ISAIAH 52

 The most valuable portion of Isaiah from a Christian perspective are those chapters containing what are called the “Servant Songs” (three of which are given in bold in Figure 1). There is some controversy as to the boundaries of these poetic sections, but here is my own symmetrical analysis of those found in chapters 49-57.

Figure 1: Structure of Isaiah 49-57

    1. Hope (49:1-50:3)

    The Lord's Servant (49:1-6)

        a. Word of Hope (49:7-12)

            b. Sing for Joy (49:13)

        a'. Word of Hope (49:14-50:3)

                2. Pay Attention (50:4-52:12)

                    The Lord's Servant (50:4-11)

                        a. Listen! (51:1-8)

                            b. Awake! (51:9-52:6)

                                (1). Awake, awake (51:9-16)

                                    (2). Rouse yourself, rouse yourself (51:17-23)

                                (1'). Awake, awake (52:1-6)

                        a'. Listen! (52:7-12)

    1'. Hope (52:13-57:21)

    The Lord's Servant (52:13-53:12)

        a. Hope for the Abandoned (ch. 54)

            b. Invitation to come to the LORD (chs. 55-56)

        a'. Hope for the Abandoned (ch. 57)

In this post, I would like to concentrate on Isaiah 52 only. Blenkinsopp rightly says of this chapter and the following one, “The passage has been and continues to be the object of an enormous volume of commentary and is beset by problems of interpretation, several still unsolved.” And Watts says, “The textual and exegetical problems are too numerous to canvas, let alone discuss; even the sometimes stuttering syntax seems to be a deliberate attempt to communicate confused astonishment.” We will touch on just a few of these issues in this brief review. The comments below will make better sense if you read the verses from the Bible along with them since I haven't always taken the time to quote or summarize them.

Isaiah 52:1-6

This first section of Isaiah 52 is written in prose, unlike the rest of the chapter.

Verses 1-2: God through the prophet speaks directly to the largely abandoned city of Jerusalem in anthropomorphic terms as if she were a captive woman ready to be liberated. This obviously speaks of the time when the people of Israel were still in exile.

Back in Isaiah 51:9, the Israelites had urged God to wake up and take action. Here we have “a retort which is the best answer. Cf. A comparable rejoinder by our Lord in Mk. 9:22,23.” (Kidner) Thus, as Oswalt points out, “The problem is not with him; he is ready to deliver them at the earliest moment when they are willing to exercise faith in him. It is they who must awake and put on strength, not he...While she [i.e. Israel] has no strength to deliver herself, she does have strength to lay hold of God's promises and must exercise that strength if deliverance is to be realized. This is a principle of divine-human relations that is the same in all circumstances.”

“52:1-2 is not so much a call to holiness as a promise that in a future day Jerusalem will be wholly free from foreign and pagan overlords.” (D. Payne)

Regarding v. 2, “The MT [Hebrew text] supported by LXX [the Septuagint] has 'sit down, Jerusalem'. The RSV...and others have accepted a slight textual change that allows for the translation 'O captive Jerusalem'. This would agree with the final clause 'O captive daughter of Zion'. It it is best, however to keep to the MT.” (Hulst)

Verses 3-6: McKenzie: “Something has happened to the words of Yahweh in vss. 3-6. The line between Hebrew poetry and elevated Hebrew prose is sometimes thin, but here there can be no doubt that these lines are in prose; and they form an eccentric mass in a poetic composition. Yet the content is not out of harmony with the context...The thought echoes in xlv 13. Yahweh has not acted for gain in the judgment of Israel, and he does not act for gain in its restoration. He acts only for his name, or for his righteousness, or for his fidelity.”

Verse 5: Payne says that “'here' in v. 5 and 'there' in v. 11 refer to Babylon, which he does not even deign to name.” This verse is quoted in the Septuagint version by Paul in Romans 2:24 following a long litany of Israel's sins causing God's name to be blasphemed among the Gentiles. Seifrid notes that “whereas the MT here sets aside the question of Israel's guilt, Paul, together with the LXX, speaks of Jewish transgressions as the cause of blasphemy...”

Verse 6: Durham notes the way the phrase 'I am Yahweh' is used rhetorically in the Book of Exodus. But he says, “The high point of this rhetoric is reached in Isa 52:6, 'Indeed will my people know from experience my name in that day, indeed, for I am He, the One who speaks out. Here I am!'”

Isaiah 52:7-12

In these verses, “The basic metaphor is of the triumphant approach of a king to a subject kingdom. His coming is announced by lookouts on mountains along the route and eventually by sentinels on the walls of Jerusalem.” (Blenkinsopp) Payne echoes this thought: “The return of the exiles is depicted as a solemn and sacred procession; it is as if God Himself returns with them.”

Verse 7: This is perhaps the most discussed verse in the chapter.

Robertson: “Green notes the connection of Nah 1:15 with Isa. 52:7, where deliverance from the Babylonian captivity is more immediately connected with God's word of redemption for Israel. He calls attention to the distinctive methodology of the writers of Scripture, 'by which terms and expressions primarily descriptive of the fall of one hostile power are applied interchangeably to that of others.'” Green's conclusion is that Nahum was commandeering Isaiah's words to make his own similar point.

“Part of v. 7...is duplicated in Nah. 1:15, and some scholars make a good deal of the supposed dependence of one passage on the other...it is equally possible that the phrase was part of a stock of phrases that was current in Israel as a whole, or among the prophets in particular, and that specific literary dependence is not an issue.” (Oswalt)

But Schnittjer states, “The extent of the parallel requires a direct or an indirect relationship. The verbal parallel does not offer evidence of direction of dependence.”

