The Barren Woman's Tent Must Be Enlarged

The chapter opens with a command to sing, but the singer is a woman who has never borne a child. The barren woman is told to break into shouting, to cry aloud, though she has never travailed. The Lord gives the reason: the children of the desolate woman will outnumber the children of the married wife. This is not a general comfort. It is a specific reversal. The one who had no future now has a crowded household.

The Lord then tells this woman to enlarge her tent. She is to stretch out the curtains, to lengthen the cords, to strengthen the stakes. She is not to hold back. The reason is that she will spread abroad to the right and to the left. Her seed will possess nations and settle in desolate cities. The instruction is practical. A tent that must hold more people needs to be physically expanded. The Lord is not speaking in vague metaphors. He is giving orders for a real dwelling.

The woman is told not to fear. She will not be ashamed. She will not be put to shame. She will forget the shame of her youth and the reproach of her widowhood. The Lord names her past condition: she was a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, a wife of youth who had been cast off. But the Lord has called her back. Her Maker is her husband. His name is the Lord of hosts, the Holy One of Israel, the Redeemer, the God of the whole earth.

The Lord explains the timing of her abandonment. He forsook her for a small moment. He hid his face from her in overflowing wrath for a moment. But he will gather her with great mercies. He will have mercy on her with everlasting lovingkindness. The contrast is deliberate. The wrath was brief. The mercy is permanent.

The Lord swears an oath. He compares his promise to the waters of Noah. Just as he swore that the flood would never again cover the earth, so he has sworn that he will not be wroth with her nor rebuke her. The mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but his lovingkindness will not depart from her. His covenant of peace will not be removed. The Lord who has mercy on her says this.

The Lord addresses the woman again. She is afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted. But he will set her stones in fair colors. He will lay her foundations with sapphires. He will make her pinnacles of rubies, her gates of carbuncles, and all her border of precious stones. The rebuilding is not merely functional. It is ornate. The Lord is restoring her with costly materials.

All her children will be taught by the Lord. Great will be the peace of her children. She will be established in righteousness. She will be far from oppression, so she will not fear. Terror will not come near her. The Lord states that enemies may gather together, but not by him. Whoever gathers against her will fall because of her.

The Lord declares that he created the smith who blows the fire of coals and brings forth a weapon for his work. He also created the waster to destroy. But no weapon formed against her will prosper. Every tongue that rises against her in judgment she will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. Their righteousness is from him.