Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine
Jerusalem is at her lowest point here — staggering, but not from drink. The word "therefore" marks a turn, and raises two questions: why God brought her to this, and who it is that now speaks.
The passage moves from a summons, to a picture of collapse, to a reversal. Watch what God does with the cup once He lifts it from her:
Next, the Spirit of God summons Jerusalem to arise and stand up. The description is vivid: she reels under Jehovah's judgement, with not one of her sons to guide or help her. Then He takes the cup out of her hand — not here to drink it Himself, but to put it into the hands of their oppressors.
The staggering is real, but wine is not the cause. The troubles behind it are solid, and one of them comes straight from God's hand:
There will have been not only the sword of their enemies afflicting them but also famine, which comes from the hand of God. Under the affliction the prophet calls them "drunken," but adds, "not with wine." When the Arm of the Lord awakes on their behalf, the hour of their deliverance will strike, and He will take the "cup of trembling" out of their hands and put it into the hands of their oppressors.
She is afflicted, but she is not innocent. There is a reason she drank, and a point where the drinking stops:
The city had indeed suffered for her sins, and above all for her rejection of Christ, and so drank the cup of the fury of the LORD. With no one among her own children to guide her, she has lived for generations in desolation, destruction, famine and sword. Now the prophet looks on to the day when her sorrows will be over. Then the cup of judgment will pass from her lips to those who have afflicted her and trampled her underfoot.
She had no son left to steady her. But the God who calls her to stand had already taken up her case:
He calls on Jerusalem to stand up on this ground: when she had no sons able to comfort her, He had pleaded her cause.
The cup goes by several names, and it has an opposite. That opposite, not this cup, is what belongs to the Messiah now:
The wine cup, the cup of trembling, the cup of His fury, the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath — these are various titles of the same cup. That cup is the emblem of divine judgments, like the bowls of Revelation 16. The cup of salvation, on the other hand, expresses the joy of the kingdom… The cup of anger is for their hand, the cup of salvation for His. He did once take the cup of sorrows, the cup of Gethsemane, for us poor sinners. But what remains for Him now is the cup of praise, the joy of the kingdom, while the powers of the earth that have turned away from God wring out the dregs of the cup of fury.
The call to "awake" is more than a change of fortune, and it has a fixed time:
The awakening that comes will not be only political or national. It will involve a deep spiritual work, as chapter 52 makes plain. It will come only when Jerusalem has suffered to the full the chastising government of God, having drunk the cup of His fury and of their trembling down to the dregs.
- Cup given. Jerusalem staggers from famine, sword and God's own discipline — she is "drunk, but not with wine."
- Cup drained. Her suffering had a cause in her own sins, and a limit: she drinks to the dregs, and then no further.
- Cause pleaded. With no son left to steady her, her God Himself takes up her case — He speaks as her advocate, not only as her judge.
- Cup transferred. He does not drink this cup Himself here; He lifts it from her hand and places it in the hand of those who trod her down.
- City raised. The awakening that follows is not political only; it is a deep spiritual work inside the people.
thus saith thy Lord, Jehovah, and thy God, who pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I take out of thy hand the cup of bewilderment, the goblet-cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again
Jerusalem lies stunned in the dust. She has drunk a cup from God's own hand, and not one of her sons can lift her up. Then the God who gave her that cup speaks — now as the One who pleads the cause of His people — and He takes it away.
The cup has several names in Scripture. Older Bibles call it the "cup of trembling"; the ESV calls it the "cup of staggering."
The wine cup, the cup of trembling, the cup of His fury, the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath — these are various titles of the same cup. That cup is the symbol of divine judgments, like the bowls of Revelation 16. The cup of salvation, on the other hand, expresses the joy of the kingdom.
Why did she have to drink at all? Commentators trace her long ruin to real guilt, not to bad luck.
The city had indeed suffered for her sins, and above all for her rejection of Christ. So she drank of the cup of the fury of the LORD. No one among her own children was left to guide her. For generations her position has been one of desolation, destruction, famine and the sword. Now the prophet looks on to the day when her sorrows will be over. Then the cup of judgment will be taken from her lips. It will become the portion of those who have afflicted her and trodden her under foot.
The hand that held out the cup now takes it back. And the cup does not simply vanish — it changes hands.
Next, the Spirit of God calls Jerusalem to arise and stand up. He gives a vivid description of her reeling under Jehovah's judgment, with not one of her sons to guide or help. He describes too how He takes the cup out of her hand — not here to drink it Himself, but to put it into the hands of their oppressors.
The promise is not that the suffering was light, but that it had an end fixed by God. Writing on Lamentations, one commentator puts the two halves together — the full draining and the final "never again."
The cup of God's wrath will pass on to Edom, who was rejoicing in the ruin of the city of Jehovah. As to Zion, she has doubtless drunk this cup to the dregs; but if she has done so, it was in order that she might drink of it no more. The punishment of her iniquity is accomplished.
One writer gathered passages like this one to show that Israel's ruin has a set end.
