1 Thus saith the Lord: Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my justice to be revealed. 2 Blessed is the man that doth this, and the son of man that shall lay hold on this: that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, that keepeth his hands from doing any evil. 3 And let not the son of the stranger, that adhereth to the Lord, speak, saying: The Lord will divide and separate me from his people. And let not the eunuch say: Behold I am a dry tree. 4 For thus saith the Lord to the eunuchs, They that shall keep my sabbaths, and shall choose the things that please me, and shall hold fast my covenant: 5 I will give to them in my house, and within my walls, a place, and a name better than sons and daughters: I will give them an everlasting name which shall never perish. 6 And the children of the stranger that adhere to the Lord, to worship him, and to love his name, to be his servants: every one that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and that holdeth fast my covenant: 7 I will bring them into my holy mount, and will make them joyful in my house of prayer: their holocausts, and their victims shall please me upon my altar: for my house shall be called the house of prayer, for all nations. 8 The Lord God, who gathereth the scattered of Israel, saith: I will still gather unto him his congregation. 9 All ye beasts of the field come to devour, all ye beasts of the forest. 10 His watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant: dumb dogs not able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams. 11 And meet impudent dogs, they never had enough: the shepherds themselves knew no understanding: all have turned aside into their own way, every one after his own gain, from the first even to the last. 12 Come, let us take wine, and be filled with drunkenness: and it shall be as today, so also tomorrow, and much more.
Isaiah · Douay-Rheims (Challoner), American Edition 1899
Isaiah 56 Douay-Rheims (Challoner), American Edition 1899
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Cross references (12)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Romans 13:11–14; Psalm 85:9; Matthew 3:2; Isaiah 1:16–19; Romans 1:17
- 2 Exodus 31:13–16; Isaiah 58:13; Psalm 112:1; Ezekiel 20:12; Luke 11:28
- 3 1 Corinthians 6:17; Matthew 19:12–30; Acts 10:34; Jeremiah 50:5; Numbers 18:4
- 4 Joshua 24:15; Psalm 119:111; Luke 10:42; Isaiah 27:5; Isaiah 56:6
- 5 Revelation 3:12; Revelation 3:5; 1 John 3:1; John 1:12; 1 Timothy 3:15
- 6 Jeremiah 50:5; Isaiah 58:13; Isaiah 56:2–4; Galatians 5:6; James 2:5
- 7 Mark 11:17; Isaiah 2:2–3; Malachi 1:11; Luke 19:46; Matthew 21:13
- 8 John 10:16; Isaiah 54:7; Isaiah 60:3–11; Zechariah 10:8–10; Ephesians 2:14–16
- 9 Jeremiah 12:9; Deuteronomy 28:26; Isaiah 18:6; Ezekiel 39:17; Ezekiel 29:5
- 10 Isaiah 29:10; Ezekiel 33:6; Matthew 15:14; Philippians 3:2; Isaiah 58:1
- 11 Ezekiel 34:2–3; Ezekiel 13:19; John 8:43; Micah 3:11; Micah 3:5–6
- 12 Psalm 10:6; Luke 12:19–20; Proverbs 27:1; Isaiah 5:22; Proverbs 23:35
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
The seed, then, and the name of the saints shall remain in that blessedness,--the seed, to wit, of which John says, "And his seed remaineth in him;" and the name, of which it was said through Isaiah himself, "I will give them an everlasting name." "And there shall be to them month after month, and Sabbath after Sabbath," as if …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
Wherefore also He Himself sets up Isaiah against them as an accuser, saying, "My house shall be called a house of prayer." But not in this way only doth He show His authority, but also by His healing divers infirmities.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
… another Psalm also said, "They shall be turned at even, and hunger they shall suffer as dogs." For even some dogs have been reproved by the Prophet Isaiah, not because they were dogs, but because they knew not how to bark, and loved to sleep. In which place indeed he hath shown, that if they had watched and barked for …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)
For of these it is said elsewhere, "Dumb dogs, they know not how to bark." Of them too is that said, "Lo, how the righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart." He perished as far as lay in them who would have Him to perish; for how could He perish by dying, who in that way rather was …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)