Isaiah 56:3

the son of the strangermeans simply the individual foreigner (R.V. the stranger), not one whose father was a foreigner.

The Lord hath utterly separated Render with R.V., will surely separate. The case supposed is that of a foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord, i.e. has become a proselyte by accepting the symbols of Jewish nationality (circumcision, &c.), but now has reason to fear that his qualifications will be disallowed. This anxiety is hardly to be explained by the law of Deuteronomy 23:3-8; for the regulations there laid down apply only to Moabites, Ammonites, Egyptians and Edomites; and the general tendency of the legislation is in favour of the religious rights of proselytes. (See the exhaustive monograph of Bertholet, Die Stellung der Israeliten und der Juden zu den Fremden, 1896.) It is more likely that the immediate cause of apprehension was some manifestation of an exclusive and intolerant spirit amongst the leaders of the new Jerusalem. Against this spirit (if it existed) the prophet's words enter a strong protest (see Isaiah 56:6).

the eunuch Such persons are excluded from the congregation by Deuteronomy 23:1. On that passage Prof. W. R. Smith remarks that "Presumably the original sense of this rule was directed not against the unfortunate victims of Oriental tyranny and the harem system, but against the religious mutilation of the Galli" &c. (Driver's Deuteronomy, p. 259). If this be so, the present passage need not be regarded as superseding the Deuteronomic law; it may be only a protest against its extension to cases which it did not contemplate; for it is certain that those here referred to were"the unfortunate victims of Oriental tyranny."

Iam a dry tree He could not become the head of a family in Israel, and therefore felt that he had no real and permanent share in the hopes of the nation.