Isaiah 52

Isaiah 52:1-15 . FIRST THROUGH THIRTEEN VERSES CONNECTED WITH FIFTY-FIRST CHAPTER.

Zion long in bondage ( Isaiah 51:17-20 ) is called to put on beautiful garments appropriate to its future prosperity.

1. strength--as thy adornment; answering to "beautiful garments" in the parallel clause. Arouse thyself from dejection and assume confidence.
the holy city--( Nehemiah 11:1 , Revelation 21:2 ).
no more . . . unclean--( Isaiah 35:8 , 60:21 , Joel 3:17 , Revelation 21:27 ). A prophecy never yet fulfilled.
uncircumcised--spiritually ( Ezekiel 44:9 , Acts 7:51 ).

2. from the dust--the seat of mourners ( Job 2:12 Job 2:13 ).
arise, and sit--namely, in a more dignified place: on a divan or a throne [LOWTH], after having shaken off the dust gathered up by the flowing dress when seated on the ground; or simply, "Arise, and sit erect" [MAURER].
bands of . . . neck--the yoke of thy captivity.

3. As you became your foes' servants, without their paying any price for you ( Jeremiah 15:13 ), so they shall release you without demanding any price or reward ( Isaiah 45:13 ), (where Cyrus is represented as doing so: a type of their final restoration gratuitously in like manner). So the spiritual Israel, "sold under sin," gratuitously ( Romans 7:14 ), shall be redeemed also gratuitously ( Isaiah 55:1 ).

4. My people--Jacob and his sons.
went down--Judea was an elevated country compared with Egypt.
sojourn--They went there to stay only till the famine in Canaan should have ceased.
Assyrian--Sennacherib. Remember how I delivered you from Egypt and the Assyrian; what, then, is to prevent Me from delivering you out of Babylon (and the mystical Babylon and the Antichrist in the last days)?
without cause--answering to "for naught" in Isaiah 52:5 ; it was an act of gratuitous oppression in the present case, as in that case.

5. what have I here--that is, what am I called on to do? The fact "that My people is taken away (into captivity; Isaiah 49:24 Isaiah 49:25 ) for naught" (by gratuitous oppression, Isaiah 52:4 ; also Isaiah 52:3 , demands My interposition.
they that rule--or "tyrannize," namely, Babylon, literal and mystical.
make . . . to howl--or, raise a cry of exultation over them [MAURER].
blasphemed--namely, in Babylon: God's reason for delivering His people, not their goodness, but for the sake of His holy name ( Ezekiel 20:9 Ezekiel 20:14 ).

6. shall know in that day--when Christ shall reveal Himself to Israel sensibly; the only means whereby their obstinate unbelief shall be overcome ( Psalms 102:16 , Zechariah 12:10 , 14:5 ).

7. beautiful . . . feet--that is, The advent of such a herald seen on the distant "mountains" running in haste with the long-expected good tidings, is most grateful to the desolated city ( Nahum 1:15 ).
good tidings--only partially applying to the return from Babylon. Fully, and antitypically, the Gospel ( Luke 2:10 Luke 2:11 ), "beginning at Jerusalem" ( Luke 24:17 ), "the city of the great King" ( Matthew 5:35 ), where Messiah shall, at the final restoration of Israel, "reign" as peculiarly Zion's God ("Thy God reigneth"; compare Psalms 2:6 ).