Isaiah 62:11
Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
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EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)
(11) The Lord hath proclaimed . . .—A partial fulfilment of the words is found in the decree of Cyrus (Ezra 1:1-2); but they have also a wider range, and take in all the events by which history becomes as the voice of God, proclaiming His will.

The end of the world has been restricted by some commentators to the western regions of the Mediterranean, but without sufficient reason.

Behold, his reward is with him.—Repeated from Isaiah 40:10, where see Notes.

Isaiah 62:11-12. The Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world — Hath commanded his gospel to be preached to every creature: or hath sent forth his messengers into all parts of the world, in order to the conversion of Jews and Gentiles. Say ye to the daughter of Zion — That is, to Jerusalem, or the church. Behold, thy salvation cometh — Either the time of it is come, or rather the person that effects it, thy Saviour. Behold, his reward is with him — That is, he has it in his power, and is ready to reward his faithful servants; and his work before him — The work necessary to be wrought in and upon his people, to make them his people, the work of regeneration and sanctification. And they shall call them — Or, they shall be called; the holy people — A people peculiarly holy, cured of their inclination to idolatry, and all other sins, and consecrated to God only. The redeemed of the Lord — So redeemed as none but God could redeem them; and redeemed to be his, the bonds whereby other lords held them in subjection being broken, that they might be his servants. And thou shalt be called, Sought out — Or one found that was lost, Ezekiel 34:16. Or rather, sought to, or sought for, that is, one in great esteem and request; one that the Gentiles shall seek to join themselves to, so as to be one church with thee. Or, one cared for, namely, by God, whom he hath, out of infinite love, gathered to himself. A city not forsaken — The meaning is, that they should thus esteem the gospel church, that she should be accosted with such salutations as these are, the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, &c. Vitringa thinks that the first completion of this prophecy is to be sought for in the times of the Emperor Constantine; but it is probable that it has a further reference to some great and future reformation and restoration of the church.

62:10-12 Way shall be made for Christ's salvation; all difficulties shall be removed. He brings a reward of comfort and peace with him; but a work of humiliation and reformation before him; and they shall be called, The holy people, and, The redeemed of the Lord. Holiness puts honour and beauty upon any place or person, makes them admired, beloved, and sought after. Many events may have been part fulfilments of this, as earnests of more glorious times yet to come. The close connexion between the blessedness of the Jews and of the Gentiles, runs through the Scriptures. The Lord Jesus will complete his work, and he never will forsake one whom he has redeemed and sanctified.Behold the Lord hath proclaimed - Proclamation is made to all nations that Yahweh is about to come and rescue his people.

Say ye to the daughter of Zion - To Jerusalem (see the notes at Isaiah 1:8).

Thy salvation cometh - Lowth renders this, 'Lo!, thy Saviour cometh.' So the Vulgate, the Septuagint, the Chaldee, and the Syriac. The Hebrew word properly means salvation, but the reference is to God as the Deliverer or Saviour. The immediate allusion is probably to the return from Babylon, but the remote and more important reference is to the coming of the Redeemer (see the notes at Isaiah 40:1-10).

Behold, his reward is with him - See these words explained in the notes at Isaiah 40:10.

11. salvation—embodied in the Saviour (see Zec 9:9).

his work—rather, recompense (Isa 40:10).

The Lord hath proclaimed: this may be understood of Cyrus’s proclamation, being thereunto directed by God: see 2 Chronicles 36:22, &c.

To the daughter of Zion, i.e. to Jerusalem, or the church: the sum of which proclamation is in the, following words.

Thy salvation cometh; either,

1. The time of it is come, Isaiah 56:1 60:1. Or rather,

2. The person that effects it, thy Saviour, by a metonymy of the efficient, Luke 2:30.

His work, i.e. the reward due to the work, the same thing with the former: See Poole "Isaiah 40:10". Or, his work is ready cut out for him which he is to do. Or, he will industriously set himself about the work that is before him, John 4:34; and he is said to bring it with him, viz. the reward that he will give to his true worshippers; or, he brings eternal salvation with him, or the reward of redemption, which is the subject of the next chapter.

Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world,.... This is not to be interpreted of the proclamation by Cyrus, giving liberty to the people of the Jews to return to their own land, for that did not reach to the end of the world; but of the proclamation of the Gospel, which, as when first published, the sound of it went into all the earth, and the words of it to the ends of the world, Romans 10:18. So it will be in the latter day, when it shall be preached to all nations, from one end of the world to the other, Revelation 14:6,

Say ye to the daughter of Zion, behold, thy salvation cometh; or "thy Saviour" (l), or "thy Redeemer", as the Targum, Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions; and which is to be understood not of his first coming, or of his incarnation, though that is sometimes foretold in much such language, Zechariah 9:9 and the same things are said of him with respect to that, as follows: "behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him"; See Gill on Isaiah 40:10, but of his spiritual coming, of which notice is given to the church, the congregation of Zion, as the Targum renders it: who will come in a spiritual manner, and do a great work in the world; destroy antichrist; convert Jews and Gentiles; take to himself his great power and reign; and give a reward to his servants the prophets, his saints, and them that fear his name, 2 Thessalonians 2:8. The Targum is,

"behold, a reward to them that do his word is with him, and all their works are manifest before him.''

The word behold is three times used in this verse, to raise attention to what is said, and as pointing out something wonderful, and to express the certainty of it.

(l) "tuus Salvator", V. L. Munster, Tigurine version.

Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed to the end of the world, {m} Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and {n} his work before him.

(m) You prophets and ministers show the people of this their deliverance: which was chiefly meant of our salvation by Christ, Zec 9:9, Mt 21:5.

(n) He will have all power to bring his purpose to pass, as in Isa 40:10.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
11. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world] Cf. ch. Isaiah 48:20. There redeemed Israel is enjoined to declare to all the world the great salvation it has experienced; here Jehovah Himself makes it known.

thy salvation cometh] Instead of “the Lord God shall come” in ch. Isaiah 40:10.

Behold his reward is with him &c.] Repeated from Isaiah 40:10 (see on the passage). The chief Ancient Versions seem to have felt the want of a personal antecedent to the pronouns; hence they render in the previous clause “thy Saviour” for “thy salvation.”

Verse 11. - Meanwhile Jehovah, by his angels or his prophets, causes it to be made known to the ends of the earth that the redemption of Israel draws nigh, and that Zion's" salvation" approaches. His reward is with him, etc. The words are repeated from Isaiah 40:10. Here they are certainly said of Israel. They go forth from Babylon, having their reward with them - i.e. liberty, honour, riches to some extent (Ezra 1:4-11), and their work, or rather their recompense - the possession of Palestine - before them. Isaiah 62:11The concluding strophe goes back to the standpoint of the captivity. "Go forth, go forth through the gates, clear the way of the people. Cast up, cast up the road, clear it of stones; lift up a banner above the nations! Behold, Jehovah hath caused tidings to sound to the end of the earth. Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him. And men will call them the holy people, the redeemed of Jehovah; and men will call thee, Striven after, A city that will not be forsaken." We cannot adopt the rendering proposed by Gesenius, "Go ye into the gates," whether of Jerusalem or of the temple, since the reading would then be שׁערים בּאוּ (Genesis 23:10) or בשּׁערים (Jeremiah 7:2). For although בּ עבר may under certain circumstances be applied to entrance into a city (Judges 9:26), yet it generally denotes either passing through a land (Isaiah 8:21; Isaiah 34:10; Genesis 41:46; Leviticus 26:6, etc.), or through a nation (2 Samuel 20:14), or through a certain place (Isaiah 10:28); so that the phrase בּשּׁער עבר, which does not occur anywhere else (for in Micah 2:13, which refers, however, to the exodus of the people out of the gates of the cities of the captivity, שׁער ויּעברוּ do not belong together), must refer to passing through the gate; and the cry בשׁערים עברוּ means just the same as מבּבל צאוּ ("Go ye forth from Babylon") in Isaiah 48:20; Isaiah 52:11.

