Isaiahchapter 65
25 verses · Isaiah · 8th century BC · The Prophets
For behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.
Introduction
Isaiah, The Prophets, Isaiah Overview.
Isaiah records here the LORD's answer to the long prayer of the two chapters before. The answer begins with a correction to a people who were praying while keeping other rites. It then divides the LORD's servants from those who forsake Him. The chapter ends with a picture of a new creation described in ordinary terms, such as houses, vineyards, children and old age. Listen for who found the LORD without looking. Listen also for how long people live in the new world and what happens to the wolf and the lamb.
Context
- Who
- People who were asking God to act while quietly keeping other rites going
- What
- The LORD's reply to the prayer, which rebukes idolatry, divides His servants from the rebellious and promises new heavens and a new earth.
- Where
- Graveyards and secret shrines in Judah, then a new Jerusalem in a renewed creation.
- When
- Spoken about 700 to 690 BC on the site's reading, describing a world still to come.
- Why
- To show that the LORD will keep a faithful remnant and bring them into a renewed creation without sorrow.
Historical context
The practices God names are all specific and all documented. Sitting among the graves and lodging in secret places is the rite of seeking the dead, spending a night at a tomb or a shrine to get a dream or a message, a recognized practice in the region. Eating swine's flesh and the broth of unclean things breaks the food law directly, and the broth is the giveaway: this was ritual eating, not hunger.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The table set for Gad and Meni is worship of two real deities whose names are simply Fortune and Destiny. Setting out a table with food and pouring a mixed drink offering for luck was ordinary household religion across the Near East, and it survived in Jewish communities long enough for later rabbis to complain about it.
The blessings that follow are all reversals of the covenant curses in Deuteronomy, and every one of them names an ordinary fear. They will build houses and live in them, not have them requisitioned. They will plant vineyards and eat the fruit, not watch an army take the harvest. They will not labor in vain or bring forth children for trouble.
The lifespan line has to be read carefully, because it is one of the clearest reasons the house reading takes this as the Messiah's earthly reign rather than the eternal state. The child shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. Death is still present, just pushed back to what would look like infancy. In the final state described at the end of the Bible there is no death at all. Here there is, and it is rare.
The animals return from chapter 11 in one line: the wolf and the lamb will feed together, the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain.
Significance
The answer to the prayer of chapter 64 begins with an uncomfortable correction. I was sought by those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me, and I have stretched out my hands all day long to a rebellious people. The nations were finding him while the covenant people were at the graveyards.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
But the division that follows is drawn among the people themselves, not between Israel and the nations: my servants will eat, but you will be hungry. That was a new and unsettling line for hearers who counted on the nation as a unit.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts, and it carries nothing for the special Sabbaths or the fast days. This card therefore names no public reading of the chapter and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the tenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 12:1. Under the nineteenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Devarim 1:1 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayechi 7:1.
How it is read
Two commentators on this chapter carry English in the corpus. Rashi is quoted from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY, and every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern. Ibn Ezra is quoted from the version Sefaria titles Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873, which it reports as Public Domain.
Rashi reads the chapter as God's reply to the prayer of the two chapters before it. The first verse is the reason vengeance cannot be held back: God let Himself be sought by reproving the people through His prophets, "but they did not ask". The hands spread out all day were spread "in order to accept them with repentance" (Rashi on Isaiah 65:1:1 and 65:2:1). He names the practices of the next verses one by one. They are the idols in the gardens, the sitting among graves, and the word to the righteous to keep away (Rashi on Isaiah 65:3:1, 65:4:1 and 65:5:1).
The wine in the cluster of the eighth verse Rashi takes from Jonathan as Noah, found innocent in the generation of the flood (Rashi on Isaiah 65:8:1). Ibn Ezra reads the seed brought out of Jacob in the ninth verse as the righteous among the exiles, "who deserve to be called mine elect" (Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 65:9:1).
