“For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee” (Isaiah 62:1-5).

The prophet continues in verses 10 to 12 of this same chapter saying, “Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.” The word “Hephzibah” of the above quotation means “my delight is in her.” The “new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name” the city of Jerusalem is revealed in Jeremiah, chapter 33, verse 16, “In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.”

This new name for the city of Jerusalem fits in with God’s promises to the saints of the seven churches of Revelation, chapters 2 and 3. We quote verse 17 of chapter 2 and verse 12 of chapter 3. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.”

Throughout the millennium, her righteousness shall “go forth as brightness” and her salvation shall be “as a lamp that burneth.” The Gentiles and the kings of the earth shall see her righteousness and her glory for a full thousand years. She is now forsaken and her land is desolate, but then the Lord shall be delighted in her and her land shall be married. God’s rejoicing over her, in that day, shall be as a bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride.

After the millennium, in the new heaven and the new earth, and after the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, this “holy city, new Jerusalem” shall come down from God out of heaven, “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:1-2).

One of the seven angels talked with John on the Isle of Patmos saying, “Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Revelation 21:9-14).

The angel continued his talk with John concerning the bride, the holy city, saying, “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

Thus we see the brightness and the glory of the new Jerusalem, “the bride, the Lamb’s wife,” carried on into the new heaven and the new earth.

It is significant that the names of the twelve tribes of Israel are to be written on the twelve gates of the city, and that the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb are to be in the twelve foundations of the city. It is also significant that the saved nations of the earth and their kings shall bring their glory and honor into the city. All of this is in keeping with God’s promise to Abraham concerning Israel and the nations, but it doesn’t fit with that blessed hope of the body of Christ as revealed through Paul.