It is unclear whom the prophet is addressing here. He is giving orders about the condition in which people are to leave Babylonia. They have to be ritually clean. It seems these orders are not addressed to all the exiles but only to those carrying the sacred vessels during the new Exodus. Normally that would be the priests and the Levites (see Ezra 8.24-30). There are several possible ways to understand who are the addressees: (1) all the exiles are in view (so Contemporary English Version, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch); (2) only the priests and the Levites are in view (so Good News Translation, Bible en français courant); (3) the first two lines concern all the exiles, while the last two concern only the priests. The versions that translate the Hebrew fairly literally, such as RSV/NRSV, New International Version, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, can be interpreted either according to (2) or (3). The first two possibilities are more likely.
Depart, depart, go out thence: This call to leave Babylonia is similar to the one made in 48.20. The repetition of Depart (literally “Turn aside”) adds urgency to it (compare the earlier double commands in 51.9, 17; 52.1). Good News Translation expresses this with “Be sure to leave,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “Away! Away!” Bible en français courant unfortunately adds the idea that the people should leave “quickly,” which conflicts with verse 12. Since the prophet commands go out thence (that is, leave from there), some scholars believe the prophet was not among the exiles in Babylonia, but this is not a necessary conclusion. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “Pull out of this place!” Translators may make Babylonia explicit, as in Good News Translation. For this whole line Revised English Bible has “Go out, leave Babylon behind.”
Touch no unclean thing calls on the people to be ritually clean, so they are ready to participate in worship. Among the things that could make a person unclean if they touched them were dead bodies and unclean animals (see, for example, Lev 11.24-28). There is a link here with verse 1, which says unclean people will never pollute Jerusalem again (see the comments there).
Go out from the midst of her is parallel to the first line, repeating the verb go out. The pronoun her refers to Babylonia. For this line Revised English Bible has “Leave Babylon behind,” which repeats its rendering for the last half of the first line. Another possibility is simply “Leave Babylonia.”
Purify yourselves calls on the priests and Levites, or all the people, to take the necessary steps to ensure ritual cleanliness for worshiping God. Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, and Bible en français courant say “keep yourselves holy/pure,” which implies they are already pure and must stay that way. This is a legitimate understanding. New International Version has “be pure.” Such renderings may be good models for languages where a command such as “purify yourselves” might be misunderstood as an instruction to take a bath before setting off on the journey home.
You who bear the vessels of the LORD seems to be a clear reference to the priests and Levites who had responsibility for the various utensils used in worshiping God. For the vessels of the LORD, Good News Translation has “the Temple equipment,” and Bible en français courant says “the utensils reserved for the worship of the Lord.” These could be the golden vessels and other utensils of value that the Babylonians took as booty from the Temple in 597 B.C. (see 2 Kgs 24.13). They could also be new sets of vessels (see, for example, Ezra 7.15-20; 8.24-30).
For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:
• Go! Go! Go out from there!
Touch nothing that makes you unfit for worship!
You priests who carry the Temple vessels,
leave Babylonia and keep yourselves pure!
• Leave! Leave! Go out from there!
Don’t touch anything unclean!
Go out from Babylonia!
Make yourselves pure,
all of you who bear the LORD’s Temple utensils.
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 .