Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 52

Awake, awake - (See the notes at Isaiah 51:9). This address to Jerusalem is intimately connected with the closing verses of the preceding chapter. Jerusalem is there represented as down-trodden in the dust before her enemies. Here she is described under the image of a female that had been clad in the garments of mourning, and she is now called on to arise from this condition, and to put on the garments that would be indicative of gladness and of joy. The idea is that the time had now come when she was to be delivered from her long captivity and was to be restored to her former prosperity and splendor.

Put on thy strength - Hebrew, ‘Clothe yourself with your strength.’ The idea is, exert yourself; be strong, bold, confident; arise from your dejection, and become courageous as one does when one is about to engage in an enterprise that promises success and demands effort.

Put on thy beautiful garments - Jerusalem is here addressed, as she often is, as a female (see the note at Isaiah 1:8). She was to lay aside the garments expressive of grief and of captivity, and deck herself with those appropriate to a state of prosperity.

The uncircumcised and the unclean - The idea is that only those should enter Jerusalem and dwell there who would be worshippers of the true God. The uncircumcised are emblems of the impure, the unconverted, and the idolatrous; and the meaning is that in future times the church would be pure and holy. It cannot mean that no uncircumcised man or idolater would ever again enter the city of Jerusalem, for this would not be true. It was a fact that Antiochus and his armies, and Titus and his army, entered Jerusalem, and undoubtedly hosts of others who were not circumcised did also.

But this refers to the future times when the church of God would be pure. Its members would, in the main, be possessors of the true religion, and would adorn it. Probably, therefore, the view of the prophet extended to the purer and happier times under the Messiah, when the church should be characteristically and eminently holy, and when, as a great law of that church, none should be admitted who did not profess that they were converted.

Shake yourself from the dust - To sit on the ground, to sit in the dust, is an expression descriptive of mourning (Job 2:13). Jerusalem is here called on to arise and shake off the dust, indicating that the days of her grief were ended and that she was about to be restored to her former beauty and splendor.

Arise and sit down - There is an incongruity in this expression in our translation which does not occur in the original. The idea in the Hebrew is not that which seems to be implied in this expression—to arise and sit down in the same place—but it means to arise from the dust and sit in a more elevated or honorable place. She had been represented as sitting on the earth, where her loose, flowing robes would be supposed to become covered with dust. She is here called on to arise from that humble condition and to occupy the divan, or a chair of dignity and honor. Lowth renders this, ‘Ascend your lofty seat,’ and supposes it means that she was to occupy a throne or an elevated seat of honor, and he quotes oriental customs to justify this interpretation.

Noyes renders it, ‘Arise and sit erect.’ The Chaldee renders it, ‘Rise, sit upon the throne of your glory.’ The following quotation from Jowett’s Christian Researches will explain the custom alluded to here: ‘It is no uncommon thing to see an individual, or group of persons, even when very well dressed, sitting with their feet drawn under them, upon the bare earth, passing whole hours in idle conversation.

Europeans would require a chair, but the natives here prefer the ground. In the heat of summer and autumn, it is pleasant for them to while away their time in this manner under the shade of a tree. Richly adorned females, as well as men, may often be seen amusing themselves this way. As may naturally be expected, with whatever care they may choose their place when first sitting down, yet the flowing dress gradually gathers up the dust. As this occurs, they from time to time arise, adjust themselves, shake off the dust, and then sit down again.

The captive daughter of Zion, therefore, brought down to the dust of suffering and oppression, is commanded to arise and shake herself from that dust, and then, with grace, and dignity, and composure, and security, to sit down; to take, as it were, her seat and rank again among the company of the nations of the earth, which had previously afflicted her and trampled her to the earth.’

Loose yourself from the bands of your neck - Jerusalem had been a captive and confined as a prisoner. She is now called on to cast off these chains from her neck and to be at liberty again. In captivity, chains or bands were attached to various parts of the body. They were usually affixed to the wrists or ankles, but it would seem also that sometimes collars were affixed to the neck. The idea is that the Jews, who had been held captive for so long, were about to be released and restored to their own land.

Ye have sold yourselves for nought - You became captives and prisoners without any price being paid for you. You cost nothing to those who made you prisoners. The idea is that as those who had made them prisoners had done so without paying any price for them, it was equitable that they should be released in the same manner.

When their captors had paid nothing for them, God would allow nothing to be paid for them in turn; and they should be released, as they had been sold, without a price paid for them. Perhaps God intends here to reproach them for selling themselves in this manner without any compensation of any kind, and to show them the folly of it. But, at the same time, he intends to assure them that no price would be paid for their ransom.

Ye shall be redeemed - You shall be delivered from your long and painful captivity without any price being paid to the Babylonians. This was to be a remarkable proof of the power of God. Men do not usually give up captives and slaves, in whatever way they may have taken them, without demanding a price or ransom.

But here God says that he designs to effect their deliverance without any such price being demanded or paid, and that as they had gone into captivity unpurchased, so they should return unpurchased. Accordingly, he so overruled events as completely to effect this.

The Babylonians, perhaps, in no way could have been induced to surrender them. God, therefore, designed to raise up Cyrus, a mild, just, and equitable prince; and to dispose him to allow the exiles to depart, and to aid them in their return to their own land. In this way, they were rescued without money and without price, by the intervention of another.