Many of these passages, like those already considered, predict the transfer of these calamities to their enemies… Whatever period the fulfilment of this prophecy may belong to, the prophecy itself clearly shows that there is a defined limit beyond which Jerusalem's desolations are not to continue.
Commentators see the same picture at the cross. There the cup changed hands again.
The Prince of Life took the cup of wrath — the cup of trembling — from Jehovah's righteous hand, and drained it to the dregs. He did this so that He might put into the hands of His people the cup of salvation, the cup of God's indescribable love. They could then drink, and forget their poverty, and remember their misery no more.
Commentators differ over the timing. Some tie the words to Jerusalem's past sufferings. Some tie them to the first coming of Christ. Others look to a remnant still ahead.
It is no wonder that interpreters are much divided. Some apply these appeals and answers of increasing earnestness to the past history of the Jews; others apply them to the time of Christ's first coming. Neither view matches the language of the Holy Spirit at all. He is in fact looking forward to the gradual progress of Jehovah's dealings with the future remnant, and to His work in their souls as they rise from their degradation or grasp their calling.
- Cup — staggering, fury, wrath — many names for one cup, the picture of God's judgment. Its opposite is the cup of salvation, the joy of His kingdom.
- Cause — Jerusalem drank for her sins, and above all for her rejection of Christ. Desolation, famine and sword were the contents of the cup.
- Limit — she drained it to the dregs so that she would never drink it again. God fixed a limit to her desolations.
- Transfer — God does not empty the cup here. He moves it from the afflicted city to the hands of those who afflicted her.
- Exchange — at the cross Christ drained the cup of wrath, and put the cup of salvation into His people's hands instead.
and I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; who have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over; and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street to them that went over.
Isaiah 51 ends with Jerusalem staggering like a drunk woman, drained by a cup God Himself gave her. In the last verse He hands that cup to the tormentors who walked over her back, which raises two questions: who set the limit to her suffering, and on what ground can the God who poured the cup take it away?
The chapter has already called on the arm of the Lord to wake up. Then the summons turns around and lands on Zion.
The Spirit turns to Zion. "Awake! awake!" had been said to the arm of the Lord; now the same call is made to Zion herself, crushed and trampled underfoot by strangers. It is as if to say that Zion was the one who needed to wake up, not the Lord, for the salvation was already there. The cup will now be given to those who afflicted her.
The same cup appears under several names, and it has an opposite.
The wine cup, the cup of trembling, the cup of His fury, the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath — these are all names for the same cup. That cup is the symbol of God's judgments, like the bowls of Revelation 16. The cup of salvation, on the other hand, stands for the joy of the kingdom.
Her enemies trampled her, but the cup came from a higher hand. The same hand lifts it away.
Next, the Spirit of God calls Jerusalem to get up and stand. There is a vivid picture of her staggering under the Lord's judgment, with not one of her sons to guide or help her. Then He takes the cup out of her hand — not here to drink it Himself, but to put it into the hands of their oppressors.
God turns her treatment back on those who dealt it out. And more than the sword had struck her.
So first, in the closing verses of Isaiah 51, we are told what these disciplinary dealings did to Israel. Then comes the declaration that God will reverse the process and punish those who inflicted judgment on Israel. But they will have suffered not only the sword of their enemies; there is also famine, which comes from the hand of God. Under the affliction they are pictured as drunk, but the words are added, "not with wine."
This verse sits among many Old Testament promises that limit Israel's troubles and turn them back on her enemies.
Let me set before my readers many passages from the Old Testament which plainly declare that God has put limits on how long Israel's troubles will last. Many of them, like those already considered, predict that these troubles will be passed on to Israel's enemies… These are only a few out of many passages that testify to two points. First, Israel's overthrow and rejection are limited in how long they last. Second, when Israel stops suffering the blows of God's wrath, those blows will fall on the very people who have been the rod in His hand to discipline His people Israel.
Once the cup leaves her hand, the city that staggered becomes the thing that makes others stagger.
God will take the cup of trembling out of Jerusalem's hands and place it in the hands of those who afflict her (Isaiah 51:22-23). She herself will become a cup of trembling to all the nations around her (Zechariah 12). The destruction of His people's enemies will make His fame known, and the glory of the God of Israel, to the nations that are spared. They will then bow before the royal rule of His Christ.
Why does the wrath end at all? One writer traces the answer to Christ.
The wrath will not stay on them, because Christ has drunk the true cup of it. But they must come to understand that wrath as people under the law, because they had been under the law.
- The cup is God's. The wine cup, the cup of trembling and the cup of His fury are names for one thing: the symbol of God's judgments. Its opposite is the cup of salvation.
- The cup was handed to her. Her enemies trampled her, but the Lord gave her the drink. So the Lord is the one who can take it out of her hand.
- The cup changes hands. God reverses the process and punishes those who inflicted judgment on Israel. The city that staggered becomes a cup of trembling to the nations around her.
- The cup has an end. God has set a limit beyond which Jerusalem's ruin will not continue. Her troubles then fall on the oppressors who were the rod in His hand.