The new heavens of the seventeenth verse draw two readings in one note of Rashi. First the princes above are renewed and the order of the nations reversed. Then he reports the other view and takes it: "And some say that there will actually be new heavens, and that is correct, for Scripture proves it", citing 66:22 (Rashi on Isaiah 65:17:1). Ibn Ezra draws a point about the verb from the creating of Jerusalem in the next verse. In his reading the word for create there means to form and to renew (Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 65:18:1). The long life of the twentieth to twenty-third verses Ibn Ezra reads as safety from war and children who do not die (Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 65:21:1 and 65:23:1).
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Midrash Tehillim 10:2 and Shemot Rabbah 25:4. On the third verse it holds Bava Metzia 59a:8 and Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 22. On the fifth verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Horayot 2:5:4 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 19:9:1. On the sixth verse it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 32:35:1 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 32:35:2. On the seventh verse it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Vayehi Beshalach 7:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 236:1.
On the eighth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 29:2 and Jerusalem Talmud Nazir 2:1:2. On the tenth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 21:18 and Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 12:1. On the eleventh verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:15 and Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 11:14. On the twelfth verse it holds Introductions to Amoraic Literature, Part II (Notes and Interpretations for Chapters of the Talmud), Pesachim, Chapter II 58. On the thirteenth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 21:21 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 23:12. On the fourteenth verse it holds Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 48:19.
On the fifteenth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 9:40 and Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 5:19:2. On the sixteenth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 75:8 and Shemot Rabbah 23:11. On the seventeenth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 1:13 and Eikhah Rabbah 1:23. On the eighteenth verse it holds Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 17:1 and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 18:2. On the nineteenth verse it holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Devarim 1:1 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayechi 7:1. On the twentieth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 26:2 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:12. On the twenty-second verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 26:3 and Bamidbar Rabbah 13:12.
On the twenty-third verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 37:3 and Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 19:25:2. On the twenty-fourth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 11:2 and Bereshit Rabbah 48:7. On the twenty-fifth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 79:5. One more, Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 33:1:5, carries the anchor Isaiah 65:54, which this lane could not match to a verse. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Isaiah 65:1:1 to 65:22:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 65:9:1 to 65:24:1, Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873, reported Public Domain; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/isaiah/65.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion and no Haftarah for this chapter and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
I Am Found of Them That Sought Me Not
Isaiah 65:1-2
The chapter opens with the answer, and Paul quotes both verses at Romans 10:20-21. “I was found by those who did not seek Me” he applies to the Gentiles, and the held-out hands to Israel. The patience is a standing posture: “All day long I have held out My hands”.
Isaiah 65:1
“I am sought of them that asked not for me,.... That this is a prophecy of the calling and conversion of the Gentiles is not to be doubted, since the Apostle Paul has quoted it, and applied it to that case, Rom 10:20 and is here mentioned as an aggravation of the sin of the Jews, in rejecting Christ, when the Gentiles received him; and was the reason of their being rejected of God, and the Gospel being taken away from them, and given to another people, and of the Lord's removing his presence from the one to the other.”
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Isaiah 65:1
“Who then, one might say to the Jews, is he that was made manifest? For if it is the prophet, let them say just when he was hid, afterward to appear again. And what manner of prophet is this, who was not only openly made manifest from obscurity but also stretched out his hands on the cross? None surely of the righteous, save the Word of God only, who, incorporeal by nature, appeared for our sakes in the body and suffered for all.”
Athanasius of Alexandria · written before 373 · On the Incarnation of the Word 38:2patristic
Isaiah 65:1
“But the Prophet intended to strip them of the foolish confidence of imagining that God was bound to the posterity of Abraham; for the Lord had not restricted himself to them but on an absolute condition, and if this were violated by them, they would be deprived, like covenant-breakers and traitors, of all the advantage derived from the covenant.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Cross references
Isaiah 65:1
- Quoted inRomans 10:20And Isaiah boldly says: “I was found by those who did not seek Me; I revealed Myself to those who did not ask for Me.”
