1Wache aufH5782, wache aufH5782; kleideH3847 dich, ZionH6726, inH935 deine MachtH5797! KleideH3847 dich in deine Prachtgewänder, JerusalemH3389, du heiligeH6944 StadtH5892! Denn hinfortH3254 wird kein UnbeschnittenerH6189 und kein UnreinerH2931 in dich eintreten. 2SchüttleH5287 den StaubH6083 von dir ab, stehe aufH6965, setze dichH3427 hin, JerusalemH3389! Mache dich losH6605 von den Fesseln deines HalsesH6677, du gefangeneH7628 TochterH1323 ZionH6726! 3Denn so sprichtH559 JehovaH3068 : UmsonstH2600 seid ihr verkauftH4376 worden, und nicht um GeldH3701 sollt ihr gelöst werdenH1350. 4Denn so sprichtH559 der HerrH136, Jehova: Nach ÄgyptenH4714 zog mein VolkH5971 im Anfang hinabH3381, um sichH1481 daselbst aufzuhalten; und AssyrienH804 hat esH7223 ohne UrsacheH657 bedrücktH6231. 5Und nun, was habe ich hier zu schaffen? sprichtH5002 JehovaH3068. Denn mein VolkH5971 istH3947 umsonstH2600 hinweggenommen; seine Beherrscher jauchzen, sprichtH5002 JehovaH3068, und beständig, den ganzen TagH3117, wird mein NameH8034 gelästertH5006. 6Darum soll mein VolkH5971 meinen NamenH8034 kennen lernen, darum an jenem TageH3117 erfahrenH3045, daß ich es bin, der da sprichtH1696 : Hier bin ich! 7Wie lieblichH4998 sind auf den BergenH2022 die FüßeH7272 dessen, der frohe BotschaftH1319 bringt, der FriedenH7965 verkündigt, der BotschaftH1319 des GutenH2896 bringt, der HeilH3444 verkündigt, der zu ZionH6726 sprichtH559 : Dein GottH430 herrscht als KönigH4427! 8StimmeH6963 deiner WächterH6822! SieH7442 erhebenH5375 die StimmeH6963, sieH7725 jauchzen insgesamt; denn AugeH5869 in AugeH5869 sehenH7200 sie, wie JehovaH3068 ZionH6726 wiederbringt. 9Brechet in Jubel aus, jauchzet insgesamt, ihr Trümmer JerusalemsH3389! Denn JehovaH3068 hatH1350 seinH6476 VolkH5971 getröstetH5162, hat JerusalemH3389 erlöst. 10JehovaH3068 hat seinen heiligenH6944 ArmH2220 entblößtH2834 vor den AugenH5869 aller Nationen, und alle EndenH657 derH3444 ErdeH776 sehenH7200 die Rettung unseres GottesH430. - 11WeichetH5493, weichet, gehet vonH3318 dannen hinaus, rühret nichts UnreinesH2931 anH5060! Gehet hinaus ausH3318 ihrer MitteH8432, reiniget euchH5493, die ihr die GeräteH3627 JehovasH3068 tragetH5375! 12Denn nicht in Hast sollt ihr ausziehenH3318, undH3212 nicht in FluchtH4499 weggehen; denn JehovaH3068 zieht vorH6440 euchH1980 her, und eure Nachhut istH622 der GottH430 IsraelsH3478. 13Siehe, mein KnechtH5650 wird einsichtig handeln; er wird erhoben undH5375 erhöhtH7311 werdenH7919 und sehrH3966 hochH1361 sein. 14Gleichwie sich vieleH7227 über dich entsetzt haben-so entstellt war sein Aussehen, mehr als irgend eines MannesH376, undH4758 seine Gestalt, mehr als der MenschenkinderH1121 15ebenso wird er vieleH7227 Nationen in Staunen setzen, über ihn werdenH5608 KönigeH4428 ihren MundH6310 verschließen. Denn sie werdenH7200 sehen, was ihnen nichtH995 erzählt worden war; und was sie nicht gehörtH8085 hatten, werden sie wahrnehmen.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 FIRST THROUGH THIRTEEN VERSES CONNECTED WITH FIFTY-FIRST CHAPTER. (Isa. 52:1-15)
strength--as thy adornment; answering to "beautiful garments" in the parallel clause. Arouse thyself from dejection and assume confidence.
the holy city-- (
Neh 11:1;
Rev 21:2).
no more . . . unclean-- (
Isa 35:8;
Isa 60:21;
Joel 3:17;
Rev 21:27). A prophecy never yet fulfilled.
uncircumcised--spiritually (
Ezek 44:9;
Acts 7:51).
