What Does Isaiah 56:6 Mean?
And the sons of the foreigner, who have attached themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one who guards the sabbath from being pierced, and takes hold of my covenant.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Also 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;THE KEY
Here belonging crosses ancestry through attachment to the LORD, and loving the LORD’s name means loving the nature carried in that name.
THE MEANING
The stranger is welcomed through joining the LORD: serving, loving the LORD’s name, his nature, and taking hold of the covenant. Keeping the Sabbath means guarding it from being profaned. The verse speaks to you as one whose origin does not prevent belonging.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that where you come from disqualifies you from belonging to God. This verse places the stranger within the covenant through attachment expressed in service, love, and guarded Sabbath.
THE ROOT
הַנִּלְוִים
hannilvim
GROWS FROM
לוה
l-w-h
Join, attach, accompany.
“attached themselves” in this verse is hannilvim. The root carries the sense of joining or attaching, and it also appears in the name Levi, tied to being joined. The stranger’s belonging is active attachment to the LORD, not a status determined by ancestry.
ALSO GROWS
Levi: Joined or attached.
לֵוִי
The name is linked in Genesis 29:34 to the hope of being joined; here the same root describes the stranger joining the LORD.
lavah: Borrow; in a causative form, lend.
לָוָה
The root’s wider word-family can describe a bond of obligation between people; here attachment takes the form of holding to the covenant.
שֹׁמֵר
shomer
GROWS FROM
שמר
sh-m-r
Guard, watch over, preserve.
“guards” in this verse is shomer. The word for keeping the Sabbath shares its root with guarding and watching. The verse presents Sabbath observance as protecting its set-apartness, not merely marking a day.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: Keeper, guard, watchman.
שֹׁמֵר
The Sabbath keeper carries the root’s watchful sense: keeping it means guarding it from profanation.
mishmeret: Charge, watch, guard duty.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This related word makes the root’s guarding sense visible; the Sabbath is a trust held and protected.
THE PATTERN
Belonging to the LORD crosses inherited boundaries through attachment, allegiance, and shared covenant life.
And Ruth said, Do not press me to let go of you, or to turn back from following after you. For where you walk, I will walk, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people are my people, and your God my God.Them also will I bring to my set-apart mountain, and gladden them in my house of prayer. Their ascending offerings and their sacrifices shall be received with favor upon my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens of the set-apart ones, and of the household of God.THE THREAD
And many nations will cling to the LORD in that day, and they will be my people, and I will pitch my tent in the midst of you, and you will know that the LORD of hosts sent me to you.The same Hebrew joining verb returns for many nations joining the LORD and becoming his people. The shared root makes belonging an act of attachment, not a credential of origin.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us