Isaiah 56King James Version
Blessed is the man that keepeth the sabbath. The foreigner and the eunuch are welcome. The Lord's house shall be called an house of prayer for all people. A radical opening outward.
Keep justice and do righteousness; salvation is near. The foreigner who joins himself to the LORD and the eunuch who holds fast to God's covenant both have a place. They will be given a name better than sons and daughters. God's house shall be a house of prayer for all peoples. But Israel's watchmen are blind, ignorant dogs who sleep and love to slumber while the people are devoured.
The community of God's people is larger than ethnic or physical category. Those excluded by old law may be included in the new covenant. The shepherds who fail to guard are the real problem.
verse: "Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people", Jesus quotes the final clause in cleansing the temple (Mark 11:17).
The post-exilic community gathering around the temple. Some who want to join are technically excluded by old rulings. God overrides those exclusions with direct address. Behind this inclusion scene is a shadow: the leaders who should be welcoming these people are asleep and self-indulgent.
The foreigner who joins himself to the LORD, anxious about exclusion. The eunuch who fears his exclusion from the assembly. The watchmen and shepherds of Israel, metaphorically blind and dumb dogs. No individual named figures.
Chapter 56 opens the third major movement of Isaiah (chapters 56-66), often called Third Isaiah. The inclusion of foreigners and eunuchs reverses the exclusions of Deuteronomy 23 and anticipates the New Testament's explicit inclusion of both groups (Acts 8 for the eunuch, Galatians 3:28 for the Gentiles). Jesus' temple-cleansing citation connects this directly to his own mission.
For when you feel you do not qualify for inclusion in the community you long to belong to. The specific mention of the eunuch and the foreigner addresses those who have been told explicitly that they are outside.
1Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
2Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.
3Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.
4For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant;
5Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.
6Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;
7Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.
8The Lord GOD which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.
9All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest.
10His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
11Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.
12Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.