2 from the dust--the seat of mourners (
Job 2:12-
Job 2:13).
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 (
Rom 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-
Isa 49:25) 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 (
Ezek 20:9,
Ezek 20:14).
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;
Zech 12:10;
Zech 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-
Isa 25:7;
Song 2:17) running in haste with the long-expected good tidings, is most grateful to the desolated city (
Nah 1:15).
good tidings--only partially applying to the return from Babylon. Fully, and antitypically, the Gospel (
Luke 2:10-
Luke 2:11), "beginning at Jerusalem" (
Luke 24:17), "the city of the great King" (
Matt 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-
Isa 21:8). The Hebrew is more forcible than English Version, "The voice of thy watchmen" (exclamatory as in
Song 2:8). "They lift up their voice! together they sing."
eye to eye--that is, close at hand, and so clearly [GESENIUS];
Num 14:14, "face to face";
Num 12:8, "mouth to mouth." Compare
1Cor 13:12;
Rev 22:4, of which Simeon's sight of the Saviour was a prefiguration (
Luke 2:30). The watchmen, spiritually, are ministers and others who pray for the peace of Jerusalem (
Isa 62:6-
Isa 62:7),
bring again--that is, restore. Or else, "return to" [MAURER].
9 (
Isa 14:7-
Isa 14:8;
Isa 42:11).
redeemed--spiritually and nationally (
Isa 48:20).
10 made bare . . . arm--metaphor from warriors who bare their arm for battle (
Ezek 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-
Isa 66:20). The partial fulfilment (
Luke 3:6) is a forerunner of the future complete fulfilment.
11 (
Isa 48:20;
Zech 2:6-
Zech 2:7). Long residence in Babylon made many loath to leave it: so as to mystical Babylon (
Rev 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 (
2Chr 36:18). Cyrus restored them (
Ezra 1:7-
Ezra 1:11).
be . . . clean--by separating yourselves wholly from Babylonian idolaters, mystical and literal.
12 not . . . with haste--as when ye left Egypt (
Exod 12:33,
Exod 12:39;
Deut 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;
Exod 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 (
Matt 8:17;
Mark 15:28;
Luke 22:37;
John 12:38;
Acts 8:28-
Acts 8:35;
Rom 10:16;
1Pet 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 (
Mark 9:12;
Rom 4:25;
1Cor 15:3;
2Cor 5:21;
1Pet 1:19;
1Pet 2:21-25;
1John 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-
Isa 53:6,
Isa 53:9,
Isa 53:11; contrast
Jer 20:7;
Jer 15:10-
Jer 15:21;
Ps 137:8-
Ps 137:9).
Isa 53:9 can hold good of none other. The objection that the sufferings (
Isa 53:1-
Isa 53:10) referred to are represented as past, the glorification alone as future (
Isa 52:13-
Isa 52:15;
Isa 53:11-
Isa 53:12) 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
John 19:5,
John 19:14).
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;
Isa 53:12) begins as it ends with His final glory.
extolled--elevated (
Mark 16:19;
Eph 1:20-
Eph 1:22;
1Pet 3:22).
14 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;
Jer 19:8), &c.; his visage, &c.; so shall He sprinkle," &c.; Israel in this answers to its antitype Messiah, now "an astonishment and byword" (
Deut 28:37), hereafter about to be a blessing and means of salvation to many nations (
Isa 2:2-
Isa 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 (
Lev 4:6;
Lev 16:18-
Lev 16:19); or with water, to purify (
Ezek 36:25; compare as to the Spirit,
Acts 2:33), both appropriate to Messiah (
John 13:8;
Heb 9:13-
Heb 9:14;
Heb 10:22;
Heb 12:24;
1Pet 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,
Isa 49:23) shall be dumb with awe and veneration ("shut . . . mouths";
Job 29:9-
Job 29:10;
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;
Rom 15:21;
Rom 16:25-
Rom 16:26).
The speaker, according to HORSLEY, personates the repenting Jews in the latter ages of the world coming over to the faith of the Redeemer; the whole is their penitent confession. This view suits the context (
Isa 52:7-
Isa 52:9), which is not to be fully realized until Israel is restored. However, primarily, it is the abrupt exclamation of the prophet: "Who hath believed our report," that of Isaiah and the other prophets, as to Messiah? The infidel's objection from the unbelief of the Jews is anticipated and hereby answered: that unbelief and the cause of it (Messiah's humiliation, whereas they looked for One coming to reign) were foreseen and foretold.