Isaiah

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Chapter 52

1 Wake up! Wake up! Clothe yourself with strength, O Zion! Put on your beautiful clothes, O Jerusalem, holy city.⁠ For uncircumcised and unclean pagans will no longer invade you. 2 Shake off the dirt! Get up, captive Jerusalem.⁠ Take off the iron chains around your neck, O captive daughter Zion.⁠ 3 For this is what the Lord says: “You were sold for nothing, and you will not be redeemed for money.” 4 For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “In the beginning my people went to live temporarily in Egypt; Assyria oppressed them for no good reason. 5 And now, what do we have here?” says the Lord. “Indeed my people have been carried away for nothing, those who rule over them taunt,” says the Lord, “and my name is constantly slandered all day long. 6 For this reason my people will know my name; for this reason they will know at that time that I am the one who says, ‘Here I am.’” 7 How delightful it is to see approaching over the mountains the feet of a messenger who announces peace,⁠ a messenger who brings good news,⁠ who announces deliverance, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”⁠ 8 Listen, your watchmen shout; in unison they shout for joy, for they see with their very own eyes the Lord’s return to Zion. 9 In unison give a joyful shout, O ruins of Jerusalem! For the Lord consoles his people; he protects Jerusalem. 10 The Lord reveals his royal power in the sight of all the nations; the entire earth sees our God deliver. 11 Leave! Leave! Get out of there! Don’t touch anything unclean! Get out of it! Stay pure, you who carry the Lord’s holy items.⁠ 12 Yet do not depart quickly or leave in a panic.⁠ For the Lord goes before you; the God of Israel is your rear guard. 13 Look, my servant will act wisely!²⁰ He will be elevated, lifted high, and greatly exalted—⁠ 14 (just as many were horrified by the sight of you) he was so disfigured he no longer looked like a man; his form was so marred he no longer looked human— 15 so now he will startle many nations. Kings will be shocked by his exaltation, for they will witness something unannounced to them, and they will understand something they had not heard about.

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 52:1 and 1 Enoch 62:16

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

Summary

Isaiah calls on Zion to awaken, dress in splendor, and remove captivity, a vision of restored dignity after oppression. 1 Enoch reshapes this language in an eschatological setting, describing the messiah's vindication before the nations.

Passages

Isaiah 52:1

Hebrew Bible

1 Wake up! Wake up! Clothe yourself with strength, O Zion! Put on your beautiful clothes, O Jerusalem, holy city. For uncircumcised and unclean pagans will no longer invade you. 2 Shake off the dirt! Get up, captive Jerusalem. Take off the iron chains around your neck, O captive daughter Zion. 3 For this is what the Lord says: “You were sold for nothing, and you will not be redeemed for money.”

740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

1 Enoch 62:16

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

14 The Lord of Spirits will remain over them, and with the Son of Man, they will eat, lie down, and rise up forever and ever. 15 The righteous and chosen will rise from the earth, and no longer wear downcast expressions. They will be clothed in garments of glory. 16 These are the garments of life from the Lord of Spirits: your garments will not wear out, nor will your glory fade in the presence of the Lord of Spirits.

300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

References

"... In 1 Enoch 62-63 the association with Isaiah 52-53 is less explicit, particularly because there are very few parallels to the Isaianic text. Nonetheless, several factors indicate that these chapters of 1 Enoch are a variant of the same interpretation of Servant Song that is attested in Wisdom of Solomon 4-5. (1) All three texts have common structure, as the table above indicates. (2) The protagonist here is called the Chosen One: title of the Servant: the scene describes his call (48:2-7) parallels that of the Servant; and 1 Enoch 49:4cd echoes the presentation of the Servant in Isaiah 42:1-2. (3) Like the Wisdom of Solomon the Parables conflate the Servant material with language that echoes Isaiah 13 and 14. (4) There are a number of parallels between 1 Enoch 62–63, on the one hand, either the Wisdom of Solomon or other witnesses to the Isaianic tradition, on the other hand (Daniel 12:3, 1 Maccabees 6; 2 Maccabees 9) that they do not share with Isaiah 52-58. These parallels suggest that this interpretation of Isaiah may have originated in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes' persecution of the Jews (167-164 BCE) ..."

George W. E. Nickelsburg, A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012), 258.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Isaiah66 chapters

Compare Isaiah 52:1 and 1 Enoch 62:16

Summary

Passages

Isaiah 52:1

1 Enoch 62:16

References

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