Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
9. Break forth into joy, sing ] Render, Break forth into singing (lit. “Break forth, sing”). Cf. Isa 44:23.
the Lord hath comforted his people ] Isa 51:3.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Break forth into joy – Jerusalem, at the time here referred to, was lying waste and in ruins. This call on the waste places of Jerusalem to break out into expressions of praise, is in accordance with a style which frequently occurs in Isaiah, and in other sacred writers, by which inanimate objects are called on to manifest their joy (see the notes at Isa 14:7-8; Isa 42:11).
For the Lord hath comforted his people – That is, he does comfort his people, and redeem them. This is seen by the prophet in vision, and to his view it is represented as if it were passing before his eyes.
He hath redeemed Jerusalem – On the meaning of the word redeemed, see the notes at Isa 43:1-3. The idea here is, that Yahweh was about to restore his people from their long captivity, and again to cause Jerusalem to be rebuilt.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 52:9-10
Break forth into joy
The return of the Jewish nation
I.
CONSIDER CERTAIN CHANGES WHICH SHALL HAVE TAKEN PLACE AMONG THE GENTILES OF CHRISTENDOM, AT, OR ABOUT, THE ESTABLISHMENT OF
THE JEWISH NATION IN THEIR OWN LAND (Mat 13:24-30). The signal destruction of all false, hypocritical, unbelieving professors of religion, here called the children of the wicked one or the tares; and, secondly, the gathering in of the elect members of Christs mystical body, or the gathering of the wheat into the barn.
II. THE BLESSING WHICH THE JEWISH NATION WILL PROVE TO ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH. It appears that the plan and purpose of God, as revealed in His Word, is, after having finished the dispensation of the Gentiles as He finished the dispensation of the Jews, and having concluded all in unbelief, the period will then arrive when, according to the language of Paul, He will have mercy upon all.
III. THE NATURE AND DURATION OF THIS BLESSING.
1. As to the nature of the blessing. This is nothing more nor less than a true and saving conversion, terminating in salvation. Not a bringing of them back to the state in which Adam was before his fall; not a grafting them into the mystical body of Christ; but a true, a sound conversion from all that is evil, and the full enjoyment of God s great salvation.
2. As to the duration of this blessing. With reference to converted individuals the effect will be eternal: but there will be a limit to this state of things as to the nations of the earth. (H. McNeile, M. A.)
Matter for joy and praise
Those that share in mercies ought to join in praises. Here is matter for joy and praise.
I. GODS PEOPLE WILL HAVE THE COMFORT OF THIS SALVATION; and what is the matter of our rejoicing ought to be the matter of our thanksgiving.
II. GOD WILL HAVE THE GLORY OF IT (Isa 52:10).
III. ALL THE WORLD WILL HAVE THE BENEFIT OF IT. All the ends of the earth, etc. (M. Henry.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. He hath redeemed Jerusalem – “He hath redeemed Israel.”] For the word yerushalaim, which occurs the second time in this verse, MS. Bodleian and another read yisrael. It is upon a rasure in a third; and left unpointed at first, as suspected, in a fourth. It was an easy mistake, by the transcriber casting his eye on the line above: and the propriety of the correction, both in regard to sense and elegance, is evident.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For you shall be restored unto your former and a far greater fertility.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. (Isa 14:7;Isa 14:8; Isa 42:11).
