Isaiah 49:18
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Lift up your eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to you. As I live, said the LORD, you shall surely clothe you with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on you, as a bride does.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Lift up your eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to you. As I live, said the LORD, you shall surely clothe you with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on you, as a bride does.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith Jehovah, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all as with an ornament, and gird thyself with them, like a bride.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Let your eyes be lifted up round about, and see: they are all coming together to you. By my life, says the Lord, truly you will put them all on you as an ornament, and be clothed with them like a bride.
Webster's Revision
Lift up thy eyes around, and behold: all these assemble themselves, and come to thee. As I live, saith the LORD, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth.
World English Bible
Lift up your eyes all around, and see: all these gather themselves together, and come to you. As I live," says Yahweh, "you shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament, and dress yourself with them, like a bride.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I l live, saith the LORD, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all as with an ornament, and gird thyself with them, like a bride.
Clarke's Isaiah 49:18 Bible Commentary
Bind them on thee, as a bride doeth "Bind them about thee, as a bride her jewels" - The end of the sentence is manifestly imperfect. Does a bride bind her children, or her new subjects, about her? Sion clothes herself with her children, as a bride clothes herself, - with what? some other thing certainly. The Septuagint help us out in this difficulty, and supply the lost word: ὡς κοσμον νυμφη· as a bride her ornaments. ככליה כלה kichleyha callah, or ככלה כליה kecallah keleyha. The great similitude of the two words has occasioned the omission of one of them. See Isaiah 61:10.
Barnes's Isaiah 49:18 Bible Commentary
Lift up thine eyes round about - That is, see the multitudes that shall be converted to thee; see thy ruined city rise again in its former beauty; see the Gentiles come and yield themselves to the worship of the true God; see kings and princes approach and do thee homage.
All these gather themselves - That is, from a far country, from the north, the west, and the south, Isaiah 49:12.
As I live, saith the Lord - The customary form of an oath when Yahweh swears It is a solemn assurance that the event shall as certainly occur as he has an existence (see the note at Isaiah 45:23; compare Jeremiah 22:24; Ezekiel 5:11; Ezekiel 14:16, Ezekiel 14:18, Ezekiel 14:20; Ezekiel 16:48).
Thou shalt surely clothe thee with them - Zion is here represented, as it is often elsewhere, as a female (see the note at Isaiah 1:8); and the accession of converts from abroad is represented under the figure of bridal ornaments. The accession of converts karo the Gentiles should be to her what jewels are to a bride.
And bind them on thee as a bride doth - The sentence here is manifestly incomplete. It means, as a bride binds on her ornaments. The Septuagint has supplied this, and renders it, 'As a bride her ornaments' (ὡς κόσμον νύμφη hōs kosmon numphē). The sentiment is, that the accession of the large humber of converts under the Messiah to the true church of God, would be the real ornament of Zion, and would greatly increase her beauty and loveliness.
Wesley's Isaiah 49:18 Bible Commentary
49:18 These - Gentiles. Thy church shall not only be restored, but vastly enlarged and adorned by the accession of the Gentiles.
