Isaiah 62:6

I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem,.... Not angels, as Jarchi; nor kings, as Kimchi; nor princes and civil magistrates, as others; nor the mourners in Zion, as Aben Ezra; but ministers

I 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, I - Isaiah, speaking in the person of Messiah.

Watchmen; understand by these, either, 1. Angels, as they are called, ,23. Or 2. Magistrates: see , or rather, 3. Ministers. When once the church shall be restored again, God will undertake for its safety and protection, partly by magistracy, and partly by ministry, whom he here by a metaphorical allegory calls watchmen; but the next words seem principally to intimate spiritual watchmen, thy spiritual safety, , and said to be upon the walls, as being thence able to espy dangers at the greater distance, . Which shall never hold their peace day nor night; there shall be a most vigilant and industrious ministry, their constancy being intimated by day and night, either in praying, or teaching, Or warning, this being their office. That make mention, i.e. are his servants. To make mention of one is, according to the Hebrew phrase, to be servant to him of whom we make mention, . And here especially are meant his servants in ordinary, his remembrancers; either such as put God in mind of his promise, like such officers that great men have about them on purpose to mind them of the public affairs; or such as make the Lord to be remembered, putting his people in mind of him. Keep not silence: this seems to be the charge that he gives to his watchmen, that they never prove remiss or negligent.

Isaiah 62:6 I 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,Ver. 6. I have set watchmen upon thy walls,] i.e., Angels, say some, who are called "watchers,"; prophets and pastors, say others, who are as "watchmen upon the walls," to admonish thee by their preaching, and to preserve thee by their prayers to God. Which shall never hold their peace.] Never but be either praying or preaching. Augustine desired that death might find him aut precantem nut proedicantem. Of Paul’ s incessance, see Acts 20:31 1 Thessalonians 3:10. Ye that make mention of the Lord.] Or, Ye that are the Lord’ s remembrancers, that jogged him as it were, and remind him of his people’ s necessities and miseries. The kings of Israel, Persia, and of other nations, had their Mazkirim, or remembrancers, to mind them of those matters that concerned the weal public, and to these he here alludeth. All the saints are such like officers, and must be active. Keep not silence.] Be still sueing and soliciting.

(6) I have set watchmen upon thy walls . . .—The “watchmen” have been differently interpreted as (1) angelic guardians and (2) prophets. Zechariah 1:12, and Daniel 10:16-21 may be alleged in favour of (1), but on the whole, (2) seems preferable. The prophets of the return from exile, Zechariah, Haggai, Malachi, may be thought of as representative examples of such “watchmen,” as also are the prophets of the Christian Church, which takes partly, at least, the position of the new Jerusalem. Ye that make mention . . .—Better, ye that are the remembrancers. They are to remind Jehovah of His promises day and night, that He may hasten their fulfilment, never resting till the future Jerusalem is in very deed “a praise in the earth.” (Comp. Zechariah 1:12.)

Verse 6. Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence] The faithful, and in particular the priests and Levites, are exhorted by the prophet to beseech God with unremitted importunity (compare Lu 18:1, c.) to hasten the redemption of Sion. The image in this place is taken from the temple service in which there was appointed a constant watch, day and night, by the Levites: and among them this seems to have belonged particularly to the singers, see 1 Chronicles 9:33. Now the watches in the east, even to this day, are performed by a loud cry from time to time of the watchmen, to mark the time, and that very frequently, and in order to show that they themselves are constantly attentive to their duty. Hence the watchmen are said by the prophet, Isaiah 52:8, to lift up their voice; and here they are commanded, not to keep silence; and the greatest reproach to them is, that they are dumb dogs; they cannot bark; dreamers; sluggards, loving to slumber, Isaiah 56:10. "The watchmen in the camp of the caravans go their rounds crying one after another, 'God is one, he is merciful:' and often add, 'Take heed to yourselves.'" TAVERNIER, Voyage de Perse, Liv. i. chap. x. The hundred and thirty-fourth Psalm gives us an example of the temple watch. The whole Psalm is nothing more than the alternate cry of two different divisions of the watch. The first watch addresses the second, reminding them of their duty; the second answers by a solemn blessing. The address and the answer seem both to be a set form, which each division proclaimed, or sung aloud, at stated intervals, to notify the time of the night: - FIRST CHORUS "Come on now, bless ye JEHOVAH, all ye servants of JEHOVAH; Ye that stand in the house of JEHOVAH in the nights; Lift up your hands towards the sanctuary, And bless ye JEHOVAH." SECOND CHORUS "JEHOVAH bless thee out of Sion; He that made heaven and earth." "Ye who stand in the place of the watch, in the house of the sanctuary of the Lord; and ye praise through the nights;" - says the Chaldee paraphrase on the second line. And this explains what is here particularly meant by proclaiming, or making remembrance of, the name of JEHOVAH: the form, which the watch made use of on these occasions, was always a short sentence, expressing some pious sentiment, of which JEHOVAH was the subject; and it is remarkable, that the custom in the east in this respect also still continues the very same; as appears by the example above given from Tavernier. And this observation leads to the explanation of an obscure passage in the Prophet Malachi, Malachi 2:12.

6, 7. Jehovah hears perpetually the voice of importunate intercession ascending for the ruined walls of Jerusalem. This is the thought poetically expressed in the two verses, but the details of the conception present several difficult questions. In the first place, Who are meant by the watchmen, or rather watchers? [The word differs from that used in Isaiah 56:10, Isaiah 52:8 (= “lookers out”) and means literally “keepers” or “guards” (Son 3:3; Son 5:7; Psalms 127:1)]. (a) Some hold that it is here a name for the company of prophets, but this view has really little in its favour. The function ascribed to the watchers is not strictly prophetic, and the word is nowhere else used of a prophet except in ch. Isaiah 21:11 f., where there is obviously a comparison of the prophet to a city watchman. (b) Another, but less probable, opinion is that pious Israelites are meant. (c) The best interpretation seems to be that of the Jewish exegetes, that the “watchers” are angelic beings, forming the invisible guard of the city. The representation, therefore, is purely ideal, and this fact has to be borne in mind in considering the second question, Who is the speaker in the first half of Isa 62:6? The prophet could not strictly be said to appoint either angelic or prophetic watchers; hence the prevalent opinion is that Jehovah is the speaker. On the other hand it seems to some unnatural that Jehovah should appoint those who are to remind Himself of His own promises, and it is certainly the prophet who speaks in the latter part of the verse. It might be held that the language is not too bold for the prophet to use of himself in describing a scene which belongs to the region of the spiritual imagination, just as other prophets do things in vision which exceed human authority (cf. Zechariah 11:7 ff.). Cheyne alone regards the three passages Isaiah 61:1 ff., Isaiah 62:1 ff., and Isaiah 62:6 f., as soliloquies of the ideal Servant of Jehovah, or rather of that ideal as reflected in the mind of a later disciple of the second Isaiah.

I have set watchmen upon thy walls - (See the notes at Isaiah 21:6-11). The speaker here is undoubtedly Yahweh; and by watchmen he means those whom he had appointed to be the instructors of his people - the ministers of religion.

6, 7. Watchmen — This alludes to the practice of stationing on city walls men who served as criers when news good or bad was to be announced.