redeemedspirituallyand nationally (Isa 48:20).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem,…. This is what the watchmen shall say when they lift up their voice; this will be one part of their song, and the intent of it; to observe to the members of the churches, which shall be constituted in those parts which were formerly barren and desolate, what wonderful things the Lord has done in bringing again Zion; in building up the ruins of it; in the clear light of the Gospel he has caused to break forth, and in the good tidings of peace and salvation published; on account of all which they are called upon to express the greatest joy in a social manner, with the utmost unanimity, as having everyone a concern therein:
for the Lord hath comforted his people; with his divine presence, and the light of his countenance; with the discoveries of his love; with the joys of his salvation by Christ; with the comforts of his Spirit; with the doctrines of the Gospel, and the exceeding great and precious promises of it; with the ordinances of his house, those breasts of consolation; and by enlarging his kingdom and interest with the conversion of Jews and Gentiles; and particularly by the donation and application of the various blessings of grace through Christ, and especially that which follows:
he hath redeemed Jerusalem; the same with his people, particularly the Jews, now converted; who will have the blessing of redemption, obtained by the Messiah, made known and applied unto them; which will be matter of comfort to them: as it is to all sensible sinners, who see themselves lost and undone; liable to the wrath of God, and curses of the law; under a sentence of condemnation; the captives of sin and Satan, and prisoners of law and justice; unable to redeem themselves, or any creature capable of giving a ransom for them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Zion is restored, inasmuch as Jehovah turns away her misery, brings back her exiles, and causes the holy city to rise again from her ruins. “Break out into exultation, sing together, ye ruins of Jerusalem: for Jehovah hath comforted His people, He hath redeemed Jerusalem.” Because the word of consolation has become an act of consolation, i.e., of redemption, the ruins of Jerusalem are to break out into jubilant shouting as they rise again from the ground.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
9. Praise ye, rejoice together. He exhorts believers to thanksgiving, but chiefly confirms them in the hope and confidence of this salvation; as if the actual enjoyment of it already called them to thank God for it. (43) We are not sufficiently moved, when the Lord testifies that he will assist us, and think that we are deceived, if he do not actually show it. On this account the Prophets insist much on strengthening the hearts of believers, and placing the fact almost before their eyes. Although it appears to be unreasonable and inappropriate to prescribe a song of joy in the midst of grief, yet we have elsewhere seen that this form of expression is well fitted to arouse those who groan under the burden of sorrow, fear, and cares.
Ye wildernesses of Jerusalem. He calls them “wildernesses” or waste places “of Jerusalem,” that, notwithstanding its ruin and destruction, they might still hope that it would be restored. And this appellation is better adapted for shaking off fear than if he had called her prosperous or flourishing; for, in consequence of their condition being very wretched, nothing would have led them to think that these promises related to them except a description of their misery, against which they needed to be fortified, in order that, though they beheld nothing but desolation and hideous ruin, still they might look for restoration with assured confidence.
For Jehovah hath comforted his people. The Lord hath changed the mourning of the people into joy, and out of captivity hath made them free. Yet some person will say (44) that this had not yet happened. But in the promises of God, as in a mirror, we ought to behold those things which are not yet visible to our eyes, even though they appear to us to be contrary to reason.
He hath redeemed Jerusalem. Here we see that to deliver the Church is God’s own work. And if we ought to judge thus of the redemption from Babylon, which was but of a shadowy nature, what shall we say of the spiritual redemption? Can it be ascribed to men without grossly insulting God? As it belongs to God alone to deliver the Church, so to him it likewise belongs to defend its liberty.
(43) “ A en remercier Dieu.”
(44) “ Quelqu’un dira.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
COMFORT IN TROUBLE
Isa. 51:3; Isa. 51:12, and Isa. 52:9. For the Lord shall comfort Zion, &c.
The prophecy is addressed to those who are striving after the right kind of life and seeking Jehovah, and not turning from Him to make earthly things and themselves the object of their pursuits; for such only are in a condition by faith to regard that as possible, which seems impossible to human understanding, because the very opposite is lying before the eye of the senses (Delitzsch).
I. The people of God often stand in urgent need of Divine comfort. They not only have their full share of the sorrows which are common to humanity, but they have troubles to which the people of the world are strangers. Hence we are told that many are the afflictions of the righteous, &c. The Saviour prepared His people for this: In the world, &c., Whosoever will be my disciple, &c The people of God have to fight every inch of their way to heaven: These are they, &c. Their chief sorrows spring from sources unknown to and incomprehensible by the world. They are soul sorrows, having their origin in the vivid views which they have of the evil of sin, and of their own individual guilt in the sight of God, &c. Sometimes they fear that after all they shall never reach the celestial Canaan. Therefore they have the need of all the comfort which can be given them on the way to heaven. (See pp. 2, 4, 386; cf. Rom. 7:22-24; Gal. 5:17; Gal. 4:29; Rom. 8:36; 2Co. 4:8-14; 2Ti. 3:12; Psa. 88:18; Pro. 17:1; Isa. 38:14-15; 2Ti. 4:10; 2Ti. 4:16; Psa. 51:5-8; 2Co. 7:5.)
II. It is Gods will that His people should to comforted amid all their tribulations. See how God resolves to comfort His people: I, even I, will do it. He had ordered His ministers to do it (Isa. 40:1), but because they cannot reach the heart, He takes the work into His own hands. See how He glories in it; He takes it among the titles of His honour to be the God that comforteth them that are cast down; He delights in being so (M. Henry). Because He would have His people happy. His people should remember this, and cultivate the spirit of Christian cheerfulness, because,
1. Uncomfortable Christians often dishonour the Lord.
2. Uncomfortable Christians cannot be as diligent as they ought to be in the duties of religion. Working out their own salvation. Working for God in seeking to save others (Psa. 51:12-13; P. D. 450453).
