Isaiah52chapter 52

Isaiah 52:1-3

put on thy strength: The double summons 'awake, awake' answers chapter 51's cup of trembling with a call to strength, and Zion is told to put on beautiful garments after the exile stripped them away. The city is promised that the uncircumcised and the unclean will no longer enter her, a holiness restored rather than merely a captivity ended. Verse 3 states the terms plainly: the people were sold for nought and shall be redeemed without money, the same free grace the invitation of chapter 55 will later widen to every nation.

Isaiah 52:4-6

sojourn there: Verse 4 recalls two oppressions, Egypt of old and Assyria more recently, both suffered without cause on Israel's part. Verse 5 turns the complaint back on the oppressors themselves, asking what right they have when the Lord's people are taken away for nought and his name is blasphemed continually because of it. Verse 6 answers with a promise that Israel will at last know the Lord's name and recognize his voice, the same 'I am he' language that runs through this second half of the book.

Isaiah 52:7-8

beautiful upon the mountains: The herald's feet are called beautiful because of the message they carry, good tidings, peace, and salvation, and the announcement that Zion's God reigns; Paul quotes the verse at Romans 10:15 of gospel preachers sent to proclaim Christ, a reading the New Testament itself makes. Verse 8 pictures watchmen on Jerusalem's walls who see the Lord's return with their own eyes and lift up their voice together, a scene of confirmed report replacing rumor. The older commentators read the 'eye to eye' seeing as the certainty of the event over against the uncertain news that opened the chapter.

Isaiah 52:9-10

break forth into joy: The waste places of Jerusalem are called to break into joy because the Lord has comforted his people and redeemed the city, the same redemption named in verse 3 now accomplished rather than merely promised. Verse 10 pictures the Lord baring his holy arm, the figure of a warrior throwing back his sleeve to strike, in full view of every nation. The result is that all the ends of the earth see the salvation of God, the chapter widening from Zion's own comfort to a spectacle the whole world watches.

Isaiah 52:11-12

touch no unclean thing: The double 'depart ye, depart ye' echoes the double 'awake, awake' of verse 1, and the command to touch no unclean thing and go out from the midst of her is applied by Paul at 2 Corinthians 6:17 to separation from idolatry, a use the New Testament itself makes of the verse. Those who bear the vessels of the Lord, priestly language carried over from the exodus out of Babylon, are told to be clean for the road ahead. Verse 12 contrasts this departure with the first exodus from Egypt: there is no haste and no flight this time, for the Lord himself goes before them and stands as their rearward.

Isaiah 52:13-15

deal prudently: The fourth servant song opens here and runs through 53:12, and its first note is exaltation: the servant shall deal prudently, be exalted, extolled, and very high. Verse 14 sets against that height a marring beyond any man's, the visage and form disfigured past ordinary recognition, and the astonishment of the nations in verse 15 answers the astonishment the marring itself caused. Paul quotes verse 15 at Romans 15:21 of the gospel reaching those who had not heard, and the Targum of Jonathan reads the servant here as the Messiah exalted, a reading named under the site's handling of rabbinic sources though it places the songs' sufferings elsewhere.