For thus says the Lord God — In order to show them that he could redeem them without money, God reminds them of what had been done in former times. The numerous captives in Egypt, whose services were so valuable to the Egyptians and whom the Egyptians were so unwilling to allow to depart, he had rescued by his own power and had delivered forever from that bondage. The idea here is, that with the same ease he could rescue the captives in Babylon, and restore them to their own land without a price.

My people went down — That is, Jacob and his sons. The phrase ‘went down,’ is applied to a journey to Egypt, because Judea was a mountainous and elevated country compared with Egypt, and a journey there was in fact a descent to a more level and lower country.

To sojourn there — Not to dwell there permanently, but to remain there only for a time. They went in fact only to remain until the severity of the famine should have passed by, and until they could return with safety to the land of Canaan.

And the Assyrians oppressed them without cause — A considerable variety has existed in the interpretation of this passage. The Septuagint renders it, ‘And to the Assyrians they were carried by force.’ Some have supposed that this refers to the oppressions that they experienced in Egypt, and that the name ‘Assyrian’ is here given to Pharaoh. So Forerius and Cajetan understand it. They suppose that the name ‘the Assyrian’ became, in the understanding of the Jews, the common name for that which was proud, oppressive, and haughty, and might therefore be used to designate Pharaoh. But there are insuperable objections to this.

It is not true that Pharaoh was an Assyrian; nor is it true that the Israelites were oppressed by the Assyrians while they remained in Egypt. Others have supposed that this refers to Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans in general, and that the name ‘the Assyrian’ is given to them in a broad and general sense, as ruling over what constituted the empire of Assyria, and that the prophet here refers to the calamities they were suffering in Babylon. But the objection to this is no less decisive.

It is true that Babylon was formerly a part or province of Assyria, and it is also true that in the time of the Jewish captivity it was the capital of the kingdom of which the former empire of Assyria became a subject province. But the name Babylonian, in the Scriptures, is kept distinct from that of Assyrian, and they are not used interchangeably. Nor does the connection of the passage require us to understand it in this sense. The whole passage is highly elliptical, and something must be supplied to make out the sense. Its general design is to show that God would certainly deliver the Jews from the captivity at Babylon without money.

A paraphrase of the passage, and a filling in of the parts omitted in the prophet's brief and abrupt manner, will show the sense. ‘You have been sold for nought, and you shall be ransomed without price.

As a proof that I can do it and will do it, remember that my people formerly went down to Egypt and intended to sojourn there for a little time. They were reduced to slavery there and oppressed by Pharaoh, but I ransomed them without money and brought them out by my own power.

Remember, further, how often the Assyrian has also oppressed them without cause. Remember the history of Sennacherib, Tiglath-pileser, and Salmaneser, and how they have laid the land waste; and remember also how I have delivered it from these oppressions.

With the same certainty, and the same ease, I can deliver the people from the captivity at Babylon.’

The prophet, therefore, refers to different periods and events. The idea is that God had delivered them when they had been oppressed by both the Egyptians and the Assyrians, and that he who had so often intervened would also rescue them from their oppression in Babylon.

Now, therefore, what have I here? – This refers to the situation in Babylon, concerning the captivity of the Jews there. The idea is that a state of things existed there which demanded his intervention as truly as it did when his people had been oppressed by the Egyptians or by the Assyrian. His people had been taken away for nothing; they were subject to cruel oppressions; and his own name was continually blasphemed.

In this state of things, it is inferred that he would certainly come to their rescue, and that his own perfections, as well as their welfare, demanded that he should intervene to redeem them. The phrase what have I here? is equivalent to asking: What shall I do? What am I properly called on to do? Or, what reason is there now in Babylon for my intervention to rescue my people?

It is implied that such was the state of things that God felt there was something demanding his intervention.

That my people is taken away for nought – this was one thing existing in Babylon that demanded his intervention. His people had been made captive by the Chaldeans and were now suffering under their oppressions. This had been done ‘for nothing’; that is, it had been done without any just claim. On their part, it was a mere act of gross and severe oppression, and this demanded the intervention of a righteous God.

They that rule over them make them to howl – Lowth renders this, ‘They that are lords over them make their boast of it.’ Noyes renders it, ‘And their tyrants exult.’ The Septuagint renders it, ‘My people are taken away for nought: wonder, you, and raise a mournful cry’ (ὀλολύζετε). Jerome renders it, ‘Their lords act unjustly, and they therefore howl when they are delivered to torments.’ Aben Ezra supposes that by ‘their lords’ here, or those who rule over them, are meant the rulers of the Jewish people, and that the idea is that they lament and howl over the calamities and oppressions of the people.

But it is probable, after all, that our translators have given the true sense of the text, and that the idea is that they were suffering such grievous oppressions in Babylon as to make them lift up the cry of lamentation and of grief. This was a reason why God should intervene as he had done in former times and bring deliverance.

And my name continually every day is blasphemed – this means in Babylon. The proud and oppressive Babylonians delight to add to the sorrows of the exiles by reproaching the name of their God and by saying that he was unable to defend them and their city from ruin. This is the third reason why God would intervene to rescue them.

The three reasons in this verse are: that they had been taken away for nothing; that they were suffering grievous and painful oppression; and that the name of God was reproached. On all these accounts he felt that he had something to do in Babylon, and that his intervention was demanded.