Isaiah 60

ישעיהו פרק ס׳

Section: נביאים · נביאים אחרונים | Book: Isaiah | Chapter: 60 of 66 | Day: 207 of 742

Date: September 6, 2026

קלאוד על הנ״ך

Chapter 60 is the summit of Isaiah’s consolations, and the tradition recognized it as such: it is the sixth of the seven haftarot of consolation (shiva d’nechemta) read between Tisha B’Av and Rosh Hashanah, and it is also the haftarah of Parashat Ki Tavo. The chapter opens with a command rather than a description - Arise, shine, for your light has come (קומי אורי כי בא אורך) - and the imperative is addressed, as both Metzudat David and Radak note on the opening verse, to Jerusalem herself, a city personified as a woman who has been lying prostrate and is now told to stand. Radak explains that light throughout this passage is a figure for salvation and joy, while darkness is its opposite, the language of trouble and calamity; the entire chapter, on his reading, is one sustained metaphor of illumination. The second verse sharpens the contrast: darkness will cover the earth and thick cloud the peoples, but upon you the Lord will shine. Zion’s light is not merely restored, it is exceptional, visible precisely because everything around it is dark.

What follows is a procession. Nations walk by that light and kings by its brightness (verse 3), and Radak connects this directly to the famous vision of chapter 2, where many peoples say ‘let us go up to the mountain of the Lord… and He will teach us of His ways.’ The exiles return - sons from afar and daughters carried on the hip - and Jerusalem, told to lift her eyes and look around (verse 4), sees what she could not have imagined. Her heart will ‘throb and thrill’ (ופחד ורחב לבבך), a phrase that Metzudat David and Radak both read psychologically: a person startled by sudden great good feels a kind of fright before the heart expands to receive it. Then comes the inventory of tribute: caravans of camels from Midian and Ephah, gold and frankincense from Sheba, the flocks of Kedar and the rams of Nebaioth, the cedar and cypress and box of Lebanon to adorn the sanctuary. The catalogue is deliberately specific, naming the Arabian and Phoenician trading peoples known to the ancient world, so that the vision reads as history rather than fantasy.

Two verses in this section make the theological claim explicit. In verse 9 the ships of Tarshish come ‘as at the first’ - Rashi identifies this with the days of Solomon, citing the fleet described in I Kings 10:22 - so the restoration is framed as a return to a remembered golden age rather than an invention of something unprecedented. And in verse 10 the reason for the whole reversal is stated flatly: for in My anger I struck you, and in My favor I have had mercy on you (כי בקצפי הכיתיך וברצוני רחמתיך). Radak draws out the point: at that moment Zion will finally recognize that neither her suffering nor her rescue was accident or chance, that both the exile and the ingathering came from one hand. This is the theological spine of the entire second half of Isaiah - that the God who permitted the destruction is the same God who reverses it, and that the reversal proves the destruction was purposeful.

The chapter’s second half turns to what life inside the restored city will be like. The gates stand open day and night and are never shut (verse 11) - a startling image, since a city’s gates are shut precisely against enemies, and Radak observes that they can stay open because there will be peace in the world. Instead of the bronze the nations carried off, God will bring gold; instead of iron, silver; and government itself will be transformed, with ‘peace’ appointed as Zion’s officials and ‘righteousness’ as her taskmasters (verse 17). Rashi records the striking rabbinic reading of that verse from Bava Batra: the very officers and oppressors who pressed Israel in exile will be reckoned to her as peace and charity. Violence will no longer be heard in the land, and the walls will be named ‘Salvation’ and the gates ‘Praise’ (verse 18) - Radak notes the irony precisely, that walls and gates, the architecture of siege and fear, become the vocabulary of praise.

The closing movement returns to the light with which the chapter began, but raises it beyond metaphor. Zion will no longer need the sun by day or the moon by night, for the Lord will be an everlasting light (verse 19), and her sun will never set nor her moon withdraw (verse 20) - which Metzudat David and Radak read as a promise that her sovereignty will not be revoked, following Targum Yonatan’s rendering that ‘your kingdom shall not cease.’ The days of mourning are ended. Then verse 21, one of the most quoted lines in all of Tanakh, which opens every chapter of Pirkei Avot: and your people, all of them righteous, shall inherit the land forever (ועמך כלם צדיקים לעולם יירשו ארץ). Radak explains the mechanism - that God will refine them as silver is refined, and those who remain will all be righteous - reading the promise not as a magical transformation but as the outcome of a long purification. They are the shoot of My planting (נצר מטעי), and Rashi glosses the closing phrase simply: that I will glory in them. The final verse holds the whole vision in productive tension. The smallest shall become a thousand and the least a mighty nation, and then the famous words: I am the Lord; in its time I will hasten it (בעתה אחישנה). Rashi preserves Chazal’s resolution of the apparent contradiction between ‘in its time’ and ‘I will hasten it’ - if they merit it, I will hasten it; if they do not merit it, it will come in its appointed time. Redemption is guaranteed either way; only its speed is left in human hands.

