Aliens shall stand and feed your flocks: Foreigners will work for the people of Judah by taking care of their sheep and goats. For Aliens see the comments on 1.7. Stand and feed your flocks is probably an idiomatic expression for “shepherding” (compare Micah 5.4). The verb stand should not be taken literally. Good News Translation and Revised English Bible render it as “serve.” The Hebrew verb rendered feed refers to the general work of a shepherd (see 40.11), while the noun for flocks refers to herds of small animals such as sheep and goats (see 7.21, where it is translated “sheep”). Bible en français courant provides a helpful model for this line, saying “Foreigners will be there to guard your flocks.”

Foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers is parallel to the previous line. Foreigners will also serve the people of Judah by farming their land and maintaining their vineyards. For foreigners, which is literally “sons of foreignness,” see the comments on 56.3. Plowmen are people who take care of farmland, doing such things as plowing it and planting its crops. Vinedressers are people who take care of grapevines, doing such things as pruning and weeding them. Good News Translation chooses two general expressions for plowmen and vinedressers by rendering this line as “And farm your land and tend your vineyards,” and so does New International Version with “foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.”

Translation examples for this verse are:

• Foreigners will look after your flocks,
strangers will plow your fields and prune your vines.

• Foreigners will tend your flocks,
strangers will farm your land and care for your vineyards.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .