Isaiah 66:8 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 66:8
Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
nation
גּ֖וֹיGoy
H1471
a foreign nation · noun, common masculine singular absolute
born
יִוָּ֥לֵֽדyi.Va.led
H3205
to bear young · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
once
פַּ֣עַםPa.'am
H6471
a stroke · noun, common feminine singular absolute
as
גַּםgam-
H1571
properly · adverb
Zion
צִיּ֖וֹןtzi.Yon
H6726
Tsijon (as a permanent capital) · proper noun, a place name
travailed
חָ֛לָהCha.lah
H2342
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
forth
יָלְדָ֥הYal.dah
H3205
to bear young · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
children
בָּנֶֽיהָba.Nei.ha
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine 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 64:4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he ha…
Isaiah 49:20-22 The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give plac…
1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for t…
Romans 15:18-21 For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed,
Acts 2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
Acts 21:20 And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe;…
Acts 4:4 Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 66:5-14
The prophet, having denounced God's judgments against a hypocritical nation, that made a jest of God's word and would not answer him when he called to them, here turns his speech to those that trembled at his word, to comfort and encourage them; they shall not be involved in the judgments that are coming upon their unbelieving nation. Ministers must distinguish thus, that, when they speak terror to the wicked, they may not make the hearts of the righteous sad. Bone Christiane, hoc nihil ad te - Good Christian, this is nothing to thee. The prophet, having assured those that tremble at God's word of a gracious look from him (Isa 66:2), here brings them a gracious message from him. The word of…
earth--rather, to suit the parallelism, "is a country (put for the people in it) brought forth in one day?" [LOWTH]. In English Version it means, The earth brings forth its productions gradually, not in one day (Mar 4:28).
at once--In this case, contrary to the usual growth of the nations by degrees, Israel starts into maturity at once.
for--rather, "is a nation born at once, that Zion has, so soon as she travailed, brought forth?" [MAURER].
Adam Clarke on Isaiah 66:8
Who hath seen "And who hath seen" - Twenty MSS., (four ancient), of Kennicott's, and twenty-nine of De Rossi's, and two ancient of my own, and the two oldest editions, with two others, have ומי umi, adding the conjunction ו vau; and so read all the ancient versions. And who hath seen?
John Gill on Isaiah 66:8
Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things?.... Such numerous conversions, as after related; suggesting that they were wonderful and surprising, unheard of, what had never been seen in the world before, and which were amazing and astonishing to the church herself; see Isaiah 49:21,
shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? as if it was said the thing about to be related was as wonderful as if all the women in the world should bring forth their children in one day, or bring forth as many at once as would fill the whole earth; or as surprising as if the earth should all at once send out its herbs, plants, and trees, as it did on the third day of the creation, Genesis 1:11…
The Church Fathers
Zion therefore gave birth, that is, the remnant of Israel and the faith of the believing apostles gave birth to the male Lord and Savior, who was generated at once throughout the entire universe. No one has either heard or told his story or taught it to anyone, so that all the nations might come to believe in a very short time and that there might be formed one Christian people from all the various peoples. This is what Paul was talking about when he said, "If any are in Christ, they are new creatures; the old has passed away and behold, they are made new," as it is also written elsewhere, "All the families of the nations will worship before him." … And this people was created in one day, whom the "sun of righteousness" illumined, as the Scripture says: "The Lord will be your everlasting light." We can also correlate what is said here, "a people will arise as one because Zion bore and delivered her sons," to that time when, on one day, three thousand and another five thousand of the Jewish people believed. Moreover, it is said in the same book of the Acts of the Apostles that there were persons in Jerusalem from all the nations under heaven, who heard one another speaking the glorious deeds of God, each in their own language. … But the meaning of the Septuagint's text of this verse is that one people from the entire world shall arise in one moment to the preaching of the gospel. Or, in other words: I have repeatedly made this promise through many prophets, but you have not kept my promise in mind, O city full of crying, O temple vacated by the Lord, O people to whom I returned its own rejection. Is it not I who make fertile and make sterile? Did not she who was previously barren not later bear and deliver a child? Of this is it written in the Psalms: "He gives the barren woman a home and makes her a joyful mother of children."
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
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).
Who hath heard such a thing? He extols the greatness of the thing of which he has spoken; for he means that there shall be a wonderful and "unheard of" restoration of the Church; so that believers shall not judge of it from the order of nature, but from the grace of God; for when men reflect upon it: they think that it is like a dream, as the Psalmist says. (Psalm 126:1.) He does not mean that the Church shall be restored perfectly and in a moment; for the advancement of this restoration is great and long-continued, and is even slow in the estimation of the flesh; but he shews that even the beginning of it exceeds all the capacity of the human understanding. And yet he does not speak hyperbo…
All of these fall victims to the judgment; and yet Zion is not left either childless or without population. "Before she travailed she brought forth; before pains came upon her, she was delivered of a boy. Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen anything like it? Are men delivered of a land in one day? or is a nation begotten at once? For Zion hath travailed, yea, hath brought forth her children. Should I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith Jehovah: or should I, who cause to bring forth, shut it? saith thy God." Before Zion travaileth, before any labour pains come upon her (chēbhel with tzere), she has already given birth, or brought with ease into the world a male chi…