Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

sitting among the graves, spending nights in secret places, eating the meat of pigs and polluted broth from their bowls.

“The Jews, in our Lord's days, and ever since the return from Babylon, have been free from idolatry; still the imagery from idolatrous abominations, as being the sin most loathsome in God's eyes and that most prevalent in Isaiah's time, is employed to describe the…”

They say, ‘Keep to yourself; do not come near me, for I am holier than you!’ Such people are smoke in My nostrils, a fire that burns all day long.

“Applicable to the hypocritical self-justifiers of our Lord's time. smoke--alluding to the smoke of their self-righteous sacrifices; the fire of God's wrath was kindled at the sight, and exhibited itself in the smoke that breathed forth from His nostrils; in Hebrew the nose is the…”

both for your iniquities and for those of your fathers,” says the LORD.

“Their sin had been accumulating from age to age until God at last repaid it in full. mountains-- (Isa 57:7; Ho 4:13). their--"Your" had preceded. From speaking to, He speaks of them; this implies growing alienation from them and greater distance.”

I will destine you for the sword, and you will all kneel down to be slaughtered, because I called and you did not answer, I spoke and you did not…

“Retribution in kind, the punishment answering to the sin (compare 2Ch 36:14-17). I called, ye . . . not answer--"I called," though "none had called" upon Me (Isa 64:7); yet even then none "answered" (Pr 1:24).”

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: “My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; My servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; My servants will rejoice…

“This may refer to the siege of Jerusalem under Titus, when 1,100,000 are said to have perished by famine; thus Isa 65:15 will refer to God's people without distinction of Jew and Gentile receiving "another name," namely, that of Christians [HOUBIGANT].”

For behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.

“As Caleb inherited the same land which his feet trod on (De 1:36; Jos 14:9), so Messiah and His saints shall inherit the renovated earth which once they trod while defiled by the enemy (Isa 34:4; Heb 12:26-28 Re 21:1).”

No longer will a nursing infant live but a few days, or an old man fail to live out his years.

“This passage proves that the better age to come on earth, though much superior to the present will not be a perfect state; sin and death shall have place in it (compare Re 20:7, 8), but much less frequently than now.”

Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who slays a man; whoever sacrifices a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever presents a grain offering is like…

“God loathes even the sacrifices of the wicked (Isa 1:11; 28:9). is as if--LOWTH not so well omits these words: "He that killeth an ox (presently after) murders a man" (as in Eze 23:39).”

So I will choose their punishment and I will bring terror upon them, because I called and no one answered, I spoke and no one listened.

“However, the Hebrew means rather "vexations," "calamities," which also the parallelism to "fears" requires; "choose their calamities" means, "choose the calamities which they thought to escape by their own ways." their fears--the things they feared, to avert which their idolatrous "abominations" (Isa 66:3) were practised.”

“Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before she was in pain, she delivered a boy.

“A man child's birth is in the East a matter of special joy, while that of a female is not so; therefore, it here means the manly sons of the restored Jewish Church, the singular being used collectively for the plural: or the many sons…”

Who has heard of such as this? Who has seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be delivered in an instant?

“In English Version it means, The earth brings forth its productions gradually, not in one day (Mr 4:28). at once--In this case, contrary to the usual growth of the nations by degrees, Israel starts into maturity at once.”

“And I, knowing their deeds and thoughts, am coming to gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see My glory.

“14:1-3, 9). tongues--which have been many owing to sin, being confounded at Babel, but which shall again be one in Christ (Da 7:14;”