Good News Translation, Is 54:
4 Do not be afraid--you will not be disgraced again; you will not be humiliated. You will forget your unfaithfulness as a young wife, and your desperate loneliness as a widow.
How was Israel a widow?
Genesis 38:
6 Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death.
Tamar's first husband died. Onan was supposed to fulfill his duty as her brother-in-law and impregnate her. But he did not do a good job.
10 What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death also.
Tamar's second husband also died.
11a Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow [H490] in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.”
as a widow
אַלְמָנָ֣ה (’al·mā·nāh)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 490: A widow, a desolate place
H490 refers to a technical widow, meaning her husband had died. Two verses later:
13 When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,” 14a she took off her widow’s [H491] clothes
her widow’s
אַלְמְנוּתָ֜הּ (’al·mə·nū·ṯāh)
Noun - feminine singular construct | third person feminine singular
Strong's 491: A widow, widowhood
Now, this Hebrew word is slightly different from the earlier one. It refers to the state of being a widow.
Elsewhere in 2 Samuel 20:
3 When David returned to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines he had left to take care of the palace and put them in a house under guard. He provided for them but had no sexual relations with them. They were kept in confinement till the day of their death, living as widows [H491].
David was still alive. These women were technically not widows. So most Bibles translate this Hebrew word to "as widows", referring to the state of widowhood.
The same H491 appears in Isaiah 54:
4“Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame.
Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated.
You will forget the shame of your youth
and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.
5 For your Maker is your husband—
the Lord Almighty is his name—
the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;
he is called the God of all the earth.
God was Israel's husband. He didn't die. "Widowhood" here means the livelihood of a widow or the state of widowhood. The rest of the context bears this out:
6 The Lord will call you back
as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—
a wife who married young,
only to be rejected,” says your God.
7“For a brief moment I abandoned you,
Was Israel a widow?
Not exactly. Israel lived like a widow for a while because she was treated like an abandoned wife by her husband/God. H491 means the state of being a widow or widowhood. It could be used literally to mean her husband has died or metaphorically to mean her husband has not died but has abandoned her.
