NT Text: Revelation 18:4
OT Source(s):
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Promise-Fulfillment + Longitudinal Theme
Significance: Isaiah 52:11 commands the exiles, "Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the articles of YHWH's house." The call in Revelation 18:4 — "Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins or contract any of her plagues" — fuses Jeremiah's Babylon-exodus language with Isaiah's purity language. The concern with not "touching the unclean" (Isaiah) becomes not "sharing in her sins" (Revelation). Isaiah's context is the second exodus from Babylonian exile, and John sees the eschatological fulfillment of this departure. Paul also quotes this text in 2 Corinthians 6:17, showing a consistent apostolic reading of Isaiah 52:11 as a call to spiritual separation. John layers both Jeremiah 51:45 and Isaiah 52:11 to create a composite call to exodus.