Isaiah 52

Isa 52:1-15.

FIRST THROUGH

THIRTEEN

VERSES

CONNECTED WITH

FIFTY-FIRST

CHAPTER.

Zion long in bondage

(Isa 51:17-20)

is called to put on beautiful garments appropriate to its future

prosperity.

1. strength--as thy adornment; answering to "beautiful garments" in

the parallel clause. Arouse thyself from dejection and assume

confidence.

the holy city--

(Ne 11:1;

Re 21:2).

no more . . . unclean--

(Isa 35:8; 60:21;

Joe 3:17;

Re 21:27).

A prophecy never yet fulfilled.

uncircumcised--spiritually

(Eze 44:9;

Ac 7:51).

2. from the dust--the seat of mourners

(Job 2:12, 13).

arise, and sit--namely, in a more dignified place: on a divan or a

throne [LOWTH], after having shaken off

the dust gathered up by the

flowing dress when seated on the ground; or simply, "Arise, and sit

erect" [MAURER].

bands of . . . neck--the yoke of thy captivity.

3. As you became your foes' servants, without their paying any price

for you

(Jer 15:13),

so they shall release you without demanding any price or reward

(Isa 45:13),

(where Cyrus is represented as doing so: a type of their final

restoration gratuitously in like manner). So the spiritual Israel,

"sold under sin," gratuitously

(Ro 7:14),

shall be redeemed also gratuitously

(Isa 55:1).

4. My people--Jacob and his sons.

went down--Judea was an elevated country compared with Egypt.

sojourn--They went there to stay only till the famine in Canaan should

have ceased.

Assyrian--Sennacherib. Remember how I delivered you from Egypt and

the Assyrian; what, then, is to prevent Me from delivering you out of

Babylon (and the mystical Babylon and the Antichrist in the last days)?

without cause--answering to "for naught" in

Isa 52:5;

it was an act of gratuitous oppression in the present case, as

in that case.

5. what have I here--that is, what am I called on to do? The fact

"that My people is taken away (into captivity;

Isa 49:24, 25)

for naught" (by gratuitous oppression,

Isa 52:4;

also

Isa 52:3,

and see on

Isa 52:3)

demands My interposition.

they that rule--or "tyrannize," namely, Babylon, literal and mystical.

make . . . to howl--or, raise a cry of exultation over them

[MAURER].

blasphemed--namely, in Babylon: God's reason for delivering His people,

not their goodness, but for the sake of His holy name

(Eze 20:9, 14).

6. shall know in that day--when Christ shall reveal Himself to Israel

sensibly; the only means whereby their obstinate unbelief shall be

overcome

(Ps 102:16;

Zec 12:10; 14:5).

7. beautiful . . . feet--that is, The advent of such a herald seen

on the distant "mountains"

(see on

Isa 40:9;

Isa 41:27;

Isa 25:6, 7;

So 2:17)

running in haste with the long-expected good tidings, is most

grateful to the desolated city

(Na 1:15).

good tidings--only partially applying to the return from Babylon.

Fully, and antitypically, the Gospel

(Lu 2:10, 11),

"beginning at Jerusalem"

(Lu 24:47),

"the city of the great King"

(Mt 5:35),

where Messiah shall, at the final restoration of Israel, "reign" as

peculiarly Zion's God ("Thy God reigneth"; compare

Ps 2:6).

8. watchmen--set on towers separated by intervals to give the earliest

notice of the approach of any messenger with tidings

(compare

Isa 21:6-8).

The Hebrew is more forcible than English Version, "The

voice of thy watchmen" (exclamatory as in

So 2:8).

"They lift up their voice! together they sing."

eye to eye--that is, close at hand, and so clearly

[GESENIUS];

Nu 14:14,

"face to face";

Nu 12:8,

"mouth to mouth." Compare

1Co 13:12;

Re 22:4,

of which Simeon's sight of the Saviour was a prefiguration

(Lu 2:30).

The watchmen, spiritually, are ministers and others who pray for the

peace of Jerusalem

(Isa 62:6, 7),

bring again--that is, restore. Or else, "return to"

[MAURER].

9.

(Isa 14:7, 8; 42:11).

redeemed--spiritually and nationally

(Isa 48:20).

10. made bare . . . arm--metaphor from warriors who bare their arm for

battle

(Eze 4:7).

all . . . earth . . . see . . . salvation of . . . God--The deliverance

wrought by God for Israel will cause all nations to acknowledge the Lord

(Isa 66:18-20).

The partial fulfilment

(Lu 3:6)

is a forerunner of the future complete fulfilment.

11.

(Isa 48:20;

Zec 2:6, 7).

Long residence in Babylon made many loath to leave it: so as to

mystical Babylon

(Re 18:4).

ye . . . that bear . . . vessels of the Lord--the priests and Levites,

whose office it was to carry the vessels of the temple

(Jer 27:18).

Nebuchadnezzar had carried them to Babylon

(2Ch 36:18).

Cyrus restored them

(Ezr 1:7-11).

be . . . clean--by separating yourselves wholly from Babylonian

idolaters, mystical and literal.

12. not . . . with haste--as when ye left Egypt

(Ex 12:33, 39;

De 16:3;

compare Note, see on

Isa 28:16).

Ye shall have time to cleanse yourselves and make deliberate

preparation for departure.

Lord--Jehovah, as your Leader in front

(Isa 40:3;

Ex 23:20;

Mic 2:13).

rereward--literally, "gather up," that is, to bring up the rear of

your host. The transition is frequent from the glory of Messiah in His

advent to reign, to His humiliation in His advent to suffer. Indeed, so

are both advents accounted one, that He is not said, in His second

coming, to be about to return, but to come.

