Rejoice, O barren woman
1 ① Rejoice, O barren woman who has not given birth; sing and shout for joy, you who never had children, for more are the children of the rejected woman than the children of the married wife, says Yahweh.
2Enlarge the space for your tent, stretch out your hangings, lengthen your ropes and strengthen your stakes,
3for you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will take possession of the nations and inhabit cities that have been abandoned.
4Do not be afraid for you will not be deceived, do not be ashamed for you will not be disgraced. You will forget the shame of your youth; no longer will you remember the disgrace of your widowhood.
5For your Maker is to marry you: Yahweh Sabaoth is his name. Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel: He is called God of all the earth.
6For Yahweh has called you back as one forsaken and grieved in spirit. Who could abandon his first beloved? says your God.
7For a brief moment I have abandoned you, but with great tenderness I will gather my people. 8For a moment, in an outburst of anger, I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I have had mercy on you, says Yahweh, your Redeemer.
9This is for me like Noah’s waters, when I swore that they would no more flood the earth; so now I swear not to be angry with you and never again to rebuke you. 10The mountains may depart and the hills be moved, but never will my love depart from you nor my covenant of peace be removed, says Yahweh whose compassion is for you.
11O afflicted city, lashed by storm and unconsoled, I will set your stones with turquoise, your foundations with sapphires. 12I will crown your wall with agate, make your gates crystal, and your ramparts of precious stones.
13All your children will be taught by Yahweh, and they will prosper greatly.
14Justice will be your foundation; tyranny and the fear of oppression will never come near you.
15If ever you are attacked, it will not be of my doing; and your attacker will surely fail.
16Look, it is I who created the blacksmith, who fans the burning coals and forges his weapons. But I have also prepared the one who makes them useless.
17No weapon forged against you will succeed, and all who speak against you will be silenced. Such is the lot of the servants of Yahweh, and such is the right I grant them – says Yahweh.
- Is 54,1 This concludes the songs in which Isaiah addressed Jerusalem: 49:14; 51:17. In a grandiose vision, Jerusalem becomes the people of the future, the people reborn from the ruins who will bring about a kingdom of peace. Jerusalem is the ideal city we have dreamed of at one time or another and which God wishes to give us. For a brief moment I have abandoned you. Here we have the story of God's love for us: the total love of God, our infidelity, our sin. The prophets announce the New Jerusalem, Yahweh's bride which will never again be abandoned. We know that the Church is the Remnant of Israel, the new People united to God in an eternal covenant. Yet it is also at the same time, as the ancient Israel was, an unfaithful people whose sins the Bible describes: dull parishes, existing but not really alive; institutions where one might look in vain for the Spirit of Jesus; leaders of the church who are subservient to the powerful... Somehow the New Jerusalem is in the Church of Christ, but it is also true that we need to continually look for it. Shout for joy, you who never had children. The Jewish people collapsed as a nation because of their errors and they no longer had a future, humanly speaking. This suits God. If they lack the means to be great, God is going to touch them. He will no longer be the one from whom we expect favors but the one who gives himself: your Maker is to marry you. All your children will be taught by Yahweh. It is the same proclamation of a new covenant that was proclaimed by Jeremiah (Jer 31:31). Believers should always lean on the word of God and be guided by his commandments, but their link with God will be in a deep communication of spirit to spirit, a communion which immerses us in the only truth. It is a kind of knowledge which teaches no particular truth, but enables us to appreciate, judge and coordinate all the fragmentary truths. It is an instinct of God that enables us to discover in depth the person of Christ through the brief testimonies of Scripture. This instinct in turn gives us the secrets of the Bible (Jn 6:45). It is by meditating on these poems that we best understand how God makes virginity fruitful. It is not by accident that Jesus was born of a virgin mother; rather his birth came as the culmination of the expectation of Jerusalem, the bride of God: see Isaiah7:14.
