Verse 20 has six plural imperatives in Hebrew, which are rendered Go forth, flee, declare, proclaim, send … forth, and say. They all revolve around an urgent call for the people of Judah in exile to leave Babylonia at once.
Go forth from Babylon is parallel and synonymous with the call to flee from Chaldea. Since Yahweh has appointed Cyrus to achieve his plans (verse 14), he now challenges the Israelites to leave Babylonia. We know from sources outside the Bible that when Cyrus occupied other territories, he allowed those there who had been taken captive to return to their homelands. From Ezra 1.1-4 we see that this policy was applied to the exiles who had come from Judah. Yahweh, through the prophet, tells his people to take advantage of this policy and come back to Jerusalem. Babylon and Chaldea are essentially synonymous, and may be combined (so Good News Translation; see the comments on 13.19). The verb flee suggests leaving a bad situation as quickly as possible. But in translation this verb might have the inappropriate connotation of running away from danger or disaster. Some modern versions avoid the verb flee, but maintain an indication of the haste with which the prophet wants the people to act; for example, Revised English Bible renders this line as “Go out from Babylon, hasten away from the Chaldeans,” Bible en français courant (1997) says “Leave Babylon, quick, go away from there,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “Break out from Babylon! Leave the land of the Chaldeans as quickly as you can!” For Good News Translation the verb flee contains the idea of freedom, so it has “Go out from Babylon, go free!”
Declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it forth to the end of the earth; say: The four imperatives here belong together, since they call on the people to make known what Yahweh has done. The demonstrative pronoun this and the two occurrences of the pronoun it point forward to the triumphant proclamation with which the verse closes, namely that God has redeemed his people. A shout of joy is literally “a ringing cry.” The context indicates that it is one of joy. Since the verbs declare and proclaim are parallel and synonymous, Good News Translation combines them into one by rendering the second line as “Shout the news gladly” (similarly Revised English Bible).
Send it forth to the end of the earth means that the Israelites are to announce everywhere the great news of what God has done for them. The end of the earth points to people throughout the world, even those furthest away (see the comments on 5.26 and 40.28 for the similar expression “the ends of the earth”). Israel’s witness to what God has done is for everyone to hear.
The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!: This is what the people are to shout with joy. In the present context this statement means that God has rescued his people from Babylonia. For the Hebrew verb rendered redeemed, see the comments on 41.14, where it is translated “Redeemer.” Has redeemed renders the Hebrew perfect verb form, which normally marks completed action. Its use here indicates that, even though the event is yet to happen, its realization is nevertheless as certain as though it had already taken place. For his servant Jacob, see the comments on 41.8. Translators need to translate this whole line as a joyful shout, and not simply as a flat statement of fact. Good News Translation does this with “The LORD has saved his servant Israel!”
For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:
• Go out from Babylonia, flee from Chaldea!
Give a joyful shout, announce it,
tell the ends of the world about it,
say, “Yahweh has rescued his servant Jacob!”
• Leave Babylonia, get out of Chaldea as quickly as you can!
Shout joyfully and announce that Yahweh has saved Jacob his servant!
Tell the whole world about it!
Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .