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Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.

Awake, awake. — Pluck up thy best heart, as we say, and rouse up thyself to receive the sweet promises; for as man’s laws, so God’s promises favour not them that are asleep, but awake and watchful.

O Jerusalem, the holy city. — Thou that hast been brought through the fire; being refined as silver is refined, and tried as gold is tried. Zechariah 13:9

There shall no more come into thee. — Or, Against thee, i.e., I will not suffer tyrants to vex thee, or profane ones to harbour with thee. See Isaiah 35:8 .

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Shake thyself from the dust; arise, [and] sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.

Shake thyself from the dust. — Wherein thou layest along when trampled on. Isaiah 51:23

Arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem. — Rather, Arise, sit up, O Jerusalem. It hath been noted before, that when Vespasian had subdued Judea, money was stamped with a woman sitting in the dust, with this inscription, Iudaea subacta.

Loose thyself from the bonds of thy neck. — From thy spiritual servitude especially. as Luke 1:74 Romans 6:19 Shake the devil’s yoke from off thy neck, gestague monilia sponsae et libertatis, and get on the spouse’s ornaments.

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For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.

For thus saith the Lord. — Thus he pleadeth the cause of his people. Isaiah 51:22

Ye have sold yourselves for nought. — Heb., Ye were sold for nought. I had not so much as thanks for you from the enemy; Babylonii non egerunt mihi gratias. - Piscat. no more hath he from the devil: and yet a letter was framed in Hildebrand’s days as sent from the devil, wherein he kindly thanked the Popish clergy for the many souls they daily sent him to hell by their negligence and wickedness. Mat. Paris. Hist., A.D. 1072.

And ye shall be redeemed without money. — Heb., Without silver. So were we. 1 Peter 1:18

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For thus saith the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.

And the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. — Nulla iniuria lacessitus. So did the primitive persecutors, the Christians of those times, though they were non aliunde noscibiles quam ex vitae integritate, saith Justin Martyr; eminent for their innocence, as Pliny also in his epistle to Trajan the emperor testifieth. What hurt had the Israelites ever done to malicious Moab that he was irked at them? Numbers 22:3 or the Hebrews to the Assyrians, that they should oppress them?

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Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the LORD; and my name continually every day [is] blasphemed.

Now, therefore, what have I here? — Cui bono? To what purpose or profit? For what wealth or worth suffer I my poor people to lie captives here at Babylon? Or, as others Piscator. sense it, what make I here any longer at Jerusalem when my poor people are in durance at Babylon? Why hasten I not to help them out?

They that rule over them, make them to howl, — i.e., The Chaldeans, and after them the Romans, and then the scribes and Pharisees, by "binding heavy burdens grievous to be borne, and laying them on men’s consciences." Matthew 23:4

And my name continually every day (or, all the day long) is blasphemed. — That is all I get by the bargain.

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Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore [they shall know] in that day that I [am] he that doth speak: behold, [it is] I.

Therefore my people shall know my name, — sc., That I am Jehovah; as Exodus 6:3 the God of Amen, Isaiah 65:16 who "will not suffer my faithfulness to fail, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my mouth." Psalms 89:33-34 And it shall therefore be so because my name - that nomen maiestativum - hath been blasphemed and vilified. God’s people fare the better for their enemies’ insolencies.

That I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I. — Or, That it is I that do speak, saying, Lo, here I am. This some understand to be the second person in the Trinity, the eternal Son of the eternal Father, called "the Word," John 1:1 and there are those who give us this rule - Where the Old Testament bringeth in God appearing and speaking, we are to understand it always to be the second person. See John 12:37-42 .

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How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

How beautiful! — Quam amaeni, i.e., amabiles! How amiable or desirable. Interrogatio admirantis et exultantis.

Upon the mountains. — Whence they may best be heard, as in Judges 9:7 saying, as there, "Hearken unto me, that God may hearken unto you." Our Saviour, that arch-evangelist, who, as some, is here first and chiefly meant by Mebassher, him that bringeth good tidings, "seeing the multitudes, went up into a mountain," Matthew 5:1 which is said to be in the tribe of Naphtali, and called Christ’s Mount to this day. His apostles afterwards travelled and trudged on foot over hills and dales - what a compass fetched Paul! Romans 15:19 Intervallum illud est milliariorum Germanicorum, 350, so that he might better be called, than afterwards George Eagles the martyr was, Trudge-over-the-world - to preach the gospel and to plant churches, to whom their feet, though fouled and worn - how much more their faces? - were deemed delectable and debonnaire. Galatians 4:14 Acts 10:21 The Pope, Peter’s pretended successor, holdeth forth his feet to be kissed, but preacheth not; or not peace, but war, which he stirreth up by his roaring bulls.

Of him that bringeth good tidings. — Whosoever he be that preacheth the gospel, that chief work of a minister. Romans 10:15 Of Mr John Dod it is written, and I know it to be true, that he was very evangelical, striving first to make men see their lost condition clearly - for, said he, sense of misery must go before sense of mercy - and then largely and excellently opening the promises, and the grace of God in Christ according to the gospel, looking at that as the most effectual preaching. Some, said he, labour still to keep men under terrors, loading them with threatenings, …, lest they should not be humbled enough: but the gospel worketh true humiliation, not the law; it ariseth from sense of sin and misery joined with hope of mercy. The damned have terror and sense of misery enough, but that doth not humble them.

That publisheth peace. — The gospel is a doctrine of peace, Ephesians 2:17 whose author is the "God of peace," 1 Corinthians 14:33 whose ministers are "messengers of peace," Romans 10:15 whose followers are the "children of peace." Luke 10:6-11 If any know not how they came by their peace, but are like the Israelitish women, quick of delivery, before ever the midwife (the minister) can come at them, they have cause to suspect their peace.

That bringeth good tidings. — As before, but never enough, mentioned and memorised. Some critics Bishop Andrews. tell us that the Hebrew word here used, signifying also flesh, showed that the incarnation or taking flesh should be generally good news to the whole world, even the best tidings. The old church had επαγγαλιαν , the "promise"; we have ευαγγελιαν , the "joyful tidings."

That publisheth salvation. — Publicantis Iesum, so some Leo Castrius ex Procop., et Euseb. have rendered it: the concrete for the abstract.

That saith to Zion, Thy God reigneth. — Maugre the malice of earth and of hell. This is the sum of all the good news in the world. It is happy that Christ liveth and reigneth, said a godly man, for else I had utterly despaired.

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Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.

Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice. — Heb., The voice of thy watchmen - sc., " Thy God reigneth"; or, as in the following verse, "Break forth into joy," …

They lift up the voice, they sing together. — As having "no greater joy than that their children walk in the truth," 2 John 1:4 1 Thessalonians 3:8 and the contrary.

For they shall Id est cominus evidentisaime, ut Numbers 14:14 . - Jun. see eye to eye. — And be able to say, as 1 John 1:1 , "That which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon" (and what so sure as sight?) "declare we unto you."

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