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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Isaiah 52:1-6

Here, I. God's people are stirred up to appear vigorous for their own deliverance, Isa. 52:1, 2. They had desired that God would awake and put on his strength, Isa. 51:9. Here he calls upon them to awake and put on their strength, to bestir themselves; let them awake from their despondency, and pluck up their spirits, encourage themselves and one another with the hope that all will be well yet, and no longer succumb and sink under their burden. Let them awake from their distrust, look above... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 52:1

Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion ,.... Aben Ezra says, all interpreters agree that this prophecy is yet to be fulfilled, and so it is: by Zion is meant the church in Gospel times, in the latter day glory, which is called upon to awake out of sleep; and this repeated to show what a deep sleep had fallen on her, the danger she was in through it, and the vehemency of the speaker, or the great concern the Lord had for her; and this is the very state and case of the church of Christ now,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 52:2

Shake thyself from the dust ,.... Or "the dust from thee" F7 התנערי מעפר "exute pulverem a te", Sanctius, Gataker. , in which she had sat, or rolled herself as a mourner; or where she had been trampled upon by her persecutors and oppressors; but now being delivered from them, as well as from all carnal professors and false teachers, she is called upon to shake herself from the dust of debasement and distress, of false doctrine, superstition, and will worship, in every form and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 52:3

For thus saith the Lord, ye have sold yourselves for nought ,.... As Ahab did to work wickedness; as men do freely, and get nothing by it; for there is nothing got in the service of sin, Satan, and antichrist, or by being slaves and vassals to them; not profit, but loss; not pleasure, but pain; not honour, but shame; not liberty, but bondage; not riches and wealth, but poverty and want, which Popery always brings into those countries and people where it obtains. And ye shall be redeemed... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 52:1

There shall no more come into thee - For יבא yabo , "shall come," לבא lebo , "to come," is the reading of five of Kennicott's and two of De Rossi's MSS. This is the better reading, לבא יוסיף לא כי ki lo yosiph lebo , "There shall not add to come." The uncircumcised and the unclean - Christians have turned many passages of the prophets against the Jews; and it is not to be wondered at, that in support of their obstinate and hopeless cause, they should press a prophecy into... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 52:2

Sit down, O Jerusalem "Ascend thy lofty seat, O Jerusalem" - The literal rendering here is, according to our English translation, "arise, sit;" on which a very learned person remarks: "So the old versions. But sitting is an expression of mourning in Scripture and the ancients; and doth not well agree with the rising just before." It does not indeed agree, according to our ideas; but, considered in an oriental light, it is perfectly consistent. The common manner of sitting in the eastern... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 52:1

Awake, awake; put on thy strength (comp. Isaiah 51:9 ). God can help those only who help themselves. The "arm of the Lord" having been called upon to "put on strength" in order to help Zion, Zion is now exhorted to do her part, and put on her own strength. Nor is she to stop there; she is further to rut on her beautiful garments—to array herself in the glorious robes which befit her as a royal and a holy city, and show herself once more a queen, instead of being content to remain... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 52:1

The strength of the Church. The Zion of Old Testament Scripture is the Christian Church of the New. We have here, therefore, a commanding summons to clothe ourselves, as Churches of Christ, with the strength which is especially our own: "Put on thy strength, O Zion." I. IS WHAT THE STRENGTH OF THE CHURCH CONSISTS . Not, as we are too apt to imagine, in wealth, in territory, in buildings, in material defences of any kind: all this is the strength of the world, but not of... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 52:1

The beauty of the Church. We are more apt to thank God for the bounty than for the beauty of the earth; but if one is the more necessary, the other is the higher gift of the two; if the one satisfies the cravings of the body, the other ministers to the hunger and the thirst of the soul. With what lavish hand has God supplied it! What colour, what variety, what elegance, what symmetry, what loveliness, and what grandeur on the surface of the earth, in hill and mountain, in sea and sky! And if... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 52:1-2

God helps those who help themselves. It is a law of God's providence to require of men, as conditional to his assisting them, some corresponding effort. " Ask , and it shall be given you; seek , and ye shall find; knock , and it shall be opened unto you" ( Matthew 7:7 ). He is always ready to give; but he will have men stretch out their hand to receive. For the careless and the apathetic, he will—perhaps we might say, he can—do nothing. Thus he calls men into his Church, but... read more

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