'I was found of them that sought me not' ('Esaias is very bold')
I have held out My hands: Held out hands is the gesture of pleading, Barnes explains, the same picture as Proverbs 1:24. The Chaldee paraphrase reads it as prophets sent all day long to an obstinate people. Henry sees the hands of Christ spread out on the cross.
Isaiah 65:2
“I have spread out my hands - To spread out the hands is an action denoting invitation or entreaty Pro 1:24. The sense is, that God had invited the Jews constantly to partake of his favors, but they had been rebellious, and had rejected his offers. All the day - I have not ceased to do it. The Chaldee renders this, ‘I sent my prophets all the day to a rebellious people.’ Unto a rebellious people - (See the notes at Isa 1:2).”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 65:2
“When Christ was crucified his hands were spread out and stretched forth, as if he were preparing to receive returning sinners into his bosom; and this all the day, all the gospel-day. He waited to be gracious, and was not weary of waiting; even those that came in at the eleventh hour of the day were not rejected.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Cross references
Isaiah 65:2
- Quoted inRomans 10:21But as for Israel he says: “All day long I have held out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”
'All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient people'
Isaiah 65:3-5
to a people who continually provoke Me to My face: The sins are named: “sacrificing in the gardens and burning incense on altars of brick”, and “sitting among the graves” to consult the dead. Gill and Clarke trace these rites to pagan practice in Judah. Even holiness becomes a boast, and such people are “smoke in My nostrils”.
Isaiah 65:3
“God was continually inviting them, and they continually offending Him (De 32:21). to my face--They made no attempt to hide their sin (Isa 3:9). Compare "before Me" (Ex 20:3). in gardens--(See on Isa 1:29; Le 17:5). altars of brick--Hebrew, "bricks." God had commanded His altars to be of unhewn stone (Ex 20:25).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Isaiah 65:3
“A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face,.... They committed their sins openly, without any fear of the divine Being, and in defiance of him, not at all awed by his omniscience and omnipresence; they committed them in the open streets, and even in the temple, the place of the divine residence; and these they did constantly, which provoked him to anger and wrath against them; particularly the following sins: that sacrificeth in gardens; to idols, as the Targum, placed there, as they were under every green tree; or in groves, where idols were worshipped.”
Isaiah 65:3
“A people - This verse contains a specification of the reasons why God had rejected them, and brought the calamities upon them. That provoketh me to anger - That is, by their sins. They give constant occasion for my indignation. Continually - (תמיד tâmı̂yd). It is not once merely, but their conduct as a people is constantly such as to excite my displeasure. To my face - There is no attempt at concealment. Their abominations are public.”
sitting among the graves: Clarke calls the Hebrew word behind secret places doubtful, and one ancient manuscript reads rocks. Wesley reads the secret places as idol temples or caves. The Septuagint has them spending nights in graves for dreams, Jerome notes.
Isaiah 65:4
“Which remain among the graves - “For the purpose of evoking the dead. They lodged in desert places that demons might appear to them; for demons do appear in such places, to those who do believe in them.” - Kimchi. In the monuments “In the caverns” - בנצורים bannetsurim, a word of doubtful signification. An ancient MS. has בצורים batstsurim, another בצרים batstsurim, “in the rocks;” and Le Clec thinks the Septuagint had it so in their copy.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 65:4
“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 foul sin of Israel in all ages, culminating in their killing Messiah, and still rejecting Him.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Such people are smoke in My nostrils: Jamieson, Fausset & Brown explain that the Hebrew nose is the seat of anger, so smoke in My nostrils is a fire that burns. Clarke notes that holier than you is one Hebrew verb. Augustine compares the Pharisee who judged the woman at the feet of Jesus.
Isaiah 65:5
“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 seat of anger; and the nostrils distended in wrath, as it were, breathe forth smoke [ROSENMULLER] (Ps 18:8).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 65:5
“Which say, Stand by thyself - Who at the time that they engage in these abominations are distinguished for spiritual pride. The most worthless people are commonly the most proud; and they who have wandered farthest from God have in general the most exalted idea of their own goodness. It was a characteristic of a large part of the Jewish nation, and especially of the Pharisees, to be self-righteous and proud.”
