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Christmas Season · Nativity of the Lord - Day Mass · Year B

Isaiah 52:7-10

The Cup of the Lord’s Wrath

Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, James Tissot
Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, James Tissot, 1886–1894Brooklyn Museum, New York
From the olive groves on the hillside the whole of Jerusalem spreads across the view: the long eastern wall, the Temple Mount with its dome, and the crowded city beyond.Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of the Lord to Zion. Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem.James TissotA French society painter who turned to religion and travelled to Palestine to paint the life of Christ where it happened.Brooklyn Museum, New YorkNew York’s second largest museum, holding a celebrated Egyptian collection and Tissot’s entire Bible series.Brooklyn Museum, New York

Overview & Insights

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news.” (Isaiah 52:7)

In 50:4 the subject suddenly changes again—in two senses. The grammatical subject is once again a human “I” rather than a divine “I,” and the thematic subject is the pressure upon this human “I.” In both respects the passage parallels 49:1–6, and it will emerge that 50:4–52:12 forms a sequence parallel to 49:1–50:4, analogous to double sequences we have noted earlier in chapters 40–55. The arrangement of sections is not as tightly parallel as in earlier instances, but the parallelism again means that the second sequence develops issues raised in the first. Here, as there, that involves discussion of the role of Yahweh’s servant (50:4–11 as 49:1–6), but here the destiny of Zion and the way the destiny of the Babylonian community relates to it (51:1–52:12 as 49:7–50:3) receive more attention.

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Commentary

Background & Word Study

The Church Fathers

Questions preachers ask

What good news does Isaiah 52 proclaim?

The watchmen sing as the Lord returns to Zion and comforts his people; every end of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

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