Isaiah 52:7

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,.... Not of the messenger that brought the news of Cyrus's proclamation of liberty to the Jews; rather of John the

How 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!

How beautiful! these are words of rejoicing and admiration. They are exceeding precious and acceptable. Upon the mountains of Zion and Moriah, which are sometimes mentioned as one mountain, and sometimes as two. Or in the mountainous country of Judea, to which these glad tidings were brought, and from which they were spread abroad into other countries. Are the feet, which carry this welcome messenger; or the messenger himself. Of him; or, of them; for the singular number is oft put for the plural: although it may be here emphatically used, to signify, that although there were many messengers, yet one was the chief and Lord of the embassy, whose coming was more acceptable than the rest; which suits excellently to the Messiah, who is called the Messenger of the covenant, , and is oft said to be sent by God, as 8:16,18, &c., to publish the glad tidings of salvation. That bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation: these emphatical and repeated expressions are a sufficient evidence that something further and better is here intended than their deliverance out of Babylon, which in itself was but a very imperfect work, and reached at first but to a few of that numerous people, and was attended with many fears, and sorrows, and remainders of their bondage, ,9 Ne 1:3; and that although that was the beginning of these glad tidings, yet they extended much further, even to the coming of Christ, by whom alone true peace and salvation were procured. That saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth: it is true, this might in some sort be said when God so overruled the affairs of the world, and the heart of Cyrus, that his people were freed from the Babylonish captivity, and restored into and settled in their own land. Although he that considers the state of God’ s people in their own land after their return, will find that the reign of God in and over the world was not then either very conspicuous or glorious. And therefore it seems far more reasonable to understand it of the days of the Messiah, when God did discover and exercise his dominion over the world far more eminently than ever he had done from the beginning of the world until that time.

Isaiah 52:7 How 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!Ver. 7. How beautiful!] Quam amaeni, i.e., amabiles! How amiable or desirable. Interrogatio admirantis et exultantis. Upon the mountains.] Whence they may best be heard, saying, as there, "Hearken unto me, that God may hearken unto you." Our Saviour, that arch-evangelist, who, as some, is here first and chiefly meant by Mebassher, him that bringeth good tidings, "seeing the multitudes, went up into a mountain," which is said to be in the tribe of Naphtali, and called Christ’ s Mount to this day. His apostles afterwards travelled and trudged on foot over hills and dales - what a compass fetched Paul! Intervallum illud est milliariorum Germanicorum, 350, so that he might better be called, than afterwards George Eagles the martyr was, Trudge-over-the-world - to preach the gospel and to plant churches, to whom their feet, though fouled and worn - how much more their faces? - were deemed delectable and debonnaire. The Pope, Peter’ s pretended successor, holdeth forth his feet to be kissed, but preacheth not; or not peace, but war, which he stirreth up by his roaring bulls. Of him that bringeth good tidings.] Whosoever he be that preacheth the gospel, that chief work of a minister. Of Mr John Dod it is written, and I know it to be true, that he was very evangelical, striving first to make men see their lost condition clearly - for, said he, sense of misery must go before sense of mercy - and then largely and excellently opening the promises, and the grace of God in Christ according to the gospel, looking at that as the most effectual preaching. Some, said he, labour still to keep men under terrors, loading them with threatenings, &c., lest they should not be humbled enough: but the gospel worketh true humiliation, not the law; it ariseth from sense of sin and misery joined with hope of mercy. The damned have terror and sense of misery enough, but that doth not humble them. That publisheth peace.] The gospel is a doctrine of peace, whose author is the "God of peace," whose ministers are "messengers of peace," whose followers are the "children of peace." If any know not how they came by their peace, but are like the Israelitish women, quick of delivery, before ever the midwife (the minister) can come at them, they have cause to suspect their peace. That bringeth good tidings.] As before, but never enough, mentioned and memorised. Some critics tell us that the Hebrew word here used, signifying also flesh, showed that the incarnation or taking flesh should be generally good news to the whole world, even the best tidings. The old church had επαγγαλιαν, the "promise"; we have ευαγγελιαν, the "joyful tidings." That publisheth salvation.] Publicantis Iesum, so some have rendered it: the concrete for the abstract.

(7) How beautiful . . .—The image is reproduced, with variations, from Isaiah 40:9. There Zion herself was the herald proclaiming the glad tidings; here the heralds are seen coming to Zion, to tell her that her God is verily reigning, and their feet are beautiful on the mountains like those of an antelope (Son 2:8-9; Nahum 1:15).

Verse 7. How beautiful] The watchmen discover afar off, on the mountains, the messenger bringing the expected and much-wished-for news of the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity. They immediately spread the joyful tidings, Isaiah 52:8, and with a loud voice proclaim that JEHOVAH is returning to Zion, to resume his residence on his holy mountain, which for some time he seemed to have deserted. This is the literal sense of the place. "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the joyful messenger," is an expression highly poetical: for, how welcome is his arrival! how agreeable are the tidings which he brings! Nahum, Nahum 1:15, who is generally supposed to have lived after Isaiah, has manifestly taken from him this very pleasing image; but the imitation does not equal the beauty of the original: - "Behold upon the mountain the feet of the joyful messenger, Of him that announceth peace! Celebrate, O Judah, thy festivals; perform thy vows: For no more shall pass through thee the wicked one; He is utterly cut off." But it must at the same time be observed that Isaiah's subject is infinitely more interesting and more sublime than that of Nahum; the latter denounces the destruction of the capital of the Assyrian empire, the most formidable enemy of Judah; the ideas of the former are in their full extent evangelical; and accordingly St. Paul has, with the utmost propriety, applied this passage to the preaching of the Gospel, Romans 10:15. The joyful tidings here to be proclaimed, "Thy God, O Zion, reigneth," are the same that John the Baptist, the messenger of Christ, and Christ himself, published: "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." From the use made of this by our Lord and the apostles, we may rest assured that the preachers of the Gospel are particularly intended. Mountains are put for the whole land of Judea, where the Gospel was first preached. There seems to be an allusion to a battle fought, and the messengers coming to announce the victory, which was so decisive that a peace was the consequence, and the king's throne established in the land. There appear to have been two sorts of messengers among the Jews: one sort always employed to bring evil tidings; the other to bring good. The names also and persons of these different messengers appear to have been well known; so that at a distance they could tell, from seeing the messenger, what sort of tidings he was bringing. See a case in point, 2 Samuel 18:19-27. Ahimaaz and Cushi running to bring tidings of the defeat of Absalom and his rebel army. Ahimaaz is a GOOD man, and bringeth GOOD tidings.

7–12. The return of Jehovah to Zion.

How beautiful upon the mountains - This passage is applied by Paul to the ministers of the gospel (see Romans 10:15). The meaning here seems to be this: Isaiah was describing the certain return of the Jews to their own land.

7. The scene changes here in Jerusalem, and the prophet represents the watchmen on the lookout toward Babylon, as if expecting what, in an instant they see, namely, the swiftly coming messenger on the distant Judean hills.