Isaiahchapter 62
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Speaks with:Isaiah 62×5Zechariah 9×2Zephaniah 3×2Isaiah 65×2Proverbs 4×1Isaiah 32×1
Summary
Chapter summary
Zion's vindication drives this chapter: the speaker will not hold his peace until her righteousness goes forth as brightness. Nations and kings will see her glory, and she receives a new name from Jehovah's own mouth, no longer Forsaken and Desolate but Hephzi-bah ("my delight is in her") and Beulah ("married"), for as a bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so God rejoices over her. Watchmen posted on Jerusalem's walls are charged to give Jehovah no rest until he makes the city a praise in the earth. Jehovah swears by his right hand that enemies will no more eat her grain or drink her new wine. Commands follow (go through the gates, cast up the highway, lift up an ensign) and a proclamation to the daughter of Zion: her salvation comes, and she will be called "Sought out, a city not forsaken."
Context
Prophecy · Isaiah — Isaiah overview
- A. 1–5 Thou Shalt Be Called Hephzibah, and Thy Land Beulah
- B. 6–12 Watchmen Who Never Hold Their Peace: Prepare the Highway
The outline
A.Thou Shalt Be Called Hephzibah, and Thy Land Beulahvv. 1 to 5
Read vv. 1 to 5 →B.Watchmen Who Never Hold Their Peace: Prepare the Highwayvv. 6 to 12
Read vv. 6 to 12 →
The world behind this chapter
Isaiah 62The history
Renaming was what conquerors did. An empire took a city and gave it the victor's name, and the new name announced who owned it. Here God renames Jerusalem himself, and the two names are personal rather than imperial: Hephzibah, meaning my delight is in her, and Beulah, meaning married. Hephzibah was also the name of Hezekiah's own queen, so the word was in living use as a woman's name in Judah.
The watchmen are posted for a job that has no end. I have set watchmen on your walls who shall never hold their peace day or night — and then they are told to give God no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes her a praise in the earth. A watchman's whole function was to call out continuously through his shift; here the shift never ends and the calling is prayer.
The road work in the last verses is manual labor, described in order: go through, go through the gates, prepare the way for the people, build up the highway, take out the stones, lift up a banner for the peoples. Clearing stones out of a track was the actual first task in making a road passable for carts, and a banner raised on a pole was how you told travelers from a distance where to head.
The promise about the harvest addresses the single most reliable misery of that world. Raiding parties came at harvest, because that is when there was something to take, and a farmer could lose a year's work in a morning. God swears that he will no longer give your grain to be food for your enemies, and the sons of the foreigner will not drink your new wine for which you have labored — but those who harvest it will eat it and praise the LORD, and those who gather it will drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.
What it meant to them
The names the city had been carrying are quoted so the new ones land: you shall no longer be termed Forsaken, nor your land termed Desolate. Those were not just moods. They were what the neighbors called the place.
And the last new name is the one a returning people needed most: you shall be called Sought Out, a City Not Forsaken. Somebody came looking for them.
Sources cited
- Edward J. Young, The Book of Isaiah (3 vols.)
- Walton, Matthews & Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Isaiah 62. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 2 · A new name given
The promised 'new name' on a white stone (Rev 2:17; 3:12; Isa 62:2), the renaming motif's eschatological terminus. Supports the forehead-name occurrences (Rev 14:1 'Father's name'; 22:4 'his name in their foreheads'): the forehead is where identity is sealed.
Revelation 2:17→He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone inscribed with a new name, known…
Read the whole verse
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone inscribed with a new name, known only to the one who receives it.
onomastics (Rev 2:17; 3:12; Isa 62:2)
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.