CHAPTER 62

(698 B.C.)

THE RESTORATION OF ZION AND ITS GLORY

¹For Zions sake will I not hold My peace, and for Jerusalems sake I will not rest, until the Righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the Salvation thereof as a lamp that burns. (The Speaker in this Chapter is the Messiah; in Verses 1 through 9, He speaks to Israel; in Verses 10 through 12, to the nations of the world. He is a faithful High Priest. He pleads unceasingly for His People, and is, at the same time, their Righteousness and their Salvation. If it is to be noticed, Zion, Jerusalem, and Judah are the ones around which all Prophecy revolves. Washington, London, or any other city are not referred to in these predictions.

For Zions sake will I not hold My peace, implies that in the past God has kept silent. The nations of the world have been allowed to continue their oppression unchecked; however, this will now change. He will do it for Jerusalems sake.)

²And the Gentiles shall see Your Righteousness, and all kings Your Glory: and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name. (The entirety of the world, i.e., the Gentiles, shall easily see your Righteousness. Instead of the kings rebelling against it, they will rather accept it, and, thereby, rejoice in it! What they will see will be the Righteousness and Glory of Israels High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The new name that will be given will be Hephzibah, which means delight or in whom is My delight. This name is given to her by the mouth of the LORD, and not man.)

³You shall also be a Crown of Glory in the Hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the Hand of Your God. (This Divine Priest can transform defiled and degraded sinners into royal diadems and crowns of glory. In that day, the Lord will exhibit Israel to an admiring world, as a man might exhibit a crown or diadem, which he held in his hand.)

⁴You shall no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall your land any more be termed Desolate: but you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah: for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. (You shall no more be termed Forsaken, refers to the fact that Judah had believed herself forsaken of God, and had actually been, in a certain sense, forsaken for a small moment [54:7]. Her enemies, it would seem, had gone so far as to give her this name in derision.

You shall be called Hephzibah was the name of Hezekiahs queen, Manassehs mother [II Ki. 21:1]. The meaning is this:

As Hezekiahs wife mothered evil Manasseh, not necessarily through any fault of her own, with this boy ultimately inspired by Satan in order to sully the coming Promise, the Holy Spirit through the Prophecy of Isaiah proclaims the certitude of Righteousness prevailing, and not evil, as was symbolized in Manasseh.

Beautifully enough, Manasseh, when he was in affliction, humbled himself before the Lord and repented; therefore, he symbolized Jerusalem, which would go into great evil, but which would come back to God and be restored to greatness and glory.)

⁵For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you: and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. (By changing the vowel points [which are not inspired] in the Hebrew Text of the phrase, your sons, it would read your builders, i.e., the plural of majesty for your Restorer. Thus, the correspondence with the Name of God in the last line would be preserved. To be sure, He will definitely be the Restorer of Jerusalem and, in essence, be said to marry her.)

⁶I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: you who make mention of the LORD, keep not silence (the watchmen addressed here can refer to either Prophets or Priests, or even Angelic Beings. They were to keep perpetual watch, and not hold their peace, but continually cry out until the full restoration of Jerusalem would take place.

Concerning every Promise of God, every Believer should do the same),

⁷And give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the Earth. (Faithful watchmen upon the walls of an eastern city keep calling out day and night all matters of interest or of danger. The figure expresses the watchful love and care of Immanuel, and those in fellowship with Him, for His oppressed People.

The idea is not that the Lord forgets, or that we have to badger Him to bring forth results, but is designed accordingly that our faith may be strengthened.)

⁸The LORD has sworn by His Right Hand, and by the arm of His strength, Surely I will no more give your corn to be meat for your enemies; and the sons of the stranger shall not drink your wine, for the which you have laboured (The LORD has sworn, is strong indeed! God solemnly binds Himself by an oath to come to the relief of His People, to restore them to their own land, and to give them the enjoyment of its fruits in peace.

By His Right Hand, and by the Arm of His Strength, is employed nowhere else in Scripture. God swears by Himself, because He can swear by no greater than Himself. The hand and arm were emblems of His Power to act. This great Promise has behind it the surety of Gods Power to carry out what He has promised. No Promise could be greater!):

⁹But they who have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the LORD; and they who have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of My holiness. (The idea is that the enemy will not eat it, but that the Child of God will enjoy the increase of his labor. He will do it, praising the LORD. This implies fellowship and communion restored, which can only be done upon proper Repentance.)

¹⁰Go through, go through the gates; prepare y ou the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a Standard for the people. (This Passage, looking forward to the future, concerns itself with the Second Coming of the Lord. The statement, Go through, go through the gates, refers to Israel coming back to the Holy Land, after the Second Coming of Christ, and then filling Jerusalem.

Cast up, cast up the highway, refers to a way being made for Jews to come back from all over the world. Every hindrance is to be removed, hence, the phrase, gather out the stones. All of this is being done because of the last line of this Verse, lift up a Standard for the people. That Standard is Christ! They are coming solely because of Him, and every Blessing, as well, is because of Him, i.e., Christ.)

¹¹Behold, the LORD has proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say you to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your Salvation comes; behold, His reward is with Him, and His Work before Him. (Zions Salvation is Jehovah. He will return to her bringing both rewards and recompenses with Him rewards for those who love Him, and recompenses for those who hate Him [II Thess., Chpt. 1].)

¹²And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and you shall be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken. (All of this speaks of the coming Kingdom Age, when Christ will reign supreme, with Israel having accepted Him, not only as their Saviour, but as their Messiah. As a result, all over the world they will be called The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD.

A city not forsaken, characterizes the Jerusalem of so many centuries. It was forsaken by God, because Jerusalem had forsaken Him! Now they have accepted Him; therefore, it is A city not forsaken, meaning that God has placed His approval upon it, by making it the capital of Planet Earth, and the domicile of the Saviour.)