Isaiah 60:13 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 60:13
The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct
Lebanon
הַלְּבָנוֹן֙ha.le.va.nOn
H3844
Lebanon · definite article + proper noun, a place name
come
יָב֔וֹאya.Vo'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
tree
בְּר֛וֹשׁbe.Ro.osh
H1265
a cypress (?) tree · noun, common masculine singular construct
tree
תִּדְהָ֥רtid.Har
H8410
enduring · noun, common masculine singular absolute
box
וּתְאַשּׁ֖וּרu.te.'a.Shur
H8391
a species of cedar (from its erectness) · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
together
יַחְדָּ֑וyach.Dav
H3162
properly · adverb
beautify
לְפָאֵר֙le.fa.'Er
H6286
to gleam · preposition + verb, piel infinitive construct
place
מְק֣וֹםme.Kom
H4725
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct
sanctuary
מִקְדָּשִׁ֔יmik.da.Shi
H4720
a consecrated thing or place · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
place
וּמְק֥וֹםu.me.Kom
H4725
properly · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
feet
רַגְלַ֖יrag.Lai
H7272
a foot (as used in walking) · noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix
glorious
אֲכַבֵּֽד'a.kha.Bed
H3513
to be heavy · verb, piel imperfect, 1st person common singular
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
Isaiah 35:2 It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel an…
1 Chronicles 28:2 Then David the king stood up upon his feet, and said, Hear me, my brethren, and my people: As for me, I had in mine heart to build an house…
Psalms 96:6 Honour and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
Psalms 132:7 We will go into his tabernacles: we will worship at his footstool.
Ezra 7:27 Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is…
Isaiah 41:19-20 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the…
Isaiah 55:13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a n…
Isaiah 66:1 Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the plac…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 60:9-14
The promises made to the church in the foregoing verses are here repeated, ratified, and enlarged upon, designed still for the comfort and encouragement of the Jews after their return out of captivity, but certainly looking further, to the enlargement and advancement of the gospel church and the abundance of spiritual blessings with which it shall be enriched.
I. God will be very gracious and propitious to them. We must begin with that promise, because thence all the rest take rise. The sanctuary that was desolate begins to be repaired when God causes his face to shine upon it, Dan 9:17. All the favour that the people of God find with men is owing to the light of God's countenance and his fa…
glory--that is, the trees which adorned Lebanon; emblem of men eminent in natural gifts, devoting all that is in them to the God of Israel (Hos 14:5-6).
fir . . . pine . . . box--rather, "the cypress . . . ilex . . . cedar."
place of my sanctuary--Jerusalem (Jer 3:17).
place of my feet--no longer the ark (Jer 3:16), "the footstool" of Jehovah (Psa 99:5; Psa 132:7; Ch1 28:2); but "the place of His throne, the place of the soles of His feet, where He will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever," in the new temple (Eze 43:7).
Adam Clarke on Isaiah 60:13
And I will make the place of my feet glorious "And that I may glorify the place whereon I rest my feet" - The temple of Jerusalem was called the house of God, and the place of his rest or residence. The visible symbolical appearance of God, called by the Jews the schechinah, was in the most holy place, between the wings of the cherubim, above the ark. This is considered as the throne of God, presiding as King over the Jewish state; and as a footstool is a necessary appendage to a throne, (see note on Isa 52:2 (note)), the ark is considered as the footstool of God, and is so called, Psa 99:6; Ch1 28:2.
The glory of Lebanon - That is, the cedar.
John Gill on Isaiah 60:13
The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee,.... Which are the trees that grew upon it, especially the cedars, for which it was famous, as well as the other trees after mentioned. Now, as these were brought into Solomon's temple, and used in the building of that, 1 Kings 6:9, so such shall come of themselves, willingly and cheerfully, being drawn with the cords of love, into the church of Christ, comparable to the tall and strong cedars of Lebanon, and other trees, being eminent for their gifts and graces, and strong in the exercise of them; the more feeble among them being as the house of David, and that as the Angel of the Lord; and being durable, constant, and immovable in the work of the L…
The Church Fathers
Scripture likes to compare the multitude of the saints with trees of this kind.… Paul calls us in one place "the plantation of God." Some interpreters say that Scripture calls the nations Lebanon (just as Carmel can mean Jerusalem, though it is a mountain in Samaria) on the grounds that it comes from another race. According to the historical sense it means those trees supplied for rebuilding. But according to the spiritual sense, it means the minds of the righteous ones. These are they who submitted themselves to those persecuting the church and with this transformation of mind worship God in it. Others think that it is Jerusalem that has been humbled and sings praises to Christ.
