For you will not leave in a hurry nor flee in haste, for the LORD goes before you, and the God of Israel is your rear guard.
The removal of the Jews from Babylon to their own land again is here spoken of both as a mercy and as a duty; and the application of Isa 52:7 to the preaching of the gospel (by the apostle, Rom 10:15) plainly intimates that that deliverance was a type and figure of the redemption of mankind by Jesus Christ, to which what is here said...
Commenting on Isaiah 52:7-12
For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight,.... As persons afraid of their enemies, of being pursued, overtaken, and detained by them; privily or by stealth, like fugitives, as the Oriental versions render it; in like manner as the Israelites went out of Egypt: but it signifies, that they should go out openly, boldly, quietly, and safely, and without fear of...
not . . . with haste--as when ye left Egypt (Exo 12:33, Exo 12:39; Deu 16:3; compare Note, see on Isa 28:16). Ye shall have time to cleanse yourselves and make deliberate preparation for departure. Lord--Jehovah, as your Leader in front (Isa 40:3; Exo 23:20; Mic 2:13). rereward--literally, "gather up," that is, to bring up the rear of your host.