Isaiah 54:6-8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For the Lord hath called thee To return and come again to him; as a woman forsaken When thou wast like a woman forsaken by her husband, who had given her a bill of divorce; and grieved in spirit For the loss of her husband's favour and society, and for the reproach attending it; and a wife of youth As affectionately as a husband recalleth his wife whom he married in her and his own youth, whom, though he might on some provocation put away, yet he soon repents of doing it, and his affection for her reviving, he invites her to return to him; when thou wast refused Though for a time thou wast refused and rejected by him; saith thy God Jehovah, who will again show himself to be thy God, and will renew his covenant with thee. For a small moment For the space of some few years, as seventy years in Babylon, and some such intervals, which may well be called a small moment, in comparison of God's everlasting kindness, mentioned in the next verse: have I forsaken thee Withdrawn my favour and help from thee, and left thee in thine enemies' hands. But with great mercies Such as are very precious, and of long continuance; will I gather thee From all the places where thou art dispersed, from all parts of the world. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee I removed the means and pledges of my presence and kindness; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy, &c. With kindness to thee, and thy seed, through all succeeding generations, in time, and to all eternity.