4 For thus saith Jehovah of the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and hold fast my covenant:
Also the foreigners that join themselves to Jehovah, to minister unto him, and to love the name of Jehovah, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and holdeth fast my covenant;
And if it seem evil unto you to serve Jehovah, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah.
Thy testimonies have I taken as a heritage for ever; For they are the rejoicing of my heart.
Or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; `yea', let him make peace with me.
Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that holdeth it fast; that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.
They shall inquire concerning Zion with their faces thitherward, `saying', Come ye, and join yourselves to Jehovah in an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 56
Commentary on Isaiah 56 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 56
After the exceedingly great and precious promises of gospel grace, typified by temporal deliverances, which we had in the foregoing chapter, we have here,
Isa 56:1-2
The scope of these verses is to show that when God is coming towards us in a way of mercy we must go forth to meet him in a way of duty.
Isa 56:3-8
The prophet is here, in God's name, encouraging those that were hearty in joining themselves to God and yet laboured under great discouragements.
Now suitable encouragements are given to each of these.
Isa 56:9-12
From words of comfort the prophet here, by a very sudden change of his style, passes to words of reproof and conviction, and goes on in that strain, for the most part, in the three following chapters; and therefore some here begin a new sermon. He had assured the people that in due time God would deliver them out of captivity, which was designed for the comfort of those that should live when God would do this. Now here he shows what their sins and provocations were, for which God would send them into captivity, and this was designed for the conviction of those that lived in his own time, nearly a hundred years before the captivity, who were now filling up the measure of the nation's sin, and to justify God in what he brought upon them. God will lay them waste by the fierceness of their enemies, for the falseness of their friends.