Isaiah 43:6

אֹמַ֤ר לַצָּפוֹן֙ תֵּ֔נִי וּלְתֵימָ֖ן אַל־תִּכְלָ֑אִי הָבִ֤יאִי בָנַי֙ מֵרָח֔וֹק וּבְנוֹתַ֖י מִקְצֵ֥ה הָאָֽרֶץ׃

6 I will say to the north 'Give up' and to the south 'Stop holding back!' Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth.'

The two halves of the verse are evenly balanced by identical accent patterns: mahpak + pashta + zaqef // tipha (+ merka) + atnach/silluq. Mahpak normally only precedes pashta (according to Price, of more than 3,000 instances in the Pentateuch, it only precedes another accent twice). Merka, the left-pointing slash below the second-to-last word מִקְצֵ֥ה, normally comes as the ony conjunctive accent just before either silluq, tipha or the double accent legarmeh. In some circumstances, it can also serve a variety of other accent, replacing zarqa or munach.

אֹמַר לַצָּפוֹן תֵּנִי I will say to the north 'Give up' אֹמַר is the contracted form of אֺאמַר, qal imperfect 1 sg אָמַר "say" (GK §68g). צַפוֹן "north" is related to the word צָפַן "hidden, dark." The Theol. Workbook of the OT has an interesting article about צַפוֹן (p. 774-775) and its connection to Baal and Ugaritic (Ras Shamra) usage, but here the term just means "north." תֵּנִי qal imperative fem sg. נָתַן "give" after the pattern of קִטְלִי. A pe-nun verb should be תְּנִי in this form (Weingreen p. 259) but the zaqef has apparently pulled the form into pause.

וּלְתֵימָן אַל־תִּכְלָאִי and to the south 'Stop holding back!' תֵימָן "south" is taken from the term יָמִין "right hand" (cp. Benjamin, Gen. 35:18). In Levantine maps, east was "up" on a map, and therefore the right side was south. תִּכְלָאִי is the qal jussive 2nd fem sg of כָּלָא "withhold, hold back." The negative אַל with the jussive presents an immediate prohibition, "Stop it!" The verbs in these two clauses are feminine because the compass points are feminine in Hebrew. The directions do not need to be taken as their winds (the Septuagint has done this with βoρρᾷ, dat. Boρέας "north wind" and λιβί, dat. λίψ "south wind").

הָבִיאִי בָנַי מֵרָחוֹק וּבְנוֹתַי מִקְצֵה הָאָרֶץ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth.' הָבִיאִי hifil imv "bring." רָחוֹק is an adjective "far, distant," used here as a noun or an adjective for an implied noun, "the distant places." קָצֶה is the end or extremity of a thing, here the end of the earth. Gesenius points out the the juxtaposition of male and female from the same stem (here just literally sons and daughters, בָנַי and וּבְנוֹתַי) expresses an entirety (GK §122v).

Mp: הָבִיאִי occurs three times (Mm 1771: 2 Sam 13:10; Isaiah 16:3; 43:6). Also, the is the only time וּבְנוֹתַי occurs written plene.

The sons and daughters here are true believers being gathered from every direction. Is this a reference to scattered Jews, or to all believers, including Gentiles from every point of the compass? It must be the Gentiles. Although Isaiah begins with the Babylonian captivity, he is including all believers--otherwise we would have to disregard all the other comfort in the book.