Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
Lift ye up a banner - (Isaiah 5:26; Isaiah 11:10.)
Upon the high mountain - or else, 'a bare (literally, bald; i:e., without trees) mountain' х nishpeh (H8192), from shaapah (H8192); akin to an Aramaic root, bald; Syriac, to level or make plain. But Buxtorf supports the English version. Shaapah (H8192) means to be high: so the noun in Numbers 23:3. The Vulgate takes nishpeh (H8192) here by metathesis from nesheph (H5399), twilight, and translates dark, referring to Babylon, on account of its confusion, as Babel means. Or else, on account of the fogs from the marsh in which Babylon lay. But Babylon was not on a mountain, but in a low plain]. From "the high mountain" the banner could be seen afar off, so as to rally together the peoples against Babylon.
Exalt the voice unto them - unto the Medes (Isaiah 13:17), the assailants of Babylon. It is remarkable that Isaiah does not foretell here the Jews' captivity in Babylon, but presupposes that event, and throws himself beyond, predicting another event still more future, the overthrow of the city of Israel's oppressors. It was now 174 years before the event.
Shake the hand - beckon with the hand; wave the hand to direct the nations to march against Babylon.
That they may go into the gates of the nobles - Babylonian, rather, in a bad sense, tyrants ( nªdiybiym (H5081)); as in Isaiah 14:5, "rulers," in parallelism to "the wicked;" and Job 21:28 (Maurer).