Isaiah 52:8-12

Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice

The return from exile

From the glowing periods of this paragraph we can reconstruct the picture of the return from exile, as it presented itself to the seer.

It was notably the return of the Lord to Zion (Isaiah 52:8, R.V.). The stately procession moves slowly and fearlessly. It is not the escape of a band of fugitive slaves, dreading pursuit and recapture: “Ye shall not go out in haste, neither shall ye go by flight.” Before it speed the messengers, appearing on the sky-line of the mountains of Zion, with good tidings of good, publishing peace, and publishing salvation. The main body is composed of white-robed priests, bearing with reverent care the holy vessels, which Nebuchadnezzar carried from the temple, which Belshazzar introduced with mockery into his feast, but which Cyrus restored. Their number and weight are carefully specified, 5, 400 in all (Ezra 1:7). As the procession emerges from its four months of wilderness march on the mountains which were about Jerusalem, her watchmen, who had long waited for the happy moment, lift up their voice; with the voice together do they sing. They see eye to eye. And the waste places of Jerusalem, with their charred wood and scorched stones, break forth into joy and sing together. The valleys and hills become vocal, constituting an orchestra of praise; and the nations of the world are depicted as coming to behold, and acknowledge that the Lord had made bare His holy arm. But they do not see--what is hidden from all but anointed eyes--that the Lord goes before His people, and comes behind as their rearward; so that their difficulties are surmounted by Him before they reach them, and no foe can attack them from behind. The literal fulfilment of this splendid prevision is described in the Book of Ezra. There we find the story of the return of a little band of Jews, 1,700 only in number. They halted at the River Ahava, the last station before they entered the desert, for three days, to put themselves with fasting and prayer into God’s hand. They had no experience of desert marching. Their caravan was rendered unwieldy by the number of women and children in it. They had to thread a district infested by wild bands of robbers. But they scorned to ask for an escort of soldiers and horsemen to protect them, so sure were they that their God went before them to open up the way, and came behind to defend against attack. In the midst of the march were priests and Levites, with their sacred charge of which Ezra had said, “Watch and keep them, until ye weigh them in the chambers of the house of the Lord.” (F. B. Meyer, B.A.)

Expectation and accomplishment

In several respects there seems a falling short between the radiant expectations of the prophet, and the actual accomplishment in the story of Ezra: but we must remember that it is the business of the historian to record the facts, rather than the emotions that coloured them, as the warm colours of the sun colour the hard, grey rocks. And is it not always so, that through our want of faith and obedience we come short of the fulness of blessing which our God has prepared for us? (F. B.Meyer, B. A. )

Eye to eye

“Eye to eye do they behold the Lord’ s return to Zion.” “Eye to eye” is face to face with the event. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)

Eye to eye

The expression plainly intimates the clear and satisfying manifestations of the presence and glory of Jehovah to be enjoyed by His servants at the period wherein the foundations of the Messiah’s kingdom were to be laid. (R. Macculloch.)