Isaiah 52:3

3 For thus said Jehovah: `For nought ye have been sold, And not by money are ye redeemed.'

Isaiah 52:3 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 52:3

For thus saith the Lord, ye have sold yourselves for nought,
&c.] As Ahab did to work wickedness; as men do freely, and get nothing by it; for there is nothing got in the service of sin, Satan, and antichrist, or by being slaves and vassals to them; not profit, but loss; not pleasure, but pain; not honour, but shame; not liberty, but bondage; not riches and wealth, but poverty and want, which Popery always brings into those countries and people where it obtains. And ye shall be redeemed without money;
in like manner as our spiritual and eternal redemption from sin, Satan, and the law, the world, death, and hell, is obtained; not without the price of the precious blood of the Lamb, but without such corruptible things as silver and gold, ( 1 Peter 1:18 1 Peter 1:19 ) and without any price paid to those by whom we are held captive, but to God, against whom we have sinned, whose law we have broken, and whose justice must be satisfied; and the blood of Christ is a sufficient price to answer all: hence redemption, though it cost Christ much, is entirely free to us; so will the redemption of the church, from the bondage and slavery of antichrist, be brought about by the power of God undeserved by them; not through their merits, and without any ransom price paid to those who held them captives.

Isaiah 52:3 In-Context

1 Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion, Put on the garments of thy beauty, Jerusalem -- the Holy City; For enter no more into thee again, Do the uncircumcised and unclean.

2 Shake thyself from dust, arise, sit, O Jerusalem, Bands of thy neck have loosed themselves, O captive, daughter of Zion.

3 For thus said Jehovah: `For nought ye have been sold, And not by money are ye redeemed.'

4 For thus said the Lord Jehovah: `To Egypt My people went down at first to sojourn there, And Asshur -- for nought he hath oppressed it.

5 And now, what -- to Me here, An affirmation of Jehovah, That taken is My people for nought? Its rulers cause howling, -- an affirmation of Jehovah, And continually all the day My name is despised.