The vessels of Isa 52:11-12

One of the necessary things that the lone Bible student needs to do is read commentaries, preferably several. The reason for this is simply to have someone else (the commentator) to check and balance what s/he might be thinking. So…

Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord. For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the Lord will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rearguard. Isa 52:11-12 (KJV revised)

Commentators generally point to several exodus allusions in this text, including ‘not go out with haste’ which is said to be picked up from Exod 12:11 and Deut 16:3; the reference to God being a ‘rearguard’ (Exod 14:19; cf. Num 10:25); and also in the taking of ‘vessels’ (Exod 12:35). It is said that these exodus allusions do not mean that the place of departure is once again Egypt, but rather they characterize the return of the exiles from Babylon in 538/7 as a ‘second exodus’. The question is, why not? Why can’t it be Egypt? At least one commentator has said it was Egypt (C. C. Torrey, 1928). Why couldn’t it have been the case that some of the vessels of the Lord were acquired by Egyptians in the war of 701, held in a border city, and then exchanged through mutual agreement for Egyptian prisoners of war with Judah?

What data might suggest such a scenario? First, we would need data that Hezekiah had sent vessels of silver from the temple along with their Levitical attendants to Sennacherib as tribute (2 Kgs 18:14). Second, we would need a record in Sennacherib’s Annals that it was his practice to distribute booty to his governors in vassal city-states and to his army as well as taking such booty back to Nineveh (Annals, 60-61). Third, we would need historical evidence that during his campaign in Philistia and Judah, Sennacherib went as far as the border of Egypt and engaged the Egyptians where such booty might have been lost (Herodotus, Histories (II, 141)). Fourth, it would help if we had an earlier prophecy in Isaiah to the effect that Judahites would come out of Egypt thereby allowing us to see Isa 52:11-12 as a fulfilment of such a prophecy (Isa 43:3). Fifth, we would need a prophecy in Isaiah showing that Judah might have Egyptians to hand over for the vessels and Levities (Isa 45:14, Egyptians and Judahites were both defeated at Eltekeh and Egyptians may well have fled the battle to Jerusalem).  And finally, we should have other mentions of Egypt in the immediate context of Isaiah 51-52 (like Isa 51:9; 52:3) suggesting an Egyptian focus. Such a focus also appears in a pun in Isa 53:1,

Who hath believed our report? And to whom (ym l[) is the Arm of the Lord revealed? (KJV)

The prepositional expression ym l[ occurs eight times in the Hebrew Bible, occurring twice in the account of the Assyrian invasion of 701 and five times overall in Isaiah.

The prophecy in Isa 10:3 anticipates that Judah will flee ‘to’ Egypt for help and this is reflected in 2 Kgs 18:20/Isa 36:5,

And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? To whom (ym l[) will ye flee for help? And where will ye leave your glory?[1] Isa 10:3 (KJV)

You say (but they are only empty words), ‘I have counsel and strength for the war’. Now on whom (ym l[) do you rely, that you have rebelled against me? 2 Kgs 18:20 (NASB); cf. Isa 36:5

This linkage establishes that we have two questions in Isa 53:1. The ‘to whom’ refrain of the Jerusalemites’ reliance on Egypt is being picked up here with the ‘to whom has the Arm of the Lord been revealed’, i.e. giving the answer that the Arm of the Lord has been revealed in Egypt and reported (revealed) to the Jerusalemites. This has happened in the retrieval of the vessels of the Lord from the borders of Egypt by the Arm of the Lord, the Anonymous Conqueror. This action has been the underlying event for the three ‘Awake, awake’ calls.

The question ‘to whom has the Arm of the Lord been revealed’ is addressed to those leaders in Jerusalem that had sought help from Egypt and who had seen the Egyptians defeated at Eltekeh. The question, ‘Who has believed our report?’ is challenging the Jerusalemites to either confess or deny that they have believed the report from Egypt. The retrieval of the vessels of the Lord thus becomes the catalyst for their confession of sin and wrongful behaviour towards the Servant (Hezekiah) in respect of the Egyptian alliance during the Assyrian Crisis.