Our Lord is still discussing the question in the preceding chapter, paragraph 16: "Shall the prey be taken from the mighty?" In this passage he sees Israel, the nation, as a mother of many children, the individual Israelites, all absent from their home, but not through any act of his. He had not given her a bill of divorcement. He had not sold the children to satisfy any creditor. In either case he might not have a legal right to reclaim them. But, they had given themselves away by their iniquities and transgressions. They had "sold" themselves.