Biblical Hebrew Forum

["K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

On 4/11/07, Lisbeth S. Fried <lizfried AT umich.edu> wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> Dear Peter,
> ...
>
> The whole point of the passage in Isaiah 56 is to look forward to the time
> when God's house would be called the house of prayer of all peoples. At the
> time when the text was written the temple had been destroyed by Babylon and
> newly rebuilt.  The writer of Isaiah 56 is hoping for a more benign world
> than the world which existed then, and exists today.
>
> Best regards,
> Liz

Here you have used your theological beliefs to inform how your should
read the Hebrew.

According to the historical references embedded in Tanakh, these words
were written roughly a century before the destruction of Solomon's
temple and, as I read it based on the verses that Harold Holmyard
quoted, this was a present to the time of Isaiah, a continuous
present, not only a future event: the temple is a house of prayers for
all peoples (irrespective of whether or not they took advantage of
that opportunity).

Karl W. Randolph.