Thus says the LORD is the standard divine quote frame (see the comments on 7.7). The addressees are not mentioned explicitly, but they are understood to be the people (“children”) of Israel, with Israel as a nation presented in the speech as their mother.

Where is your mother’s bill of divorce, with which I put her away?: Yahweh begins his speech with two rhetorical questions. This first one uses the metaphor of divorce: God as the “husband” could have divorced Israel, his “spouse.” Divorce was permitted in Israel if a wife was unfaithful to her husband (Deut 24.1-4). The bill of divorce was a document a husband would give to the wife as proof of the end of the marriage. I put her away refers to the wife being sent away from the family home, similar to what today would be called a legal separation. The opening interrogative word Where is an emphatic expression in Hebrew, which Good News Translation renders well with “Where, then.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch makes it explicit that the mother is “Israel.” Bible en français courant and Parole de Vie consider the mother to be “Jerusalem.” Good News Translation speaks of “my people” (implying the people of Israel) and prefers “wife” to mother. The implication of this rhetorical question is that there was no bill of divorce, meaning that the LORD did not send the nation away permanently. It may be rendered “People of Israel, where is the letter/paper that I wrote/used to divorce your mother and send her away?” Good News Translation reverses the two lines of this question and changes the metaphor into a simile: “Do you think I sent my people away like a man who divorces his wife? Where, then, are the papers of divorce?” Other languages may find this model helpful. In languages that do not favor rhetorical questions, an emphatic statement may be used here instead; for example, “There is no bill of divorce that I wrote to send your mother away.”

Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?: This second rhetorical question uses a different metaphor, namely that of a father who sells his children into slavery (see, for example, Exo 21.7). Selling children was usually done only if a family was desperately poor. A creditor is a person to whom one owes money. This rhetorical question implies that God did not owe anyone anything, and so did not sell Israel to clear a debt. Good News Translation also changes this metaphor into a simile. It makes explicit that the metaphor of the sale into slavery is a reference to Israel being sent into exile: “Do you think I sold you into captivity like a man who sells his children as slaves?” An alternative model that uses a strong statement instead of the rhetorical question is “There is no one to whom I owed something, and to whom I sold you [into slavery/exile] to pay my debt” or “You may think that I had a debt to pay, and so I sold you into slavery/exile, but that is not true.”

Behold is an important response marker throughout this chapter (see the introductory comments on this subsection [50.1-3]), so it should be expressed in some way. New International Version and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh omit it. New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and Revised English Bible make its function here explicit by beginning the LORD’s response to the questions with “No.” New Jerusalem Bible has “Look.” It may also be rendered “See.” The response is not an answer to the questions, but an explanation for the break in relationship.

For your iniquities you were sold responds to the second question in the chiastic arrangement of the verse. The people of Israel were in exile because of their sins. The Hebrew noun rendered iniquities is an important word in the context of the people’s exile (see 40.2; 43.24). A more common rendering is “sins” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version). The passive verb phrase you were sold can be expressed as an active one by identifying the agent. In this case the agent is Yahweh. Good News Translation avoids a passive construction without identifying an actor by saying “you went away captive.”

And for your transgressions your mother was put away responds to the first question in this verse. The LORD accuses the people, stating that their sins are the reason for sending away their mother, the nation of Israel. Normally a mother would not be divorced because of her children’s failings. Both parents would be blamed for those. So this statement accuses the children and their mother together as sinners responsible for the exile. For transgressions, which is parallel to iniquities, see the comments on 43.25. If translators prefer an active form for the passive verb put away, this line may be rendered “I put your mother away because of your evil deeds” or “they/people/enemies sent your mother away….”

For this whole verse Bible en français courant (1997) provides a useful model, saying “This is what the Lord declares: ‘If it is true that I sent away Jerusalem, your mother, show me the certificate proving that I repudiated her! Or again, tell me to whom I would have sold you as slaves to pay my debts. If you have been sold, it is because of your crimes. If your mother has been sent away, it is because of her rebellions—yours!’” Other possible models are:

• Thus says Yahweh:
“Where then is your mother’s divorce certificate,
the one with which I sent her away?
Or to which one of those to whom I was in debt
did I sell you?
Look, it was because of your sins that you were sold,
and because of your evil deeds that your mother was sent away.

• Yahweh asks:
“So where is the divorce certificate I gave your mother when I sent her away?
To which of my creditors did I sell you?
See, you were sold [or, I sold you] because of your sins,
your mother was sent away [or, I sent your mother away] because of your evil deeds.

• Yahweh says:
“I did not send your mother away with a certificate, having divorced her [or, to divorce her]!
I did not sell you to any to whom I owed money!
But look, you were sold because of your sins,
your mother was sent away because of your evil deeds.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .