Isaiah 62

62:1 For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burneth. 2 And the nations shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory : and thou shalt be called by 3 a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of beauty 4 in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken ; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate : but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah : for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall 5 be married. For 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. 6 I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem ; they shall never hold their peace day 7 nor night : ye that are the LORD’s remembrancers, take ye no rest, and give him no rest, 8 till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. The 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 9 for thine enemies ; and strangers shall not drink thy wine, for the which thou hast laboured : but they that have garnered it shall eat it, and praise the LORD ; and they that have gathered it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary. 10 Go through, go through the gates ; prepare ye the way of the people ; cast up, cast up the 11 high way ; gather out the stones ; lift up an ensign for the peoples. Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the earth, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation 12 cometh ; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompence before him. And they shall call them The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD : and thou shalt be called Sought out, A city not forsaken.

Chap. 62. The words of the great Deliverer are continued from the foregoing chapter. He will not rest until the glorious change in the condition of His people is accomplished (verse 1). They shall be recognized by kings and nations as the people of Jehovah (verses 2, 3). She who seemed to be forsaken is still His spouse (verses 4, 5). The Church is required to watch and pray for the fulfilment of the promise (verses 6, 7). God has sworn to protect her and supply her wants (verses 8, 9). Instead of a single nation, all the nations of the earth shall flow unto her (verse 10). The good news of salvation shall no longer be confined, but universally diffused (verse 11). The glory of the Church is the redemption of the world (verse 12). A.—The Messiah is still the speaker, expressing His untiring zeal and unflagging interest in this promised glorious enlargement of Zion. He will never rest till it be fully accomplished (verse 1) ; what it shall be in its fulness ; how it shall affect the honor and glory of the true Church ; the accession of the Gentiles ; the love felt for the cause of God and of truth—stand forth under various figures (verses 2–5). So also how the Messiah commissions His spiritual watchmen (verses 6, 7) ; what the Lord hath solemnly sworn as to the future protection and safety of His people (verses 8, 9) ; a command to Gentile nations to prepare to come into Zion and the proclamation to this effect, going forth to the ends of the earth (verses 10, 11). United with the former Zion, they become known everywhere as the holy people, the Lord’s redeemed, a city never more forsaken (verse 12).

This division of chapters should not interrupt the flow of thought, for originally these chapters (61 and 62) were one continuous discourse. The division was made not by Isaiah, but at a period long subsequent, and only for more convenient reference to its various parts. H. C.

1. The glorified Christ is constantly working for His Church. We are too apt to regard our Lord’s real work as all lying in the past, and, from the very greatness of our estimate of what He has done, to forget the true importance of what He evermore does. “Christ that died” is the central object of trust and contemplation for devout souls—and that often to the partial hiding of Christ that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. But Scripture proclaims the full accomplishment of all the purposes of His earthly ministry ; it emphasizes the triumphant completion of His redeeming work by His death; it proclaims the majesty of His nature, which returns to the glory which He had with the Father before the world was; it shows to the world, as on some coronation day, their King on His throne, girded with power and holding the far-reaching sceptre of the universe; it prophesies for men, in spite of all present sin and degradation, a share in the dominion which manhood has in Christ attained, for though we see not yet all things put under Him, we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor. It prophesies, too, His final victory over all that sets itself in unavailing antagonism to His love. A. M.

2. What this new name indicates the passage proceeds shortly to show (see verse 4). That this new name comes from God indicates that He Himself gives her these qualities and relations.

3. Thou shalt be an object of superb and glorious beauty, enjoying the infinite protection and love of thy God. The crown, especially the royal diadem, is the highest earthly type of whatever is splendid, gorgeous, glorious. The Church is such in God’s hand. Her being such a crown in the hand of her God may signify perhaps that her beauty is His handiwork—her righteousness, the fruit of His spiritual creation; and yet the most obvious and prominent suggestion is rather that she is there in the beauty and glory which He gives her, enjoying His unfailing protection and undying love. H. C.

4. “No more shalt thou be called Azubah (Forsaken), and thy land shall no more be called Shemamah (Desolate); but thou shalt be called Hephzibah (my delight is in her), and thy land Beulah (Married), for Jehovah delights in thee, and thy land shall be married.” The joyful change of condition is further expressed in the prophet’s favorite manner, by significant names. It is probable that they were all familiar to the Jews as female names in real life. This we know to have been the case with two of them: the mother of Jehoshaphat was named Azubah (1 K. 22 : 42), and the mother of Manasseh Hephzibah (2 K. 21 : 1). It is better, therefore, to retain the Hebrew forms, in order to give them an air of reality as proper names, and at the same time to render them intelligible by translation. A.

“As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.” No enraptured bridegroom ever had love to his loved one so warm, and strong, and pure as that of the lover and seeker of souls to the souls He loves, and finds, and marries, and “leads” home, rejoicing. That nothing and no one may come between Him and them, He asserts strongly, jealously, the husband’s right—“He that hath the bride is the bridegroom”—claims each recovered one as engaged, and forever affianced to Himself, names the name of each with a lover’s tenderness, and “leads” them through these earthly scenes toward “the King’s palace.” Raleigh.

6,7. The promise is a general one, or rather the command that those who are constituted guardians of the Church should be importunate in prayer to God on her behalf. A.—They shall never hold their peace, even as the Messiah declares of Himself (verse 1), “I will not hold My peace;” “I will not rest,” until Zion’s righteousness shall go forth as brightness. This is therefore essentially His command to His Gospel ministers to imbue their souls with His quenchless spirit of zeal, love and labor, and to prosecute their work as He does His. “Ye that make mention of the Lord” is literally, “Ye that remind the Lord,” or call things to His remembrance. The sense I take to be, remind the Lord of His promises; plead them with importunate prayer; bring up the case of Zion with unceasing supplication. H. C.

