Go out, go out through the gates; prepare the way for the people! Build it up, build up the highway; clear away the stones; raise a banner for the nations!
Parallel translations
- WEB Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way of the people! Build up, build up the highway! Gather out the stones! Lift up a banner for the peoples.
- KJV Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.
- NKJV Go through, Go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people; Build up, Build up the highway! Take out the stones, Lift up a banner for the peoples!
- NASB ¶Go through, go through the gates, Clear a way for the people! Build up, build up the highway, Remove the stones, lift up a flag over the peoples.
- NLT Go out through the gates! Prepare the highway for my people to return! Smooth out the road; pull out the boulders; raise a flag for all the nations to see.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A call goes out to prepare the way and raise a banner so the people may come home. It matters because God summons His people to ready the road for His coming salvation.
Overview
The repeated commands to clear and build the highway echo Isaiah 40:3, the language later applied to John the Baptist preparing the way for Christ (Matthew 3:3). The 'banner for the peoples' signals that the nations, too, are summoned. The verse pictures God making a way for His redeemed to return and for the world to be drawn in.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Isa 57:14And it will be said, “Build it up, build it up, prepare the way, take every obstacle out of the way of My people.”
- Isa 40:3A voice of one calling: “Prepare the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert.
- Heb 12:13Make straight paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
- Isa 49:22This is what the Lord GOD says: “Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations, and raise My banner to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.
- Isa 11:10On that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will seek Him, and His place of rest will be glorious.
- Matt 22:9Go therefore to the crossroads and invite to the banquet as many as you can find.’
- Exod 17:15And Moses built an altar and named it The LORD Is My Banner.
- Isa 11:12He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; He will collect the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
- Isa 18:3All you people of the world and dwellers of the earth, when a banner is raised on the mountains, you will see it; when a ram’s horn sounds, you will hear it.
- Isa 11:16There will be a highway for the remnant of His people who remain from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.
- Isa 48:20Leave Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare it with a shout of joy, proclaim it, let it go out to the ends of the earth, saying, “The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob!”
- Isa 52:11Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing; come out from it, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.
- Isa 60:11Your gates will always stand open; they will never be shut, day or night, so that the wealth of the nations may be brought into you, with their kings being led in procession.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 62:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.