Isaiah 60:6
The nations bring the news
- The gospel’s word בָּשַׂר basar · to bear tidings
Original
Translations
Caravans of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah, and all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and frankincense and proclaiming the praises of the LORD.
The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the LORD.
A multitude of camels covers you, Dromedaries of Midian and Ephah, All of them from Sheba come, They carry gold and frankincense, And they proclaim the praises of YHWH.
허다한 약대, 미디안과 에바의 젊은 약대가 네 가운데 편만할 것이며 스바의 사람들은 다 금과 유향을 가지고 와서 여호와의 찬송을 전파할 것이며
수많은 낙타와 미디안과 에바의 단봉낙타들이 너를 덮으며 그들이 다 세바에서 오리라. 그들이 금과 향을 가져다가 주의 찬양을 전하리라.
Commentaries
Matthew Henry on Isa 60:1-8 as a whole
As far as we have the knowledge of God in us, and the favour of God towards us, our light is come. And if God's glory is seen upon us to our honour, we ought, not only with our lips, but in our lives, to return its praise. …
Read the whole commentary →Wesley Isa 60:6
The multitude - The treasure, that is brought upon camels. By these, and such like figurative expressions in several verses of this chapter is implied the coming in of all nations to Christ, and therefore they are brought in as presenting the chief commodities of their…
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Note
Darkness covers the earth, the glory of the LORD rises over Zion, and the nations come to its light. The caravans from Sheba in this verse bring more than gold and frankincense. They come as heralds, telling the praises of the LORD.
The chapter opens, "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you" (Isaiah 60:1). Thick darkness lies over the peoples, but the LORD rises over Zion, and "Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn" (Isaiah 60:3). Scattered sons and daughters come home, and the wealth of the nations flows in (Isaiah 60:4–5). At the head of the procession are the camels of this verse. Ephah is a Midianite clan, named for one of Midian's sons (Genesis 25:4); Sheba was the kingdom in the south of Arabia famous for gold and incense. Behind them come the flocks of Kedar and the rams of Nebaioth for the altar (Isaiah 60:7), and the ships of Tarshish from far away (Isaiah 60:9).
"Proclaiming" is yevaseru, the piel imperfect of , third person masculine plural: ‘they will bring news.’ The subject is "all from Sheba"; the object is "the praises of the LORD," tehillot, a plural. To bring the LORD's praises as news means that the praiseworthy things He has done are themselves the message. Until now in Isaiah the one who brought news with this verb was Zion's herald (Isaiah 40:9; Isaiah 52:7). Here foreigners take that place. The nations who were to hear the news become the ones who carry it.
The KJV says they "shall shew forth the praises of the LORD." The BSB and the LSV say they proclaim them. The Korean 흠정역 has 주의 찬양을 전하리라, ‘they will tell the LORD's praise,’ and the 개역한글 has 전파할 것이며, the word Korean churches use for spreading the gospel. The KJV's phrase is worth noticing, because the same English words return in its rendering of 1 Peter, where God's people are to "shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light." Peter uses a different Greek verb, but the movement is the one Isaiah 60 describes, from darkness to light (1 Peter 2:9).
Wesley reads the camels, the gold and the incense as figures by which "is implied the coming in of all nations to Christ" Wesley. Of Sheba he writes that its queen "came to visit Solomon, and her bringing gifts might be a type of this, Solomon being a type of Christ" Wesley. Matthew Henry says the chapter "predicts the purity and enlargement of the church," and adds, "What a pleasant sight to see poor souls hastening to Christ!" Matthew Henry.
It is hard to read the verse without thinking of the wise men in Matthew, who fell down before the Child and "presented Him with gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh" (Matthew 2:11). A gloss in the Catena, attributed to Anselm, notes that these were the goods of Arabia, "yet they intended thereby to signify something in mystery" Anselm. And Jesus, speaking of the queen who came "from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon," said, "now One greater than Solomon is here" (Matthew 12:42).
In this verse the far nations are not onlookers. When the gospel reaches a distant land and its people come to praise in their own words what the LORD has done, that is the scene Isaiah paints as a caravan from Sheba.