Isaiah 52 Bible study: Your God reigns

The chapter opens with the third "Awake, awake" of these two chapters, and the chapter on Isaiah 51 follows all three: "Awake, awake! Put on your strength, Zion. Put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city, for from now on the uncircumcised and the unclean will no more come into you" (52:1) (tap Awake, unclean). Put on your strength has the words said to the arm of the LORD in 51:9. Then: "Shake yourself from the dust! Arise, sit up, Jerusalem! Release yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion!" (52:2) (tap Shake). Here is what almost everyone misses: Zion is told to do these things herself. For this verse Brown-Driver-Briggs gives the two verbs as "shake thyself (free)" and "loosen thee the fetters of thy neck". Arise is the verb of "Stand up, Jerusalem" (51:17). And the arm of the LORD comes back in this chapter: "The LORD has made his holy arm bare in the eyes of all the nations" (52:10) (tap arm).

Isaiah 52:15→leads toRomans 15:20-21

The chapter's last verses begin, "Behold, my servant will deal wisely" (Isaiah 52:13), and end, "Kings will shut their mouths at him; for they will see that which had not been told them, and they will understand that which they had not heard" (Isaiah 52:15). Paul (Romans 1:1) writes that he has "fully preached the Good News of Christ" (Romans 15:19), "yes, making it my aim to preach the Good News, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build on another’s foundation" (Romans 15:20). "But, as it is written, “They will see, to whom no news of him came. They who haven’t heard will understand.”" (Romans 15:21). Paul doesn't name Isaiah, but gives the words of 52:15 with "as it is written", and the him of his quotation is the Christ he names in 15:20. He gives them of his own preaching, where Christ was not yet named (Romans 15:20). The WEB words the two differently: they will see that which had not been told them (Isaiah 52:15) and They will see, to whom no news of him came (Romans 15:21); they will understand that which they had not heard (Isaiah 52:15) and They who haven’t heard will understand (Romans 15:21). How the servant passages of Isaiah fit together is chapter 49's honest question; each reading it sets out agrees that the New Testament applies 52:13-53:12 to Jesus.

בָּשַׂרbasarsay ba-SAR

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "bear tidings", and "herald as glad tidings". Strong's: "to announce (glad news)". "the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation" (52:7): the verb twice in one verse. Isaiah has it seven times in Hebrew; the first two are in one verse, "You who tell good news to Zion" and "You who tell good news to Jerusalem" (Isaiah 40:9), and the chapter on Isaiah 40 follows it. Nahum has 52:7's words on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace: "Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace!" (Nahum 1:15).