13. Here the fifty-third chapter ought to begin, and the fifty-second

chapter end with

Isa 52:12.

This section, from here to end of the fifty-third chapter settles the

controversy with the Jews, if Messiah be the person meant; and with

infidels, if written by Isaiah, or at any time before Christ. The

correspondence with the life and death of Jesus Christ is so minute,

that it could not have resulted from conjecture or accident. An

impostor could not have shaped the course of events so as to

have made his character and life appear to be a fulfilment of it. The

writing is, moreover, declaredly prophetic. The quotations of it

in the New Testament show: (1) that it was, before the time of Jesus, a

recognized part of the Old Testament; (2) that it refers to Messiah

(Mt 8:17;

Mr 15:28;

Lu 22:37;

Joh 12:38;

Ac 8:28-35;

Ro 10:16;

1Pe 2:21-25).

The indirect allusions to it still more clearly prove the Messianic

interpretation; so universal was that interpretation, that it is simply

referred to in connection with the atoning virtue of His death,

without being formally quoted

(Mr 9:12;

Ro 4:25;

1Co 15:3;

2Co 5:21;

1Pe 1:19; 2:21-25;

1Jo 3:5).

The genuineness of the passage is certain; for the Jews would

not have forged it, since it is opposed to their notion of

Messiah, as a triumphant temporal prince. The Christians could

not have forged it; for the Jews, the enemies of Christianity, are "our

librarians" [PALEY]. The Jews try to evade its

force by the figment of two Messiahs, one a suffering Messiah (Ben

Joseph), the other a triumphant Messiah (Ben David). HILLEL maintained that Messiah has already come in the

person of Hezekiah. BUXTORF states that many of

the modern Rabbins believe that He has been come a good while, but will

not manifest Himself because of the sins of the Jews. But the ancient

Jews, as the Chaldee paraphrast, Jonathan, refer it to Messiah; so the

Medrasch Tauchuma (a commentary on the Pentateuch); also Rabbi

Moses Haddarschan (see HENGSTENBERG,

Christology of the Old Testament). Some explain it of the

Jewish people, either in the Babylonish exile, or in their present

sufferings and dispersion. Others, the pious portion of the

nation taken collectively, whose sufferings made a vicarious

satisfaction for the ungodly. Others, Isaiah, or Jeremiah [GESENIUS], the prophets collectively. But an

individual is plainly described: he suffers voluntarily,

innocently, patiently, and as the efficient cause of the

righteousness of His people, which holds good of none other but Messiah

(Isa 53:4-6, 9, 11;

contrast

Jer 20:7; 15:10-21;

Ps 137:8, 9).

Isa 53:9

can hold good of none other. The objection that the sufferings

(Isa 53:1-10)

referred to are represented as past, the glorification alone as

future

(Isa 52:13-15; 53:11, 12)

arises from not seeing that the prophet takes his stand in the

midst of the scenes which he describes as future. The greater

nearness of the first advent, and the interval between it and the

second, are implied by the use of the past tense as to the

first, the future as to the second.

Behold--awakening attention to the striking picture of Messiah that

follows (compare

Joh 19:5, 14).

my servant--Messiah

(Isa 42:1).

deal prudently--rather, "prosper"

[GESENIUS] as the parallel clause

favors

(Isa 53:10).

Or, uniting both meanings, "shall reign well" [HENGSTENBERG]. This verse sets forth in the beginning the

ultimate issue of His sufferings, the description of which follows: the

conclusion

(Isa 53:12)

corresponds; the section

(Isa 52:13; 53:12)

begins as it ends with His final glory.

extolled--elevated

(Mr 16:19;

Eph 1:20-22;

1Pe 3:22).

14, 15. Summary of Messiah's history, which is set forth more in

detail in the fifty-third chapter. "Just as many were astonished

(accompanied with aversion,

Jer 18:16; 19:8),

&c.; his visage, &c.; so shall He sprinkle," &c.; Israel in this

answers to its antitype Messiah, now "an astonishment and

byword"

(De 28:37),

hereafter about to be a blessing and means of salvation to many nations

(Isa 2:2, 3;

Mic 5:7).

thee; his--Such changes of persons are common in Hebrew poetry.

marred--Hebrew, "disfigurement"; abstract for concrete; not only

disfigured, but disfigurement itself.

more than man--CASTALIO

translates, "so that it was no longer that

of a man" (compare

Ps 22:6).

The more perfect we may suppose the "body prepared"

(Heb 10:5)

for Him by God, the sadder by contrast was the "marring" of His visage

and form.

15. sprinkle many--GESENIUS, for the antithesis to "be astonished,"

translates, "shall cause . . . to exult." But the word universally in

the Old Testament means either to sprinkle with blood, as the high

priest makes an expiation

(Le 4:6; 16:18, 19);

or with water, to purify

(Eze 36:25;

compare as to the Spirit,

Ac 2:33),

both appropriate to Messiah

(Joh 13:8;

Heb 9:13, 14; 10:22; 12:24;

1Pe 1:2).

The antithesis is sufficient without any forced rendering. Many

were astonished; so many (not merely men, but) nations

shall be sprinkled. They were amazed at such an abject person

claiming to be Messiah; yet it is He who shall justify and

purify. Men were dumb with the amazement of scorn at one

marred more than the lowest of men, yet the highest: even

kings

(Isa 49:7, 23)

shall be dumb with awe and veneration ("shut . . .

mouths";

Job 29:9, 10;

Mic 7:16).

that . . . not . . . told them--the reason why kings shall so venerate

them; the wonders of redemption, which had not been before told them,

shall then be announced to them, wonders such as they had never heard or

seen parallelled

(Isa 55:1;

Ro 15:21; 16:25, 26).