Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 56

Thus saith the Lord. —Isaiah 56:1–8 forms a distinct section and obviously had an historical starting point. It has been said (Cheyne, following many other critics) that “the writer of this section presupposes the circumstances of a period long subsequent to the reign of Hezekiah.” It will be seen in the following notes that I cannot altogether accept that statement and find circumstances in the closing years of Isaiah’s life which may well have given occasion to his teaching here. It obviously does not stand in any close connection with the preceding chapter.

Keep ye judgment —i.e., the righteousness of the law. The general exhortation is specialised in the next verse.

That keepeth the sabbath from polluting it ... —It is natural that a devout king like Hezekiah would be an observer of the Sabbath. It is almost certain that the counselors of the young Manasseh (probably the Shebna party), abandoning the religion of Israel in other things, would also disregard this. Accordingly, I interpret the prophet’s teaching as directed against that evil. He declares blessed those who are faithful to the régime of Hezekiah’s reign, even though their alien birth or their condition as eunuchs seemed to exclude them from the polity of Israel (Deuteronomy 23:1–8).

Neither let the son of the stranger ... — Two classes of persons were likely to suffer especially from Manasseh’s policy—(1) the heathen proselytes, who, as in Psalms 87, had been admitted as citizens of Zion under Hezekiah’s special protection; and (2) in the highest degree, those from that group who had been taken, as Ebed-Melech afterwards was (Jeremiah 38:7), into the king’s household as eunuchs. The courtiers of Manasseh would taunt them as aliens, and in the second case would press the letter of Deuteronomy 23:2.

The principle of Isaiah’s teaching was, of course, applicable to the Israelites who, like Daniel and his friends, had been mutilated against their will by heathen conquerors (Daniel 1:3), and most commentators refer the words to such cases. It is scarcely probable, however, that the household of Hezekiah would have been supplied with home-born eunuchs, and, on the hypothesis which I have adopted, I find in the eunuchs a sub-section of the proselytes. The words put into the mouths of the complainers are the natural utterances of men treated as they had been.

Even to them will I give ... — The words may refer simply to the spiritual blessedness of the faithful (Revelation 2:17; Revelation 3:5), but the customs of Eastern temples and of the later synagogues suggest that they may refer primarily to the memorial tablets which were put up in such places in commemoration of distinguished benefactors. For “place” read memorial. We note, of course, the special adaptation of the words better than of sons and daughters to the case which the prophet has in view; but it has to be remembered also that the whole promise substitutes the principle of catholicity for the rubrics of exclusiveness which we find in Deuteronomy 23:1.

Also the sons of the stranger ... —Proselytes also were to share in the blessings of the wider covenant. The words “to serve him” have been interpreted by some as referring to menial functions, like those of the Nethinim, hewers of wood and drawers of water (Joshua 9:27; Ezra 8:20). The usage of the word, however, limits it to honourable functions.

The germ of Isaiah’s thought appears in Solomon’s dedication prayer (1 Kings 8:41–43). It receives its highest development (in its entire separation from the building with which this idea is associated, both in Solomon's prayer and in this prophecy) in John 4:23. Compare a further emancipation from the bondage of the law in Isaiah 66:21.