Isaiah 65:6-7
Behold, it is written before Me: “Behold, it is written before Me”, so the judgment answers a settled account, and “I will not keep silent, but I will repay”. The iniquities of the fathers and the sons are repaid together, “into their laps”. The measure is their own history: “full payment for their former deeds”.
Isaiah 65:6
“Behold, it is written before me - Their sin is registered in heaven, calling aloud for the punishment due to it. I will - recompense into their bosom - The bosom is the place where the Asiatics have their pockets, and not in their skirts like the inhabitants of the west. Their loose flowing garments have scarcely any thing analogous to skirts. Into their bosom - For על al, ten MSS. and five editions have אל el. So again at the end of this verse, seventeen MSS. and four editions have אל al. - L.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 65:6
“This is expounded by St. Paul, Rom. xi. 1-5 , where, when, upon occasion of the rejection of the Jews, it is asked, Hath God then cast away his people? he answers, No; for at this time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. This prophecy has reference to that distinguished remnant.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
both for your iniquities: The verse turns from your fathers to their laps in mid-sentence, and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read the shift as a mark of growing distance. Clarke follows the Septuagint and reads their in both places. Wesley says the sons made the iniquities of their fathers their own by imitation.
Isaiah 65:7
“Your iniquities - Their idolatry and their forsaking God, and their arts of necromancy. And the iniquities of your fathers together - The consequences of your own sins, and of the long defection of the nation from virtue and pure religion, shall come rushing upon you like accumulated floods. This is in accordance with the Scripture doctrine everywhere, that the consequences of the sins of ancestors pass over and visit their posterity (see Exo 20:5; Exo 34:7; Num 14:18; Job 21:19; Luk 11:50-51; the notes at Rom 5:19).”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 65:7
“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. work--the full recompense of their work (so Isa 49:4).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
New Wine in the Cluster: My Servants Shall Eat
Isaiah 65:8-10
A cluster of grapes with a blessing in it pictures the remnant: “Do not destroy it, for it contains a blessing”. Descendants from Jacob receive the land: “the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds”. Achor means trouble, the valley of the judgment on Achan at Joshua 7:26.
Isaiah 65:8
“A blessing is in it - The Hebrews call all things which serve for food ברכה berachah, “a blessing.” On this verse Kimchi remarks: “As the cluster of grapes contains, besides the juice, the bark, and the kernels, so the Israelites have, besides the just, sinners among them. Now as the cluster must not be destroyed because there is a blessing, a nutritive part in it; so Israel shall not be destroyed, because there are righteous persons in it.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
I will bring forth descendants from Jacob: Jamieson, Fausset & Brown link these descendants to the holy seed of 6:13. Barnes reads the mountains as Jerusalem and its hills, the land God claimed as His own dwelling. Clarke prefers the singular mountain, with the Septuagint and Syriac, and takes it as Mount Zion.
Isaiah 65:9
“And I will bring forth a seed - I will give descendants to Jacob, who shall share my favor and repossess the land. An inheritor of my mountains - The mountains of Palestine - Jerusalem and the vicinity - called the mountains of God because he claimed that land as his special residence, and the place where his holy religion was established. And mine elect - They who have been chosen by me to maintain my religion in the world.”
Sharon will become a pasture for flocks: Barnes places Sharon on the coast south of Mount Carmel, running from Caesarea to Joppa, a name for fertile beauty. Wesley notes that Sharon had become a wilderness. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown join Achor to Hosea 2:15, where the valley of trouble opens into hope.
Isaiah 65:10
“Sharon - and the valley of Achor - Two of the most fertile parts of Judea; famous for their rich pastures; the former to the west, not far from Joppa; the latter north of Jericho, near Gilgal.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 65:10
“Third, as to the fertility of their pastures: and the plains, and the valley of Achor, so called, because they stoned Achan there (Josh 7:24–26); I will give them the valley of Achor for an opening of hope (Hos 2:15).”
