Isaiah 61:4,5 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

They shall build the old wastes See on chap. 58:12. As this is evidently to be understood of gospel times, the meaning seems to be, that the establishment of Christianity in the world should repair the decays of true religion, of genuine piety and virtue, which had been at a very low ebb, not only in the Gentile nations, which were all idolatrous, but also among the Jews, for many centuries. By the ministry of John the Baptist, of our Lord, and his apostles, many thousands of spiritual worshippers were raised up to God in Judea, and the adjacent parts; and when the ministers of the word were sent into the Gentile countries, the cities and provinces which had been as a wilderness, overrun with briers and thorns, became as Eden, and the deserts like the garden of the Lord: truth and grace, wisdom and piety, godliness and righteousness, with joy and gladness, were found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody, Isaiah 51:3. And strangers Namely, Gentiles, such as were not of the natural race of the Jews, but Gentile converts; shall stand Ready to be at thy service; and feed your flocks The churches, with the word of God. And the sons of the alien The same with the strangers before mentioned, or their successors; shall be your ploughmen, &c. Shall manage the whole work of God's spiritual husbandry. See 1 Corinthians 3:6-9.