Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 6:17

"Wherefore Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, And touch no unclean thing; And I will receive you," — 2 Corinthians 6:17 (ASV)

Wherefore come out from among them—Another composite quotation follows, beginning with Isaiah 52:11. In their primary historical sense, the words were addressed to the priests and Levites who were to return from Babylon. They were not to bring back with them any symbol of that unclean ritual which they had witnessed there. The local and historical meaning has passed away for the Apostle, and the unclean thing is identified with the whole system of heathenism.

The close connection of this verse with the great prophecy of the atoning work makes it probable that, in writing of that work, St. Paul had remembered, or perhaps actually turned to Isaiah 53, as it stood in the LXX version, and so was led on to the verse that almost immediately preceded it. I will receive you comes, instead of the ending of Isaiah, from the Greek of Ezekiel 11:17 and Jeremiah 24:5.