- The cup was drained by Another. The wrath does not come back on her, because Christ drank the true cup of it. And the city, not the Lord, is the one told to wake up — the salvation was already there.
Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
After long chapters of comfort, God calls a city that lies in the dust under His judgment to wake up. Two questions follow: who needs to wake, and what are the "beautiful garments" a ruined city must put on?
This verse does not stand alone. It closes a run of appeals, and each one speaks to a different hearer. One writer traces the order.
Isaiah 51–52:12 apply the truth to the people of God, or at least to the godly remnant of the future, taken strictly as prophecy. First comes a triple call. "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness" (vv. 1–3). "Give attention to me, my people" (vv. 4–6). "Listen to me, you who know righteousness" (vv. 7–8). These calls show spiritual progress. Then follow three more calls. First, "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD" (vv. 9–16), a call for God Himself to step in. Next comes "Rouse yourself, rouse yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem" (vv. 17–23), spoken to the city of God's choice. Then comes a final "Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion."
The same call had just gone up to God's own arm. Now it comes back the other way. One writer draws out the reversal.
He who neither slumbers nor sleeps has His power right there. Zion has now been awakened to know it, and He calls on Zion to awake, for all was mercy now. She is to awake and clothe herself with beauty and glory, as Babylon had to come down and strip off her false glory... It was not for Jerusalem to cry out something that would wake the Lord. It was for her to awake.
This waking is not a national recovery of confidence. It comes only after God's discipline has done its full work.
The awakening that comes will not be only political or national. It will involve a deep spiritual work, as chapter 52 makes plain. It will only come when Jerusalem has suffered God's chastening rule to the full. She will have drunk to the last drop the cup of His fury and of their trembling.
God tells Zion to dress herself, yet she owns nothing fit to wear. One writer compares the moment to Ruth, the widow who laid aside her mourning clothes to present herself as a bride to Boaz.
So too the remnant will lay aside their hopelessness. Washed by the Spirit and the Word, they will dress themselves in a beauty that is not their own. They will claim in faith the One whose mercy they have tasted. They will have learned of Him who gives "a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit."
Calling Jerusalem "the holy city" is a promise, not a description of what she has been. The verse also promises that nothing unclean will come into her again. One writer traces that promise back to a price.
The language here is a picture, but its meaning is clear. At last holiness will mark the city, and everything that defiles will be outside. It will be like a resurrection from the dust of death, and a release from the bands of captivity. They had sold themselves by their idolatry and sin, and gained nothing by it. Now they are to know redemption. It will not come by a money payment, as it did in the days of slavery. The price of their redemption is unfolded when we come to Isaiah 53.
Readers often take "Zion" as another name for the church. One writer rules that out.
In these prophecies of Israel's coming exaltation, Zion stands for the seat of the Messiah's royal power on earth... In Scripture Zion never means the church. It always means blessing on earth, and it belongs above all to Israel, since the final blessing of the nations will come through Israel. Still, Christians now enter into its spiritual meaning, since they live under the reign of grace here on earth.
That spiritual meaning is where the verse touches a believer today. One writer hears the same call and answer whenever God's people feel their own weakness.
So we feel our present low state and our weakness. We call to mind former days, and we cry, "O LORD, will You not revive us again as in the early days?" God's reply comes back: "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
- Sequence — Three calls run in order: to God's arm, to Jerusalem, then to Zion. God's arm moves first, and the rest follows.
- Reversal — God never slept. Zion did. She does not have to wake Him. He wakes her, and everything now is mercy.
- Cost — God calls her out of captivity, but no money buys her freedom. Isaiah 53 names the price.
- Clothing — The garments are real beauty, but never her own. She wears what He gives her: praise instead of a faint spirit.
- Reach — In Scripture Zion means blessing on earth through Israel, not the church. Yet the call to wake still reaches every sleeping believer.
Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit down, Jerusalem loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, captive daughter of Zion.
The prophet turns from Egypt and Assyria to the city itself, and tells a beaten people sitting in the dust to get up and untie their own ropes. That last command raises the hard question the commentators take up: how can a captive free herself?
The call to wake up sounds more than once in these chapters, and it does not always address the same one.
Isaiah 51 and 52, to the end of verse 12, apply to the remnant of Israel… With the remnant encouraged, the Spirit turns to Zion. The same cry, "Awake! awake!", first went up to the arm of Jehovah; now it goes to Zion herself.
One writer reads the dust as death and the bonds as slavery, then asks how the captives got there and what their release will cost.
The language is figurative but quite clear in its meaning. At last holiness will mark the city and everything that defiles will be outside. It will be like a resurrection from the dust of death, and a release from the bonds of captivity. They had sold themselves by their idolatry and sin, and gained nothing by it. Now they are to know redemption, but not by a money payment, the way slaves were bought in those days. Isaiah 53 unfolds the price of their redemption.
Scripture had described Israel's neck long before this verse spoke of loosing it. One writer sets the old condition beside the new.
