Isaiah 56:3

Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will utterly exclude me from His people.” And let the eunuch not say, “I am but a dry tree.”

Berean Standard Bible

Follow its threads on the canvas →

Study note

Setting — The prophet addresses a covenant community, issuing a direct prohibition to two excluded groups: the foreigner who has attached himself to Yahweh and the eunuch. The warning occurs within a passage contrasting physical lineage with covenant faithfulness.

The words — הַנִּלְוָה (ha-nilvoh) literally means "one who has joined himself," and בֶּן־נֵכָר (ben-nekar) translates directly to "son of foreignness."

The thread — The theme of covenant inclusion for outsiders and marginalized figures reappears in Acts 10:34 and 1 Corinthians 6:17. The eunuch motif also connects to the physical and spiritual categories discussed in Matthew 19:12.

Why it lands — The text commands readers to discard assumptions of divine rejection based on ethnicity or bodily condition. It requires adherence to covenant markers rather than reliance on inherited status or physical wholeness.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.

Cross-references

1 Corinthians 6:17 But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit.
Matthew 19:12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way; others were made that way by men; and still others live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”
Acts 10:34 Then Peter began to speak: “I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism,
Numbers 18:4 They are to join you and attend to the duties of the Tent of Meeting, doing all the work at the Tent; but no outsider may come near you.
Numbers 18:7 But only you and your sons shall attend to your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and what is inside the veil, and you are to perform that service. I am giving you the work of the priesthood as a gift, but any outsider who comes near the sanctuary must be put to death.”
Isaiah 14:1 For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again He will choose Israel and settle them in their own land. The foreigner will join them and unite with the house of Jacob.
Isaiah 39:7 And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, will be taken away to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
Isaiah 56:5 I will give them, in My house and within My walls, a memorial and a name better than that of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.
Jeremiah 39:16 “Go and tell Ebed-melech the Cushite that this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I am about to fulfill My words against this city for harm and not for good, and on that day they will be fulfilled before your eyes.
Jeremiah 50:5 They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and join themselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.