פרק ס׳ · Chapter 60

פסוק א׳ · Verse 1

Hebrew:

ק֥וּמִי א֖וֹרִי כִּ֣י בָ֣א אוֹרֵ֑ךְ וּכְב֥וֹד יְהֹוָ֖ה עָלַ֥יִךְ זָרָֽח׃

English:

Arise, shine, for your light has dawned; The Presence of GOD has shone upon you!

פסוק ב׳ · Verse 2

Hebrew:

כִּֽי־הִנֵּ֤ה הַחֹ֙שֶׁךְ֙ יְכַסֶּה־אֶ֔רֶץ וַעֲרָפֶ֖ל לְאֻמִּ֑ים וְעָלַ֙יִךְ֙ יִזְרַ֣ח יְהֹוָ֔ה וּכְבוֹד֖וֹ עָלַ֥יִךְ יֵרָאֶֽה׃

English:

Behold! Darkness shall cover the earth, And thick clouds the peoples; But upon you GOD will shine, And God’s Presence be seen over you.

פסוק ג׳ · Verse 3

Hebrew:

וְהָלְכ֥וּ גוֹיִ֖ם לְאוֹרֵ֑ךְ וּמְלָכִ֖ים לְנֹ֥גַהּ זַרְחֵֽךְ׃

English:

And nations shall walk by your light, Kings, by your shining radiance.

פסוק ד׳ · Verse 4

Hebrew:

שְׂאִֽי־סָבִ֤יב עֵינַ֙יִךְ֙ וּרְאִ֔י כֻּלָּ֖ם נִקְבְּצ֣וּ בָֽאוּ־לָ֑ךְ בָּנַ֙יִךְ֙ מֵרָח֣וֹק יָבֹ֔אוּ וּבְנוֹתַ֖יִךְ עַל־צַ֥ד תֵּאָמַֽנָה׃

English:

Raise your eyes and look about: They have all gathered and come to you. Your sons shall be brought from afar, Your daughters like babes on shoulders.

פסוק ה׳ · Verse 5

Hebrew:

אָ֤ז תִּרְאִי֙ וְנָהַ֔רְתְּ וּפָחַ֥ד וְרָחַ֖ב לְבָבֵ֑ךְ כִּֽי־יֵהָפֵ֤ךְ עָלַ֙יִךְ֙ הֲמ֣וֹן יָ֔ם חֵ֥יל גּוֹיִ֖ם יָבֹ֥אוּ לָֽךְ׃

English:

As you behold, you will glow; Your heart will throb and thrill— For the wealth of the sea shall pass on to you, The riches of nations shall flow to you.

פסוק ו׳ · Verse 6

Hebrew:

שִֽׁפְעַ֨ת גְּמַלִּ֜ים תְּכַסֵּ֗ךְ בִּכְרֵ֤י מִדְיָן֙ וְעֵיפָ֔ה כֻּלָּ֖ם מִשְּׁבָ֣א יָבֹ֑אוּ זָהָ֤ב וּלְבוֹנָה֙ יִשָּׂ֔אוּ וּתְהִלֹּ֥ת יְהֹוָ֖ה יְבַשֵּֽׂרוּ׃

English:

Dust clouds of camels shall cover you, Dromedaries of Midian and Ephah. They all shall come from Sheba; They shall bear gold and frankincense, And shall herald GOD’s glories.

פסוק ז׳ · Verse 7

Hebrew:

כׇּל־צֹ֤אן קֵדָר֙ יִקָּ֣בְצוּ לָ֔ךְ אֵילֵ֥י נְבָי֖וֹת יְשָֽׁרְת֑וּנֶךְ יַעֲל֤וּ עַל־רָצוֹן֙ מִזְבְּחִ֔י וּבֵ֥ית תִּפְאַרְתִּ֖י אֲפָאֵֽר׃

English:

All the flocks of Kedar shall be assembled for you, The rams of Nebaioth shall serve your needs; They shall be welcome offerings on My altar, And I will add glory to My glorious House.

