Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 62:6

"I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that are Jehovah`s remembrancers, take ye no rest," — Isaiah 62:6 (ASV)

I have set watchmen upon thy walls - (See the notes at Isaiah 21:6-11). The speaker here is undoubtedly Yahweh; and by watchmen he means those whom he had appointed to be the instructors of his people—the ministers of religion. The name ‘watchmen’ is often given to them (Ezekiel 3:17; Ezekiel 33:7; see the notes at Isaiah 52:8; Isaiah 56:10).

Which shall never hold their peace - The watches in the East are to this day performed by a loud cry as they go their rounds. This is done frequently in order to mark the time, and also to show that they are awake to their duty. “The watchmen in the camp of the caravans go their rounds, crying one after another, ‘God is one; He is merciful’; and often add, ‘Take heed to yourselves’” - (Tavernier). The truth here taught is, that they who are appointed to be the ministers of religion should be ever watchful and unceasing in the discharge of their duty.

Ye that make mention of the Lord - Margin, ‘That are the Lord’s remembrancers.’ These are evidently the words of the prophet addressing those who are watchmen, and urging them to do their duty, as he had said (Isaiah 62:1) he was resolved to do his. Lowth renders this, ‘O ye that proclaim the name of Yahweh.’ Noyes, ‘O ye that praise Yahweh.’ But this does not express the sense of the original as well as the common version. The Hebrew word המזכירים (hamaz^ekiyriym)—from זכר (zâkar, “to remember”)—means properly those bringing to remembrance, or causing to remember.

It is a word frequently applied to the praise of God, or to the celebration of his worship (Psalms 20:7; Psalms 38:1; Psalms 45:17; Psalms 70:1; Psalms 102:12). In such instances the word does not mean that they who are engaged in his service cause Yahweh to remember, or bring things to his recollection which otherwise he would forget; but it means that they would keep up his remembrance among the people, or that they proclaimed his name in order that he might not be forgotten. This is the idea here. It is not merely that they were engaged in the worship of God; but it is, that they did this in order to keep up the remembrance of Yahweh among people. In this sense the ministers of religion are ‘the remembrancers’ of the Lord.

Keep not silence - Hebrew, ‘Let there be no silence to you.’ That is, be constantly employed in public prayer and praise.

And I will tread them down — Or rather, ‘I did tread them down.’ The allusion here is to a warrior who tramples on his foes and treads them in the dust (see the notes at Isaiah 25:10).

And made them drunk — That is, I made them reel and fall under my fury like a drunken man. In describing the destruction of Idumea in Isaiah 34:5, Yahweh says that his sword was made drunk, or that it rushed intoxicated from heaven. See the notes on that verse. But here he says that the people, under the terrors of his wrath, lost their power of self-command and fell to the earth like an intoxicated man. Kimchi says that the idea is that Yahweh extended the cup of his wrath for them to drink until they became intoxicated and fell. An image of this kind is used several times in the Scriptures (see the notes at Isaiah 51:17).

Lowth and Noyes render this, ‘I crushed them.’ The reason for this change is that, according to Kennicott, twenty-seven manuscripts (three of them ancient), instead of the present Hebrew reading ואשׁכרם va'ăshakerem — ‘And I will make them drunk,’ read ואשׁברם va'ăshaberem — ‘I will break or crush them.’ Such a change, it is true, might easily have been made from the similarity of the Hebrew letters, כ (k) and ב (b).

But the authority for the change does not seem to me to be sufficient, nor is it necessary. The image of making them stagger and fall like a drunken man is more poetic than the other and is in entire accordance with the usual manner of writing by the sacred penman. The Chaldee renders it, ‘I cast to the lowest earth the slain of their strong ones.’

And I will bring down their strength — I subdued their strong places and their mighty armies. Such is the sense given to the passage by our translators. But Lowth and Noyes render it, more correctly, ‘I spilled their life-blood upon the ground.’ The word which our translators have rendered ‘strength’ (נצח nētsach), is the same word which is used in Isaiah 63:3 and which is rendered there ‘blood’ (see the note at that verse). It is probably used in the same sense here and means that Yahweh had brought their blood to the earth; that is, he had spilled it upon the ground. So the Septuagint renders it, ‘I shed their blood (κατήγαγον τὸ αίμα katēgagon to haima) upon the earth.’ This finishes the vision of the mighty conqueror returning from Edom.

The following verse introduces a new subject. The sentiment in the passage is that Yahweh by his own power, and by the might of his own arm, would subdue all his foes and redeem his people. Edom in its hostility to his people, the apt emblem of all his foes, would be completely humbled; and in its subjugation there would be the emblem and the pledge that all his enemies would be destroyed, and that his own church would be safe. See the notes at Isaiah 34; Isaiah 35:1–10.