III. The bestowment of Divine comfort inspires them with grateful and exultant joy (Isa. 51:12; Isa. 52:9). Where there is joy and gladness to their satisfaction, it is fit there should be thanksgiving to Gods honour; for whatever is the matter of their rejoicing, ought to be the matter of their thanksgiving, and the returns of Gods favour ought to be celebrated with the voice of melody; which will be the more melodious when God gives songs in the night, songs in the desert (M. Henry).
There may be elevated joy in the midst of deep affliction (Rom. 5:3; Php. 3:1; Php. 4:4, &c.) Eleven of the thirteen epistles of Paul begin with exclamations of praise and thanksgiving (2Co. 1:3-4). Take to praising God under all circumstances, and thus you will lift your soul right out of your sorrow, and taste the pleasures of immortality. In everything give thanks. Let this be your constant occupation. He well deserves our warmest praise.
CONCLUSION:
1. The duty and privilege of believers to seek Divine comfort. God has given us express assurances that it is His purpose that His people should have ample and unceasing comfort amid all their sorrows and sufferings (Isa. 40:1; Isa. 51:3; Isa. 51:12; Php. 3:1; Php. 4:4). Most ungracious on our part not readily and gladly to receive the comfort so provided. To refuse to be comforted, is to be guilty of a frustration of the merciful purposes of God towards us.
2. The duty and privilege of comforted believers to comfort others. God comforts you, that you may comfort othersthat He may use you as comforters. Experimental knowledge helps us to speak with authority and powerfits us to be able and ready comforters. What we have received we must give (2Co. 1:3-4).Alfred Tucker.
God will give His people, I. Consolation. II. Fruitfulness. III. GladnessJ. E. Page.
PARADISE RESTORED
Isa. 51:3. For the Lord shall comfort Zion, &c.
The Church is a garden planted by the Lord, luxuriant in beauty and fruitfulness, and filled with happy occupants. The promise is as yet only in process of fulfilment; and that we may look more clearly into the future, we are called to look into the past. Eden was the garden of the Lord, the primeval paradise, the place of consummate beauty and happiness, ere sin had blighted its joys and stained its purity. To make Zion like Eden is to bring back the vanished glories of that happy place. To the extent that this is accomplished, the Church is
I. A PLACE OF DIVINE COMFORT AND FELLOWSHIP. No sooner do we press in by faith, through Christ, the door, than we enjoy the comforts of Divine love, and are admitted to heavenly fellowships (Heb. 6:18). Did Adam hear the voice of the Lord God? Here the intercourse is renewed. Life conducts through an Eden radiant with the Divine presence. What a change since the day when the Lord drove forth the man from Eden! That door has been again unbarred, and Christ has secured for us a welcome into a fairer paradise than that then was lost. The Church is a habitation of God. Enter, then, and you will enjoy this rich comfort and lofty fellowship. So long as you stand outside, you cannot know the beauties of the garden; you cannot survey its landscapes, nor breathe its perfumes. God has not disowned and forsaken this fallen world: it is not, as we might have expected, desolated by His wrath: we can still find an Eden in ita garden of Gods presence and favour.
II. A PLACE OF HELPFUL SOCIAL LIFE. Such was the life of the first pair, and such would have been the life of their children, but for the entrance of sin. Alas, how that fact has altered the course of human history! What jarring discords in our domestic and social life! But if the Church is to be as Eden, human society will be regenerated: the love, peace, and helpful companionship that were found in the garden of the Lord will be restored, when this promise is accomplished to the full. The Church will yet leaven society with her principles of brotherly love and mutual help. The world around is like a wilderness, where the wild plants of nature grow in rank profusion. But God has engaged to reclaim Zions waste places. This garden is ever extending its walls, and will do so till the whole earth becomes an Eden.
III. A PLACE OF JOY. Joy and gladness shall be found therein. No jarring strife shall mar its harmony: love to God and to each other shall reign among the happy inmates of the restored Paradise. We naturally think of a garden as a place of joy. Surrounded by all that is fair and peaceful, the mind depressed by trial is relieved by the cheerful notes of the birds, the luxuriance of the foliage, and the forms and hues of the flowers. The Church of Christ is such a garden, in which we taste joys unknown by the world. The fruit of the Spirit is joy,the joy of sin forgiven and heaven secured,the joy of communion with Christ, and assurance of His lovethe joy of mutual endearment and mutual service. What joy can surpass that which is the heritage of all who dwell within this happy inclosure?