The call to go out of Babylon forms the conclusion of the prophecy here, just as it does in Isaiah 48:20-21; Isaiah 52:11-12. It is addressed to the exiles; but who are they to whom the command is given, "Throw up a way," - a summons repeatedly found in all the three books of these prophecies (Isaiah 40:3; Isaiah 57:14)? They cannot be the heathen, for this is contradicted by the conclusion of the charge, "Lift ye up a banner above the nations;" nor can we adopt what seems to us a useless fancy on the part of Stier, viz., that Isaiah 62:10 is addressed to the watchmen on the walls of Zion. We have no hesitation, therefore, in concluding that they are the very same persons who are to march through the gates of Babylon. The vanguard (or pioneers) of those who are coming out are here summoned to open the way by which the people are to march, to throw up the road (viz., by casting up an embankment, hamsillâh, as in Isaiah 11:16; Isaiah 49:11; maslūl, Isaiah 35:8), to clear it of stones (siqqēl, as in Isaiah 5:2; cf., Hosea 9:12, shikkēl mē'âdâm), and lift up a banner above the nations (one rising so high as to be visible far and wide), that the diaspora of all places may join those who are returning home with the friendly help of the nations (Isaiah 11:12; Isaiah 49:22). For Jehovah hath caused tidings to be heard to the end of the earth, i.e., as we may see from what follows, the tidings of their liberation; in other words, looking at the historical fulfilment, the proclamation of Cyrus, which he caused to be issued throughout his empire at the instigation of Jehovah (Ezra 1:1). Hitzig regards השׁמיע as expressing what had actually occurred at the time when the prophet uttered his predictions; and in reality the standpoint of the prophets was so far a variable one, that the fulfilment of what was predicted did draw nearer and nearer to it ἐν πνεύματι. But as hinnēh throughout the book of Isaiah, even when followed by a perfect, invariably points to something future, all that can be said is, that the divine announcement of the time of redemption, as having now arrived, stands out before the soul of the prophet with all the certainty of a historical fact. The conclusion which Knobel draws from the expression "to the end of the earth," as to the Babylonian standpoint of the prophet, is a false one. In his opinion, "the end of the earth" in such passages as Psalm 72:8; Zechariah 9:10 ('aphsē-'ârets), and Isaiah 24:16 (kenaph hâ'ârets), signifies the western extremity of the orbis orientalis, that is to say, the region of the Mediterranean, more especially Palestine; whereas it was rather a term applied to the remotest lands which bounded the geographical horizon (compare Isaiah 42:10; Isaiah 48:20, with Psalm 2:8; Psalm 22:28, and other passages). The words that follow ("Say ye," etc.) might be taken as a command issued on the ground of the divine hishimiă‛ ("the Lord hath proclaimed"); but hishimiă‛ itself is a word that needs to be supplemented, so that what follows is the divine proclamation: Men everywhere, i.e., as far as the earth or the dispersion of Israel extends, are to say to the daughter of Zion - that is to say, to the church which has its home in Zion, but is now in foreign lands - that "its salvation cometh," i.e., that Jehovah, its Saviour, is coming to bestow a rich reward upon His church, which has passed through sever punishment, but has been so salutarily refined. Those to whom the words "Say ye," etc., are addressed, are not only the prophets of Israel, but all the mourners of Zion, who become mebhasserı̄m, just because they respond to this appeal (compare the meaning of this "Say ye to the daughter of Zion" with Zechariah 9:9 in Matthew 21:5). The whole of the next clause, "Behold, His reward," etc., is a repetition of the prophet's own words in Isaiah 40:10. It is a question whether the words "and they shall call thee," etc., contain the gospel which is to be proclaimed according to the will of Jehovah to the end of the earth (see Isaiah 48:20), or whether they are a continuation of the prophecy which commences with "Behold, Jehovah hath proclaimed." The latter is the more probable, as the address here passes again into an objective promise. The realization of the gospel, which Jehovah causes to be preached, leads men to call those who are now still in exile "the holy people," "the redeemed" (lit. ransomed, Isaiah 51:10; like pedūyē in Isaiah 35:10). "And thee" - thus does the prophecy close by returning to a direct address to Zion-Jerusalem - "thee will men call derūshâh," sought assiduously, i.e., one whose welfare men, and still more Jehovah, are zealously concerned to promote (compare the opposite in Jeremiah 30:17) - "a city that will not be forsaken," i.e., in which men gladly settle, and which will never be without inhabitants again (the antithesis to ‛ăzūbhâh in Isaiah 60:15), possibly also in the sense that the gracious presence of God will never be withdrawn from it again (the antithesis to ‛ăzūbhâh in Isaiah 62:4). נעזבה is the third pers. pr., like nuchâmâh in Isaiah 54:11 : the perfect as expressing the abstract present (Ges. 126, 3).

The following prophecy anticipates the question, how Israel can possibly rejoice in the recovered possession of its inheritance, if it is still to be surrounded by such malicious neighbours as the Edomites.

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