Day Nineteen : 16th December

Isaiah 54

Sing, O barren one who did not bear;
burst into song and shout, you who have not been in labour!
For the children of the desolate woman will be no more than the children of
her that is married says the Lord.

2 Enlarge the site of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out;
do not hold back; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.

3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left, and your descendants
will possess the nations and will settle the desolate towns.

Brueggemann (2) p150:

'Through a variety of images, this poetry anticipates and celebrates Israel's new status as liberated, protected, embraced, and blessed by Yahweh.' '…the imagery [metaphor of marriage] permits an articulation of the intensity and complexity of the relationship, the reality of pain and affront and the wonder of reconciliation that can perhaps be voiced in no other figure.'