Isaiah 60:4-5
4. Lift up . . . eyes—Jerusalem is addressed as a female with eyes cast down from grief.
all they . . . they—The Gentile peoples come together to bring back the dispersed Hebrews, restore their city, and worship Jehovah with offerings. nursed at thy side—rather "carried at thy side." It is the custom in the East to carry the children astride on the hip, with the arms around the body (Isa 66:12).5. see— (Isa 60:4), namely, the bringing back of thy sons.
flow together—rather, "overflow with joy" [LOWTH]; or, from a different Hebrew root, "be bright with joy" [GESENIUS] (Job 3:4). fear—rather, beat with the agitation of solemn joy at the marvellous sight [HORSLEY] (Jer 33:9). be enlarged—swell with delight. Grief, on the contrary, contracts the heart. abundance of . . . sea—the wealth of the lands beyond the sea, as in Solomon's time, the type of the coming reign of the Prince of peace. converted—rather, "be turned," instead of being turned to purposes of sin and idolatry. forces—rather, "riches."Isaiah 60:10
10. kings . . . minister unto thee—(See on Isa 60:7; Isa 49:23).
in my wrath I smote thee— (Isa 54:7, 8; 57:17).Micah 5:7
7. remnant of Jacob—already mentioned in Mic 5:3. It in comparative smallness stands in antithesis to the "many people." Though Israel be but a remnant amidst many nations after her restoration, yet she shall exercise the same blessed influence in quickening them spiritually that the small imperceptible dew exercises in refreshing the grass (De 32:2; Ps 72:6; 110:3). The influence of the Jews restored from Babylon in making many Gentile proselytes is an earnest of a larger similar effect hereafter (Isa 66:19; Zec 8:13).
from the Lord—Israel's restoration and the consequent conversion of the Gentiles are solely of grace. tarrieth not for man—entirely God's work, as independent of human contrivance as the dew and rains that fertilize the soil.Zechariah 14:16
16. every one . . . left— (Isa 66:19, 23). God will conquer all the foes of the Church. Some He will destroy; others He will bring into willing subjection.
from year to year—literally, "from the sufficiency of a year in a year." feast of tabernacles—The other two great yearly feasts, passover and pentecost, are not specified, because, their antitypes having come, the types are done away with. But the feast of tabernacles will be commemorative of the Jews' sojourn, not merely forty years in the wilderness, but for almost two thousand years of their dispersion. So it was kept on their return from the Babylonian dispersion (Ne 8:14-17). It was the feast on which Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Mt 21:8); a pledge of His return to His capital to reign (compare Le 23:34, 39, 40, 42; Re 7:9; 21:3). A feast of peculiar joy (Ps 118:15; Ho 12:9). The feast on which Jesus gave the invitation to the living waters of salvation ("Hosanna," save us now, was the cry, Mt 21:9; compare Ps 118:25, 26) (Joh 7:2, 37). To the Gentiles, too, it will be significant of perfected salvation after past wanderings in a moral wilderness, as it originally commemorated the ingathering of the harvest. The seedtime of tears shall then have issued in the harvest of joy [MOORE]. "All the nations" could not possibly in person go up to the feast, but they may do so by representatives.Romans 11:12
12. Now if the fall of them—"But if their trespass," or "false step"
be the riches of the—Gentile world—as being the occasion of their accession to Christ. and the diminishing of them—that is, the reduction of the true Israel to so small a remnant. the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness!—that is, their full recovery (see on Ro 11:26); that is, "If an event so untoward as Israel's fall was the occasion of such unspeakable good to the Gentile world, of how much greater good may we expect an event so blessed as their full recovery to be productive?"