Isaiah 49:12

49:12 Look, they come from far away!

Look, some come from the north and west,

and others from the land of Sinim! ¹ 

Isaiah 60:3-10

60:3 Nations come to your light,

kings to your bright light.

60:4 Look all around you! ² 

They all gather and come to you –

your sons come from far away

and your daughters are escorted by guardians.

60:5 Then you will look and smile, ³ 

you will be excited and your heart will swell with pride. ⁴ 

For the riches of distant lands ⁵  will belong to you

and the wealth of nations will come to you.

60:6 Camel caravans will cover your roads, ⁶ 

young camels from Midian and Ephah.

All the merchants of Sheba ⁷  will come,

bringing gold and incense

and singing praises to the Lord. ⁸ 

60:7 All the sheep of Kedar will be gathered to you;

the rams of Nebaioth will be available to you as sacrifices. ⁹ 

They will go up on my altar acceptably, ¹⁰ 

and I will bestow honor on my majestic temple.

60:8 Who are these who float along ¹¹  like a cloud,

who fly like doves to their shelters? ¹² 

60:9 Indeed, the coastlands ¹³  look eagerly for me,

the large ships ¹⁴  are in the lead,

bringing your sons from far away,

along with their silver and gold,

to honor the Lord your God, ¹⁵ 

the Holy One of Israel, ¹⁶  for he has bestowed honor on you.

60:10 Foreigners will rebuild your walls;

their kings will serve you.

Even though I struck you down in my anger,

I will restore my favor and have compassion on you. ¹⁷ 

Zechariah 2:11

2:11 “Many nations will join themselves to the Lord on the day of salvation, ¹⁸  and they will also be my ¹⁹  people. Indeed, I will settle in the midst of you all.” Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me to you.

Zechariah 8:21-23

8:21 The inhabitants of one will go to another and say, “Let’s go up at once to ask the favor of the Lord, to seek the Lord who rules over all. Indeed, I’ll go with you.”’ 8:22 Many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord who rules over all and to ask his favor. 8:23 The Lord who rules over all says, ‘In those days ten people from all languages and nations will grasp hold of – indeed, grab – the robe of one Jew and say, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’” ²⁰ 

Acts 2:41

2:41 So those who accepted ²¹  his message ²²  were baptized, and that day about three thousand people ²³  were added. ²⁴ 

Acts 2:47

2:47 praising God and having the good will ²⁵  of all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number every day ²⁶  those who were being saved.

Acts 4:4

4:4 But many of those who had listened to ²⁷  the message ²⁸  believed, and the number of the men ²⁹  came to about five thousand.

Acts 5:14

5:14 More and more believers in the Lord were added to their number, ³⁰  crowds of both men and women.

Acts 6:7

6:7 The word of God continued to spread, ³¹  the number of disciples in Jerusalem ³²  increased greatly, and a large group ³³  of priests became obedient to the faith.

Acts 21:20

21:20 When they heard this, they praised ³⁴  God. Then they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews ³⁵  there are who have believed, and they are all ardent observers ³⁶  of the law. ³⁷ 

[49:12]  ¹ tc The MT reads “Sinim” here; the Dead Sea Scrolls read “Syene,” a location in Egypt associated with modern Aswan. A number of recent translations adopt this reading: “Syene” (NAB, NRSV); “Aswan” (NIV); “Egypt” (NLT).

[60:4]  ² tn Heb “Lift up around your eyes and see!”

[60:5]  ³ tn Or “shine,” or “be radiant” (NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[60:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “and it will tremble and be wide, your heart.”

[60:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “the wealth of the sea,” i.e., wealth that is transported from distant lands via the sea.

[60:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “an abundance of camels will cover you.”

[60:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “all of them, from Sheba.”

[60:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “and they will announce the praises of the Lord.”

[60:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “will serve you,” i.e., be available as sacrifices (see the next line). Another option is to understood these “rams” as symbolic of leaders who will be subject to the people of Zion. See v. 10.

[60:7]  ¹⁰ tc Heb “they will go up on acceptance [on] my altar.” Some have suggested that the preposition עַל (’al) is dittographic (note the preceding יַעֲלוּ [ya’alu]). Consequently, the form should be emended to לְרָצוֹן (lÿratson, “acceptably”; see BDB 953 s.v. רָצוֹן). However, the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has both לרצון followed by the preposition על, which would argue against deleted the preposition. As the above translation seeks to demonstrate, the preposition עַל (’al) indicates a norm (“in accordance with acceptance” or “acceptably”; IBHS 218 §11.2.13e, n. 111) and the “altar” functions as an objective accusative with a verb of motion (cf. Gen 49:4; Lev 2:2; Num 13:17; J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 2:534, n. 14).

[60:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “fly” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NAB, NIV “fly along.”

[60:8]  ¹² tn Heb “to their windows,” i.e., to the openings in their coops. See HALOT 83 s.v. אֲרֻבָּה.

[60:9]  ¹³ tn Or “islands” (NIV); CEV “distant islands”; TEV “distant lands.”

[60:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the ships of Tarshish.” See the note at 2:16.

[60:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to the name of the Lord your God.”

[60:9]  ¹⁶ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[60:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in my favor I will have compassion on you.”

[2:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “on that day.” The descriptive phrase “of salvation” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[2:11]  ¹⁹ tc The LXX and Syriac have the 3rd person masculine singular suffix in both places (“his people” and “he will settle”; cf. NAB, TEV) in order to avoid the Lord’s speaking of himself in the third person. Such resort is unnecessary, however, in light of the common shifting of person in Hebrew narrative (cf. 3:2).

[8:23]  ²⁰ sn This scene of universal and overwhelming attraction of the nations to Israel’s God finds initial fulfillment in the establishment of the church (Acts 2:5-11) but ultimate completion in the messianic age (Isa 45:14, 24; 60:14; Zech 14:16-21).

[2:41]  ²¹ tn Or “who acknowledged the truth of.”

[2:41]  ²² tn Grk “word.”

[2:41]  ²³ tn Grk “souls” (here an idiom for the whole person).

[2:41]  ²⁴ tn Or “were won over.”

[2:47]  ²⁵ tn Or “the favor.”

[2:47]  ²⁶ tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase.

[4:4]  ²⁷ tn Or “had heard.”

[4:4]  ²⁸ tn Or “word.”

[4:4]  ²⁹ tn In the historical setting it is likely that only men are referred to here. The Greek term ἀνήρ (anhr) usually refers to males or husbands rather than people in general. Thus to translate “of the people” would give a false impression of the number, since any women and children were apparently not included in the count.

[5:14]  ³⁰ tn Or “More and more believers were added to the Lord.”

[6:7]  ³¹ tn Grk “kept on spreading”; the verb has been translated as a progressive imperfect.

[6:7]  ³² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[6:7]  ³³ tn Grk “a great multitude.”

[21:20]  ³⁴ tn Or “glorified.”

[21:20]  ³⁵ tn Grk “how many thousands there are among the Jews.”

[21:20]  ³⁶ tn Or “are all zealous for the law.” BDAG 427 s.v. ζηλωτής 1.a.β has “of thing…τοῦ νόμου an ardent observer of the law Ac 21:20.”

[21:20]  ³⁷ sn That is, the law of Moses. These Jewish Christians had remained close to their Jewish practices after becoming believers (1 Cor 7:18-19; Acts 16:3).