@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 24:17), "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].
9. (@Isa 14:7,8 42:11).
redeemed--spiritually and nationally (@Isa 48:20).
10. made bare . . . arm--metaphor from warriors who bare their arm for
battle (@Eze 4:7).
all . . . earth . . . see . . . salvation of . . . God--The deliverance
wrought by God for Israel will cause all nations to acknowledge the Lord
(@Isa 66:18-20). The partial fulfilment (@Lu 3:6) is a forerunner
of the future complete fulfilment.
11. (@Isa 48:20 Zec 2:6,7). Long residence in Babylon made many
loath to leave it: so as to mystical Babylon (@Re 18:4).
ye . . . that bear . . . vessels of the Lord--the priests and Levites,
whose office it was to carry the vessels of the temple (@Jer 27:18).
Nebuchadnezzar had carried them to Babylon (@2Ch 36:18). Cyrus restored
them (@Ezr 1:7-11).
be . . . clean--by separating yourselves wholly from Babylonian
idolaters, mystical and literal.
12. not . . . with haste--as when ye left Egypt
(@Ex 12:33,39 De 16:3; compare Note,
see on Isa 28:16).
Ye shall have time to cleanse yourselves
and make deliberate preparation for departure.
Lord--Jehovah, as your Leader in front
(@Isa 40:3 Ex 23:20 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.
13. Here the fifty-third chapter ought to begin, and the fifty-second
chapter end with @Isa 52:12. This section, from here to end of the
fifty-third chapter settles the controversy with the Jews, if Messiah be
the person meant; and with infidels, if written by Isaiah, or at any
time before Christ. The correspondence with the life and death of Jesus
Christ is so minute, that it could not have resulted from conjecture or
accident. An impostor could not have shaped the course of events so
as to have made his character and life appear to be a fulfilment of it.
The writing is, moreover, declaredly prophetic. The quotations of it
in the New Testament show: (1) that it was, before the time of Jesus, a
recognized part of the Old Testament; (2) that it refers to Messiah
(@Mt 8:17 Mr 15:28 Lu 22:37 Joh 12:38 Ac 8:28-35 Ro 10:16 1Pe 2:21-25).
The indirect allusions to it still more clearly prove the Messianic
interpretation; so universal was that interpretation, that it is simply
referred to in connection with the atoning virtue of His death,
without being formally quoted
(@Mr 9:12 Ro 4:25 1Co 15:3 2Co 5:21 1Pe 1:19 2:21-25 1Jo 3:5). The
genuineness of the passage is certain; for the Jews would not have
forged it, since it is opposed to their notion of Messiah, as a
triumphant temporal prince. The Christians could not have forged it;
for the Jews, the enemies of Christianity, are "our librarians"
[PALEY].
The Jews try to evade its force by the figment of two Messiahs, one a
suffering Messiah (Ben Joseph), the other a triumphant Messiah (Ben David).
HILLEL
maintained that Messiah has already come in the person of
Hezekiah. BUXTORF states that many of the modern Rabbins believe that He
has been come a good while, but will not manifest Himself because of the
sins of the Jews. But the ancient Jews, as the Chaldee paraphrast,
Jonathan, refer it to Messiah; so the Medrasch Tauchuma
(a commentary on the Pentateuch); also Rabbi Moses Haddarschan
(see HENGSTENBERG, Christology of the Old Testament).
Some explain it of
the Jewish people, either in the Babylonish exile, or in their
present sufferings and dispersion. Others, the pious portion of the
nation taken collectively, whose sufferings made a vicarious
satisfaction for the ungodly. Others, Isaiah, or Jeremiah
[GESENIUS],
the prophets collectively. But an individual is plainly
described: he suffers voluntarily, innocently, patiently, and as the
efficient cause of the righteousness of His people, which holds good of
none other but Messiah (@Isa 53:4-6,9,11; contrast
@Jer 20:7 15:10-21 Ps 137:8,9). @Isa 53:9 can hold good of none
other. The objection that the sufferings (@Isa 53:1-10) referred to
are represented as past, the glorification alone as future
(@Isa 52:13-15 53:11,12) arises from not seeing that the prophet
takes his stand in the midst of the scenes which he describes as
future. The greater nearness of the first advent, and the interval
between it and the second, are implied by the use of the past tense as to the first, the future as to the second.
Behold--awakening attention to the striking picture of Messiah that
follows (compare @Joh 19:5,14).
my servant--Messiah (@Isa 42:1).
deal prudently--rather, "prosper"
[GESENIUS] as the parallel clause
favors (@Isa 53:10). Or, uniting both meanings, "shall reign well"
[HENGSTENBERG]. This verse sets forth
in the beginning the ultimate
issue of His sufferings, the description of which follows: the
conclusion (@Isa 53:12) corresponds; the section
(@Isa 52:13 53:12) begins as it ends with His final glory.
extolled--elevated (@Mr 16:19 Eph 1:20-22 1Pe 3:22).
14, 15. Summary of Messiah's history, which is set forth more in
detail in the fifty-third chapter. "Just as many were astonished
(accompanied with aversion, @Jer 18:16 19:8), &c.; his visage,
&c.; so shall He sprinkle," &c.; Israel in this answers to its
antitype Messiah, now "an astonishment and byword" (@De 28:37),
hereafter about to be a blessing and means of salvation to many nations
(@Isa 2:2,3 Mic 5:7).
thee; his--Such changes of persons are common in Hebrew poetry.
marred--Hebrew, "disfigurement"; abstract for concrete; not only
disfigured, but disfigurement itself.
more than man--CASTALIO
translates, "so that it was no longer that
of a man" (compare @Ps 22:6). The more perfect we may suppose the
"body prepared" (@Heb 10:5) for Him by God, the sadder by contrast
was the "marring" of His visage and form.
15. sprinkle many--GESENIUS, for the antithesis to "be astonished,"
translates, "shall cause . . . to exult." But the word universally in
the Old Testament means either to sprinkle with blood, as the high
priest makes an expiation (@Le 4:6 16:18,19); or with water, to
purify (@Eze 36:25; compare as to the Spirit, @Ac 2:33), both
appropriate to Messiah (@Joh 13:8 Heb 9:13,14 10:22 12:24 1Pe 1:2).
The antithesis is sufficient without any forced rendering. Many were astonished; so many (not merely men, but) nations shall be
sprinkled. They were amazed at such an
abject person claiming to be Messiah; yet it is He who shall
justify and purify. Men were dumb with the amazement of scorn at one marred more than the lowest of men, yet the highest: even
kings (@Isa 49:7,23) shall be dumb with awe and veneration ("shut . . . mouths"; @Job 29:9
,10
Mic 7:16).
that . . . not . . . told them--the reason why kings shall so venerate
them; the wonders of redemption, which had not been before told them,
shall then be announced to them, wonders such as they had never heard or
seen parallelled (@Isa 55:1 Ro 15:21 16:25,26).