Bridger's extensive comments on Nahum 1:15 can just as well apply to Isaiah 52 as well:

“The mountains may be those around Jerusalem, making the promise of peace very close. Or they may be a metaphor for a very public proclamation of this good news; it would not be done in a corner, or in secret. The mention of the feet of the messenger suggests someone who has traveled some distance, perhaps from the scene of battle and a famous victory. The heart of the message was peace, the word used being shalom, which means much more than 'a ceasing from hostilities' or 'the ending of a conflict'...Nahum's words concerning 'the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace,' point forward to salvation and peace beyond the deliverance from the Assyrians or even the Babylonians, to salvation in Christ and peace with God, and all that follows in the life of the spirit.” This implication is brought out in Paul's citing of Isaiah/Nahum in Romans 10:14-15.

In speaking of 'beautiful feet,' The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery explains that “the biblical writers are content with beauty as a general artistic quality denoting the positive response of a person to nature, a person or an artifact. Isaiah does not have physical appearance in mind...”

Verse 8: McKenzie states, “By a paradox the watchmen of Jerusalem respond with a shout; it is a paradox because an abandoned city would have no watchmen. What they see is not the messenger but the return of Yahweh himself.”

Verse 9: Oswalt: “It is into this landscape that God comes with the promise that he has comforted them and redeemed them...These two verbs are at the very center of the message of this part of the book. They speak of restoration to fellowship, deliverance from bondage, encouragement in despair, strength in weakness, forgiveness in guilt, purpose in uselessness, and more.”

Verse 10: In this verse it is said that God has bared is holy arm, “in other words, he has thrown back the encumbering folds of his garment in order to be able to use his sword.” (Whybray)

Kidner remarks on the “psalm-like outburst in vv. 9,10 (cf. Ps. 98:3,40).”

Verse 11: This verse tells of the sacred Temple vessels being returned to Jerusalem, as described in Ezra 1:7-11. Kaiser, quoting Calvin, says that the “promise in Isaiah 52:11 that Israel would be restored from exile is not to be limited to either the NT or the OT; it includes the time 'down to Christ's last coming, when all things shall be fully accomplished.'”

Verse 12: Note the vast difference this time from when Israel left captivity in Egypt in great haste (see Exodus 12:11). As Ellul says, “It is not a question of fleeing soldiers, beaten in battle, but of men withdrawing after accomplishing what God asked them to accomplish. Contrary to what has usually happened throughout history these are not men rejected by the city, but men who know that their act of rejecting the city is in accordance with God's will. These are men who go out, guarded on every side, with God marching before and behind, and abandon the city to herself in the midst of God's wrath.”

Isaiah 52:13-15

Bruce notes that “it was sensitiveness to the Christian application of Is. 52:13-53:12 that was responsible for the non-inclusion of this passage in the regular synagogue readings from the Prophets, although the passages immediately preceding and following are included.” This pointed exclusion is still present today. And it was little doubt that this same reason was behind the Jewish Targum (i.e. early commentary) of this passage assigning the exaltation passages to the Messiah but those on sufferings to the nation instead.

Freedman calls Isaiah 52:13-53:12 “the most important of the servant songs...The summary offered in 52:13-15 suggests that the pattern of the servant's experience stretches between the extremes of humiliation and exaltation, from death to resurrection, from condemnation as a criminal to acknowledgment as the lord of men. The principal obligation of this servant here is to suffer; this is his work for his master; in this manner his mission to the nations is accomplished, and the purpose of God through the servant is fulfilled.”

“Let there be no mistake...God's Servant will triumph (Isa. 52:13), for even though many will be shocked at His crucifixion (Isa. 52:4), this is nothing compared to the way kings will be stunned when He returns a second time (Isa. 52:15).” (Kaiser)

Verse 14: Oswalt states that “instead of the Servant demonstrating that he was the gift of God through his obvious attractiveness, the very opposite was true. We are repelled by the face of self-giving and undefensiveness, and appalled by the visage of one who would prefer to lose than to win for the wrong reasons. Whatever attractiveness he might have for people will have to be from within...” The churches in America would be well advised to heed these words.

Harrison and Merrill bring up an interesting historical point regarding this verse: They explain that in the Dead Sea scroll version of Isaiah, “the word msht [disfigured] was replaced by the slightly different form mshty, presumably meaning 'I anointed.' The verse would then read 'As many as were astonished at you: so I anointed his appearance above any man, and his form beyond that of other human beings.' This emendation, which emphasized the anointed nature of the Lord's servant, makes it apparent that the Qumran sectaries regarding the Messiah and the suffering servant as identical.”

Verse 15: We run into another translation problem in this final verse of the chapter. Payne explains that “sprinkle is the usual sense of the Hebrew verb, it is true, but 'startle' (RSV) may be right and offers better sense in context.”

On the other hand, Hulst offers an opposite opinion: “The Hebr verbal form yazze(h) has been dubiously rendered 'he shall startle' (cf. The RSV). Many suggestions on the translation of the forms have been made. In this context, the word cannot mean 'to sprinkle'..Vriezen believes the form to be from hazza(h) 'to splash', which is interpreted in this context to mean 'to burst asunder'...This interpretation deserves consideration.”

Most modern translations opt for some variation on the word 'startle.