(Verses 13, 14.) The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the cypress, the fir tree, and the pine tree together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will glorify the place of my feet. The descendants of those who oppressed you will come to you bent low, and all who spoke against you will bow down at your feet and call you the city of the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. LXX: The glory of Lebanon will come to you with the cypress, the pine tree, and the cedar tree together to glorify my holy place, and I will glorify the place of my feet. And those who have humiliated you, and have provoked you, will come to you trembling, and they will bow down at your feet, all those who have provoked you; and you will be called the city of the Lord, Zion. Sancti Israel. Many things are missing in the Septuagint, which I have placed under asterisks from the Hebrew, and what they have added, I have marked with an obelus. Mount Lebanon is a mountain in Phoenicia, planted with tall trees, which the Psalmist describes saying: I have seen the wicked exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon (Ps. 36:35). And in another place: The Lord will shatter the cedars of Lebanon (Ps. 29:5). And many other things that I pass over for the sake of brevity. About this, once King Hiram of Tyre used to send cedars to Solomon in Joppa for the building of the Temple of God (3 Kings 5). Concerning this, Scripture also now promises the fir tree, the box tree, and the pine tree, or according to the Septuagint, the cypress tree and the pine tree, and the cedar tree, or according to Aquila, the fir tree, the thaadaor tree, and the thaassur tree; or according to Theodotion, the Brais tree, the Thadaar tree, and the Theassur tree, should be cut down together, so that the temple of Zion may be built (2 Chronicles 2). But if this is the case, where will the golden and jeweled Jerusalem be? Where will the Lamb's wife be? Where will the twelve gates, distinguished by a variety of precious stones, be? Unless perhaps it will be built with walls adorned with gems, and its foundation, and the Temple, which ought to be more beautiful, will be built with wood. By what means are we compelled to understand all things spiritually, that the fir, cypress, pine, and cedar, once lofty trees of Lebanon, have glorified the Temple of God, and made His holy place illustrious? So that I do not drag out the sense…
Dictionary and topics
Box-tree — (Heb. teashshur), mentioned in Isa. 60:13; 41:19, was, according to some, a species of cedar growing in Lebanon. The words of Ezek. 27:6 literally translated are, “Thy benches they have made of…
Boxtree — (Isaiah 41:19; 60:13) A beautiful evergreen growing in many parts of Europe and Asia. Its hard wood is much prized by engravers. The reference in (Isaiah 60:13) is supposed by some to mean a species…
Cedar — (Heb. e’rez, Gr. kedros, Lat. cedrus), a tree very frequently mentioned in Scripture. It was stately (Ezek. 31:3-5), long-branched (Ps. 80:10; 92:12; Ezek. 31:6-9), odoriferous (Cant. 4:11; Hos.…
Church — Derived probably from the Greek kuriakon (i.e., “the Lord’s house”), which was used by ancient authors for the place of worship. In the New Testament it is the translation of the Greek word ecclesia,…
Lebanon — White, “the white mountain of Syria,” is the loftiest and most celebrated mountain range in Syria. It is a branch running southward from the Caucasus, and at its lower end forking into two parallel…
Pine tree — Heb. tidhar, mentioned along with the fir-tree in Isa. 41:19; 60:13. This is probably the cypress; or it may be the stone-pine, which is common on the northern slopes of Lebanon. Some suppose that…
Prophecy — Or prediction, was one of the functions of the prophet. It has been defined as a “miracle of knowledge, a declaration or description or representation of something future, beyond the power of human…
Box Tree · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Excellency And Glory Of The Church, The · Augmented by increase of its members — Augmented by increase of its members
Footstool · .The earth is God’s — .The earth is God’s
The glory of Lebanon. Isaiah again employs the metaphor which he formerly used, when he compared the Church of God to a building or a city. He enumerates those things which were necessary for building, such as "the fir-tree, the pine, and the box-tree," which grew in Lebanon, a forest abounding, as we know, in excellent trees.
For the beauty of the place of my holiness. He means that all that is excellent and beautiful in Lebanon shall be carried into the Church. But it must be believed that these figures contain an emblematical reference to the spiritual worship of God; for the Lord adorns his Church with the title of a sanctuary, because he dwells in the midst of it. Yet he always alludes…
From the thought that everything great in the world of man is to be made to serve the Holy One and His church, the prophet passes to what is great in the world of nature. "The glory of Lebanon will come to thee, cypresses, plane-trees and Sherbin-trees all together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and to make the place of my feet glorious." The splendid cedars, which are the glory of Lebanon, and in fact the finest trees of all kinds, will be brought to Zion, not as trunks felled to be used as building materials, but dug up with their roots, to ornament the holy place of the temple (Jer 17:12), and also to this end, that Jehovah may glorify the "holy place of His feet," i.e., the plac…
The Temple was God’s sanctuary, the symbol of his presence on earth. Believers now are the temple of God by the indwelling Spirit (1 Cor 3:16). We still await the fullness of God’s presence (Rev 21:22).
Rashi on Isaiah 60:13
box trees, firs, and cypresses Species of trees of the forest of Lebanon.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Gentiles
· PROPHECIES OF THE CONVERSION OF
— PROPHECIES OF THE CONVERSION OF
Glory · .Of God’s people shall be rich and abundant — .Of God’s people shall be rich and abundant
Lebanon · Illustrative: (Glory of,) of the glory of the church — Illustrative: (Glory of,) of the glory of the church
Pine · A tree — A tree
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).
