Isaiah 52:8

Thy watchmen … sing Render, Hark, thy watchmen! they lift up the voice, together do they sing (see R.V.). Although the prophets are often called "watchmen" (ch. Isaiah 56:10; Habakkuk 2:1; Jeremiah 6:17; Ezekiel 33:2 ff.) there is no reason to suppose that they are referred to here. Prophets are no longer required after the herald of salvation has arrived and Jehovah Himself is at hand. The word is used in its ordinary sense of the watchmen posted on the city walls, who are naturally represented as the first to see and announce the actual approach of the King.

for they shall see &c. Rather, for eye to eye do they look upon Jehovah's return to Zion. The expression eye to eyeoccurs only once again, in Numbers 14:14, where Jehovah is said to be "seen eye to eye" in Israel; i.e. He is visibly present there (cf. Jeremiah 32:4, "his eyes shall look on the eyes of Nebuchadnezzar"). The idea here must be similar; Jehovah shall be seen in person when He comes to Zion, as closely and clearly as when two men look one another in the face. The phrase certainly has not in Hebr. the sense of harmony and unity which it has come to bear in English. But it can hardly mean merely that the watchmen shall form a dense throng, looking each otherin the face! That is a thought quite irrelevant in the context.