An Invitation to Sing: Once again a return to a focus on Ms Jerusalem follows the servant passage, as happened after 49:1–6 and 50:4–11. There were hints there that Ms Jerusalem’s restoration was the correlate of Ms Babylon’s humiliation in chapter 47. Chapter 54 is the systematic exposition of that theme. The prophet takes up five images of Ms Jerusalem which once again resume the themes of the people’s prayers (we are like a childless and abandoned woman, the victim of angry abuse—literally, we are a battered and insecure city) before coming to a striking conclusion.

55:1–5 The community is longing for nourishment, for upbuilding, for the restoration of morale, for a conviction that it has a future. The prophet knows that the message of chapters 40–55 is the one that will meet its needs, …