 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 54:1-5
If we apply this to the state of the Jews after their return out of captivity, it is a prophecy of the increase of their nation after they were settled in their own land. Jerusalem had been in the condition of a wife written childless, or a desolate solitary widow; but now it is promised that the city should be replenished and the country peopled again, that not only the ruins of Jerusalem should be repaired, but the suburbs of it extended on all sides and a great many buildings erected upon new foundations, - that those estates which had for many years been wrongfully held by the Babylonian Gentiles should now return to the right owners. God will again be a husband to them, and the reproach…
(Isa 41:10, Isa 41:14).
shame of thy youth--Israel's unfaithfulness as wife of Jehovah, almost from her earliest history.
reproach of widowhood--Israel's punishment in her consequent dismissal from God and barrenness of spiritual children in Babylon and her present dispersion (Isa 54:1; Isa 49:21; Jer 3:24-25; Jer 31:19; Hos 2:2-5).
Adam Clarke on Isaiah 54:4
For thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth - That is, "The bondage of Egypt: widowhood, the captivity of Babylon." - Secker.
John Gill on Isaiah 54:4
Fear not,.... The fulfilment of these things; however unlikely and unpromising they might seem, yet God was able to perform them; and therefore way should not be given to a fearful, distrustful, and unbelieving heart:
for thou shall not be ashamed; as men are, when disappointed of what they have been hoping for and expecting; but so it should not be with the church, she should not be ashamed of her hope, faith, and confidence; for there would be a performance of all that the Lord had spoken: nor should she be ashamed of her barrenness, which should cease; and of the fewness of her children or converts, which would be many; and of the straitness of the place of her tent or habitation, which…
He makes clear how he makes the shame of widowhood disappear, saying that it is "the Lord who makes you, the Lord of hosts is his name." He is making you rather than creating you, transferring us into another type of citizenship and beautiful life. For we are being transformed in Christ into the newness of the holy and evangelical life, ascending to his own beautiful form through the Spirit so that others see us as different from the rest [of humanity].
We have been justified in Christ, and not from works of righteousness that we have done but according to his mercy. But this is also what the supremely wise Paul has written. For we have been set free from the darkness, deceit and wickedness, which have been inherited from our ancestors.… [Therefore,] do not fear that you will be put to shame. For just as a parent looks after children, the Lord will look after those who fear him. Your sins will be as far removed from you as the east is from the west. How necessary is it, then, that you not stumble again but reject those same sins in fear. Remember the grace of our justifying God, and do not bear malice or demand justice from those who sin against you.
(Verse 4, 5.) Do not be afraid, for you will not be put to shame; do not be ashamed, for you will not be disgraced. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. For your Maker is your husband— the LORD Almighty is his name— the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth. LXX: Do not be afraid, for you have been put to shame; do not be disgraced, for you have been reproached. You will forget the shame of your eternal confusion and will no longer remember the reproach of your widowhood. For the LORD who made you is your husband— his name is the LORD Almighty— the God of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth. A question arises, how is it said to the Church gathered from the Gentiles: Rejoice, you barren one who does not bear; and: More are the children of the desolate one than of her who has a husband, that is, she who had no husband, who later had more children, and she who had a husband turned into sterility: how is it now said to her who had no husband: You will no longer remember your widowhood, and the disgrace of your youth you will forget. From which the Jews want to understand that everything that is said is to be said to Jerusalem, which is deserted by God, and to be restored by Him again. Those who are easily repelled, when they are warned, are said to be spoken to in the person of the Lord in Zachariah: 'And I took for myself two staffs: one I called Beauty, and the other I called Cord: and I fed the flock' (Zech. 11:7). We have spoken more fully about this in its proper place, and now it will be partly spoken. The two staffs, each of them is the people, of the Gentiles and of the Jews, of which the former is called the multitude of the Gentiles, who have received the natural law fixed in their hearts, of which Paul, writing to the Romans, argues most forcefully (Rom. 1); by which staff, nothing is more beautiful than that all creatures are equally called to the worship of their Creator. But the second, that is, the people of the Jews, was called a cord: which after the offense of the nations is called the portion of the Lord, and his inheritance is Israel (Deut. XXXII). Finally, after Israel was called in Abraham, the Lord says: I took my rod, which was called beauty: and I cut it off, to make void my covenant which I struck with all the nations…
Dictionary and topics
Solomon, Song of — Called also, after the Vulgate, the “Canticles.” It is the “song of songs” (1:1), as being the finest and most precious of its kind; the noblest song, “das Hohelied,” as Luther calls it. The…
Divorce · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Widows · Reproach connected with — Reproach connected with
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on Isaiah 54:4
Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed. Here, as formerly, he strengthens the hearts of believers, and addresses the whole Church; for the calamity was universal, and the Church appeared to be totally ruined. He bids her be of good cheer, and next assigns the reason; that the issue of her troubles will be such that she "shall not be ashamed;" as if he had said, "Although for a time thou art wretched, yet thy affairs shall be prosperous;" and as it is elsewhere said, "They who hope in the Lord shall not be ashamed." (Psalm 25:3)
Blush not; that is, "cherish good hope, and be confident." Those men "blush" who are ashamed, and who, being disappointed of their hope, suffer their hearts to be c…
The encouraging promise is continued in Isa 54:4 : "Fear not, for thou wilt not be put to shame; and bid defiance to reproach, for thou wilt not blush: no, thou wilt forget the shame of thy youth, and wilt no more remember the reproach of thy widowhood." Now that redemption was before the door, Israel was not to fear any more, or to be overcome (as the niphal nikhlam implies) by a felling of the shame consequent upon her state of punishment, or so to behave herself as to leave no room for hope. For a state of things was about to commence, in which she would have no need to be ashamed (on bōsh and châphēr or hechpı̄r), but which, on the contrary (כּי, imo, as in Isa 10:7; Isa 55:9), would…
Israel’s descendants (cp. 53:10) would occupy other nations in fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham (Gen 22:17) and to Jacob (Gen 28:14). • As desolation took place (Isa 6:11; 14:21), the people of God would inherit the earth and resettle the ruined cities (51:6; 52:10; 65:17; see also Matt 5:5; Rom 4:13).