Read Isaiah 52 here (text coming …) or at Bible Gateway.
The Hebrew paragraphs:
52:1-2 {s} Awake! Put on strength, O Zion! No more unclean shall enter you!
52:3 {s} You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money
52:4-6 {s} The Assyrian oppressed them without cause, therefore I will make My name known
52:7-10 {s} How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! You shall see YHVH returning to Zion
52:11-12 {s} Depart from the nations, and touch no unclean thing, for YHVH will go before you
52:13-15 {s} My Servant shall prosper, and be exalted, shall fill many nations with joy
The Chiastic structure:
First, there is a translation correction for verse 8. The Hebrew grammar says that they see YHVH – yes, the tetragrammaton – returning to Zion, not that YHVH brings Zion back as some English Bibles have it. The Hebrew idiom “eye to eye” means the watchmen see YHVH’s return with vivid, personal clarity, as if standing face-to-face.
This chapter continues the Common Theme of exiles returning to Jerusalem, the natural city, and Zion, the spiritual city, in which His people have their spiritual citizenship.
For thus says the Lord YHVH, “My people went down to Egypt at the first to sojourn there, and Assyria oppressed them for nothing.” Isa 52:4
The Egyptians were Israel’s first oppressors, who made them slaves. God is bringing their Egyptian deliverance up, to remind them what great power He used to set them free from captivity, and to establish them in their own land.
By the time Isaiah delivered these later prophecies of comfort and restoration, the Assyrians (who were the world power in Isaiah’s lifetime) had already taken the northern kingdom of Israel captive, and had invaded Judah, whose threat YHVH repelled by slaying 185,000 warriors in a single night (2 Kin 17:6, 19:35). The northern kingdom, at that time, were sojourning in a land not their own, oppressed, and needing deliverance from captivity. God already had a track record of restoration with Egypt.
Depart, depart, go out from there, touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her, purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of YHVH. For not in haste shall you go out, nor in flight shall you go, for YHVH goes before you, and the God of Israel is your rearguard. Isa 52:11-12
When God delivered His people from Egypt, they went out in haste; they fled. The holidays of Passover and Unleavened Bread remind us that they left so quickly they had no time to prepare provisions, and their dough, as yet unleavened, they carried away with them (Exo 12:20).
But this time when He delivers from captivity – not just Judah, but Israel too – here’s looking at you, Ten Lost Tribes! – it will not be in haste. The door will be open to depart with no threat or force to restrain them, YHVH going before and guarding behind the return of His missing people (Exo 14:19).
The natural restoration from Assyrian captivity is still waiting its fulfillment. The spiritual restoration from the oppressor’s captivity has been ongoing since the coming of The Servant, the focus of the next chapter …
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