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.