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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].