Thomas Aquinas · written before 1274 · Commentary on Isaiahpatristic
Isaiah 65:11-12
But you who forsake the LORD: Those “who set a table for Fortune” keep a rival cult of fate. The Hebrew names the gods Gad, fortune, and Meni, destiny, and plays on the second name: “I will destine you for the sword”. The charge is their silence: “because I called and you did not answer”.
Isaiah 65:11
“But ye are they that forsake the Lord - Or rather, ‘Ye who forsake Yahweh, and who forget my holy mountain, I will number to the sword.’ The design of this verse is to remind them of their idolatries, and to assure them that they should not escape unpunished. That forget my holy mountain - Mount Moriah, the sacred mountain on which the temple was built.”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 65:11
“Forget - To forget God's holy mountains, signifies not to regard the true worship of God. God calls Zion his holy mountain. That troop - The idols of the ten tribes, and of the Assyrians, were a troop, where as the God of Israel was one God.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
I will destine you for the sword: Barnes hears a play on words, for the Hebrew verb behind destine shares its root with Meni, the god of destiny. Wesley sets the kneeling against their bowing to idols. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown set the unanswered call beside 64:7, where no one called on the name of the LORD.
Isaiah 65:12
Therefore will I number you - Referring to Meni, which signifies number “Rabbi Eliezar said to his disciples, Turn to God one day before you die. His disciples said, How call a man know the day of his death? He answered, Therefore it is necessary that you should turn to God to-day, for possibly ye may die to-morrow.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 65:12
“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). Contrast with this God and His people's mutual fellowship in prayer (Isa 65:24).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Isaiah 65:13-16
Four times the LORD sets His servants against the rest: “My servants will eat, but you will go hungry”. The line runs inside the one covenant people. Blessings and oaths will be made “by the God of truth”, the Hebrew word Amen, as Henry and Barnes note.
Isaiah 65:13
“Therefore, thus saith the Lord God - The design of this verse is to show what would be the difference between those who kept and those who forsook his commandments. The one would be objects of his favor, and have abundance; the other would be objects of his displeasure, and be subjected to the evils of poverty, grief, and want. My servants shall eat - Shall have abundance. They shall be objects of my favor. But ye - Ye who revolt from me, and who worship idols. Shall be hungry - Shall be subjected to the evils of want.”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 65:13
“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]. A further fulfilment may still remain, just before the creation of the "new heavens and earth," as the context, Isa 65:17, implies.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
My servants will shout for joy: Barnes gives the Hebrew of broken spirit as breaking. Aquinas sets the wail beside Wisdom 5:3, where the wicked groan in anguish of spirit. Henry says the servants learn their debt to grace from the misery beside them.
Isaiah 65:14
“Second, in joy of heart: behold my servants shall rejoice, and you shall be confounded: repenting, and groaning for anguish of spirit (Wis 5:3).”
Thomas Aquinas · written before 1274 · Commentary on Isaiahpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 65:14
“Shall sing for joy of heart - They who serve me shall have abundant occasion of rejoicing. But ye - shall howl. You shall shriek under the anguish and distress that shall come upon you. For vexation of spirit - Margin, as in Hebrew, ‘Breaking.’ That is, your spirit shall be broken and crushed under the weight of the calamities that shall come upon you.”
leave behind your name as a curse: The word for curse means an oath, Barnes explains, so the name becomes a byword in swearing, and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown compare Jeremiah 29:22. Cyril of Jerusalem and Theodoret read another name as Christian. That name was first given at Antioch in Acts 11:26.
