Isaiahchapter 65
25 verses · BSBIsaiah book hub →
Speaks with:Isaiah 66×5Romans 9×3Amos 9×3Romans 10×2Jeremiah 4×2Isaiah 1×2
Summary
Chapter summary
Jehovah answers the preceding lament: he was found by those who did not seek him, while all day he spread out his hands to a rebellious people who sacrifice in gardens, sit among graves, eat swine's flesh, and say "I am holier than thou." Recompense stands written before him, yet he spares a remnant as new wine found in the cluster, a seed out of Jacob to inherit his mountains, with Sharon and the valley of Achor for those who sought him; those who spread a table for Fortune and Destiny are destined to the sword. A series of contrasts divides servants from forsakers: eating, drinking, and singing against hunger, thirst, and wailing. The chapter climaxes in new creation ("I create new heavens and a new earth"), Jerusalem a rejoicing, long life, houses built and inhabited, prayer answered before it is spoken, and the wolf and lamb feeding together on the holy mountain.
Context
Prophecy · Isaiah — Isaiah overview
- A. 1–7 I Am Found of Them That Sought Me Not
- B. 8–16 New Wine in the Cluster: My Servants Shall Eat
- C. 17–25 New Heavens and a New Earth, Where the Wolf and Lamb Feed Together
The outline
A.I Am Found of Them That Sought Me Notvv. 1 to 7
Read vv. 1 to 7 →B.New Wine in the Cluster: My Servants Shall Eatvv. 8 to 16
Read vv. 8 to 16 →C.New Heavens and a New Earth, Where the Wolf and Lamb Feed Togethervv. 17 to 25
Read vv. 17 to 25 →
The world behind this chapter
Isaiah 65The history
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.
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.
What it meant to them
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.
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.
Sources cited
- Walton, Matthews & Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 40–66 (NICOT)
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Isaiah 65. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 17 · An echo of this verse
'A new heaven and a new earth' reworks Isaiah's new-creation oracle; A/V/R/TC/HP/HI/S.
Revelation 21:1→Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
Beale-Carson (2007, cite-only)
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.