Isaiah 62

For Zion's sake I will not keep quiet, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her rightness shines out like daybreak and her rescue burns like a lit torch.

1For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.

NoteZion was originally the fortified hill in Jerusalem captured by David; the name then widened to mean the temple hill, the whole city, and the people who lived there. Used this way it stands in parallel with "Jerusalem" in the same line. The word behind "righteousness" here (KJV) and "rightness" carries the sense of vindication, being publicly shown to have been in the right after a long time of looking defeated.

2The nations will see that you are in the right, and all kings will see your glory. You will be called by a new name that the LORD himself will give you.

2And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.

NoteKJV "Gentiles" translates a word that simply means the nations, the peoples other than Israel. It is not a religious label in the Hebrew, just a geographical and political one. In this culture a name stated what a person or place actually was, and the right to give a name belonged to whoever had authority over the one named; so a new name given by God announces a changed condition, not just a changed label.

3You will be a crown of glory held in the LORD's hand, a royal crown held in the hand of your God.

3Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.

NoteThe picture is deliberately odd: a crown is normally worn, but this one is held up in an open hand. A crown displayed rather than worn is a trophy, something shown off to onlookers, the way a victor holds up a prize.

4No one will call you Forsaken anymore, and no one will call your land Desolate anymore. Instead you will be called Hephzibah, and your land will be called Beulah, because the LORD delights in you, and your land will be married.

4Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.

NoteThe four names are meant to be read as names, and each has a meaning. Forsaken and Desolate are the shaming names: "Desolate" is used both of land emptied of its people and of a woman left without husband or children. Hephzibah means "My delight is in her": it was a real woman's name in Judah (the mother of King Manasseh). Beulah means "Married" or "Owned"; the same Hebrew root means both to marry and to take possession of, so calling the land "married" also means it is claimed and occupied again rather than left empty.

5For as a young man marries a young woman, so your sons will marry you; and as a bridegroom is glad over his bride, so your God will be glad over you.

5For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.

Note"Your sons shall marry you" is strange in any language, and the strangeness is in the Hebrew too. Two things are going on. First, the verb translated "marry" also means "take possession of, live in as owner", so the line can mean the city's own children will take her back and settle in her. Second, the word for "your sons" (banayik) differs from "your builder" (bonayik) only in the vowels, which were not written in the oldest Hebrew manuscripts; ancient readers and translators split over which was meant. Translations that keep "sons" and translations that read "builder" are both defensible.

6I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem, and they will never keep quiet, day or night. You who call on the LORD, do not stay silent,

6I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,

NoteWatchmen were sentries posted on a city's walls to stay awake through the night and shout down what they saw coming, an enemy, a messenger, a dust cloud. KJV's "ye that make mention of the LORD" renders a Hebrew phrase that literally means "you who remind the LORD" or "who bring him to remembrance": the watchmen's shouting is aimed at God, not at the city. That is why the next verse tells them to give him no rest.

7and give him no rest until he sets Jerusalem firmly in place and makes her something the whole earth praises.

7And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

8The LORD has made a promise, swearing by his right hand and by his strong arm: I will never again give your grain to your enemies for food, and foreigners will not drink the new wine you worked hard to make.

8The LORD hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies; and the sons of the stranger shall not drink thy wine, for the which thou hast laboured:

NoteSwearing "by his right hand and by the arm of his strength" points to the gesture that went with an oath: the swearer raised his hand. Swearing by one's own arm means staking one's own power on the promise. In KJV English "corn" means grain of any kind (wheat or barley here, not maize, which was unknown in Europe in 1611) and "meat" means food of any kind, not flesh. "Sons of the stranger" is Hebrew idiom for foreigners. Enemies eating a farmer's harvest in front of him was the standard picture of a conquered country; the promise reverses a well-known curse.

9Instead, the people who harvest the grain will eat it and praise the LORD, and the people who gather the grapes will drink the wine in the courts of my holy house.

9But they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the LORD; and they that have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness.

NoteThe "courts of my holiness" are the open courtyards of the temple. Israelite law directed that a portion of each year's grain and new wine be brought to the sanctuary and eaten there as a meal by the family that grew it. Eating your own harvest in that place was the ordinary sign that the year had gone well and the country was at peace.

10Go out, go out through the gates. Clear the road for the people. Build up the highway, build it up; take the stones out of it. Raise a banner for the nations to see.

10Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.

Note"Cast up the highway" describes actual road-building: piling earth into a raised bed so the road stays above mud and floodwater, then clearing the loose stones out of it. This was the work done ahead of a king's journey, so his procession would not be slowed. A "standard" or banner was a pole, sometimes with a cloth or emblem, raised on a hilltop where it could be seen a long way off; it was the normal signal for summoning troops or scattered people to gather at one place.

11Look, the LORD has made this announcement to the farthest parts of the earth: Tell the people of Zion, See, the one who saves you is coming. He brings his reward with him, and what he pays back goes ahead of him.

11Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.

Note"Daughter of Zion" is a fixed Hebrew idiom that speaks of a city and its inhabitants as a single woman; it does not mean a daughter belonging to Zion. KJV's "his work" translates a word meaning wages or repayment. "Reward" and "recompense" together are the pay a returning worker carries home or the spoil a victorious king brings back, the point of the image is that he arrives already carrying what he owes.

12People will call them the Holy People, the Ones the LORD Bought Back. And you will be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.

12And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.

Note"Redeemed" translates a word from family law: buying a relative out of slavery or debt, or buying back land the family had been forced to sell. It assumes a price paid by someone with an obligation to the person bought back. "Sought Out" is the direct opposite of the earlier name Forsaken: it describes someone people ask after and come looking for, rather than someone nobody enquires about.