Isaiah 52

Isaiah 52:1

Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.

Stir up thyself, and rouse up thy drooping spirits, O my Church: deck thyself with the robes both of joy and holiness; for my pure worship shall be restored unto thee: there shall be no place within thee for the invasion of thy heathen enemies, and the pollution of the profane.

Isaiah 52:3

For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought: and ye shall be redeemed without money.

It was your own iniquity, that sold you into the power of your enemies: I took no price at all for you; and therefore am not bound to any restitution, which might be demanded of me, but will freely deliver you.

Isaiah 52:5

Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people is taken away for nought?

Now therefore, what have I in lieu of this miserable affliction of my people? why should I forbear to revenge it?

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?

How welcome and pleasing are the prophets of God, who, upon c c 2 the mountains of Judea, preach these glad tidings of peace and deliverance! and how more welcome are those evangelical teachers, that proclaim everlasting salvation to all believers!

Isaiah 52:8

Thy watchmen shall lift up their voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.

This shall not be a thing muttered in secret: thy spiritual watchmen, the seers of God, shall lift up their voice and publish it to all the world, with joy and thanksgiving; and shall be, some of them, eye-witnesses of this gracious deliverance.

Isaiah 52:10

The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations.

The Lord hath shewed his mighty power to all the nations round about, in this rescue of his chosen people.

Isaiah 52:11

Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lown.

Make yourselves ready therefore, O my people, to depart out of Babylon: get you forth joyfully, from the place of your captivity; and, in the mean time, keep yourselves undefiled with the corruptions of that wicked nation: and ye, the Priests and Levites, that have charge of the holy things of God, see that ye sanctify yourselves, and hold clear from all those Babylonish pollutions.

Isaiah 52:12

For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your reward.

For ye shall not go out of Babylon, as ye went out of Egypt, with haste and tumult, or as people that flee from an enemy, but in a peaceable and triumphant fashion; for the Lord shall go before you, and follow you in so plain a manifestation of his powerful presence, that you shall find no cause of doubt, or fear.

Isaiah 52:13

Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

Behold, that Messiah, by whom I shall fully restore my Church, shall work wisely and succeed prosperously, in that glorious service: he shall be exalted and advanced above all the kings of the earth, yea, above all the powers of heaven.

Isaiah 52:14

As many were astonished at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:

Indeed, the outward appearance of that Son of God was so exceeding mean and contemptible, more than the ordinary fashion of the sons of men, as that those, who beheld it, were astonished, to see such a majesty shrouded in so plain and homely an outside: