What Does Isaiah 60:4 Mean?
Lift your eyes all around and see. All of them are gathered and come to you. Your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side.
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
Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.THE KEY
The returning are not merely counted as present; they are gathered close enough to be held, steadied, and nourished.
THE MEANING
You see what distance obscures gathering toward you: sons arrive from far away, while daughters are carried close and sustained at your side. Reunion becomes more than arrival; it takes the shape of touch, nourishment, and steady care.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that distance has made belonging impossible. The verse pictures those far away returning into closeness and care.
THE ROOT
תֵּאָמַנָה
teʾāmānnāh
GROWS FROM
אמן
To support, hold firm, and foster; to make steady.
“nursed” in this verse is teʾāmānnāh. The daughters are not simply fed: this word carries the sense of being supported and fostered, held into steadiness at someone’s side. The root joins nurture with reliable support.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāmēn: Firm, steady; “Amen.”
אָמֵן
This branch carries the sense of what is established and dependable, echoing the steady support in being nursed.
ʾōmēn: Fosterer, guardian, nursing caregiver.
אֹמֵן
Numbers 11:12 uses this word for a nursing father who carries a child in his bosom, making the caregiving in Isaiah’s image especially tangible.
נִקְבְּצוּ
niqbetzu
GROWS FROM
קבץ
To gather, collect, assemble.
“are gathered” in this verse is niqbetzu. The root presents the return as convergence: those who were apart are coming into shared nearness. Beside the daughters being supported at your side, gathering becomes not only reunion but closeness that can hold and nourish.
ALSO GROWS
qibbēts: He gathered, collected.
קִבֵּץ
This verb form names the act that brings separated ones together, clarifying the movement in the verse.
qibbuts: A gathering, collection, or gathered group.
קִבּוּץ
This noun pictures the result of gathering as a company held together, rather than isolated arrivals.
THE PATTERN
Belonging survives distance as a movement of gathering and care.
Look, I will bring them from the north land, and I will gather them from the flanks of the earth. With them, the blind and the limping, the pregnant and the one in labor, together. A great assembly will turn back here.And not for that nation only, but that he would also gather together into one the children of God who were scattered abroad.THE THREAD
"Did I conceive all this people? Did I bear them, that you should say to me, 'Carry them in your lap, as the nurse carries the nursing child, to the land you swore to their fathers?'"Isaiah’s “nursed” is תֵּאָמַנָה (teʾāmānnāh: supported, fostered), from אמן (aman: to support and hold firm); Numbers uses אֹמֵן (ʾōmēn: fosterer or nursing caregiver) for the one carrying a child in the bosom. The shared root opens the return as sustained holding: the child is carried close, not merely brought back.
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