Isaiah 52:11

"Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; cleanse yourselves, ye that bear the vessels of Jehovah. For ye shall not go out in haste, neither shall ye go by flight; for Jehovah will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rearward."

Compare this with Isaiah 48:20, where the instructions for Israel contained the word "flee." Thus we have again that oft-repeated Biblical characteristic of repeating sacred records, or instructions, with additional and supplementary material, conforming to Isaiah 28:10,13, such characteristics being not only true of the pattern throughout all the Bible, but especially suggestive of the writings of Isaiah, and having the utility here of another signature identifying the whole prophecy as belonging to Isaiah. The critics have no answer at all by which they could hope to deny this. The additional material here is the fact that "flee" did not mean to leave in haste, as in the first exodus, but merely to "get out of the place as soon as possible."

The exhortation here was addressed to the Jews of 537 B.C., who were challenged to leave the prosperity they enjoyed, and the property they had acquired, and to choose instead a life of pioneering hardship in a return to Jerusalem, over a trackless desert, and confronted with all kinds of dangers. Unfavorable as such a prospect must have appeared to all of them, "The safety and purity of their souls depended upon their fleeing"[12] from the polluted society of Babylon and the seduction of its pagan culture.

"Depart ye, depart ye ..." (Isaiah 52:11). This command also has its application for Christians of all generations. They should remember the danger to Lot who pitched his tent toward Sodom and who lived to regret it; and whose posterity provided armies of enemies for the people of God. Christians today have the same duty "to separate themselves from the mystical Babylon, from all that is evil, Revelation 18:4."[13]

"Not with haste ..." (Isaiah 52:12). This means that the captives in Babylon would not be escaping refugees, as were their forefathers in the Exodus from Egypt, for they would enjoy the patronage and safe-conduct of the Persian Emperor."[14]

"Cleanse yourselves, ye that bear the vessels of Jehovah ..." (Isaiah 52:11). "From this, we must understand those vessels which Nebuchadnezzar carried off from the temple (2 Kings 25:14-16, and Daniel 5:1-4); and which the Jews received upon their return from Babylon when the vessels were restored to them by Cyrus."[15]

It is agreed by all scholars that the logical end of Isaiah 52 occurs fight here, and that the last three verses form a logical introduction to the magnificent Fourth Song of the Servant, which extends through the following Isaiah 53.

Long usage, however, makes it proper to retain the common chapter divisions.