Isaiah 56:3-6
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Obligations and Promises to Share in the Covenant
3 [a]The foreigner joined to the Lord should not say,
“The Lord will surely exclude me from his people”;
Nor should the eunuch say,
“See, I am a dry tree.”(A)
4 For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,
who choose what pleases me,
and who hold fast to my covenant,(B)
5 I will give them, in my house
and within my walls, a monument and a name[b]
Better than sons and daughters;
an eternal name, which shall not be cut off, will I give them.
6 And foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
to minister to him,
To love the name of the Lord,
to become his servants—
All who keep the sabbath without profaning it
and hold fast to my covenant,
Footnotes
- 56:3 Eunuchs had originally been excluded from the community of the Lord; cf. Dt 23:2; Neh 13:1–3; Wis 3:14.
- 56:5 A monument and a name: literally in Hebrew, “a hand and a name”; a memorial inscription to prevent oblivion for one who had no children; cf. 2 Sm 18:18; Neh 7:5; 13:14.
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