Isaiah 52

1 Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
Jehovah continues to call through Isaiah for Jerusalem and Judah to wake up out of their sin, their stupor in order to come back to Him. She is His bride and Jehovah wants her to put on the strength He has given her, the white raiment of clothing He had clothed her with and to once again be the holy city rather than the harlot of chapter 1 vs 21. If they would but purify themselves of their sin and turn to the Lord then they would be holy.
2 Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
They are captive, not of the surrounding nations - though that is physically going to be the case when Babylon comes. In truth they are captive of their own sin. Their stupor has left them collapsed in the mire. Jehovah calls them to rise up, clean themselves off, and sit before Him once more as the holy bride of the Father. Note here that He calls for them to "loose thyself from the bonds of thy neck". There are many who would argue that this is impossible, that we have no capacity as humans to do such a thing. However, the Lord commands this very thing. This is what repentance is, a turning away from sin, a casting off of this evil master, and turning to our Creator to be free indeed, purified.
3 For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.
As He continues to plead with them, He makes the case that they sold themselves into slavery for nothing, for no reason. Sin has no value. It's only reward is death (Romans 6:23). He then says they will be redeemed without money, that is, they will not be bought back with the material wealth that they went a whoring after in the first place. Jehovah has the power to redeem them with something with a higher quality than material wealth. We shall see that this will ultimately be the blood of Christ which shall wash away their sins.
4 For thus saith the Lord God, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. 5 Now therefore, what have I here, saith the Lord, that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the Lord; and my name continually every day is blasphemed.
Jehovah God, the one true and living God, recounts that His people had gone down into Egypt to sojourn there (to journey and live among them for a time), but ended up as captives. Another time, the Assyrians oppressed the Jews without provocation from the land of Judah. In both cases, Jehovah freed His people with great power, redeeming them from those wicked nations that oppressed them in their innocence. Yet now, Judah has sold themselves back to these nations for nothing of significance, for no logical reason. They didn't need resources. Jehovah had supplied all that they could ever want. They didn't need land, or a deity to worship, or more people, or anything at all. Jehovah had supplied all they needed already. So why would they go whoring after these other nations and their fake gods? They subject themselves as slaves to these foreign rulers who abuse them and cause them to cry out. Instead of taking the bounty that Jehovah had bestowed upon them, they ran to these foreign nations and their gods and in so doing basically were saying that Jehovah had not given them enough, had not done enough, and was not a righteous God - in essence, speaking ill of Him by their actions.
6 Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.
In the time of the redemption, those who are Jehovah's people by turning to Him in faith, will know His name, know who He is, and know that He keeps His promises.
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!
Paul quotes this in Romans 10:15. Mountains here are the various domains of the nations. The good tidings are the gospel message, a message of peace and true salvation. This message says to Zion, your God reigns. Remember 1 Samuel 8, though. The Jews had rejected Jehovah as King in favor of earthly kings, the kind they were looking for to be like the other nations. Well, Jehovah let them have what they asked for and look where it got them. However, when these good tidings (the gospel) was to be published (preached), there would be salvation and Jehovah would reign once more. This happened when Christ ascended to Heaven and sat at the right hand of His Father becoming both High Priest and King (Zechariah 6:13; Hebrews 8:1).
This idea of peace is very important as we move into chapter 53. The Jews had the wrong idea of peace. They looked for an earthly King, an Anointed One who would come and defeat all their enemies (that they had been whoring after, ironically) and then they would rule all. That was their idea of peace and it needed to be corrected.
8 Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion.
The watchmen were those who were to call out warning when the enemy approached the city. Here, the watchmen of Judah will call out together in song for they will see first hand when Jehovah shall restore Zion (Jerusalem). This is not, however, physical Jerusalem, but the new, heavenly Jerusalem which is the church of Christ (Hebrews 12:22-23; Revelation 21:2-10).
9 Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. 
Isaiah here calls for Judah to be joyful at that time, to sing together because though there is ruin in Jerusalem to come, Jehovah will comfort and redeem those that turn to Him at the time being spoken of. When that time comes, Jehovah will "make bare His holy arm", that is to say, He will make known to all the nations His plan for them, His power to accomplish what He set out to do. Again, this is speaking of the first century when the gospel was preached to all the nations. We haven't left Paul's message in Romans 10. Isaiah is simply stating what Paul will later refer to in Romans 10:18 - that the gospel would be preached to all the world.
11 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. 
Note again here that Isaiah is telling them to stop sinning (touch no unclean thing), to go out of the midst of Jerusalem (the gospel would go out from Jerusalem to all the world). He tells them "be ye clean", again something that some say is impossible, yet here Jehovah is telling them to do through Isaiah. These that bear the vessels of Jehovah, those that preach the gospel, are to purify themselves so as to be effective messengers.
Paul quotes this verse in 2 Corinthians 6:17, calling the Gentiles who are now Christians to come out from their pagan surroundings and remain free of them. This verse in Isaiah points forward to the time of Christ and the church, though it is a call to the Jews to do the same, to remain free of the pollutions of the world around them and turn to the coming Servant.
12 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 reward.
They would not go out like they did from Egypt, running from an army. They would go out as a conquering army with Jesus Christ going out before them as the Victor. Their reward would be true salvation in Christ, a restored relationship with their Creator, which is infinitely more valuable than the material baubles, the sin they sold themselves away from Him for.
13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
Now Isaiah will begin to speak of Jesus Christ explicitly. All this has been leading up to, surrounding how Jehovah would redeem them, but He hasn't explained yet how He would accomplish this redemption, only that He would. Now Isaiah is about to begin the explanation of how. It would not be through a physical king to conquer their physical foes. It would be through the suffering Servant, Jesus Christ.
Jesus would "deal prudently", that is, He would be very successful in His work beyond anything any earthly king could possibly even imagine doing. He would be ultimately lifted up (exalted), praised highly (extolled), and be very high in terms of majesty, authority, and power.
14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
Many were astonished at how bad the people of Jehovah, the Israelites/Judah, had been treated. Beaten, subdued, enslaved, and treated horrendously. The suffering Servant (Jesus) would be representative of this, but more so, a perfect representation of mankind but beaten and treated even more horrifyingly than the Jews suffered.
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.
The word "so" here means "in this manner" or "by this happening" Jesus would "sprinkle" many nations. The idea of sprinkle here is not a reference to a mode of baptism (as nations don't get baptized collectively). It is a reference to the making of the covenant with Israel in Exodus 24. In this case, Jesus would make a new covenant with the new Israel, which would be made of many nations. We see again Paul speaking of the gospel being preached to all the kosmos in Romans 10 and again in Colossians 1:6, 23 or Jesus predicting this in Matthew 24:14. The kings shall shut their mouths in the sense of having nothing to say against the gospel message. The great mystery of the gospel which they had not been told will be told to them and they will see it, consider it, and understand it thus giving them the opportunity to heed it. Paul's letter to Rome is the explanation of that great mystery how the Jews and Gentiles were all reconciled in the kingdom of Christ, the church.
Consider Paul quoting Isaiah here in Romans 10:20. "But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me." It is a powerful testament to the fact that Isaiah is indeed prophesying about the first century events and thr Gentiles being added to God's kingdom.
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