Isaiah 56:3 (DRB)

Passage

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.

Nearby Context

Isaiah 56:1 Thus saith the Lord: Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my justice to be revealed.

Isaiah 56:2 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.

Isaiah 56:3 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.

Isaiah 56:4 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:

Isaiah 56:5 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.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "stranger", "adhereth", "lord", "speak", "saying", "divide", and "separate". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "stranger" and "adhereth", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 2's "Blessed is the man that doth this..." into verse 4's "For thus saith the Lord to the...", so "stranger" and "adhereth" belong inside that flow. In Isaiah context, the local focus is the Holy One of Israel, judgment and restoration, the servant of the LORD, and Zion's hope.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "stranger" and "adhereth" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.