Isaiah 54:3

For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
forth	תִּפְרֹ֑צִי tif.Ro.tzi	H6555	to break out (in many applications · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular
hand	יָמִ֥ין ya.Min	H3225	the right hand or side (leg · noun, common feminine singular absolute
left	וּשְׂמֹ֖אול u.se.Mol	H8040	properly · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
seed	וְזַרְעֵךְ֙ ve.zar.'eKh	H2233	seed · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
inherit	יִירָ֔שׁ yi.Rash	H3423	to occupy (by driving out previous tenants · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Gentiles	גּוֹיִ֣ם go.Yim	H1471	a foreign nation · noun, common masculine plural absolute
desolate	נְשַׁמּ֖וֹת ne.sha.Mot	H8074	to stun (or intransitively · verb, niphal active participle, feminine plural absolute
cities	וְעָרִ֥ים ve.'a.Rim	H5892	a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural absolute
inhabited	יוֹשִֽׁיבוּ yo.Shi.vu	H3427	properly · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Genesis 28:14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the sout…
Psalms 72:8-11 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.
Isaiah 43:5-6 Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;
Isaiah 49:18-19 Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the LORD, thou shalt su…
Isaiah 60:3-13 And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
Ezekiel 36:35-36 And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become f…
Isaiah 52:9 Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
Genesis 49:10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the pe…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 54:1-5

If we apply this to the state of the Jews after their return out of captivity, it is a prophecy of the increase of their nation after they were settled in their own land. Jerusalem had been in the condition of a wife written childless, or a desolate solitary widow; but now it is promised that the city should be replenished and the country peopled again, that not only the ruins of Jerusalem should be repaired, but the suburbs of it extended on all sides and a great many buildings erected upon new foundations, - that those estates which had for many years been wrongfully held by the Babylonian Gentiles should now return to the right owners. God will again be a husband to them, and the reproach…

Read the whole note in the console

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 54:3

break forth--rather, "burst forth" with increase; thy offspring shall grow, answering to "thy seed" in the parallel clause. thy seed--Israel and her children, as distinguished from "the Gentiles." desolate cities--of Israel (Isa 44:26).

Adam Clarke on Isaiah 54:1

Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear "Shout for joy, O thou barren, that didst not bear" - The Church of God under the Old Testament, confined within the narrow bounds of the Jewish nation, and still more so in respect of the very small number of true believers, and which sometimes seemed to be deserted of God her husband, is the barren woman, that did not bear, and was desolate. She is exhorted to rejoice, and to express her joy in the strongest manner, on the reconciliation of her husband, (see Isa 54:6), and on the accession of the Gentiles to her family. The converted Gentiles are all along considered by the prophet as a new accession of adopted children, admitted into the original C…

Read the whole note in the console

John Gill on Isaiah 54:3

For thou shall break forth on the right hand and on the left,.... To the south, and to the north, as the Targum, like an inundation of water, that breaks through and overflows the banks of the river, and spreads itself in the adjacent countries; or like a warehouse overstocked with goods, bursts the walls in which they are pent up; or rather as infants break forth from the womb at the time of birth, as Pharez did, from whence he had his name, Genesis 38:29 see Hosea 13:13, or as, when a country is become exceeding numerous, the inhabitants break out, and go forth beyond their borders, and seek new settlements, the place of their abode being too small for them; so it shall be in the latter da…

The Church Fathers

He accordingly bids the barren one to fill the world with houses of prayer and to make them left and right, that is to say, in the south and the north. One is not, however, mistaken if one gives the name of "stakes" to the holy prophets, to the apostles and to the martyrs, hidden in the earth, as the tent stakes are; these are the ones who maintain the tabernacle of the church, holding it upright with their doctrines as if with ropes. They are also called "foundations."
— Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 17:54.2

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Gentiles · PROPHECIES OF THE CONVERSION OF — PROPHECIES OF THE CONVERSION OF
Heathen · Their land given to Israel — Their land given to Israel

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Isaiah 54:3

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 54:1-5

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 54:3

Adam Clarke on Isaiah 54:1

John Gill on Isaiah 54:3

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Isaiah 54:3

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 54:1-5

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 54:3

Adam Clarke on Isaiah 54:1

John Gill on Isaiah 54:3

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Isaiah 54:3

Keil & Delitzsch on Isaiah 54:3

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Isaiah 54:3

Rashi on Isaiah 54:3