We read of Israel as a stubborn, stiff-necked people — as having the yoke of their sin wrapped around the neck — and as walking shamelessly with necks stretched out. Such pictures show a sad moral condition. But now, through the Lord's grace, the change is complete — the triumphs of His love are perfect. Grace breaks the yoke of transgression off the neck of the daughter of Zion. Instead of being stubborn as iron, that neck is graceful, beautiful and noble, like the tower of David.
This release is final. One writer points out what becomes of the old oppressors.
The days of Egypt and of Assyria should never return: no more would the oppressor be known. Jehovah's people shall know His name — Himself as revealed in it. He is as unchangeable in His mercy to them as in His own being.
A restoration did come. One writer held it up against this verse and found the promise still outstanding.
What a witness of degradation! What a sign indeed, that the restoration was not glory! Jerusalem is still trodden down; the times of the Gentiles are still unfulfilled. Surely the daughter of Zion has not arisen. She has not shaken herself from the dust, or put on her strength and her beautiful garments.
The command sounds like self-rescue. One writer answers with the picture of a widow preparing herself for a wedding.
Ruth is now to lay aside the clothes of her widowhood, washing and anointing herself, and so present herself as a bride to Boaz. In the same way the remnant will lay aside their hopelessness. Washed by the Spirit and the Word, they will clothe themselves in a beauty not their own, claiming in faith Him whose mercy they have tasted.
Many readers want to apply the verse to themselves. One reference work explains the title used in the verse and how far the promise reaches.
The favoured people of God are often called daughters of Zion. The prophets address Israel this way again and again — either to blame them for their waywardness and punish them, or to cheer them with the prospect of future prosperity. In these prophecies of their coming exaltation, Zion stands as the seat of the Messiah's royal power on earth. In Scripture Zion never means the church. It always signifies blessing on earth, and it is connected above all with Israel, in the day when the ultimate blessing of the nations will come through Israel. Still, Christians now enter into its spiritual meaning, since they live under the reign of grace here on earth.
- Sold — Israel sold herself by idolatry and sin, and gained nothing. The dust and the bonds show what that sale produced.
- Redeemed — no money buys this release, the way money bought slaves in those days. Isaiah 53 unfolds the price.
- Raised — the call pictures a resurrection from the dust of death and a release from captivity. Everything that defiles stays outside the city.
- Loosed — grace breaks the yoke of transgression off a neck that was once stiff. Egypt and Assyria never return to bind it again.
- Awaiting — the restored city never matched this description. The daughter of Zion has not yet arisen, so the call still looks ahead to Messiah's reign on earth.
For thus saith Jehovah Ye have sold yourselves for nought, and ye shall be redeemed without money.
Isaiah 52 calls a captive city to wake up, stand, and shake off the dust — and verse 3 explains why she can. The verse sets two "nothings" side by side. Israel gained nothing by going into slavery, and God will charge nothing to bring her out.
The ESV says "You were sold for nothing." Older translations read, "You have sold yourselves for nothing," and several writers below use that older wording. Either way, the captivity was no accident from outside. Israel handed herself over, and got nothing for it.
It will be like a resurrection from the dust of death, and a release from the chains of captivity. They had sold themselves by their idolatry and sin, and gained nothing by it. Now they are to know redemption, but not by a money payment, as was customary in the days of slavery. The price of their redemption is unfolded when we come to Isaiah 53.
Two chapters earlier God asks the same question from His side. He never sold them to settle a debt of His own, because He owed nothing to anyone.
"Thus says the LORD: Where is your mother's certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you have sold yourselves, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away" (Isaiah 50:1). This was no hard-hearted man, taking a miserable pleasure in sending away a wife who displeased him. This was no selfish parent, meeting his own needs at his children's expense.
The Greek word for "sold" links Isaiah to Paul — and it puts every reader in the picture.
In Romans 7:14 the "wretched man" cries out, "I am of the flesh, sold under sin." The Greek word used here for "sold" is piprasko, and when used with a person it means "to sell into slavery." In the Greek Old Testament it is used figuratively of selling oneself to sin. See Ahab in 1 Kings 21:20, 25; also 2 Kings 17:17, Isaiah 50:1 and 52:3. So Paul may have had these in mind when he cried in desperation, "I am sold under sin." But this is not only the apostle Paul's experience. It is the condition of us all, though we may only discover it when the light of the gospel shines on our fallen state.
Israel's law held two kinds of release. A close relative could buy a person back. The Jubilee set people free with no price at all.
These two ordinances seem to set out the mystery I am speaking of — redemption by money and redemption by power. The kinsman might redeem with money. The Jubilee would redeem without money, by its own right, by that force or authority given to it by Him who was the God of Israel and the Lord of the land.
"Without money" does not mean without cost. The next chapter shows what took the place of silver.
It is perhaps to this scripture that Peter referred when he wrote, "You were ransomed... not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot" (1 Peter 1:18-19). Isaiah 52 speaks of our being "redeemed without money." Isaiah 53 speaks of the One who "had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth." Yet He went "like a lamb that is led to the slaughter" for our redemption.
This promise still waits for Israel. The heart changes first, and the land follows.
