Commentary on Isaiah 56:1, 6-8

On national and international stages, debates over who does and can belong to communities rage in often violent ways. These contests over community membership frequently arise in moments of transition or crisis. Within contemporary American contexts, some segments of the population are redrawing the boundaries of citizenship in ways that resonate with more exclusionary eras in this nation’s history. Religious rhetoric, biblical ideals, and theological tropes are often invoked to support and oppose these exclusionary movements. Our passage in Isaiah 56:1, 6–8 records an ancient community’s understanding of who God admits into the nation and what is required for them to join in a moment of national transition.

Contested spaces

Isaiah 56 begins what many scholars describe as “Third Isaiah.” This collection of prophetic oracles was likely compiled in the late sixth to early fifth century BCE. This era is often described as “postexilic”—the era immediately following Neo-Babylonian conquest. During this era, many deported Judeans returned to Jerusalem and its surrounding areas to begin rebuilding a community decimated by imperial conquest. The culture clashes between those deportees returning to Judah and the Judeans who had remained in Judah produced intense debates about the requirements for community membership and religious fidelity to God. 

During this postexilic era, many biblical texts like Haggai, Ezra-Nehemiah, and “Third Isaiah” preserve these intra-community debates. For our passage in Isaiah 56, the writers advocated for a decisively inclusivist perspective on community membership and a relatively minimalist approach for identifying the core values of “religion that is pure and undefiled before God …” (James 1:27). 

Divine directives

For the writers of Isaiah 56, admission into God’s community is contingent upon a few ethical (rather than ethnic) requirements. In Isaiah 56:1, the Lord commands that the faithful members of the community must “maintain justice and do what is right.” Throughout biblical literature, justice and righteousness are often linked as foundational elements of God’s reign and the hallmarks of a blessed individual. Before continuing the ethical requirements for membership in God’s community, Isaiah 56:3–5 announces that foreigners and eunuchs—two classes of people who could be targets of exclusionary policies—have a secure place within God’s reconstituted Israel. 

The eunuch is told that if they adhere to Sabbath regulations and follow divine laws (56:4), they will “not be cut off” (56:5). The wordplay and imagery of the promise to eunuchs that they will never be “cut off” highlights the restorative elements of this new community. For these writers, the promise of inclusion and protection relates directly to the places of harm and exclusion a eunuch may have experienced. In contemporary church contexts, what might it look like for our communities to provide healing to our members at the same places where the hurt occurred?

Isaiah 56:6–8 focuses on the foreigners who are incorporated into the community and its cultic (in other words, religious and temple) life. In these verses, God does not explicitly require anything of the nation of Judah. Isaiah 56:6 describes the actions the eligible foreigner must perform. The next verse (56:7) describes how God will treat the foreigners and their offerings. According to this verse, God will accept foreign people and their offerings into the religious life of the nation. 

Finally, Isaiah 56:8 concludes with a description of God as the one who gathers “the outcasts of Israel.” These closing verses make it clear that God owns all religious and cultic paraphernalia that is the basis for admission into the nation. Notice how often God uses the pronoun “my” to describe the key components affecting entry into the community—“my covenant,” “my holy mountain,” “my altar,” and “my house.” For these writers, God controls admission because God owns and sustains the community. In our contemporary contexts, how would focusing on God’s ownership of our religious communities affect how we police their boundaries?

Nobody left behind

As mentioned, our passage was likely written around the same time as Ezra-Nehemiah. Despite their temporal proximity, these books offer contrasting answers to the question of who belongs to Judah. Ezra 10:2–4 suggests that the removal of foreigners is necessary for God’s favor and national prosperity. In contrast, Isaiah 56:7 announces not only that foreigners are welcome in the political entity of Judah, but also that they can participate in the cultic life of the nation. The vision of a new nation and revitalized religious life requires that God’s house be “a house of prayer for all peoples.” 

Here, foreigners are not a problem to be solved or removed. Rather, the presence of foreigners is evidence of a divine promise fulfilled. According to Isaiah 56:6–8, the openness of the community and its cult to all who “love the name of the LORD” (56:6) is a hallmark of the postexilic nation. This new nation is no longer defined primarily by genealogy or geography. Instead, the nation consists of all dispossessed who pledge loyalty (in other words, love [Hebrew ahab]) the LORD and obey his commandments. 

Within many Christian traditions, Isaiah’s vision of an inclusive community founded upon loyalty to God and ethical conduct rather than genealogy or culture is considered a precursor to the vision of the kingdom of God revealed in the New Testament. The gospel reading for this week in Matthew 15:21–28 echoes the themes Isaiah 56:1, 6–8 announces. Matthew 15:21–28 describes Christ’s encounter with a Canaanite woman, an ethnic designation that often disqualified one from admission into God’s chosen community (for example, Deuteronomy 7:1–5). Rather than being excluded and condemned, she is commended for her faith and Christ grants the woman her request (Matthew 15:28). 

For both texts, membership in God’s movement and community is not determined by national affiliation or geographical origins. At a time when ethnic, national, and racial divides are being exacerbated, the good news Isaiah 56:1, 6–8 introduces and Christ confirms in Matthew 15:21–28 is that membership in God’s community is open for “all peoples.”