Isaiah 52:2

2 Shake yourself from the dust, rise up, O captive Jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter Zion!

Isaiah 52:2 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 52:2

Shake thyself from the dust
Or "the dust from thee" F7, in which she had sat, or rolled herself as a mourner; or where she had been trampled upon by her persecutors and oppressors; but now being delivered from them, as well as from all carnal professors and false teachers, she is called upon to shake herself from the dust of debasement and distress, of false doctrine, superstition, and will worship, in every form and shape, a great deal of which adheres to those churches called reformed. Arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem;
or "sit up", as it may be rendered; arise from thy low estate, from the ground and dust where thou art cast;

``and sit upon the throne of thy glory,''
so the Targum: it denotes the exaltation of the church from a low to a high estate, signified by the ascension of the witnesses to heaven, ( Revelation 11:12 ) . Some render it, "arise, O captivity"; or "captive" F8; so the word is used in ( Isaiah 49:24 Isaiah 49:25 ) and agrees with what follows: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion;
or loose thou "the bands off thy neck from thee"; which seems to denote the people of God in mystical Babylon, a little before its destruction, who will be called out of it, as they afterwards are in this chapter; and to throw off the Romish yoke, and release themselves from that captivity and bondage they have been brought into by the man of sin, who now himself shall be led captive, ( Revelation 13:10 ) .
FOOTNOTES:

F7 (rpem yrenth) "exute pulverem a te", Sanctius, Gataker.
F8 (ybv ymwq) "surge captivas", Forerius; so Ben Melech interprets it.

Isaiah 52:2 In-Context

1 Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion! Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for the uncircumcised and the unclean shall enter you no more.
2 Shake yourself from the dust, rise up, O captive Jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter Zion!
3 For thus says the Lord: You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.
4 For thus says the Lord God: Long ago, my people went down into Egypt to reside there as aliens; the Assyrian, too, has oppressed them without cause.
5 Now therefore what am I doing here, says the Lord, seeing that my people are taken away without cause? Their rulers howl, says the Lord, and continually, all day long, my name is despised.

Footnotes 1

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.