Isaiah 56: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD calls his people to keep justice and do right, because his salvation is about to arrive. He then promises that eunuchs who keep his Sabbaths and hold to his covenant will have a monument and an everlasting name, and that foreigners who join themselves to him will be brought to his holy mountain and have their offerings accepted in a house that will be called a house of prayer for all peoples. The chapter ends by turning on Israel's leaders, calling them blind watchmen, dogs that cannot bark, and shepherds who look only after themselves and their drink.

Claim by Claim

1. 56:1
   • The LORD says this.
   • The LORD commands: keep justice.
   • The LORD commands: do what is right.
   • The LORD's salvation is near to come.
   • The LORD's righteousness is about to be revealed.
2. 56:2
   • Blessed is the man who does this.
   • Blessed is the son of man who holds fast to it.
   • This man keeps the sabbath without profaning it.
   • This man keeps his hand from doing any evil.
3. 56:3
   • The foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD is not to say that the LORD will surely separate him from the LORD's people.
   • The eunuch is not to say that he is a dry tree.
4. 56:4
   • The LORD says this to the eunuchs.
   • These eunuchs keep the LORD's sabbaths.
   • These eunuchs choose what pleases the LORD.
   • These eunuchs hold fast to the LORD's covenant.
5. 56:5
   • The LORD will give them a monument and a name in his house and within his walls.
   • That monument and name are better than sons and daughters.
   • The LORD will give him an everlasting name.
   • That name will not be cut off.
6. 56:6
   • The LORD also speaks of the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD.
   • These foreigners join themselves to the LORD to minister to him.
   • These foreigners join themselves to the LORD to love the name of the LORD.
   • These foreigners join themselves to the LORD to be his servants.
   • Every one of them keeps the sabbath without profaning it.
   • They hold fast to the LORD's covenant.
7. 56:7
   • The LORD will bring them to his holy mountain.
   • The LORD will make them joyful in his house of prayer.
   • Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on the LORD's altar.
   • The LORD's house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
8. 56:8
   • This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.
   • The Lord GOD gathers the outcasts of Israel.
   • The Lord GOD says he will yet gather others to him besides those already gathered to him.
9. 56:9
   • All the beasts of the field are summoned to come and eat.
   • All the beasts in the forest are summoned.
10. 56:10
    • His watchmen are blind.
    • They all do not know.
    • They are all mute dogs.
    • They cannot bark.
    • They lie down dreaming, or lie down raving; the word is ambiguous.
    • They love to slumber.
11. 56:11
    • The dogs are fierce of appetite.
    • They never know satisfaction.
    • They are shepherds.
    • They do not know how to understand.
    • They have all turned to their own way.
    • Each one seeks his own gain, whether from his own quarter or every last one of them; the phrase is ambiguous.
12. 56:12
    • They say: Come.
    • They say: I will fetch wine.
    • They say: let us drink our fill of strong drink.
    • They say tomorrow will be like this day.
    • They say tomorrow will be great, far beyond this one.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

56:1

"Righteousness" here is not private moral goodness but God's action of putting things right, setting the world in order and vindicating his people. In this part of Isaiah it runs in harness with "salvation" as a near-synonym, which is why the two lines say much the same thing.

56:2

The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday), set aside from ordinary work. The King James "from polluting it" translates a word meaning to treat something set apart as if it were common; hence "does not treat that day as ordinary."

56:3

A eunuch was a castrated man. Castrated men were widely employed as officials and servants in royal courts across the ancient Near East, so an Israelite might become one through service to a foreign king. The law in Deuteronomy 23:1 barred such a man from the assembly of the LORD, and Deuteronomy 23:3-6 barred certain foreigners; these are the exclusions the two speakers here are afraid of. "A dry tree" means a tree that bears no fruit, the eunuch's complaint is that he can have no children, and so no descendants to carry his name.

56:4

A covenant is a binding agreement with set obligations on both sides, like a treaty between a ruler and his subjects. "Take hold of" it is the language of gripping something firmly and not letting go.

56:5

The King James "a place and a name" is literally "a hand and a name" in Hebrew; "hand" here means a monument or memorial marker, a standing stone set up to keep someone's memory alive. The point of "better than sons and daughters" is that children were the normal way a person's name survived after death, a monument in God's own house does the job instead. "Cut off" is the ordinary Hebrew term for a family line ending or a person being erased from the community.

56:7

The "holy mountain" is Mount Zion, the hill in Jerusalem where the temple stood. A burnt offering was an animal killed and burned whole on the altar, so that none of it was eaten; other sacrifices were partly burned and partly eaten. The altar was the raised stone structure where this burning was done. "All peoples" translates a word usually rendered "nations": that is, all the peoples of the world, not only Israel.

56:8

The "outcasts" or "scattered" are Israelites driven out of their homeland and living among foreign nations, chiefly those deported to Babylon. Gathering them means bringing them home.

56:9

Summoning wild animals to come and eat is a standard prophetic image for a land left undefended: the flock has no guard, so the predators are invited in. It marks an abrupt turn from the promises above to an accusation against Israel's leaders, which runs to the end of the chapter.

56:10

A watchman was the sentry posted on a city wall or a tower to spot approaching danger and raise the alarm; prophets are called watchmen elsewhere in the Hebrew scriptures. Here the sentries are blind. "Dumb dogs" in the King James means mute, not stupid, guard dogs that will not bark at an intruder.

56:11

"Shepherds" is the standard ancient Near Eastern term for rulers and leaders, who were expected to feed and protect their people as a herdsman does his flock. The King James "from his quarter" renders a Hebrew phrase meaning roughly "from his end", usually taken as "to the last man," every single one of them, which is what "all of them alike" gives.

56:12

"Strong drink" translates Hebrew *shekar*, a potent fermented drink made from grain, dates or honey rather than from grapes; the pair "wine and strong drink" covers alcoholic drink of every kind.