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The Lord Invites Outsiders to Enter

56 This is what the Lord says,
“Promote[a] justice! Do what is right!
For I am ready to deliver you;
I am ready to vindicate you openly.[b]
The people who do this will be blessed,[c]
the people who commit themselves to obedience,[d]
who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it,
who refrain from doing anything that is wrong.[e]
No foreigner who becomes a follower of[f] the Lord should say,
‘The Lord will certainly[g] exclude me from his people.’
The eunuch should not say,
‘Look, I am like a dried-up tree.’”

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 56:1 tn Heb “guard”; KJV “Keep”; NAB “Observe”; NASB “Preserve”; NIV, NRSV “Maintain.”
  2. Isaiah 56:1 tn Heb “for near is my deliverance to enter, and my vindication [or “righteousness”] to be revealed.”
  3. Isaiah 56:2 tn Heb “blessed is the man who does this.”
  4. Isaiah 56:2 tn Heb “the son of mankind who takes hold of it.”
  5. Isaiah 56:2 tn Heb and who keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
  6. Isaiah 56:3 tn Heb “who attaches himself to.”
  7. Isaiah 56:3 tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

Salvation for Others

56 This is what the Lord says:

“Maintain justice(A)
    and do what is right,(B)
for my salvation(C) is close at hand
    and my righteousness(D) will soon be revealed.
Blessed(E) is the one who does this—
    the person who holds it fast,
who keeps the Sabbath(F) without desecrating it,
    and keeps their hands from doing any evil.”

Let no foreigner(G) who is bound to the Lord say,
    “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.”(H)
And let no eunuch(I) complain,
    “I am only a dry tree.”

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