Isa 52:7-9 | JFB | STEP | 7. beautiful ... feet-- that is, The advent of such a herald seen on the distant "mountains" (see on ; ; , ; ) running in haste with the long-expected good tidings, is most grateful to the desolated city ( ). good tidings-- only partially applying to the return from Babylon. Fully, and antitypically, the Gospel ( , ), "beginning at Jerusalem" ( ), "the city of the great King" ( ), where Messiah shall, at the final restoration of Israel, "reign" as peculiarly Zion's God ("Thy God reigneth"; compare ).

‏ Isaiah 52:7-9

7. beautiful ... feet--that is, The advent of such a herald seen on the distant "mountains" (see on Is 40:9; Is 41:27; Is 25:6, 7; So 2:17) running in haste with the long-expected good tidings, is most grateful to the desolated city (Na 1:15).

good tidings--only partially applying to the return from Babylon. Fully, and antitypically, the Gospel (Lu 2:10, 11), "beginning at Jerusalem" (Lu 24:47), "the city of the great King" (Mt 5:35), where Messiah shall, at the final restoration of Israel, "reign" as peculiarly Zion's God ("Thy God reigneth"; compare Psa 2:6).

8. watchmen--set on towers separated by intervals to give the earliest notice of the approach of any messenger with tidings (compare Is 21:6-8). The Hebrew is more forcible than English Version, "The voice of thy watchmen" (exclamatory as in So 2:8). "They lift up their voice! together they sing."

eye to eye--that is, close at hand, and so clearly [Gesenius]; Nu 14:14, "face to face"; Nu 12:8, "mouth to mouth." Compare 1Co 13:12; Re 22:4, of which Simeon's sight of the Saviour was a prefiguration (Lu 2:30). The watchmen, spiritually, are ministers and others who pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Is 62:6, 7),

bring again--that is, restore. Or else, "return to" [Maurer].

9. (Is 14:7, 8; 42:11).

redeemed--spiritually and nationally (Is 48:20).