Verse 11
11. Depart ye, depart ye, etc. The language here is of high poetic scope, and though allusive of departure from the old Babel-home, from analogy with chap. Isaiah 48:20, yet the reference must be general. The renewed and cleansed in every age, and from every den of capture, whether Sodom, Egypt, or Babel, must betake themselves away, away, for so Alexander, following Gesenius, translates the words, and so St. Paul applies them, 2 Corinthians 6:17-18.
Touch no unclean thing Not the slightest memento. Probably the returning exiles were all natives of Babylon. Utter renunciation of things belonging to that polluted land was, however, only all too appropriate.
Bear the vessels of the Lord It is known that Nebuchadnezzar took away from Jerusalem all the golden service-vessels from the temple, and that Cyrus ordered their return. See 2 Chronicles 37:18; Daniel 5:2-5; Ezra 1:7-11. The application of these words to ministers of the Gospel has no original warrant except as being secondarily very apt.
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