Isaiah 65:15
“And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen - To my people; to those whom I have selected to be my friends. The word rendered here ‘curse’ (שׁבועה shebû‛âh) means properly “an oath,” or “a swearing”; and then “an imprecation” or “a curse” (see Num 5:21; Dan 9:11). The sense here seems to be, that their punishment would be so great that it would become the subject of imprecation when others wished to bind themselves in the most solemn manner by an oath.”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 65:15
“To his judgment they shall refer their cause, from whom every man's judgment doth proceed. Secondly, They shall give honour to him as the God of truth, the God of the Amen (so the word is); some understand it of Christ who is himself the Amen, the faithful witness ( Rev. iii. 14 ), and in whom all the promises are yea and amen, 2 Cor. i.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
will swear by the God of truth: Jamieson, Fausset & Brown connect the God of truth with Christ, who is called the Amen in Revelation 3:14. Jerome records the Septuagint rendering, true, beside a Greek rendering, faithfully. Aquinas reads the former troubles as forgotten because good things have taken their place.
Isaiah 65:16
“The world is yours if you be Christ's, 1 Cor. iii. When God is reconciled to us, which gives us a new heaven, the creatures too are reconciled to us, which gives us a new earth. The future glory of the saints will be so entirely different from what they ever knew before that it may well be called new heavens and a new earth, 2 Pet. iii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
New Heavens and a New Earth, Where the Wolf and Lamb Feed Together
Isaiah 65:17-19
For behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth: “For behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth” stands behind 2 Peter 3:13 and Revelation 21:1. “The former things will not be remembered”. The promise that “The sounds of weeping and crying will no longer be heard” answers the weeping in Zion, as at 22:4.
Isaiah 65:17
“For behold - The idea in this verse is, that there should be a state of glory as great as if a new heaven and a new earth were to be made. I create new heavens - Calamity and punishment in the Bible are often represented by the heavens growing dark, and being rolled up like as a scroll, or passing away (see the notes at Isa 13:10; Isa 34:4).”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 65:17
“THIS passage, like the rest of Isaiah's closing chapters, will have complete fulfillment in the latter days when Christ shall come, when the whole company of His elect ones shall have been gathered out from the world, when the whole creation shall have been renewed, when new heavens and a new earth shall be the product of the Savior's power, when, forever and forever, perfected saints of God shall behold His face and joy and rejoice in Him.”
ConnectionsRevelation 21:1
rejoice forever in what I create: Clarke renders forever as the age to come, comparing the Septuagint title Father of the age to come. Aquinas reads Jerusalem as the earthly city and more the heavenly. Cyril of Alexandria takes the joy as the church's, and records others who place it after this present age.
Isaiah 65:18
“Rejoice for ever in that which I create “Exult in the age to come which I create” - So in Isa 9:5 אבי עד abi ad, πατηρ του μελλοντος αιωνος, “the father of the age to come,” Sept. See Bishop Chandler, Defence of Christianity, p. 136.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
I will rejoice in Jerusalem: Barnes sends the reader to 62:5, where God rejoices over Zion as a bridegroom over his bride, and to 25:8, where He wipes away tears. Clarke cites a reading of the weeping as grief over untimely deaths, the theme verse 20 takes up. Henry places the full answer in heaven.
Isaiah 65:19
“And I will rejoice in Jerusalem - (See the notes at Isa 62:5). And the voice of weeping shall no more be heard - (See the notes at Isa 25:7-8).”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 65:19
“If this relate to any state of the church in this life, it means no more than that the former occasions of grief shall not return, but God's people shall long enjoy an uninterrupted tranquillity. But in heaven it shall have a full accomplishment, in respect both of the perfection and the perpetuity of the promised joy; there all tears shall be wiped away.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Isaiah 65:20-23
No longer will a nursing infant live but a few days: Long life becomes the rule: “No longer will a nursing infant live but a few days”. The verse still counts death and the accursed, set beside Revelation 21:4, where death is no more. The curse of Deuteronomy 28:30 is reversed: “They will build houses and dwell in them”.
Isaiah 65:20
“There shall be no more thence - The Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Vulgate, read this, ‘There shall not be there.’ The change requires the omission of a single letter in the present Hebrew text, and the sense seems to demand it. The design of the prophet here is, to describe the times of happiness and prosperity which would succeed the calamities under which the nation had been suffering. This he does by a great variety of images, all denoting substantially the same thing.”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 65:20
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
They will build houses and dwell in them: Barnes reads the verse with 62:8-9, where foreigners no longer drink the new wine Israel labored for. Aquinas sets it beside Amos 9:14 and Ezekiel 28:26, two more promises of houses built and vineyards planted in safety. Jerome adds the psalm promise that Judah's cities will be rebuilt.
