Jamieson, Fausset and Brown on Isaiah 12:2

CHAPTER 12

Is 12:1-6. Thanksgiving Hymn of the Restored and Converted Jews.

Just as Miriam, after the deliverance of the Red Sea (Is 11:16), celebrated it with an ode of praise (Ex 15:1-19).

2. Lord Jehovah--Jah, Jehovah. The repetition of the name denotes emphasis, and the unchangeableness of God's character.

strength ... song ... salvation--derived from Ex 15:2; Psa 118:14. The idea of salvation was peculiarly associated with the feast of tabernacles (see Is 12:3). Hence the cry "Hosanna," "Save, we beseech thee," that accompanied Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on that day (the fifteenth of the seventh month) (Mt 21:9; compare with Psa 118:25, 26); the earnest of the perfected "salvation" which He shall bring to His people at His glorious second appearance at Jerusalem (He 9:28). "He shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Compare Re 21:3, "The tabernacle of God is with men." Compare Lu 9:33, "three tabernacles: one for thee," &c. (the transfiguration being a pledge of the future kingdom), (Psa 118:15; Zec 14:16). As the Jew was reminded by the feast of tabernacles of his wanderings in tents in the wilderness, so the Jew-Gentile Church to come shall call to mind, with thanksgiving, the various past ways whereby God has at last brought them to the heavenly "city of habitation" (Psa 107:7).