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Selected Verse: Isaiah 60:14 - King James

Verse	Translation	Text
Isa 60:14	King James	The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
The sons--Their fathers who "afflicted" Israel having been cut off by divine judgments (Isa 14:1-2; Isa 49:23). The Zion of the Holy One--The royal court of the Holy One. MAURER translates, "Zion, the sanctuary (holy place) of Israel" (Isa 57:15; Psa 46:4).

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

The sons--Their fathers who "afflicted" Israel having been cut off by divine judgments (Isa 14:1-2; Isa 49:23).

The Zion of the Holy One--The royal court of the Holy One. MAURER translates, "Zion, the sanctuary (holy place) of Israel" (Isa 57:15; Psa 46:4).

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
The sons of them that afflicted thee - In the previous verses the prophet had said that strangers and foreigners would become tributary to the true religion. Here, to give variety and interest to the description, he says, that even the descendants of those who had oppressed them would become tributary to them, and acknowledge them as favored by Yahweh. Shall come bending unto thee - Shall come to time in a posture of humiliation and respect, In regard to the fulfillment of this, we may observe: 1. That there was a partial fulfillment of it in the conquest of Babylon. The sons, the descendants of those who had destroyed Jerusalem, and led the Jews into captivity, were constrained to acknowledge them, and, under Cyrus, to reconduct them to the land of their fathers (see the notes at Isa 14:1-2). 2. It has often occurred, in times of persecution, that the immediate descendants of the persecutors, and that too by means of the persecution, became converted to the true religion, and acknowledged the God of those whom they bad persecuted to be the true God. 3. It often occurs in times when there is no open and public persecution. Many of those now in the church are the children or descendants of those who had been the enemies of the gospel. They themselves did all that could be done, by their lives and examples, to train up their children in opposition to it. But the sovereign mercy of God interposed, and from such he selected heralds of salvation and preachers of righteousness to a lost world, or such as should become shining lights in the more obscure walks of the Christian life. And all they that despised thee - There shall yet be a universal acknowledgment of the true religion even in those nations that have spurned the gospel. This does not mean that all who have ever despised the true religion shall be converted and saved, but that there shall be a universal acknowledgement that it is of God, and that the church is under his care. See an explanation of this sentiment in the notes at Isa 45:23. At the soles of thy feet - In a posture of the utmost reverence and submission (see Rev 3:9; compare the notes at Isa 49:23). And they shall call thee - They shall honor thee as the favored of the Lord; as the abode of the true God (see Isa 2:3). The Zion ... - The Zion, or the royal court where the holy God that is worshipped in Israel dwells.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

The sons of them that afflicted thee - In the previous verses the prophet had said that strangers and foreigners would become tributary to the true religion. Here, to give variety and interest to the description, he says, that even the descendants of those who had oppressed them would become tributary to them, and acknowledge them as favored by Yahweh.

Shall come bending unto thee - Shall come to time in a posture of humiliation and respect, In regard to the fulfillment of this, we may observe:

1. That there was a partial fulfillment of it in the conquest of Babylon. The sons, the descendants of those who had destroyed Jerusalem, and led the Jews into captivity, were constrained to acknowledge them, and, under Cyrus, to reconduct them to the land of their fathers (see the notes at Isa 14:1-2).

2. It has often occurred, in times of persecution, that the immediate descendants of the persecutors, and that too by means of the persecution, became converted to the true religion, and acknowledged the God of those whom they bad persecuted to be the true God.

3. It often occurs in times when there is no open and public persecution. Many of those now in the church are the children or descendants of those who had been the enemies of the gospel. They themselves did all that could be done, by their lives and examples, to train up their children in opposition to it. But the sovereign mercy of God interposed, and from such he selected heralds of salvation and preachers of righteousness to a lost world, or such as should become shining lights in the more obscure walks of the Christian life.

And all they that despised thee - There shall yet be a universal acknowledgment of the true religion even in those nations that have spurned the gospel. This does not mean that all who have ever despised the true religion shall be converted and saved, but that there shall be a universal acknowledgement that it is of God, and that the church is under his care. See an explanation of this sentiment in the notes at Isa 45:23.

At the soles of thy feet - In a posture of the utmost reverence and submission (see Rev 3:9; compare the notes at Isa 49:23).

And they shall call thee - They shall honor thee as the favored of the Lord; as the abode of the true God (see Isa 2:3).

The Zion ... - The Zion, or the royal court where the holy God that is worshipped in Israel dwells.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
The prophecy now returns to the world of man. "The children also of thy tormentors come bending unto thee, and all thy despisers stretch themselves at the soles of thy feet, and call thee 'City of Jehovah, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.'" The persecutors of the church both in work and word are now no more (Isa 26:14), and their children fell themselves disarmed. They are seized with shame and repentance, when they see the church which was formerly tormented and despised so highly exalted. They come shechōăch (an inf. noun of the form טחון, Lam 5:13; used here as an accusative of more precise definition, just as nouns of this kind are frequently connected directly with the verb הלך, Ewald, 279, c), literally a bow or stoop, equivalent to bowing or stooping (the opposite to rōmâh in Mic 2:3), and stretch themselves "at the soles of thy feet," i.e., clinging to thee as imploringly and obsequiously as if they would lay themselves down under thy very feet, and were not worthy to lie anywhere but there (as in Isa 49:23); and whereas formerly they called thee by nicknames, they now give thee the honourable name of "City of Jehovah, Zion of the Holy One of Israel," not "Sanctuary of Israel," as Meier supposes, since qedōsh Israel is always a name of Jehovah in the book of Isaiah. It is a genitive construction like Bethlehem of Judah, Gibeah of Saul, and others.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
The sons - Either their posterity, or themselves, for it is the manner of the Hebrews so to speak. Bending - Humbling themselves, as penitents. Call thee - They shall acknowledge her to be so.

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⁴ There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.

¹⁵ For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

²³ And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.

¹ For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
² And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

³ And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

⁹ Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

²³ I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.

³ Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye go haughtily: for this time is evil.

¹³ They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

¹⁴ They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.