Isaiah 65:21
“Third, as to prosperity of goods, both as to security of their possessions: and they shall build: and they shall build houses (Ezek 28:26); they shall plant vineyards (Amos 9:14).”
Thomas Aquinas · written before 1274 · Commentary on Isaiahpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 65:21
“And they shall build houses - (See the notes at Isa 62:8-9).”
as is the lifetime of a tree: Clarke hears the reversal of the curse in Deuteronomy 28:30, where one man builds a house and another lives in it. The Septuagint reads the days of the tree of life, and Theodoret takes that tree as the cross. Fully enjoy means wear out, Jamieson, Fausset & Brown explain.
Isaiah 65:22
“They shall not build, and another inhabit - The reverse of the curse denounced on the disobedient, Deu 28:30: “Thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell therein; thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.” For as the days of a tree - It is commonly supposed that the oak, one of the most longlived of the trees, lasts about a thousand years; being five hundred years growing to full perfection, and as many decaying: which seems to be a moderate and probable computation. See Evelyn, Sylva, B. 3 chap.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
They will not labor in vain: Doomed to disaster is for terror, Jamieson, Fausset & Brown explain, children born to die, as in Leviticus 26:16. Clarke moves the chosen ones from the end of verse 22 to open this verse, with the Syriac and Vulgate. Barnes names two ways labor was lost, barren land and plunder.
Isaiah 65:23
“He will make the times that come after comfortable to their children. As they shall be good, so it shall be well with them; they shall not be brought forth to days of trouble; nor shall it ever be said, Blessed is the womb that bore not. In the gospel church Christ's name shall be borne up by a succession.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
before they call, I will answer: “Even before they call, I will answer” pictures a prayer answered before it is spoken. “and while they are still speaking, I will hear” doubles the promise from the other side, the hearing arriving inside the speech itself. The intimacy belongs to the servants the chapter sets apart.
Isaiah 65:24
“Before they call - God promised, chap. lviii, 9, to answer them, when they called: here he promises to answer the words, as soon as they should be formed in their hearts before they could get them out of their lips.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 65:24
“These are high expressions of God's readiness to hear prayer; and this appears much more in the grace of the gospel than it did under the law; we owe the comfort of it to the mediation of Christ as our advocate with the Father and are obliged in gratitude to give a ready ear to God's calls.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The wolf and the lamb will feed together: “The wolf and the lamb will feed together” takes up the words of 11:6-9. “but the food of the serpent will be dust” recalls the curse at Genesis 3:14. The line “They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain” closes the chapter as 11:9 closed that picture.
Isaiah 65:25
“The wolf and the lamb shall feed together - (See the notes at Isa. 11.) And the lion shall eat straw - Shall eat hay or provender like the ox. The food of the lion now is flesh. Changes shall take place as great as if his nature were changed, and he should graze with the herds of the field. See a full illustration of this sentiment from the classic writors in the notes at Isa 11:6. Like the bullock - Or the ox - the cattle that herd together - for so the Hebrew word (בקר bâqâr) means.”
2 more voices on this verse
Isaiah 65:25
“And dust - God promises a time of tranquility to his church under the metaphor of serpents eating the dust, their proper meat, Gen. iii, 14, instead of flying upon men: it signifies such a time, when wicked men shall no more eat up the people of God.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Isaiah 65:25
“All the enemies of God's church, that are subtle and venomous as serpents, shall be conquered and subdued, and be made to lick the dust, Christ shall reign as Zion's King till all the enemies of his kingdom be made his footstool, and theirs too.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Keep studying
Studies6
Words12
Trails1
Subjects1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 99:8; Cyril of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 5:6.65:18; Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 10:16; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Joseph Addison Alexander, Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Theodoret of Cyrus and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.