Isaiah 52

Wake up, wake up! Put on your strength, Zion. Put on your finest clothes, Jerusalem, the holy city. From now on, no one uncircumcised and no one unclean will enter you again.

1Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.

NoteZion was originally the name of the fortified hill David captured in Jerusalem; by Isaiah's time it stood for the temple hill and for the city as a whole. "Uncircumcised" means foreigners: circumcision was the physical mark of belonging to Israel, so the word functioned as a label for outsiders. "Unclean" does not mean dirty: it means ritually unfit to enter sacred space, a condition anyone could fall into through contact with a corpse, certain illnesses, or ordinary bodily events, and which was removed by set procedures.

2Shake the dust off yourself. Get up and take your seat, Jerusalem. Take the chains off your neck, captive Daughter of Zion.

2Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.

NoteSitting in the dust was the recognized posture of mourning, defeat, and humiliation; a conquered city or person was pictured sitting on the ground. The seat being taken here is a throne, the city is told to move from the dirt to the chair of a ruler. "Daughter of Zion" is a standard Hebrew way of personifying a city as a woman, not a reference to any individual.

3This is what the LORD says: "You were sold for nothing, and you will be bought back without any money being paid."

3For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.

Note"Bought back" translates a legal term from Israelite family law: when someone fell into debt-slavery or lost family land, a relative could pay the price to get the person or property back. The point of the wording is that the transaction goes both ways without money, no price was received when they were handed over, and none will be paid to get them out.

4This is what the Lord GOD says: "Long ago my people went down to Egypt to live there as foreigners. Later Assyria crushed them for no reason at all.

4For thus saith the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.

NoteEgypt is the ancestral memory of slavery there and the escape from it. Assyria was the empire that dominated the region in Isaiah's own century, destroying the northern Israelite kingdom in 722 BC and besieging Jerusalem in 701 BC. The two names bracket the nation's history of being at other powers' mercy.

5So what do I have here now?" says the LORD. "My people have been carried off for nothing. Those who rule over them make them wail," says the LORD, "and my name is insulted all day long, without stopping.

5Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed.

NoteIn the ancient world a nation's fortunes were read as a measure of its god's strength, so a people carried off into exile made their God look defeated, hence the insult to his name. The Hebrew word behind "make them wail" is uncertain: it may describe the rulers making the captives howl, or the rulers themselves howling in mockery. Both readings are defensible.

6So my people will come to know my name. On that day they will know that I am the one who speaks. Here I am!"

6Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.

NoteIn Hebrew a "name" carries the person's character and reputation, not just what to call them; to know God's name is to know who he actually is. "Here I am" is the ordinary Hebrew answer of someone responding when called.

7How welcome on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, who announces peace, who brings the good news of good things, who announces rescue, who says to Zion, "Your God is king!"

7How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

NoteThe picture is of a runner arriving with the outcome of a distant battle, coming into view on the hills that surround Jerusalem before he can be heard. "Your God is king" is the formula shouted to announce that a ruler has taken the throne.

8Listen! Your watchmen are shouting. Together they sing for joy, because they will see it with their own eyes when the LORD comes back to Zion.

8Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.

NoteWatchmen were sentries posted on the city walls and towers, the first to spot anyone approaching across open country. The King James phrase "see eye to eye" does not mean agreeing with each other, as it does in modern English; it means seeing directly, with their own eyes, at close range.

9Burst into joy, sing together, you ruined parts of Jerusalem, because the LORD has comforted his people. He has bought Jerusalem back.

9Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.

NoteThe ruins are those left by Babylon's destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC, when the city walls and temple were pulled down and much of the population deported. "Bought back" is again the language of paying to release a relative from slavery or recover lost family property.

10The LORD has bared his holy arm where all the nations can see it. Every part of the earth, right to its farthest edges, will see our God rescue his people.

10The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

NoteMen wore long, loose sleeves, so pushing the sleeve back off the arm was the practical gesture of getting ready to fight or do heavy work. A bared arm was a standard image for military power about to be used.

11Leave, leave, go out from there! Do not touch anything unclean. Come out from the middle of that place. Make yourselves clean, you who carry the containers and tools used in the LORD's worship.

11Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.

Note"There" and "that place" mean Babylon, where the exiles were held. The containers and tools are the temple vessels that Babylon looted from Jerusalem and later sent back; the people carrying them would be priests and Levites, who had to be in a state of ritual purity to handle sacred objects.

12You will not have to leave in a rush, and you will not have to run away in fear, because the LORD will go ahead of you, and the God of Israel will guard you from behind.

12For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward.

NoteThis is a deliberate contrast with the escape from Egypt, which the older accounts describe as done in a rush, with bread that had no time to rise. A rear guard was the detachment marching at the back of a column to protect it from attack from behind, the most vulnerable position for refugees carrying goods.

13Look, my servant will act wisely and will succeed. He will be raised up and lifted high and greatly honored.

13Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

Note"My servant" is a figure who appears repeatedly through these chapters of Isaiah, sometimes identified with the nation of Israel and sometimes clearly an individual acting on its behalf; the passage beginning here runs on into chapter 53. The Hebrew verb rendered "act wisely" also carries the sense "succeed", Hebrew treats acting with insight and coming out well as one idea, and translators are split on which sense is primary.

14Many people were horrified when they looked at him. His face was ruined more than any other man's, and his body was damaged beyond human likeness.

14As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:

Note"Astonied" is the older English form of "astonished," and in 1611 it meant stunned or appalled rather than merely surprised. The Hebrew shifts person awkwardly here: it addresses "you" and then describes "him", and translations differ over whether the disfigured figure is being spoken to or spoken about.

15In the same way he will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths because of him, because they will see what no one ever told them, and they will understand what they never heard.

15So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

NoteThe Hebrew verb here is the one used for the ritual flicking of blood or water onto people and objects to purify them. But the grammar is unusual, and ancient translators read it differently, the old Greek version has "many nations will be amazed," and some modern scholars propose "startle" or "make them jump." The choice is genuinely unresolved. Kings shutting their mouths is a gesture of speechless deference before someone of higher rank.