Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament · Isaiah Chương 52

The first two turns in the prophecy (Isaiah 52:1-2, Isaiah 52:3-6) close here. The third turn (Isaiah 52:7-10) exults at the salvation which is being carried into effect. The prophet sees in spirit, how the tidings of the redemption, to which the fall of Babylon, which is equivalent to the dismission of the prisoners, gives the finishing stroke, are carried over the mountains of Judah to Jerusalem. “How lovely upon the mountains are the feet of them that bring good tidings, that publish peace, that bring tidings of good, that publish salvation, that say unto Zion, Thy God reigneth royally!” The words are addressed to Jerusalem, consequently the mountains are those of the Holy Land, and especially those to the north of Jerusalem: m e bhassēr is collective (as in the primary passage, Nahum 2:1; cf., Isaiah 41:27; Psalms 68:12), “whoever brings the glad tidings to Jerusalem.” The exclamation “how lovely” does not refer to the lovely sound of their footsteps, but to the lovely appearance presented by their feet, which spring over the mountains with all the swiftness of gazelles (Song of Solomon 2:17; Song of Solomon 8:14). Their feet look as if they had wings, because they are the messengers of good tidings of joy. The joyful tidings that are left indefinite in m e bhassēr , are afterwards more particularly described as a proclamation of peace, good, salvation, and also as containing the announcement “thy God reigneth,” i.e., has risen to a right royal sway, or seized upon the government ( מל ך in an inchoative historical sense, as in the theocratic psalms which commence with the same watchword, or like ἐβασίλευσε in Revelation 19:6, cf., Revelation 11:17). Up to this time, when His people were in bondage, He appeared to have lost His dominion (Isaiah 63:19); but now He has ascended the throne as a Redeemer with greater glory than ever before (Isaiah 24:23). The gospel of the swift-footed messengers, therefore, is the gospel of the kingdom of God that is at hand; and the application which the apostle makes of this passage of Isaiah in Romans 10:15, is justified by the fact that the prophet saw the final and universal redemption as though in combination with the close of the captivity.

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How will the prophets rejoice, when they see bodily before them what they have already seen from afar! “Hark, thy watchers! They lift up the voice together; they rejoice: for they see eye to eye, how Jehovah bringeth Zion home.” קול followed by a genitive formed an interjectional clause, and had almost become an interjection itself (see Genesis 4:10). The prophets are here called tsōphı̄m , spies, as persons who looked into the distance as if from a watch-tower ( specula , Isaiah 21:6; Habakkuk 2:1) just as in Isaiah 56:10. It is assumed that the people of the captivity would still have prophets among them: in fact, the very first word in these prophecies (Isaiah 40:1) is addressed to them. They who saw the redemption from afar, and comforted the church therewith (different from m e bhassēr , the evangelist of the fulfilment), lift up their voice together with rejoicing; for they see Jehovah bringing back Zion, as closely as one man is to another when he looks directly into his eyes (Numbers 14:14). בּ is the same as in the construction בּ ראה ; and שׁוּב has the transitive meaning reducere , restituere (as in Psalms 14:7; Psalms 126:1, etc.), which is placed beyond all doubt by שׁוּבנוּ in Psalms 85:5.

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Zion is restored, inasmuch as Jehovah turns away her misery, brings back her exiles, and causes the holy city to rise again from her ruins. “Break out into exultation, sing together, ye ruins of Jerusalem: for Jehovah hath comforted His people, He hath redeemed Jerusalem.” Because the word of consolation has become an act of consolation, i.e., of redemption, the ruins of Jerusalem are to break out into jubilant shouting as they rise again from the ground.

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Jehovah has wrought out salvation through judgment in the sight of all the world. “Jehovah hath made bare His holy arm before the eyes of all nations, and all the ends of the earth see the salvation of our God.” As a warrior is accustomed to make bare his right arm up to the shoulder, that he may fight without encumbrance ( exsertare humeros nudamque lacessere pugnan , as Statius says in Theb. i. 413), so has Jehovah made bare His holy arm, that arm in which holiness dwells, which shines with holiness, and which acts in holiness, that arm which has been hitherto concealed and therefore has appeared to be powerless, and that in the sight of the whole world of nations; so that all the ends of the earth come to see the reality of the work, which this arm has already accomplished by showing itself in its unveiled glory - in other words, “the salvation of our God.”

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In this sense there follows here, immediately after the cry. “Go ye out from Babylon,” an index pointing from the suffering of the Servant to His reward in glory. “Behold, my servant will act wisely; he will come forth, and arise, and be very high.” Even apart from Isaiah 42:1, hinnēh ( hēn ) is a favourite commencement with Isaiah; and this very first v. contains, according to Isaiah's custom, a brief, condensed explanation of the theme. The exaltation of the Servant of Jehovah is the theme of the prophecy which follows. In v. 13 a the way is shown, by which He reaches His greatness; in v. 13 b the increasing greatness itself. השׂכּיל by itself means simply to gain, prove, or act with intelligence (lxx συνήσει ); and then, since intelligent action, as a rule, is also effective, it is used as synonymous with הצליח , הכשׁהיר , to act with result, i.e., so as to be successful. Hence it is only by way of sequence that the idea of “prosperously” is connected with that of “prudently” (e.g., Joshua 1:8; Jeremiah 10:21). The word is never applied to such prosperity as a man enjoys without any effort of his own, but only to such as he attains by successful action, i.e., by such action as is appropriate to the desired and desirable result. In Jeremiah 23:2, where hiskı̄l is one feature in the picture of the dominion exercised by the Messiah, the idea of intelligent action is quite sufficient, without any further subordinate meaning. But here, where the exaltation is derived from ישׂכיל as the immediate consequence, without any intervening על־כן , there is naturally associated with the idea of wise action, i.e., of action suited to the great object of his call, that of effective execution or abundant success, which has as its natural sequel an ever-increasing exaltation. Rosenmüller observes, in Isaiah 52:13, “There is no need to discuss, or even to inquire, what precise difference there is in the meaning of the separate words;” but this is a very superficial remark. If we consider that rūm signifies not only to be high, but to rise up (Proverbs 11:11) and become exalted, and also to become manifest as exalted (Ps. 21:14), and that נשּׂא , according to the immediate and original reflective meaning of the niphal, signifies to raise one's self, whereas gâbhah expresses merely the condition, without the subordinate idea of activity, we obtain this chain of thought: he will rise up, he will raise himself still higher, he will stand on high. The three verbs (of which the two perfects are defined by the previous future) consequently denote the commencement, the continuation, and the result or climax of the exaltation; and Stier is not wrong in recalling to mind the three principal steps of the exaltatio in the historical fulfilment, viz., the resurrection, the ascension, and the sitting down at the right hand of God. The addition of the word מאד shows very clearly that וגבהּ is intended to be taken as the final result: the servant of Jehovah, rising from stage to stage, reaches at last an immeasurable height, that towers above everything besides (comp. ὑπερύψωσε in Philippians 2:9, with ὑψωθείς in Acts 2:33, and for the nature of the ὑπερύψωσε , Ephesians 1:20-23).

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