Isaiah 52

Notes

Ver. 1-6. Rejoice, ye Jews, in hopes of being graciously delivered from your heathen oppressors and corrupters without any ransom, even as you have already been from the Egyptians and the Assyrians. And as I get nothing by your misery but blasphemous reproaches, as if I could not, or cared not, to deliver you, I will make you quickly to experience the fulfilment of all my promises. And in like manner rejoice, thou gospel church, in hopes of thy extension, purification, and deliverance from every enemy, heathen, Popish, or Mahometan. 7-12. Great joy and harmony, hearty renunciation of idols, and a composed return of the Jews to their own land, shall be produced by the proclamation of Cyrus, and the Lord's powerful appearance for their relief; and much more by the publication of the gospel by Jesus Christ and his apostles, and by the effectual redemption of multitudes from heathenism, Popery, Satan, and their own lusts, by an ascended Redeemer. 13-15. The infinitely well-qualified Messiah, in consequence of his inexpressible ignominy, debasement, and suffering, shall be highly exalted as Head over all things to his church; and shall, by his Word, his Spirit, and blood, purify multitudes of sinful Gentiles from their iniquities; and even kings, and other great ones, shall with reverence hear his gospel truths, which had been hid from former generations, and shall submit to his laws.

Ver. 1. Put on thy strength. The only strength of the church is Christ, whom spiritually she puts on, as armour for defence and garments for beauty, Ro. 13. 12, 14; Ga. 3. 27; Ep. 4. 24; 6. 11. C.

Ver. 3, 4. The passage is elliptical. Its general object is to prove that God, as he had delivered his people in days past, when in imminent danger, so he would deliver them now. Barnes has given the following paraphrase, which brings out the full sense:—'Ye have been sold for nought, and ye shall be ransomed without price. As a proof that God can do it, and will do it, remember, says he, that my people went down formerly to Egypt, and designed to sojourn there for a little time, and that they were there reduced to slavery, and oppressed by Pharaoh, but that I ransomed them without money, and brought them forth by my own power. Remember also how often the Assyrian has oppressed them without cause. Remember the history of Sennacherib, and Tiglath-pileser, and Shalmaneser, and how they have laid the land waste; and remember, also, how the Lord has delivered it from these oppressors. With the same certainty and the same ease he can deliver the people from the captivity of Babylon.' P.

Ver. 5. My name . . . is blasphemed. Either by the heathen exulting in their victory over Israel, as Sennacherib did in his pride, and saying, 'Where is your God?' 2 Ki. 18. 22, 30, 33-35; 19. 10; or by the irreligious conduct of the Jews, who, while professing zeal for the law, did, through breaking of that law, bring dishonour and blasphemy upon the holy name of their God, Ro. 2. 23, 24. C.

Ver. 7. This is the exclamation of the 'watchmen,' ver. 8, announcing the Prince of Peace, whose 'feet' alone they describe: those feet 'like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace,' Re. 1. 15, emblem of that furnace of affliction, ch. 48. 10, in which his church is to be melted, and by his Spirit purified from her dross. C.

Ver. 11. Go ye out from thence. Whence? From 'Egypt,' from 'the dust,' ver. 2, 4, from 'the nations, the ends of the earth,' ver. 10, into which they had been scattered. A similar exhortation is extended by St. Paul to the Gentile church, to come out from the idolatry of the world, 2 Co. 6. 17, and by St. John to come out from the mystical Babylon, Re. 18. 4—all progressive parts of the same glorious march of prophecy.—Be ye clean, &c. These are the priests, the Levites being interdicted from 'coming nigh the 'vessels' of the sanctuary,' Nu. 18. 3. But now all believers being 'kings and priests,' Re. 1. 6, are here exhorted to cleanse the vessels in which they bear the Lord's treasure, 2 Co. 4. 7. C.

Ver. 12. The God of Israel—not of Israel the people, but of Israel 'the prevailer with God,' prevailer by sacrifice and intercession—'the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.' See ch. 49. 3; Ro. 15. 16; Ep. 1. 17. C.

Ver. 13. These three verses (13-15) are closely connected with ch. liii. They constitute a portion of the same grand prophecy. The sense is greatly marred by their being placed at the close of this chapter, and separated from that which follows. From the deliverance of Israel from the Babylonish captivity, the prophet passes to a greater and far more glorious deliverance—that of his people from the captivity of sin by the atoning work of the Messiah. P.

Ver. 14. There is a want of grammatical correspondence, and consequent obscurity, in the translation of this verse. 'As' requires either another 'as' to follow, or a 'so' to correspond, expressed or understood. May not this be rectified by placing the 'so' where it stands in the Hebrew, at the commencement of the second clause? And is not the meaning as follows:—'As many were astonished at thee,' O Jerusalem, ver. 9, when thy visage was marred in the dust, and thy form in chains, ver. 2, 'so his (my servant's) visage was marred more than any man,' &c. C.

Reflections.—God's grace and our duty, his glory and our salvation, are marvellously connected. Both saints and sinners ought to bestir themselves when he offers deliverance. And thrice happy is the church when she is duly separated from the world, which lieth in wickedness. And yet how averse are many to partake of this blessedness: how averse to accept of an offered deliverance from corrupt lusts, or from corrupt societies and synagogues of Satan! But blessed are the effects of Jesus' gospel and government in the world, powerful the influence of his offices and states, and gracious the manifestation of his person, sufferings, and glory for the conviction of the most hardened sinners.