Isaiah 52:15 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 52:15
So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
to spirt · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
many
רַבִּ֔יםra.Bim
H7227
abundant (in quantity · adjective, masculine plural absolute
nations
גּוֹיִ֣םgo.Yim
H1471
a foreign nation · noun, common masculine plural absolute
kings
מְלָכִ֖יםme.la.Khim
H4428
a king · noun, common masculine plural absolute
shut
יִקְפְּצ֥וּyik.pe.Tzu
H7092
to draw together · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
mouths
פִּיהֶ֑םpi.Hem
H6310
the mouth (as the means of blowing) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
told
סֻפַּ֤רsu.Par
H5608
properly · verb, pual perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
see
רָא֔וּra.'U
H7200
to see · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
heard
שָׁמְע֖וּsha.me.'U
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
consider
הִתְבּוֹנָֽנוּhit.bo.Na.nu
H995
to separate mentally (or distinguish) · verb, hithpael perfect, 3rd person common plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Romans 15:20-21 Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation:
Isaiah 49:7 Thus saith the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of…
Psalms 72:9-11 They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust.
Isaiah 55:5 Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and…
Ezekiel 36:25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
1 Peter 1:2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of…
Isaiah 49:23 And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth,…
Micah 7:16-17 The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 52:13–end
Here, as in other places, for the confirming of the faith of God's people and the encouraging of their hope in the promises of temporal deliverances, the prophet passes from them to speak of the great salvation which should in the fulness of time be wrought out by the Messiah. As the prophecy of Christ's incarnation was intended for the ratification of the promise of their deliverance from the Assyrian army, so this of Christ's death and resurrection is to confirm the promise of their return out of Babylon; for both these salvations were typical of the great redemption and the prophecies of them had a reference to that. This prophecy, which begins here and is continued to the end of the next…
sprinkle many--GESENIUS, for the antithesis to "be astonished," translates, "shall cause . . . to exult." But the word universally in the Old Testament means either to sprinkle with blood, as the high priest makes an expiation (Lev 4:6; Lev 16:18-19); or with water, to purify (Eze 36:25; compare as to the Spirit, Act 2:33), both appropriate to Messiah (Joh 13:8; Heb 9:13-14; Heb 10:22; Heb 12:24; Pe1 1:2). The antithesis is sufficient without any forced rendering. Many were astonished; so many (not merely men, but) nations shall be sprinkled. They were amazed at such an abject person claiming to be Messiah; yet it is He who shall justify and purify. Men were dumb with the amazement of scorn…
So shall he sprinkle many nations,.... This is not to be understood of water baptism, for though this has been administered in many nations, yet not by Christ, nor done by sprinkling; rather of the grace of the Spirit, which is expressed by water, and its application by sprinkling, and is of a cleansing and sanctifying nature, and which Gentiles are made partakers of; but better of the blood of Christ, called the blood of sprinkling, by which the conscience is purged from dead works, and the heart from an evil conscience, and by which multitudes of many nations are justified and sanctified; though it seems best of all to interpret it of the doctrine of Christ, which is compared to rain and d…
The Church Fathers
"Kings shall shut their mouths because of him." He means that they will be troubled, after examining [his miracles]. Or, he alludes to what happened at the time of the crucifixion; the sun became obscure, and everybody stood up, being struck by stupefaction.
The Word, joined to human flesh, came forth from the virgin womb and has now strode forth like a giant and has run his course, and his exit was from the highest heaven and his return to the height of heaven. Now he has been exalted and honored, and many nations now marvel at him, and the kings stop their mouths because they have passed the cruelest laws against Christians. For, indeed, they were not told about him. Now they see, and though they did not hear, now they understand.
For not all believed, but those who did believe admired to the highest point the mystery of piety. "And kings shall keep their mouths shut." At the manifest demonstration of God's power, those who formerly persecuted him and had dared to blaspheme will restrain their tongues from slander. Then he adds in a clearer vein: "For they to whom no report was brought concerning him shall see; and they who have not heard shall consider." For those who did not receive the prophetic predictions, but who served idols, will see, thanks to the heralds of truth, the might of him who was proclaimed to them, and they will know his power. After the predictions concerning the Gentiles, he also prophesies the incredulity of the Jews.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
How The Prophetic Gift Was Received — —We learn from Holy Scripture that it was by the agency of the Spirit of God that the prophets received the divine communication; but the means by which the divine Spirit communicated with the human…
Salvation · UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO — UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
So shall he sprinkle many nations. Some explain it, "Shall cause to drop," which they take to be a metaphorical expression for "to speak." But since nzh signifies "to sprinkle," and is commonly found to have this sense in Scripture, I choose rather to adopt this interpretation. He means that the Lord will pour out his Word over "many nations." He next mentions the effect of doctrine, that kings shall shut their mouth, that is, in token of astonishment, but a different kind of astonishment from that which he formerly described. Men "shut their mouths," and are struck with bewilderment, when the vast magnitude of the subject is such that it cannot be expressed, and that it exceeds all power of…
The prophecy concerning him passes now into an address to him, as in Isa 49:8 (cf., Isa 49:7), which sinks again immediately into an objective tone. "Just as many were astonished at thee: so disfigured, his appearance was not human, and his form not like that of the children of men: so will he make many nations to tremble; kings will shut their mouth at him: for they see what has not been told them, and discover what they have not heard." Both Oehler and Hahn suppose that the first clause is addressed to Israel, and that it is here pointed away from its own degradation, which excited such astonishment, to the depth of suffering endured by the One man. Hahn's principal reason, which Oehler ad…
startle many nations: They would be amazed that a rescuer would appear so weak and helpless and would stand speechless. • What they will see and what they will understand will be in complete contrast to anything they had previously imagined.
Rashi on Isaiah 52:15
So shall he cast down many nations So now, even he his hand will become powerful, and he will cast down the horns of the nations who scattered him.
shall shut Heb. יִקְפְּצוּ. They shall shut their mouths out of great bewilderment. for honor. what had not been told them concerning any man, they saw in him.
they gazed Heb. הִתְבּוֹנָנוּ, they gazed.
