Footnotes

1. Isaiah 60:5 Prior to well into the twentieth century, scholars could only speculate as to what Isaiah might have meant here by “the abundant wealth of the [Dead] Sea” that would one day be turned over to Jerusalem. Of course, the Dead Sea, which for ages had been considered only a place of death and desolation, was ruled out as a possible meaning. Then suddenly it was discovered that the waters of the Dead Sea contain important chemicals. In a.d. 1935 G.T.B. Davis wrote, “One is almost staggered by the computed wealth of the chemical salts of the Dead Sea. It is estimated that the potential value of the potash, bromine, and other chemical salts of its waters is... four times the wealth of the United States!” (G.T.B. Davis, Rebuilding Palestine) Isaiah himself did not know this, but the God who caused the Dead Sea to play a part in His program in the last days knew all about it, and He led the prophet to so prophesy here in this verse.