When God sets His hand to this great work, He will bring about a change of heart in His elect ones, and they will recognise their Kinsman-Redeemer. He will own them again when their national pride has given place to brokenness of spirit and humble repentance for their own sinfulness and the blindness of their fathers. Though they have sold themselves for nothing, they shall be redeemed without money, and the land that is Immanuel's shall be given to them by His own decree. Then they will lift up their heads and boast, not in the wisdom of their intellectual leaders, or the riches of their financiers, or the might of any power that has favoured them. They will glory in this, that they understand and know Me.
- Sold — the chains were self-made. They sold themselves through idolatry and sin, and gained nothing by the trade.
- Nothing — God names no creditor. Nobody can demand a payment back, and the whole loss was theirs.
- Slavery — Isaiah's word for "sold" stands behind Paul's "sold under sin." The gospel shows it is everyone's condition.
- Redeemed — release comes the way the Jubilee came. The Lord of the land frees by His own authority, not by a price.
- Without money — free to us, never cheap. Isaiah 53 names the cost: the precious blood of Christ, not silver or gold.
For thus saith the Lord Jehovah My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there, and Assyria oppressed them without cause;
God answers a captive Jerusalem with her own history: Egypt at the start of the nation's story, then an Assyrian oppressor long after. The verse opens with "For", so both belong to the rescue He has just promised.
The verse names Egypt first and Assyria after. One writer reads the two as one long story, not two separate events:
Isaiah 52:4 views Assyria as an oppressor. What began in Egypt, with the king who did not know Joseph, the Assyrian carried on. It is worth noting that nearly all the Scriptures on this subject speak of the king of Assyria, or of the Assyrian. The ruler of Assyria is God's instrument of judgment, and he is the one who will be broken and destroyed.
These two words carry the weight of the verse. Whatever charge God had against His people, the oppressor had no excuse — and what he did shaped what God does next:
If God had a controversy with His people, that was no excuse for the Assyrian. He oppressed them without cause (52:4). He took them "away for nothing." He made them howl while he ruled over them, and so he blasphemed the Name of the Lord (verse 5). Because of this, and apart from His own purpose concerning His people Israel, God will send salvation to Israel. He will bring gladness to Jerusalem and Zion (verses 6-10).
These two names also point forward. One writer links them to two powers named in a later prophecy:
In verse 4, Egypt and Assyria are mentioned. In Daniel 11, these appear as "the king of the south" and "the king of the north." At the present time these two powers are coming into prominence. God takes note of them, and He will redeem Israel from them; but only when the prediction of verse 6 comes to pass.
The promise behind this verse is that a people sold for nothing will be bought back without money. One writer shows where that free release comes from:
These striking chapters are full of promises of a coming redemption by the avenging might of God. Yet in the middle of them we get a most remarkable prediction. It concerns the far deeper matter of redemption through the death of Christ. We read, "You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money" (Isa. 52:3). Then comes the heart-moving chapter that pictures the blessed Servant of Jehovah as the suffering, dying One. Jehovah Himself makes His soul an offering for sin.
Both oppressions belong to the past. What comes after them is more than quiet:
The days of Egypt and of Assyria should never return: the oppressor should be known no more. Jehovah's people shall know His name — that is, they shall know Him as His name reveals Him. He is as unchangeable in His mercy to them as in His own being.
The story does not end with the oppressors broken. The same two nations named in this verse have a future beyond judgment:
Assyria and Egypt are the two nations that have had most to do with Israel. Both will come under the hand of God in judgment. Yet in the end He will bring them into blessing. Isaiah 19:23-25 teaches this plainly.
- First Egypt. The verse starts where the nation's suffering started — a stay in Egypt under a king who did not know Joseph.
- Then Assyria. The same oppression continued under Assyria. God used that ruler as His instrument of judgment, and he in turn will be broken.
- For nothing. Any quarrel God had with His people gave the oppressor no excuse. His cruelty brought blasphemy on God's name, and that is why salvation comes.
- Without money. A people sold for nothing are bought back without money. The price appears in the next chapter, in the Servant who dies.
- Never again. Egypt and Assyria will oppress no more. God's people will know His name, and even those two nations end in blessing.
and now, what have I here, saith Jehovah, that my people hath been taken away for nought? They that rule over them make them to howl, saith Jehovah; and continually all the day is my name scorned.
God speaks here as one who has been robbed. Foreign powers took His people for nothing, their rulers make them cry out, and men mock His name all day long. Two questions follow. Who is to blame for the dishonour done to God's name? And what will He do about it?
God had a quarrel with His people. But the nation that oppressed them could not use that as cover:
If God had a controversy with His people, that was no excuse for the Assyrian. He had no right to oppress them without cause (52:4), to take them away for nothing, or to make them cry out while ruling over them, and so blaspheme the Name of the Lord (verse 5). Because of this, and apart from His own purpose for His people Israel, God will send salvation to Israel. He will bring gladness to Jerusalem and Zion (verses 6–10).
The verse before names Egypt and Assyria, the two powers that held the nation down. Isaiah looks ahead to a day when neither of them is a threat.
Deliverance is promised. In view of it, the godly remnant appeal to Zion for the third time to "awake." She is to come out in all her glory, and shine in the beauty of holiness. No more will the unclean nations besiege the city. Never again will Egypt or Assyria — the southern and northern nations — oppress the city without cause. Never again will they make God's people cry out in misery and blaspheme God's Name.
The blasphemy has two sources, and the second is the more painful. Paul reaches for this verse when he strips away Jewish confidence in Romans 2, and one commentator draws out how the prophet's words cut both ways:
Who, then, dishonoured God more strikingly? Was it not written even more strongly still in their own prophets? What did Isaiah say (Isa. 52:5)? And what did Ezekiel say (Ezek. 36:20-23)? No doubt their foreign lords made them cry out. But was it not true that Israel profaned Jehovah's holy name among the nations wherever they went?
Once Paul lifts the sentence out of Isaiah, it stops being ancient history. It becomes a test that any religious people can fail, including those who carry the name of Christ.
The Apostle sums up the result in one solemn statement. The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through the religious man. The Apostle is speaking of the Jew; but what he says is equally true of the professing Christian. Mostly it is the corruptions and the degraded practices of professing Christendom that have made unbelievers blaspheme. Men would not have become Christians simply because Christians were consistent in practice. But if Christians were true in practice to what they profess, men would have no occasion to blaspheme God.
Verse 5 ends in dishonour; verse 6 begins with "therefore." The remedy for a slandered name is that the name will finally be known by the very people through whom it was slandered.
The days of Egypt and of Assyria will never return: the oppressor will be known no more. Jehovah's people will know His name — that is, they will know Himself as the name reveals Him. He is as unchangeable in His mercy to them as He is in His own being.
That knowing is personal. The name they come to know belongs to the One they once refused. Here the writer quotes verse 6 from an older translation:
Isaiah predicts what will happen at His second coming. Israel will discover that the rejected and despised One is Jehovah. "Therefore My people shall know My Name, therefore they shall know that I am He" (52:6). The words "I am He" (Ani Hu) are a divine Name. Our Lord used it when He said "I am" to the woman at the well, and again to the group in the garden of Gethsemane.
- The wrong. The Assyrian oppressed Israel without cause. God's discipline of His people gave the oppressor no excuse.
- The dishonour. The oppressors did more than crush the people. Their rule left God's Name mocked all day long.
- The indictment. Paul turns this verse on Israel itself. Foreign lords made them cry out — but Israel profaned that holy Name among the nations wherever they went.
- The mirror. The charge follows religious profession wherever it goes. If those who profess Christ lived what they claim, no one would have cause to mock God's name.
- The answer. God's reply to a slandered Name is to make it known. The oppressor disappears, and the people learn that the One they rejected says "I am He."
Therefore my people shall know my name; therefore [they shall know] in that day that I [am] HE, that saith, Here am I.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that announceth glad tidings, that publisheth peace; that announceth glad tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!
Isaiah 52 speaks to a ruined Jerusalem. Verse 7 pictures a messenger on the hills bringing news to that city, and it raises two questions: whose feet are these, and has the announcement already come?
The verse answers a call given earlier in Isaiah. It also changes the job of the watchmen on Jerusalem's walls.
Beautiful then in their eyes, as in His, are the feet of him who brings good news and publishes peace. Earlier (Isaiah 40:9) the cities of Judah were told, "Behold your God!" Now Zion hears, "Your God reigns!" The watchmen lift up their voice and sing instead of warning. The ruins of Jerusalem, forsaken so long, sing together with joy they cannot hold back.
One test settles the question: did history ever match the promise?
These words came in connection with Babylon's overthrow, but their wider application and meaning is future. The overthrow of Babylon and Nineveh did not result in the glorious things spoken of by Isaiah and Nahum. At that time the ends of the earth did not see the salvation of God. Jerusalem was not redeemed, and God was not enthroned as King in Zion. It is all yet to come. When that day comes, the messengers will go out from Jerusalem and declare the good news to the nations of the world. The good news of the kingdom will be announced far and wide at the start of the thousand-year reign. Then the lasting, abundant peace will come, so that all the nations see the salvation of the God of Israel.
One word shifts when Paul takes the verse up in Romans.
Though Romans 10:15 speaks of "the feet of THEM," Isaiah 52:7, which Paul is quoting there, speaks of "the feet of HIM."
That one Messenger has already walked the earth.
Isaiah 52:7 had a fulfilment when our Lord stepped into public service, at about thirty years of age. In the Gospels we see how beautiful His feet were as He walked the land of Israel preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Did He not say in the synagogue at Nazareth, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21)? And what Scripture was this? Just what Isaiah had prophesied seven centuries before.
Between the singing of chapter 52 and the singing of chapter 54 stands Isaiah 53. Its placement explains the joy.
Note carefully that between these two chapters we have perhaps the best-known chapter in the Old Testament — Isaiah 53. The position of this chapter between Isaiah 52 and 54 gives the key to all the rejoicing of God's people.
When Paul quotes this verse in Romans, he stops before the last clause.
The apostle does not quote the last clause of the verse: "who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'" For in truth, taking prophecy in its plain sense, the very opposite has been seen from that day to this. Days of vengeance were near for that Christ-rejecting generation, not days of salvation for the holy city. And Jerusalem is still trampled down by the nations until the times of the nations are fulfilled. But the joyful news must surely come, for the mouth of Jehovah has spoken it. No dust on their feet can make them anything but beautiful, because of the good news they carry.
Paul's plural draws ordinary messengers in. The beauty is not their own.
We see beauty in its perfection in Christ as He publishes peace (Isaiah 52:7; Nahum 1:15). We see that same beauty, in measure, in the movements of believers who are sent by the Lord and who love to preach the gospel of peace in a world disturbed by sin (Romans 10).
What believers announce now runs ahead of Israel's coming day, and it carries its own motive.
The apostle shows that in this, as in so many other things, the gospel gives us now, in advance, what repentant and restored Israel will receive from God in the coming day. And grace, as we know it in Christ, gives the deepest motives for spreading the good news earnestly.
- Ruin. The message comes to a Jerusalem in ruins, forsaken for so long. Good news is beautiful because the case was desperate.
- Message. The news is peace, good, salvation and a King. "Behold your God" becomes "Your God reigns," and the watchmen stop warning and start singing.
- Messenger. Isaiah says "the feet of him" — one Messenger. Writers identify Him with Christ, who read Isaiah aloud at Nazareth and said it was fulfilled that day.
- Cost. Isaiah 53 stands between the two songs of joy, and its place there is the key to all the rejoicing of God's people.
- Reach. Paul stops his quotation before "Your God reigns" and leaves that clause for a day still ahead. He applies the rest in the plural, so the beauty now belongs to everyone sent to publish peace.
-- The voice of thy watchmen, they lift up the voice, they sing aloud together; for they shall see eye to eye, when Jehovah shall bring again Zion.
In Isaiah 52 a runner reaches the mountains with news that God reigns. The city's lookouts hear it. It raises three questions: why the watchmen sing instead of warning, what "eye to eye" means, and when this song happens.
A watchman's voice normally warns of danger. Here it does something else.
Watchmen usually lift up the voice to warn. Now it will be to sing. There will be no disharmony, for they will agree in what they see. And indeed the joyful song will be everywhere. It will break out even in the "waste places of Jerusalem." It will be a song based on the redemption the Lord has accomplished for them.
The message to Zion has moved on from the one given earlier in the book.
Earlier (Isaiah 40:9) the word to the cities of Judah was, "Behold your God." Now Zion hears, "Your God reigns!" The watchmen lift up their voice. They sing; they do not warn. The wastes of Jerusalem, forsaken so long, sing together in joy they cannot hold back.
They sing together because they see eye to eye. Agreement follows sight, and what they see is the Lord returning to Zion.
The good news will sound out far and wide. The word about Zion will be, "Your God reigns." Then at last the nation will be restored. Israel and Judah will sing together, for they shall see eye to eye. But all this blessing will be wholly the work of the LORD, for it will be "when the LORD shall bring again Zion."
Commentators agree that this has not happened yet. One of them also gives the reason.
No — the watchmen of Jerusalem cannot yet raise their voice or sing together. Jerusalem is still in the hands of the cruel enemy, and the hearts of the Jews are still under a tyrant more deadly still. But they shall see eye to eye when Jehovah restores Zion. After ages of ruin, the waste places of Jerusalem will burst out and sing together. … Zion remains in the hands of the stranger because Zion's sons did not receive their divine King. They killed Him on the cross by the hands of lawless outsiders whom they could sway to join them in that fatal deed. Out of that deed God has caused the richest mercy to shine for both, if they will only heed His message.
The New Testament handles this passage in a striking way. Paul takes up verse 7 in Romans 10, but he stops before the words about Zion.
Look also at Romans 10:15. It quotes Isaiah 52: "As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'" Now, why does the Apostle stop there in the middle of the sentence and leave out what follows? The reason is clear. The next words are, "who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'" They cannot be fulfilled yet. They wait for the Lord Jesus to take His rightful place as Son of David and to reign in glory before His elders as King of Israel.
This verse also speaks to believers now. It names the one condition under which people sing as one.
We can sing together only in His presence, with every heart taken up with Himself. That is what the prophet says: "With the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye." Only when every eye rests on Him shall we see eye to eye. Away from His presence we are easily offended because of Christ, and offended with one another. Offended saints will soon part company and become scattered sheep.
Another writer sees the same failure in the world today. Men "do not see eye to eye" because ambition, selfishness and greed set them against each other. Real unity comes only when grace enters the human heart (A. J. Pollock).
The watchmen are not the last to hear. The joy keeps travelling outward.
His Israel on the earth shall see "eye to eye." The light and the joy of Zion's salvation will travel with holy speed. It will pass from the messengers on the mountains to the watchmen of the city, from them to the people, and from the people to the nations.
- Sight first. They sing together because they see together. Unity here is a result, never the starting point.
- One object. What they see is the Lord returning to Zion — every eye on the same Person is what makes one voice possible.
- His work. The whole scene waits on the LORD returning to Zion. The restoration is His doing, not the watchmen's.
- Not yet. Zion's sons rejected their King, so the song still waits. Paul quotes verse 7 and stops short of the reign in Zion.
- Then outward. From messengers to watchmen, to the people, to the nations — the song that starts with a few messengers ends among the nations.
Break forth, sing aloud together, waste places of Jerusalem; for Jehovah comforteth his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
Isaiah tells ruins to sing, and gives the reason in the past tense, as work God has already done. So when does this song start, why is the rubble addressed, and what could make a wrecked city sing?
Commentators tie this call to a deliverance that history has not yet matched. The fall of Babylon did not deliver what this verse and the ones around it describe.
Isaiah spoke this in connection with Babylon's overthrow, but its wider application and meaning is future. The overthrow of Babylon and Nineveh did not result in the glorious things spoken of by Isaiah and Nahum. At that time the ends of the earth did not see the salvation of God. Jerusalem was not redeemed. God was not enthroned as King in Zion. It is all yet to come.
One writer draws a line from this song to the one thing that could ever unite people now.
It is true that this verse is in a Jewish setting, and it will not be fulfilled to the letter until our Lord comes to reign on the earth. But the passage applies to the present time in a striking way. The great trouble in the world today is that men do not see eye to eye. Ambition, selfishness, greed, lust, cause men to fall out about everything... But when men receive the proclamation of our Lord, they will see eye to eye. That will be a testimony to the only truly uniting bond men can ever know: the grace of God entering the human heart.
The verse before speaks of watchmen, whose job was to shout warnings.
So in their eyes, as in His, the feet of the one who brings good news and announces peace are beautiful. Earlier, in Isaiah 40:9, the cities of Judah heard, "Behold your God." Now Zion hears, "Your God reigns!" The watchmen lift up their voice, singing instead of warning. The very wastes of Jerusalem, forsaken for so long, sing together with joy they cannot hold back.
"The LORD has comforted his people" answers a long complaint from Jerusalem's own book of laments.
The history of God's earthly people shows plainly what a bleak and comfortless state they came into by turning their backs on God. "How lonely sits the city, that was full of people! ... she has none to comfort her" (Lamentations 1:1-2). To this day they are still stripped bare and without comfort. But Isaiah, Zechariah and other Scriptures show that God has good and comforting words in view for them. When their "day of salvation" (Isaiah 49) has come, brought by the "beautiful ... feet of Him ... that announces salvation" (Isaiah 52), they will "break forth into joy", singing "the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem."
"He has redeemed Jerusalem" is one of a long chain of promises about Israel's future deliverance. All of them, one writer notes, trace back to a single price.
Redemption is used very often in the Psalms and the Prophets for the future deliverance of Israel for His kingdom on earth. See Ps. 103:4, Isa. 43:1, Isa. 48:20 and Isa. 52:9, among others. All of it rests on His blood-shedding. The return from Babylon was an outward sample and pledge.
Isaiah 53 sits between this call to sing and the next one, in Isaiah 54. One writer treats that placement as the key.
Turn to Isaiah 52:7-10 and Isaiah 54:1-10 and you will find a good deal about singing. Between these two chapters stands probably the best-known chapter in the Old Testament — Isaiah 53. The position of that chapter, between Isaiah 52 and 54, gives the key to all the rejoicing of God's people.
The same order shows up all through Scripture.
It is remarkable how, all through Scripture, singing is the response to redemption... the first actual record of singing is in Exodus 15, after God redeemed Israel out of Egypt. Then in Psalm 22, which prophesies the death of Christ for our redemption, the first result mentioned is a song... Again, just after the verses we are looking at, we get the wonderful prophecy of the death of Christ in Isaiah 53; and the very first word of Isaiah 54 is, "Sing."
Notice who the song is about, and who can share its theme now.
We learn that when the restored nation finally breaks into singing, the great theme of their song will be the LORD and what He has done... And even now, if each of us were looking to Christ, would we not see eye to eye and be of the same mind as the Lord! (Phil. 4:2). Seeing eye to eye, we will break into singing, and He will be the great theme of our song.
- Redemption first. In Scripture, song follows rescue: Exodus 15, Psalm 22, and the "Sing" that opens Isaiah 54, right after Isaiah 53 foretells the death of Christ.
- Comfort next. The city that once had no one to comfort her is the city told to sing; the comfort is God's own answer to her lament.
- Ruins sing. The watchmen stop warning and start singing, and even the long-forsaken wastes join in.
- The reach widens. Babylon's fall never delivered this. It is still ahead: Jerusalem redeemed, God reigning in Zion, and the ends of the earth seeing His salvation.
- The theme is Him. The song's subject is the Lord and what He has done — and those who look to Christ can see eye to eye and sing that theme now.
Jehovah hath made bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.