Yesaya 60:6-7

60:6 Camel caravans will cover your roads, ¹ 

young camels from Midian and Ephah.

All the merchants of Sheba ²  will come,

bringing gold and incense

and singing praises to the Lord. ³ 

60:7 All the sheep of Kedar will be gathered to you;

the rams of Nebaioth will be available to you as sacrifices. ⁴ 

They will go up on my altar acceptably, ⁵ 

and I will bestow honor on my majestic temple.

Yesaya 5:8

Disaster is Coming

5:8 Those who accumulate houses are as good as dead, ⁶ 

those who also accumulate landed property ⁷ 

until there is no land left, ⁸ 

and you are the only landowners remaining within the land. ⁹ 

[60:6]  ¹ tn Heb “an abundance of camels will cover you.”

[60:6]  ² tn Heb “all of them, from Sheba.”

[60:6]  ³ tn Heb “and they will announce the praises of the Lord.”

[60:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “will serve you,” i.e., be available as sacrifices (see the next line). Another option is to understood these “rams” as symbolic of leaders who will be subject to the people of Zion. See v. 10.

[60:7]  ⁵ tc Heb “they will go up on acceptance [on] my altar.” Some have suggested that the preposition עַל (’al) is dittographic (note the preceding יַעֲלוּ [ya’alu]). Consequently, the form should be emended to לְרָצוֹן (lÿratson, “acceptably”; see BDB 953 s.v. רָצוֹן). However, the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has both לרצון followed by the preposition על, which would argue against deleted the preposition. As the above translation seeks to demonstrate, the preposition עַל (’al) indicates a norm (“in accordance with acceptance” or “acceptably”; IBHS 218 §11.2.13e, n. 111) and the “altar” functions as an objective accusative with a verb of motion (cf. Gen 49:4; Lev 2:2; Num 13:17; J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 2:534, n. 14).

[5:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “Woe [to] those who make a house touch a house.” The exclamation הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5) and carries the connotation of death.

[5:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “[who] bring a field near a field.”

[5:8]  sn This verse does not condemn real estate endeavors per se, but refers to the way in which the rich bureaucrats of Judah accumulated property by exploiting the poor, in violation of the covenantal principle that the land belonged to God and that every family was to have its own portion of land. See the note at 1:23.

[5:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “until the end of the place”; NASB “until there is no more room.”

[5:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.”