The interpretation of this verse depends on answers to the following questions: (1) Does Go through refer to entering or leaving? (2) Are the gates those of the city of Jerusalem or those of the Temple? (3) Are the people Judah’s people who return from exile or are they foreigners coming to worship the LORD in Jerusalem? Lack of certainty in answers to these questions explains why versions differ. We suggest the following setting for this verse: the prophet calls on the people of Jerusalem to go out through the city gates of Jerusalem to prepare the way to welcome foreigners (or returning exiles) coming to worship the LORD. Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, Bible en français courant, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch make it explicit that the people of Jerusalem go out of the city through its gates. For Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch the people are the people of Judah returning home from exile. The quote from 40.10b at the end of verse 11 seems to confirm this interpretation. For Contemporary English Version they are foreigners making their way to Jerusalem. The plural expression the peoples at the end of the verse and the reference to “the end of the earth” in verse 11 support this interpretation. Translators have a choice; we recommend either the interpretation of Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch or that of Contemporary English Version.

Go through, go through the gates: This repeated imperative urges the people of Jerusalem to go out of the city through its gates. Bible en français courant underlines the urgency here by adding the adverb “quickly.” Good News Translation loses it by reducing the double imperative to a single one.

Prepare the way for the people repeats part of the call made in 40.3 (see the comments there; see also 57.14). However, the setting is different. Here the inhabitants of Jerusalem are to prepare the way for the people rather than “the way of the LORD.” As noted above, this may mean they are to prepare for the arrival of returning exiles and/or of foreigners coming to worship Yahweh.

Build up, build up the highway repeats part of the call in 57.14 (see the comments there). For highway see 7.3.

Clear it of stones: See 5.2.

Lift up an ensign over the peoples repeats the thoughts of 49.22 and uses the same vocabulary: lift up (rendered “raise” there), ensign (rendered “signal” there), and peoples. The purpose of the signal in 49.22 was to prompt the nations to bring the exiles of Judah back to their homeland. Here the signal may show to the nations that what God was planning to achieve in a restored Jerusalem has now been accomplished. It could also be a clear signal meant to help the nations find their way to Jerusalem (so Contemporary English Version). Good News Translation links this line to the first one of the next verse, thereby indicating that the signal is meant to tell the nations what the LORD has proclaimed.

For translation of this verse consider the following examples:

• Go out, go out through the gates,
make a way for the people.
Build up the highway, build it up,
remove stones from it.
Raise a standard for the nations.

• People of Jerusalem, pass through, pass through the gates of your city,
make a way for the people.
Elevate, elevate the highway,
clearing it of stones,
Raise high a signal for the peoples.

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 .