פסוק ח׳ · Verse 8

Hebrew:

מִי־אֵ֖לֶּה כָּעָ֣ב תְּעוּפֶ֑ינָה וְכַיּוֹנִ֖ים אֶל־אֲרֻבֹּתֵיהֶֽם׃

English:

Who are these that float like a cloud, Like doves to their cotes?

פסוק ט׳ · Verse 9

Hebrew:

כִּי־לִ֣י ׀ אִיִּ֣ים יְקַוּ֗וּ וׇאֳנִיּ֤וֹת תַּרְשִׁישׁ֙ בָּרִ֣אשֹׁנָ֔ה לְהָבִ֤יא בָנַ֙יִךְ֙ מֵרָח֔וֹק כַּסְפָּ֥ם וּזְהָבָ֖ם אִתָּ֑ם לְשֵׁם֙ יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהַ֔יִךְ וְלִקְד֥וֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל כִּ֥י פֵאֲרָֽךְ׃

English:

Behold, the coastlands await me, With ships of Tarshish in the lead, To bring your children from afar, And their silver and gold as well— For the name of the ETERNAL your God, For the Holy One of Israel, who has glorified you.

פסוק י׳ · Verse 10

Hebrew:

וּבָנ֤וּ בְנֵֽי־נֵכָר֙ חֹמֹתַ֔יִךְ וּמַלְכֵיהֶ֖ם יְשָֽׁרְת֑וּנֶךְ כִּ֤י בְקִצְפִּי֙ הִכִּיתִ֔יךְ וּבִרְצוֹנִ֖י רִחַמְתִּֽיךְ׃

English:

Aliens shall rebuild your walls, Their kings shall wait upon you— For in anger I struck you down, But in favor I take you back.

פסוק י״א · Verse 11

Hebrew:

וּפִתְּח֨וּ שְׁעָרַ֧יִךְ תָּמִ֛יד יוֹמָ֥ם וָלַ֖יְלָה לֹ֣א יִסָּגֵ֑רוּ לְהָבִ֤יא אֵלַ֙יִךְ֙ חֵ֣יל גּוֹיִ֔ם וּמַלְכֵיהֶ֖ם נְהוּגִֽים׃

English:

Your gates shall always stay open— Day and night they shall never be shut— To let in the wealth of the nations, With their kings in procession.

פסוק י״ב · Verse 12

Hebrew:

כִּֽי־הַגּ֧וֹי וְהַמַּמְלָכָ֛ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹא־יַעַבְד֖וּךְ יֹאבֵ֑דוּ וְהַגּוֹיִ֖ם חָרֹ֥ב יֶחֱרָֽבוּ׃

English:

For the nation or the kingdom That does not serve you shall perish; Such nations shall be destroyed.

פסוק י״ג · Verse 13

Hebrew:

כְּב֤וֹד הַלְּבָנוֹן֙ אֵלַ֣יִךְ יָב֔וֹא בְּר֛וֹשׁ תִּדְהָ֥ר וּתְאַשּׁ֖וּר יַחְדָּ֑ו לְפָאֵר֙ מְק֣וֹם מִקְדָּשִׁ֔י וּמְק֥וֹם רַגְלַ֖י אֲכַבֵּֽד׃

English:

The majesty of Lebanon shall come to you— Cypress and pine and box— To adorn the site of My Sanctuary, To glorify the place where My feet rest.

פסוק י״ד · Verse 14

Hebrew:

וְהָלְכ֨וּ אֵלַ֤יִךְ שְׁח֙וֹחַ֙ בְּנֵ֣י מְעַנַּ֔יִךְ וְהִֽשְׁתַּחֲו֛וּ עַל־כַּפּ֥וֹת רַגְלַ֖יִךְ כׇּל־מְנַאֲצָ֑יִךְ וְקָ֤רְאוּ לָךְ֙ עִ֣יר יְהֹוָ֔ה צִיּ֖וֹן קְד֥וֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

English:

Bowing before you, shall come The children of those who tormented you; Prostrate at the soles of your feet Shall be all those who reviled you; And you shall be called “City of GOD, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.”

פסוק ט״ו · Verse 15

Hebrew:

תַּ֧חַת הֱיוֹתֵ֛ךְ עֲזוּבָ֥ה וּשְׂנוּאָ֖ה וְאֵ֣ין עוֹבֵ֑ר וְשַׂמְתִּיךְ֙ לִגְא֣וֹן עוֹלָ֔ם מְשׂ֖וֹשׂ דּ֥וֹר וָדֽוֹר׃

English:

Whereas you have been forsaken, Rejected, with none passing through, I will make you a pride everlasting, A joy for age after age.

פסוק ט״ז · Verse 16

Hebrew:

וְיָנַקְתְּ֙ חֲלֵ֣ב גּוֹיִ֔ם וְשֹׁ֥ד מְלָכִ֖ים תִּינָ֑קִי וְיָדַ֗עַתְּ כִּ֣י אֲנִ֤י יְהֹוָה֙ מֽוֹשִׁיעֵ֔ךְ וְגֹאֲלֵ֖ךְ אֲבִ֥יר יַעֲקֹֽב׃

English:

You shall suck the milk of the nations, Suckle at royal breasts. And you shall know That I GOD am your Savior, I, The Mighty One of Jacob, am your Redeemer.

פסוק י״ז · Verse 17

Hebrew:

תַּ֣חַת הַנְּחֹ֜שֶׁת אָבִ֣יא זָהָ֗ב וְתַ֤חַת הַבַּרְזֶל֙ אָ֣בִיא כֶ֔סֶף וְתַ֤חַת הָעֵצִים֙ נְחֹ֔שֶׁת וְתַ֥חַת הָאֲבָנִ֖ים בַּרְזֶ֑ל וְשַׂמְתִּ֤י פְקֻדָּתֵךְ֙ שָׁל֔וֹם וְנֹגְשַׂ֖יִךְ צְדָקָֽה׃

English:

Instead of copper I will bring gold, Instead of iron I will bring silver; Instead of wood, copper— And instead of stone, iron. And I will appoint Well-being as your government, Prosperity as your officials.

פסוק י״ח · Verse 18

Hebrew:

לֹא־יִשָּׁמַ֨ע ע֤וֹד חָמָס֙ בְּאַרְצֵ֔ךְ שֹׁ֥ד וָשֶׁ֖בֶר בִּגְבוּלָ֑יִךְ וְקָרָ֤את יְשׁוּעָה֙ חוֹמֹתַ֔יִךְ וּשְׁעָרַ֖יִךְ תְּהִלָּֽה׃

English:

The cry “Violence!” Shall no more be heard in your land, Nor “Wrack and ruin!” Within your borders. And you shall name your walls “Victory” And your gates “Renown.”

פסוק י״ט · Verse 19

Hebrew:

לֹא־יִֽהְיֶה־לָּ֨ךְ ע֤וֹד הַשֶּׁ֙מֶשׁ֙ לְא֣וֹר יוֹמָ֔ם וּלְנֹ֕גַהּ הַיָּרֵ֖חַ לֹא־יָאִ֣יר לָ֑ךְ וְהָֽיָה־לָ֤ךְ יְהֹוָה֙ לְא֣וֹר עוֹלָ֔ם וֵאלֹהַ֖יִךְ לְתִפְאַרְתֵּֽךְ׃

English:

No longer shall you need the sun For light by day, Nor the shining of the moon For radiance [by night]; For GOD shall be your light everlasting, Your God shall be your glory.

פסוק כ׳ · Verse 20

Hebrew:

לֹא־יָב֥וֹא עוֹד֙ שִׁמְשֵׁ֔ךְ וִירֵחֵ֖ךְ לֹ֣א יֵאָסֵ֑ף כִּ֣י יְהֹוָ֗ה יִֽהְיֶה־לָּךְ֙ לְא֣וֹר עוֹלָ֔ם וְשָׁלְמ֖וּ יְמֵ֥י אֶבְלֵֽךְ׃

English:

Your sun shall set no more, Your moon no more withdraw; For GOD shall be a light to you forever, And your days of mourning shall be ended.

פסוק כ״א · Verse 21

Hebrew:

וְעַמֵּךְ֙ כֻּלָּ֣ם צַדִּיקִ֔ים לְעוֹלָ֖ם יִ֣ירְשׁוּ אָ֑רֶץ נֵ֧צֶר (מטעו) [מַטָּעַ֛י] מַעֲשֵׂ֥ה יָדַ֖י לְהִתְפָּאֵֽר׃

English:

And your people, all of them righteous, Shall possess the land for all time; They are the shoot that I planted, My handiwork in which I glory.

פסוק כ״ב · Verse 22

Hebrew:

הַקָּטֹן֙ יִהְיֶ֣ה לָאֶ֔לֶף וְהַצָּעִ֖יר לְג֣וֹי עָצ֑וּם אֲנִ֥י יְהֹוָ֖ה בְּעִתָּ֥הּ אֲחִישֶֽׁנָּה׃ {ס}         

English:

The smallest shall become a clan; The least, a mighty nation. I GOD will speed it in due time.

Navigation

← Isaiah 59 | Isaiah 61 →

Back to Isaiah | Back to Nach Yomi