The Lord Invites Outsiders to Enter

56:1 This is what the Lord says,

“Promote1 justice! Do what is right!

For I am ready to deliver you;

I am ready to vindicate you openly.2

56:2 The people who do this will be blessed,3

the people who commit themselves to obedience,4

who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it,

who refrain from doing anything that is wrong.5

56:3 No foreigner who becomes a follower of6 the Lord should say,

‘The Lord will certainly7 exclude me from his people.’

The eunuch should not say,

‘Look, I am like a dried-up tree.’ ”

56:4 For this is what the Lord says:

“For the eunuchs who observe my Sabbaths

and choose what pleases me

and are faithful to8 my covenant,

56:5 I will set up within my temple and my walls a monument9

that will be better than sons and daughters.

I will set up a permanent monument10 for them that will remain.

56:6 As for foreigners who become followers of11 the Lord and serve him,

who love the name of the Lord and want to be his servants—

all who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it,

and who are faithful to12 my covenant—

56:7 I will bring them to my holy mountain;

I will make them happy in the temple where people pray to me.13

Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar,

for my temple will be known as a temple where all nations may pray.”14

56:8 The sovereign Lord says this,

the one who gathers the dispersed of Israel:

“I will still gather them up.”15