Isaiah 56 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Set after the return from exile, roughly 538 to 500 BC, in the rebuilding years under Persian rule
Location
Jerusalem and the temple precinct, in a small province the Persians called Yehud
Audience
The restored Judean community, including foreigners and castrated men who wondered whether they counted as members
Situation
God promises that foreigners who keep the sabbath and hold to the covenant will be brought to his holy mountain, and that his house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples. The chapter then turns on Israel's leaders, calling them blind watchmen and mute dogs who cannot bark.
Key Background
Older law barred castrated men and certain foreigners from the assembly, so this chapter deliberately reopens a settled boundary and promises the castrated man a name better than sons and daughters. Men were often castrated to serve in royal courts, and Judeans taken into Babylonian and Persian palace service could have returned in that condition. Watchdogs and city watchmen were the two standard early warning systems of an ancient town, which makes a silent dog and a sleeping watchman a pointed insult for leaders who failed to warn anyone.
This is what Yahweh says: "Guard what is and do what is right, because my is close to arriving and my justice is about to be revealed."
is for the person who does this, for anyone who holds on to it — who keeps the and doesn't dishonor it, and who keeps their hands from doing anything harmful.
Don't let the who has joined himself to Yahweh say, "Yahweh will definitely separate me from his people." And don't let the say, "Look — I'm just a dried-up tree."
Because this is what Yahweh says to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what I delight in and hold firmly to my
"I will give them, within my house and within my walls, a and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them a that lasts forever — one that will never be cut off."
"And the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh to serve him, to the of Yahweh, and to be his servants — everyone who keeps the Sabbath and doesn't dishonor it and holds firmly to my covenant — "
"I will bring them to the that to me and fill them with joy in my of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, because my will be called a of for all
This is the declaration of the Yahweh, who the of Israel: "I will gather still others to them beyond those already gathered."
All you come and devour! All you beasts in the forest!
Israel's are blind — all of them. They know nothing. All of them are that bark, lying around dreaming, loving to sleep.
And these dogs have — they're never satisfied. They are who can't understand anything. All of them have turned to their own way, each one chasing their own every last one of them.
"Come," they say, "let me get some wine! Let's fill up on drink! And tomorrow will be just like today — no, even better!"