Isaiah 52
Big idea: A herald appears on the hills with news, and the exit from Babylon is ordered to be nothing like the exit from Egypt: not in haste, not by flight — because this time somebody is going in front and somebody is bringing up the rear.
The last three verses open the fourth servant passage, which runs without a break into chapter 53.
52:1–12 — How beautiful on the mountains are the feet
The wake-up call is the mirror of the last chapter's: awake, awake, put on your strength, Zion; put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem. Shake yourself from the dust; arise and sit up; loose the bonds from your neck. The city that was told to sit in the dust in chapter 47 was Babylon; this one is told to get up out of it. And the release is described commercially and then undercut: you were sold for nothing, and you will be redeemed without money. No transaction either way.
1 Awake, awake! Put on your strength, Zion. Put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city, for from now on the uncircumcised and the unclean will no more come into you. 2 Shake yourself from the dust! Arise, sit up, Jerusalem! Release yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion! 3 For Yahweh says, “You were sold for nothing; and you will be redeemed without money.” 4 For the Lord Yahweh says: “My people went down at the first into Egypt to live there; and the Assyrian has oppressed them without cause. 5 “Now therefore, what do I do here,” says Yahweh, “seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them mock,” says Yahweh, “and my name is blasphemed continually all day long. 6 Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he who speaks. Behold, it is I.” 7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” 8 Your watchmen lift up their voice. Together they sing; for they shall see eye to eye when Yahweh returns to Zion. 9 Break out into joy! Sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem; for Yahweh has comforted his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 Yahweh has made his holy arm bare in the eyes of all the nations. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. 11 Depart! Depart! Go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Go out from among her! Cleanse yourselves, you who carry Yahweh’s vessels. 12 For you shall not go out in haste, neither shall you go by flight; for Yahweh will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
52:13–15 — So marred was his appearance
The fourth servant passage begins here, three verses before the chapter division, and it opens with the outcome rather than the story: behold, my servant will deal wisely; he will be exalted and lifted up, and will be very high. Those three verbs are used elsewhere in this book only of God himself — it is the language of 6:1, where the Lord is high and lifted up on a throne.
13 Behold, my servant will deal wisely. He will be exalted and lifted up, and will be very high. 14 Just as many were astonished at you— his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men— 15 so he will cleanse many nations. Kings will shut their mouths at him; for they will see that which had not been told them, and they will understand that which they had not heard.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).