IV. A SCENE OF WORSHIP. There shall be found therein thanksgiving and the voice of melody. What a delightful exercise is that of praise! What a happy garden, ever jubilant with sacred song!
These, then, are the features of this garden of the Church. Not on earth can we behold them in all their perfection. The earthly paradise, reopened to us by Christ, will soon become the heavenly paradise (Rev. 2:7; Rev. 22:1-2). May we all at last become inmates of the Eden above, the paradise of beauty and splendour, the abode of love and joy and worship unending!William Guthrie, M.A.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(9) Ye waste places of Jerusalem . . .The history of the return of the exiles in Ezra 1, 3, seems a somewhat poor and prosaic fulfilment of the glorious vision; but it lies in the nature of the case, that the words of the prophet, contemplating the distant future, idealise that return, and connect it unconsciously, it may be, with another city than the earthly Jerusalem.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. Break forth into joy, sing The scene again shifts. Zion is restored. Her exiles are home again. They are bid to break forth into joyful song, because what has been heretofore a word of consolation is now an act of consolation; and jubilee shouting is now the appropriate thing.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 52:9-10. Break forth into joy See chap. Isa 44:23 Isa 49:13. The figure here used is single, designed to set forth the greatness and excellence of the benefit of redemption. This address first animates the restored church to celebrate the divine praises with its utmost power; and secondly sets forth the reason of this exhortation, drawn from the greatness of the benefit, which is proposed in the middle of the ninth verse, and more largely set forth in the 10th. By the arm of the Lord, we are to understand the divine power, particularly as discernible in the establishment and wonderful progress of the Gospel. By the waste places of Jerusalem, the prophet means the church as in its state of desolation, just before the time, here alluded to, of its restoration and deliverance.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 52:9 Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
Ver. 9. Break forth into joy. ] This is the subject matter of gospel ministers’ discourses: they shall call upon God’s people to rejoice, Isa 52:9-10 and to repent, Isa 52:11-12 and shall show them that it is as well a sin not to rejoice as not to repent.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
comforted. Compare Isa 40:1.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Break: Isa 14:7, Isa 42:10, Isa 42:11, Isa 44:23, Isa 48:20, Isa 49:13, Isa 54:1-3, Isa 55:12, Isa 65:18, Isa 65:19, Isa 66:10-13, Psa 96:11, Psa 96:12, Zep 3:14, Zep 3:15, Gal 4:27
ye waste: Isa 44:26, Isa 51:3, Isa 61:4
Reciprocal: Psa 57:8 – Awake Psa 65:13 – they shout Psa 126:3 – General Isa 35:1 – wilderness Isa 54:3 – make Isa 58:12 – waste Isa 61:1 – to preach Isa 65:14 – my servants Jer 30:19 – out Jer 33:11 – the voice of them Jer 51:10 – let us Eze 36:10 – the wastes Mic 4:10 – there shalt Zec 1:17 – the Lord shall Zec 2:10 – and rejoice Zec 9:9 – Rejoice Mat 26:13 – Wheresoever 2Co 1:4 – comforteth Gal 4:26 – Jerusalem
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 52:9-10. Break forth into joy Break forth in joyful praises; ye waste places of Jerusalem That is, all parts of Jerusalem, for it was all in ruins, and all parts of Judea, which lay desolate and waste during the captivity: an emblem of the desolate and barren state of the church when the Lord, for her sins, withdraws his presence from her. For the Lord hath comforted his people, &c. They shall be restored to their former prosperity, and in the days of the Messiah to a far greater degree of holiness and happiness than the church of God ever before possessed. The Lord hath made bare his holy arm Hath discovered and put forth his great power, which, for a long time, did not appear to be exerted in behalf of his people. And all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God All nations of the world shall, with astonishment, behold the wonderful work of God; first, in bringing his people out of Babylon; and afterward, in their redemption by Christ.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Now all the people of Jerusalem, even the downtrodden, joined the chorus and praised God for coming to comfort and redeem His people.
"To give thanks in advance is the highest form of faith. The person praising God for what he or she does not yet possess is the person who truly believes the promises of God." [Note: Ibid., p. 370.]