Isaiah 52:5

Now therefore Rather, But now, accentuating the gravity of the present situation. Exile and oppression were indeed no new experiences for Israel (Isaiah 52:4), but no such overwhelming disaster as this had ever befallen it hitherto.

what have I here &c. The sentence may be variously understood. The main idea obviously is that the state of things described in what follows is not to be endured, being inconsistent with the honour of Jehovah. The formula "What is there to me?" expresses a strong sense of incongruity between what is and what ought to be (see Isaiah 3:15; Isaiah 22:1; Isaiah 22:16), and we may render either, "What am I about (Isaiah 22:1) here (in Babylonia)?" or, more generally, "What do I find here?" i.e. in the existing position of affairs, as contrasted with the historic parallels in Isaiah 52:4. The last is perhaps to be preferred. The meaning can hardly be, "What have I to do here (ch. Isaiah 22:16) now that my people is taken away?"

that(better for) my people is taken away destroyed outright (ch. Isaiah 53:8).

they that rule over them(the Chaldæans) makethem to howl(R.V. do howl)] The R.V. rightly avoids the causative sense of the verb, which has no support in usage. On the other hand, it is nowhere else used of a shout of exultation, as it must be here; comp. with Gesenius and others, "laetis ulularetriumphis" (Lucan, 6, 261). In Syriac also the word appears occasionally to undergo a similar modification.

my name … is blasphemed lit. despised. (The form should probably be pointed as part. Pual.) The meaning is that the calamities of Israel were attributed by the heathen to the impotence of their God, and thus the majesty of Jehovah was impaired, a thought frequently expressed by Ezekiel (see Ezekiel 36:20 &c.). The words are cited in Romans 2:24.

continually all the day (R.V.), as ch. Isaiah 51:13.