The Lord, who has declared His own purpose of unwearied action for Zion, here associates with Himself the watchmen whom He appoints and endows for functions in some measure resembling His own, and exercised with constancy derived from Him. “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night.” On the promise follows, as ever, a command (for all Divine gifts involve the responsibility of their use, and it is not His wont either to bestow without requiring, or to require before bestowing), “Ye that remind Jehovah, keep not silence.” There is distinctly traceable here a reference to a twofold form of occupation devolving on these Christ-sent servants. They are watchmen, and they are also God’s remembrancers. In the one capacity, as in the other, their voices are to be always heard. The former metaphor is common in the Old Testament, as a designation of the prophetic office, but, in accordance with the genius of the New Testament, as expressed on Pentecost, when the Spirit was poured out on the lowly as well as on the high, on the young as on the old, and all prophesied, may be fairly extended to designate not some select few, but the whole mass of Christian people. The watchman’s office falls to be done by all who see the coming peril, and have a tongue to echo it forth. The remembrancer’s priestly office belongs to every member of Christ’s priestly kingdom, the lowest and least of whom has the privilege of unrestrained entry into God’s presence-chamber, and the power of blessing the world by faithful prayer. The gifts then here promised, and the duties that flow from them, are not the prerogatives or the tasks of any class or order, but the heritage and the burden of the Lord to every member of His Church. Christ sets the watchmen; He commands the remembrancers. From Him flows the power, from His good Spirit comes the desire, to proclaim the message. That message is the story of His life and death. But for what He does and is we should have nothing to say; but for His gift we should have no power to say it; but for His influence we should have no will to say it. By His example, by His gifts, by the motive of His love, our resting, working Lord says to each of us, “Ye that remind God, keep not silence.” Let us answer, “For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest.” A. M.

A strange word of encouragement to importunity, Give Him no rest; suffer Him not to be in quiet till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. A few such suitors in these times were worth thousands such as we are. Our prayers stick in our breasts, scarce come forth, much less do they go up and ascend with that piercing force that would open up the way for deliverances to come down. Leighton.

8,9. Under images drawn from her ancient history, the Lord predicts her future purity and prosperity.

10. As we have seen, the course of thought here is of prayer and labor for the extension and purity of Zion, for the conversion of the Gentiles and the glory of Christ’s kingdom in this world. The Messiah has given the strongest expressions of His devotion to this work, and has summoned His watchmen to the same pure and unceasing devotion. Now in harmony with this line of thought, this verse exhorts the whole Church to take away every obstacle to the return of Gentile converts into Zion. “Go forth from your city gates; prepare the highway; elevate it well; clear out the stones; and then raise aloft the Gospel banner toward which those Gentile hosts may direct their steps as they come to Zion.” H. C.—This is a prediction of the increase of the Church or chosen people by the accession of the Gentiles. The gates are then the gates of the ideal Zion or Jerusalem, the passage is an inward not an outward passage, and the exhortation of the text is one to all concerned, or all who have the opportunity to take away obstructions and facilitate their entrance. A.

Cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones. Not only do modern ways prove the need of such preparation, but modern customs show how, when, and why it is done. When Ibrahim Pasha proposed to visit certain places on Lebanon, the emeers and sheikhs sent forth a general proclamation, somewhat in the style of Isaiah’s exhortation, to all the inhabitants, to assemble along the proposed route, and prepare the way before him. The same was done in 1845, on a grand scale, when the present Sultan visited Brusa. The stones were gathered out, crooked places straightened, and rough ones made level and smooth. The exhortation to gather out the stones is peculiarly appropriate. These farmers do the exact reverse—gather up the stones from their fields, and cast them into the highway, and it is this barbarous custom which in many places renders the paths so uncomfortable, and even dangerous. W. M. Thomson.

11. The Lord sends forth His proclamation to the end of the world because it is to be a matter of profound interest to all Gentile nations that God is announcing to His Zion the coming of her Saviour, who moreover comes not in vain, but with success made sure. His reward is always in hand, so certain is it made by Divine covenant and promise. “Work” has here also the sense of reward of his work, the expected and desired result. H. C.

11,12. It shall be proclaimed to the captives, that they are set at liberty, and may go if they please; it shall be proclaimed to their neighbors, to all about them, “to the end of the world,” that God has pleaded Zion’s just, injured, and despised cause. Let it be said to Zion, for her comfort, “Behold thy salvation comes,” thy Saviour, who brings salvation; He will bring such a work, such a reward, in this salvation, as shall be admired by all; a reward of comfort and peace with Him; but a work of humiliation and reformation before Him, to prepare His people for that recompense of their sufferings; and then, with reference to each, it follows, they shall be called “the holy people” and “the redeemed of the Lord; the work before Him,” which shall be wrought in them and upon them, shall denominate them a holy people, cured of their inclination to idolatry, and consecrated to God only; and the reward with Him, the deliverance wrought for them, shall denominate them “redeemed of the Lord,” so redeemed as none but God could redeem them; and redeemed to be His, their bonds loosed, that they might be His servants. H.

12. The holy people.** Holiness involves the reference of life and self to God, consecration to and service of Him. It is not a mere equivalent of purity, but distinctly carries the higher reference. The obedience is not to a law, but to a Lord. The perfection does not consist in conformity to an ideal standard, but in likeness and devotion to God. A. M.—Holiness is conformity to the character of God. To have fellowship with Him in His characteristic feelings and principles; to love what He loves; to hate what He hates; to desire what He promises; to rejoice in His will in all things, even when it crosses our own will; to learn to say from the bottom of the heart, even in the agony of conflict, “Not my will, but Thine be done”—this is to be holy; and every nearer approach to this is an advance in holiness. E. Bayley.