Isaiah 52:12
in Isaiah 52For you will not leave in a hurry nor flee in haste, for the LORD goes before you, and the God of Israel is your rear guard.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For ye shall not go out in haste, neither shall ye go by flight: for Jehovah will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rearward.
KJV
For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the Lord will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward.
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This verse in Isaiah 52
Commentary
10 notes on this verse(Vers. 11-12.) Step back, step back, go out from there, do not touch the impure: go out from its midst, you who carry the vessels of the Lord. For you will not go out in tumult, nor will you hurry in flight. For the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will gather you together.
This site's exposition
Depart, depart, go out from there!
on Isaiah 52:11-12
The double “Depart, depart” echoes the double call of verse 1, and Paul applies “Touch no unclean thing” at 2 Corinthians 6:17. Those who “carry the vessels of the LORD” must be clean for the road. Unlike the hurried exodus from Egypt, “you will not leave in a hurry”.
This site's exposition
Israel is your rear guard
Barnes sets the verse against the haste of Deuteronomy 16:3, and notes that the exiles left Babylon with time to prepare to carry the vessels. Gill adds that they would leave openly, unafraid. Jerome's Latin has the God of Israel gather them where the Berean has rear guard.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Third, he shows the manner of their flight, as to purity: be clean, you priests; as to security: for you shall not go out in a tumult, namely, of war, as you did from Egypt: he brought forth his people (Ps 104[105]:43); as to their …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight,.... As persons afraid of their enemies, of being pursued, overtaken, and detained by them; privily or by stealth, like fugitives, as the Oriental versions render it; in like manner as the Israelites went out of Egypt: but it signifies, that they should go out openly, boldly, quietly, and safely, and without fear of their enemies; yea, their enemies rather being afraid of them.
As the prophecy of Christ's incarnation was intended for the ratification of the promise of their deliverance from the Assyrian army, so this of Christ's death and resurrection is to confirm the promise of their return out of Babylon; for both these salvations were typical of the great redemption and the prophecies of them had a reference to that.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
For ye shall not go out with haste - As if driven out, or compelled to flee. You shall not go from Babylon as your fathers went from Egypt, in a rapid flight, and in a confused and tumultuous manner (see Deu 16:3). The idea here is, that they should have time to prepare themselves to go out, and to become fit to bear the vessels of the Lord. It was a fact that when they left Babylon they did it with the utmost deliberation, and had ample time to make any preparation that was necessary.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
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.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST is continually represented under the figure of an army; yet its Captain is the Prince of Peace; its object is the establishment of peace, and its soldiers are men of a peaceful disposition. The spirit of war is at the extremely opposite point to the spirit of the gospel. Yet nevertheless, the church on earth has, and until the second advent must be, the church militant, the church armed, the church warring, the church conquering. And how is this? It is in the very order of things that so it must be.
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST is continually represented under the figure of an army; yet its Captain is the Prince of Peace; its object is the establishment of peace, and its soldiers are men of a peaceful disposition. The spirit of war is at the extremely opposite point to the spirit of the gospel. Yet nevertheless, the church on earth has, and until the second advent must be, the church militant, the church armed, the church warring, the church conquering. And how is this? It is in the very order of things that so it must be. Truth could not be truth in this world if it were not a warring thing, and we should at once suspect that it were not true if error were friends with it. The spotless purity of truth must always be at war with the blackness of heresy and lies. I say again, it would cast a suspicion upon its own nature; we should feel at once that it was not true, if it were not an enmity with the false. And so at this present time, the church of Christ, being herself the only incarnation of truth left upon this world, must be at war with error of every kind of shape; or if she were not, we should at once conclude that she was not herself the church of the living God. It is but a rule of nature that holiness must be at enmity with sin. That would be but a mock purity which could lie side by side with iniquity and claim its kinship. “Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee?” Shall Christ and Belial walk together? Shall the holy be linked with the unholy? If it were so, beloved, we might then not only suspect that the church was not the holy, universal and apostolic church; we might not only suspect it, but we might beyond suspicion pronounce a verdict upon her, “Thou art no more Christ’s bride; thou art an antichrist, an apostate.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
for..goes before you Two things at the end of this verse explain two things in its beginning, [viz.] For not with haste shall you go forth. What is the reason?
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Behold My servant shall prosper Behold, at the end of days, My servant, Jacob, [i.e.,] the righteous among him, shall prosper.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
14 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּ֣י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| לֹ֤א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| בְחִפָּזוֹן֙ | vechipazon | in haste | H2649 → | |
| תֵּצֵ֔אוּ | tetzeu | you will go out | H3318 → | 1067 times |
| וּבִמְנוּסָ֖ה | uvimnusah | and in flight | H4499 → | |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תֵלֵכ֑וּן | telekhun | you will go ! | H1980 → | 1546 times |
| כִּֽי־ | ki- | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| הֹלֵ֤ךְ | holekh | [will be] going | H1980 → | 1546 times |
| לִפְנֵיכֶם֙ | lifneikhem | <to> before you | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| יְהוָ֔ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| וּמְאַסִּפְכֶ֖ם | umeasifkhem | and [will be] rearguard your | H622 → | 200 times |
| אֱלֹהֵ֥י | ʾelohei | [the] God of | H430 → | 2601 times |
| יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ ס | yisrael | Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
כִּ֣יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
לֹ֤אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
בְחִפָּזוֹן֙in haste
vechipazonH2649 →
תֵּצֵ֔אוּyou will go out
tetzeuH3318 →1067 times
וּבִמְנוּסָ֖הand in flight
uvimnusahH4499 →
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
תֵלֵכ֑וּןyou will go !
telekhunH1980 →1546 times
כִּֽי־for
ki-H3588 →4482 times
הֹלֵ֤ךְ[will be] going
holekhH1980 →1546 times
לִפְנֵיכֶם֙<to> before you
lifneikhemH6440 →2123 times
יְהוָ֔הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
וּמְאַסִּפְכֶ֖םand [will be] rearguard your
umeasifkhemH622 →200 times
אֱלֹהֵ֥י[the] God of
ʾeloheiH430 →2601 times
יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ סIsrael
yisraelH3478 →2507 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 58:8Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will come quickly. Your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 33:6
Nevertheless, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal its people and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.
- Psalms 37:6
He will bring forth your righteousness like the dawn, your justice like the noonday sun.
- Jeremiah 30:17
But I will restore your health and heal your wounds, declares the LORD, because they call you an outcast, Zion, for whom no one cares.”
- Psalms 85:13
Righteousness will go before Him to prepare the way for His steps.
- Malachi 4:2
“But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.
- Jeremiah 33:6
Through
Isaiah 45:2“I will go before you and level the mountains; I will break down the gates of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.
it leads to
- Isaiah 40:4
Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground will become smooth, and the rugged land a plain.
- Isaiah 42:16
I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on unfamiliar paths. I will turn darkness into light before them and rough places into level ground. These…
- Luke 3:5
Every valley shall be filled in, and every mountain and hill made low. The crooked ways shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth.
- Isaiah 40:4
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Isaiah
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit, Sermon No. 230: “The Vanguard and Rereward of the Church” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.