(7) Kedar.--The nomad tribes (Isaiah 21:17) come as well as the trading ones. Nebaioth, mentioned with Kedar, in Genesis 25:13, among the descendants of Ishmael, expanded iii the centuries preceding the Christian era, into the kingdom of the Nabath?an Arabs, spreading from the 'lanitic Gulf to the Hauran. The two names together include what were known to the Roman geographers as Arabia Felix and Arabia Petraea. The primary thought is that the Temple of the new Jerusalem will be supplied with its sacrifices from the inexhaustible flocks of these regions.

Verse 7. - Kedar... Nebaioth. Arab tribes, like the Midianites and Sabaeans. (With respect to Kedar, see the comment on Isaiah 21:15.) "Nebaioth" stands for the tribe called by the Greeks and Romans the "Nabataeans," and by the Assyrians the "Nabaiti," who were one of the most powerful in the peninsula. About B.C. 645 Nathan, their king, warred with Asshur-bani-pal (Smith's' Hist. of Asshur-bani-pal,' pp. 256-298). During the Maccabee period we find the Nabataeans in alliance with the Jews, and giving them some valuable assistance (1 Macc. 5:25 1 Macc. 9:35). The locality of the Nabataeans was northern Arabia, or the tract lying between the Elanitic Gulf and the Lower Euphrates. The wealth of the Nabataeans and the Kedarenes was in their flocks and herds; and this wealth, it is prophesied, they will place, at the disposal of Israel. Mine altar... the house of my glory. The renovated Zion contains a glorious temple, and the temple has in it an altar, to which the sheep and rams are brought - not, however, to be offered in sacrifice, but to be presented to God and become a part of the wealth of the Church.

60:1-8 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!All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee,.... Nebaioth and Kedar were the sons of Ishmael, Genesis 25:13, Ishmael's twelve sons, of which Nebaioth was the eldest, inhabited all the country from Euphrates to the Red sea, calling it the Nabatene country, as Josephus (b) says; these design the Turks and Saracens, who shall now be converted. The Targum is,

"all the sheep of the Arabians shall be gathered unto thee;''

that is, these shall come with their sheep and rams, not to be offered up in sacrifice, for such sacrifices will not be used; but these, being the produce of the countries of these people, are mentioned to show, that being affected with the grace of God towards them, and influenced by it, will bring the best and chief of their substance to serve the interest of Christ, and glorify him with it:

they shall come up with acceptance on my altar; both they and their sacrifices and offerings will become acceptable to God through Christ, who is that altar that sanctifies every gift:

and I will glorify the house of my glory: with this large number of converts, and with the gifts and offerings they bring with them; the church is meant, which is the house of God, where he dwells and manifests his glory, the glory of himself, of his grace, and of his Gospel; see Jeremiah 30:19.

(b) Antiqu. I. 1. c. 12. sect 4.