Bible Strands
Isaiah 66:20
And they will bring all your brothers from all the nations as a gift to the LORD on horses and chariots and wagons, on mules and camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem,” says the LORD, “just as the Israelites bring an offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD addresses the restored community of Judah and Jerusalem following a declaration that He will dispatch survivors to distant nations to proclaim His fame. This moment marks the transition from judgment and restoration to the inclusion of Gentile believers in covenant worship.
The words — The Hebrew מִנְחָה (minḥâ) literally means "an offering" or "gift," and לַֽיהוָה (la-YHWH) translates "to Yahweh." These terms frame the returning diaspora not as a military conquest, but as a sacred gift presented directly to God.
The thread — This gathering of nations appears before God parallels Isaiah 43:6, where God commands bringing His sons from afar, and Isaiah 60:3, which notes kings coming to Jerusalem's light. The passage directly sets up Isaiah 66:21, where God selects some of these gathered people as priests and Levites.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that God's worship extends beyond ethnic Israel, as Gentile believers are gathered to Jerusalem as a sacred offering. It requires the reader to accept that divine restoration includes foreign nations participating in covenant worship.
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
And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 60:3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
- Isaiah 11:9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the sea is full of water.
- Isaiah 43:6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back!’ Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth—
- Isaiah 56:7 I will bring them to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on My altar, for My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations.”
- Isaiah 65:11 But you who forsake the LORD, who forget My holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny,
- Isaiah 65:25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but the food of the serpent will be dust. They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain,” says the LORD.
- Romans 15:16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
- Isaiah 49:12 Behold, they will come from far away, from the north and from the west, and from the land of Aswan.”
- Isaiah 52:11 Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing; come out from it, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.
- Isaiah 54:3 For you will spread out to the right and left; your descendants will dispossess the nations and inhabit the desolate cities.