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Isaiah 60:4

Adam Clarke
Bible Commentary

Shall be nursed at thy side "Shall be carried at the side" - For תאמנה teamanah, shall be nursed, the Septuagint and Chaldee read תנשאנה tinnasenah, shall be carried. A MS. has תנשאנה כתף על al catheph tinnasenah, "shall be carried on the shoulder;" instead of תאמנה צד על al tsad teamanah, "shall be nursed on the side." Another MS. has both כתף catheph and צד tsad . Another MS. has it thus: תאמנה :תנשאנה tinnasenah : teamanah, with a line drawn over the first word. Sir John Chardin says that it is the general custom in the east to carry their children astride upon the hip with the arm round their body. His MS. note on this place is as follows: - Coutume en Orient de porter les enfans sur le coste a; califourchon sur la hanche: cette facon est generale aux Indes; les enfans se tiennent comme cela, et la personne qui les porte les embrasse et serre par le corps; parceque sont (ni) emmaillottes, ni en robes qui les embrassent. "In the east it is the custom to carry the children on the haunch, with the legs astride. This is the general custom in India. The children support themselves in this way, and the arm of the nurse goes round the body and presses the child close to the side; and this they can easily do, as the children are not swathed, nor encumbered with clothes." Non brachiis occidentalium more, sed humeris, divaricatis tibiis, impositos circumferunt. "They carry them about, not in their arms after the manner of the western nations, but on their shoulders; the children being placed astride." Cotovic. Iter. Syr. cap. 14. This last quotation seems to favor the reading כתף על by al catheph, on the shoulder, as the Septuagint likewise do: but upon the whole I think that תנשאנה צד על al tsad tinnasenah is the true reading, which the Chaldee favors; and I have accordingly followed it. See Isaiah 66:12. - L. This mode of carrying children is as common in India as carrying them in the arms is in Europe.

Albert Barnes
Notes on the Whole Bible

Lift up thine eyes - Jerusalem is here addressed as a female with eyes cast down from grief. She is directed to lift them up, and to see the great multitudes that were flocking to her. Wherever she could turn her eyes, she would behold them hastening to come to her. In this verse and the following verses, the prophet goes into a particular statement of what he referred to in general terms in Isaiah 60:3. The first thing which be specifies is, that the dispersed sons and daughters of the Jewish people would be gathered back.

Thy sons shall come from far - They who have been driven into exile into distant lands shall again return. This is in accordance with the predictions so often made in Isaiah, that the scattered sons of the Jewish people would be again collected (see the notes at Isaiah 49:17-18.)

And thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side - The Septuagint renders this, ‹And thy daughters shall be borne upon the shoulders‘ ( ἐπ ̓ ὤμων ἀρθήσονται ep' ōmōn arthēsontai ). Lowth also says, that one manuscript reads it ‹upon shoulders,‘ and another has both ‹shoulder‘ and ‹side.‘ The translation of the Septuagint, and these different readings of the manuscripts have probably been caused by the supposed improbability of the fact, that children were nursed or carried on the side (compare Isaiah 49:22). But Sir John Chardin says that it is the general custom in the East to carry the children astride upon the hip, with the arms around the body. The word, however, which is rendered ‹nursed‘ in our translation (תאמנה tē'âmanâh from אמן 'âman ), means, properly, “to stay, to sustain, support; to bear or carry a child” Numbers 11:12; hence, “to be faithful, firm.” It is not certain that it is in any instance used in the sense of nursing; but it more probably means here, they shall be borne. It implies that the church would evince deep solicitude for the education and welfare of the young - as a mother does for her children; and that it would be one of the blessings of those times that that solicitude should be felt and manifested.

Matthew Henry
Concise Bible Commentary
As far as we have the knowledge of God in us, and the favour of God towards us, our light is come. And if God's glory is seen upon us to our honour, we ought, not only with our lips, but in our lives, to return its praise. We meet with nothing in the history of the Jews which can be deemed a fulfilment of the prophecy in this chapter; we must conclude it relates principally to future events. It predicts the purity and enlargement of the church. The conversion of souls is here described. They fly to Christ, to the church, to the word and ordinances, as doves to their own home; thither they fly for refuge and shelter, thither they fly for rest. What a pleasant sight to see poor souls hastening to Christ!
Ellen G. White
Prophets and Kings, 375

The prophet heard the voice of God calling His church to her appointed work, that the way might be prepared for the ushering in of His everlasting kingdom. The message was unmistakably plain: PK 375.1

“Arise, shine; for thy light is come,
And the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
PK 375.2

“For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
And gross darkness the people:
But the Lord shall arise upon thee,
And His glory shall be seen upon thee.
And the Gentiles shall come to thy light,
And kings to the brightness of thy rising.
PK 375.3

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Ellen G. White
Gospel Workers 1915, 28-9

Christ longs to extend His sway over every human mind. He longs to stamp His image and character upon every soul. When He was on this earth, He hungered for sympathy and co-operation, that His kingdom might extend and embrace the whole world. This earth is His purchased possession, and He would have men free and pure and holy. “For the joy that was set before Him,” He “endured the cross, despising the shame.” [Hebrews 12:2.] His earthly pilgrimage was cheered by the thought that He would not have all this travail for naught, but would win man back to loyalty to God. And there are triumphs yet to be accomplished through the blood shed for the world, that will bring everlasting glory to God and to the Lamb. The heathen will be given for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession. Christ will see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. [See Isaiah 53:11.] GW 28.1

“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and Kings to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee.” “For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.” [Isaiah 60:1-5; 61:11.] GW 28.2

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Ellen G. White
In Heavenly Places, 313.6

When God's people so fully separate themselves from evil that He can let the light of heaven rest upon them in rich measure, and shine forth from them to the world, then there will be fulfilled more fully than it has ever been fulfilled in the past the prophecy of Isaiah, ... “The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.... The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, and the force of the Gentiles shall come unto thee” (Isaiah 60:3-5). HP 313.6

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