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Christmas Season · Nativity of the Lord - Christmas Dawn Proper 2 · Year A

Isaiah 62:6-12

Zion’s New Name

December 25, 2025

Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, Benjamin Robert Haydon
Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, Benjamin Robert Haydon, 1814–1820Athenaeum of Ohio – Mount St. Mary's Seminary of the West, Cincinnati
An enormous canvas Haydon exhibited for money and never sold at a profit. He put Wordsworth, Keats, Hazlitt and Voltaire into the crowd as spectators.Say to daughter Zion, See, your salvation comes. They shall be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord.Benjamin Robert HaydonAn English history painter of enormous ambition and no commercial sense, who exhibited his own vast canvases, went to prison for debt repeatedly, and died by his own hand.Athenaeum of Ohio – Mount St. Mary's Seminary of the West, CincinnatiA Catholic seminary in Cincinnati which acquired Haydon's enormous canvas in the nineteenth century and still has it.Athenaeum of Ohio – Mount St. Mary's Seminary of the West, Cincinnati
Revised Common Lectionary
GospelLuke 2:(1-7), 8-20Lk 2:(1-7), 8-20
EpistleTitus 3:4-7Ti 3:4-7
Old TestamentIsa. 62:6-12Is 62:6-12
PsalterPs. 97Ps 97

Overview & Insights

“You shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married.” (Isaiah 62:4)

Five Responses to Yahweh’s Promises: Chapters 61 and 62 recapitulate much of chapter 60, but they do so in a new framework. They offer five responses to those promises. Whereas the prophet’s word was a brisk preliminary to Yahweh’s word in 59:21–60:22, in chapters 61–62 the prophet speaks a number of times in a way that has significance in its own right but also introduces recapitulations of the promises. Accounts of a prophet’s own experience or actions appear in the OT because the testimony is in some way significant for the audience, though the way in which it is relevant varies. In the classic accounts of Yahweh’s commission of prophets such as Isaiah ben Amoz, Amos, or Jeremiah, the logic is, “This is why you ought to take me seriously and turn back to Yahweh” (or why you ought to have done so). In

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Take it further: Isaiah 62:6-12

Commentary

Isaiah 62:6-12Is 62:6-12 Working Preacher

A commentary connecting the sentinels on Jerusalem's walls and the coming Savior to the day's celebration.

Isaiah 62Is 62 Center for Excellence in Preaching

A Reformed preaching archive for Isaiah 62, with reflections on the restored, renamed city and its Christmas hope.

Isaiah 62Is 62 Word on Fire · Bishop Barron

A Catholic scripture resource gathering reflections and homilies on Isaiah 62 and its vision of Zion's vindication.

Isaiah 62Is 62 Enduring Word · David Guzik

An evangelical verse-by-verse study detailing the watchmen, the new names, and the highway prepared for the people.

Background & Word Study

Isaiah 62Is 62 Enter the Bible

Background notes situating Isaiah 62 in the post-exilic promises of restoration for a returning people.

Isaiah 62 in Hebrew, with Jewish commentaryIs 62 in Hebrew, with Jewish commentary Sefaria

The Hebrew and English text with classical Jewish commentators, useful for word study on the renaming of Zion.

Overview: IsaiahOverview: Is BibleProject

An animated overview tracing Isaiah's arc from judgment to the promised new Jerusalem that chapter 62 proclaims.

Isaiah 62 in Hebrew, with Jewish commentaryIs 62 in Hebrew, with Jewish commentary Sefaria

The Hebrew text alongside English with linked traditional Jewish commentary.

The Church Fathers

Isaiah 62, patristic commentaryIs 62, patristic commentary Catena

A patristic catena collecting early Christian readings that hear the passage as pointing toward the coming of Christ.

Questions preachers ask

Who are the sentinels posted on Jerusalem’s walls?

Watchmen set there to remind God of his own promise and to give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem. Isaiah authorises a prayer that keeps pressing, and the new name given to the city is the answer.

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