Yeshayah 52:5

5 Now therefore, what have I here, saith Hashem, that My people is taken away for nothing? They that rule over them mock them, saith Hashem; and all day long Shemi (My Name) is continually blasphemed.

Yeshayah 52:5 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 52:5

Now therefore what have I here, saith the Lord, that my people
is taken away for nought?
&c.] Or what do I get by it, that my people should be taken and held in captivity without cause? I am no gainer, but a loser by it, as it afterwards appears; and therefore why should I sit still, and delay the deliverance of my people any longer? but as I have delivered Israel out of Egypt, and the Jews from Babylon, so will I deliver my people out of mystical Babylon, spiritually called Sodom and Egypt. They that rule over them cause them to howl, saith the Lord;
they that hath carried them captive, and exercised a tyrannical power over them, cause them to howl under their bondage and slavery, as the Israelites formerly in Egypt; wherefore the Lord is moved with compassion to them, and since neither he nor they were gainers, but losers by their captivity, he determines to deliver them: or it may be rendered, "they cause its rulers to howl" ^F9, or his rulers howl; not the common people only, but their governors, civil and ecclesiastical; so Aben Ezra interprets it not of Heathen rulers, but of the great men of Israel: and my name continually every day is blasphemed;
by ascribing their extent of power and authority, their dominions and conquests, not to the Lord, but to their idols, whom they worship, to such or such a saint; opening their mouths in blasphemy against God, his name and tabernacle, and his people, ( Revelation 13:5 Revelation 13:6 ) . The Targum is,

``and always, all the day, because of the worship of my name, they provoke.''

The Septuagint is, "for you always my name is blasphemed among the Gentiles"; see ( Romans 2:24 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 (wlylyhy wlvm) "dominatores ejus ululare facient", Montanus; "dominus ipsius ejulant", Junius & Tremellius, Vitringa; "ululant", Piscator; "qui habent potestatem in eum ejulant", Cocceius.

Yeshayah 52:5 In-Context

3 For thus saith Hashem, Ye have sold yourselves for nothing; and your geulah (redemption) shall be without kesef.

4 For thus saith Adonoi Hashem, My people went down at first into Mitzrayim to sojourn there; and lately the Assyrian oppressed them.

5 Now therefore, what have I here, saith Hashem, that My people is taken away for nothing? They that rule over them mock them, saith Hashem; and all day long Shemi (My Name) is continually blasphemed.

6 Therefore My people shall know Shemi; therefore they shall know in Yom Hahu that I am He that doth speak; hineni, (behold, it is I).

7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the Mevaser (bringer of Good Tidings, the Evangelist), that publisheth shalom; that bringeth good tidings of tov, that publisheth Yeshuah (Salvation); that saith unto Tziyon, Thy G-d reigneth!