Isaiahchapter 66
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A.Heaven Is My Throne: to This Man Will I Lookvv. 1-6
Isaiah 66:1-2
The heaven is my throne: Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool is quoted at length by Stephen in Acts 7:49-50, verified, the last argument of his speech against a temple trusted as though it could contain the God who made all things. The question that follows, where is the house that ye build unto me?, is not a rejection of the temple's existence but of any confidence placed in a building rather than in the God it was built to serve, a point Barnes and Henry both draw from the same verse Stephen used against his accusers. To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word turns the chapter from architecture to character, naming the dwelling the Lord seeks as a humbled heart rather than a house of stone.
Isaiah 66:1, 1 voiceWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, in their own words.
Isaiah 66:1
“The heaven is my throne - (See the notes at Isa 57:15). Here he is represented as having his seat or throne there. He speaks as a king. heaven is the place where he holds his court; from where he dispenses his commands; and from where he surveys all his works (compare 2Ch 6:18; Mat 5:34). The idea here is, that as God dwelt in the vast and distant heavens, no house that could be built on earth could be magnificent enough to be his abode.”
Isaiah 66:1
- Quoted inActs 7:49“‘Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me, says the Lord, or where will My place of repose be?”
'Heaven is my throne... what house will ye build me?' (Stephen on the temple)
Isaiah 66:2, 1 voice
Isaiah 66:2
“And all those things have been “And all these things are mine” - A word absolutely necessary to the sense is here lost out of the text: לי li, mine. It is preserved by the Septuagint and Syriac.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Isaiah 66:3-4
as if he slew a man: Each lawful act of worship is paired with an equivalent atrocity, killing an ox counted as if he slew a man, sacrificing a lamb as if he cut off a dog's neck, an oblation as if he offered swine's blood, incense as if he blessed an idol, because the worshippers named here kept the forms of the law while their soul delighted in their abominations. Gill reads the pairing as exposing hypocritical sacrifice as no better than the pagan rites it formally opposed, the heart behind the hand the same idolatrous heart in both cases. I also will choose their delusions answers their choice with his own, the Lord giving them over to exactly the false confidence they had chosen for themselves, because when he called none did answer.
Isaiah 66:3, 3 voices
Isaiah 66:3
He is angry with them, saying by Isaiah, "Who has required these of your hands?" And by Jeremiah, since they were very bold, he threatens, "Gather together your whole burnt offerings with your sacrifices, and eat flesh, for I did not speak to your ancestors or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."
Athanasius of Alexandria· written before 373· FESTAL LETTERS 19:2patristic
Isaiah 66:3
“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). But the omission in the Hebrew of "is as if"--increases the force of the comparison.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Isaiah 66:3-4
“The unbelieving Jews, after the gospel was preached and in it notice given of the offering up of the great sacrifice, which put an end to all the ceremonial services, continued to offer sacrifices, as if the law of Moses had been still in force and could make the comers thereunto perfect: this was an abomination.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Isaiah 66:4, 2 voices
Isaiah 66:4
“I also will choose their delusions - Margin, ‘Devices.’ The Hebrew word rendered here ‘delusions’ and ‘devices’ (תעלוּלים ta‛ălûlı̂ym) properly denotes petulance, sauciness; and then vexation, adverse destiny, from עלל ‛âlal, to do, to accomplish, to do evil, to maltreat. It is not used in the sense of delusions, or devices; and evidently here means the same as calamity or punishment. Compare the Hebrew in Lam 1:”
Isaiah 66:4
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
B.Zion Travailed and Brought Forth; Comfort as a Mother Comfortsvv. 7-14
Isaiah 66:5
ye that tremble at his word: picks up the same phrase from verse two, naming a party inside Israel identified once again by reverence rather than by descent, the same distinguishing mark chapter sixty-five draws between the servants and the forsakers. Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake describes actual rejection from within the covenant community, the trembling minority persecuted by their own brethren for taking the Lord's word seriously. The mockers' own words are quoted against them, let the Lord be glorified, spoken in scorn, and the verse promises the mockery reversed, he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed, a verse Alexander reads as the book's clearest statement of division inside Israel itself.
Isaiah 66:5, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, in their own words.
Isaiah 66:5
“Hear the word of the Lord - This is an address to the pious and persecuted portion of the nation. It is designed for their consolation, and contains the assurance that Yahweh would appear in their behalf, and that they should be under his protecting care though they were cast out by their brethren. To whom this refers has been a question with expositors, and it is perhaps not possible to determine with certainty.”
Isaiah 66:5
“This perhaps might have reference to the case of some of the Jews at their return out of captivity; but nothing like it appears in the history, and therefore it is rather to be referred to the first preachers and professors of the gospel among the Jews, to whose case it is very applicable. How the faithful servants of God were persecuted: Their brethren hated them.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Isaiah 66:6
a voice of the Lord that rendereth recompence: Three voices are named in one verse, a voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, and a voice of the Lord that rendereth recompence to his enemies, the temple itself becoming the source of judgment rather than only the place where judgment might be sought. Barnes reads the verse historically toward the temple's own coming destruction, the voice from the very house the false worshippers trusted announcing their sentence rather than their safety. The recompence answers directly to the hollow sacrifices of the previous two verses, the Lord rendering to his enemies what their own worship had earned rather than what they supposed it purchased.
Isaiah 66:6, 3 voices
Isaiah 66:6
“A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the Lord - It is very remarkable that similar words were spoken by Jesus, son of Ananias, previously to the destruction of Jerusalem. See his very affecting history related by Josephus, War, B. vi., chap. v.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Isaiah 66:6-14
“He that, &c. - Solomon, Prov. xv, 8, gives a full commentary on the whole verse; The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. As if - From hence it is plain, that the prophet is not here reflecting upon idolatrous worship, but formal worship: upon those who in a formality worshipped the true God, and by acts which he had appointed.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Isaiah 66:6
“Some think this prophecy was fulfilled in the prodigies that went before that destruction of Jerusalem, related by Josephus in his History of the Wars of the Jews (4.388 and 6.311), that the temple-doors flew open suddenly of their own accord, and the priests heard a noise of motion or shifting in the most holy place, and presently a voice, saying, Let us depart hence.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Isaiah 66:7-9
Before she travailed, she brought forth: reverses the ordinary order of childbirth, pain expected before delivery, and pictures Zion's restoration arriving without the labor that should have preceded it, a birth completed before the pangs even began. The image answers its own question, who hath heard such a thing, with the report that a nation is born at once, as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children, the whole nation's restoration compressed into a single moment rather than a gradual return. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth answers any doubt with the Lord's own character as the one who completes what he begins, Delitzsch reading the whole unit as a picture of national rebirth rather than a claim about any one woman's labor.
Isaiah 66:7, 3 voices
Isaiah 66:7
“Before she travailed, she brought forth,.... That is, Zion, as appears from the following verse: lest it should be thought that the interest of Christ would be swallowed up and lost in the destruction of the Jews, this, and what follows, are said concerning the conversion of many of that people, both in the first times of the Gospel, and in the latter day, as well as concerning the calling of the Gentiles, and the uniting of both in one church state.”
Isaiah 66:7
“Before she travailed, she brought forth - That is, Zion. The idea here is, that there would be a great and sudden increase of her numbers. Zion is here represented, as it often is, as a female (see Isa 1:8), and as the mother of spiritual children (compare Isa 54:1; Isa 49:20-21). The particular idea here is, that the increase would be sudden - as if a child were born without the usual delay and pain of parturition.”
Isaiah 66:7
“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 being regarded as one under Messiah, who shall then be manifested as their one representative Head.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Isaiah 66:8, 2 voices
Isaiah 66:8
“Who hath seen “And who hath seen” - Twenty MSS., (four ancient), of Kennicott’s, and twenty-nine of De Rossi’s, and two ancient of my own, and the two oldest editions, with two others, have ומי umi, adding the conjunction ו vau; and so read all the ancient versions. And who hath seen?”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Isaiah 66:8
“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. for--rather, "is a nation born at once, that Zion has, so soon as she travailed, brought forth?" [MAURER].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Isaiah 66:9, 2 voices
Isaiah 66:9
“Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth, saith the Lord?.... Or, "to the place of breaking" forth of children, as in Hos 13:13, the womb, and the mouth of it: or, "shall I break or open" that, so some (s) render it; lest too much should or seem to be attributed to the Church, she being said to travail in birth, and bring forth children, this is said by the Lord.”
Isaiah 66:9
“Shall I bring to the birth? - The sense of this verse is plain. It is, that God would certainly accomplish what he had here predicted, and for which he had made ample arrangements and preparations. He would not commence the work, and then abandon it. The figure which is used here is obvious; but one which does not render very ample illustration proper. Jarchi has well expressed it: ‘Num ego adducerem uxorem meam ad sellam partus, sc. ad partitudinem, et non aperirem uterum ejus, ut foetum suum in lucem produceret?”
Isaiah 66:10-11
Rejoice ye with Jerusalem: calls every reader who loves her into a corporate gladness, the mourning named in this verse and the whole book's earlier grief over the city both answered at once, all ye that mourn for her now summoned to rejoice for joy with her instead. The nursing images that follow, sucking and being satisfied with the breasts of her consolations, milking out the abundance of her glory, picture Jerusalem herself as the source of comfort rather than merely its location, the city feeding her own children. Henry reads the doubled imagery, mourning turned to joy and Jerusalem turned nurse, as the chapter's answer in miniature to everything the book's opening chapters found wrong with the city.
Isaiah 66:10, 1 voiceWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, in their own words.
Isaiah 66:10-11
“The word of God, the covenant of grace (especially the promises of that covenant), the ordinances of God, and all the opportunities of attending on him and conversing with him, are the breasts, which the church calls and counts the breasts of her consolations, where her comforts are laid up, and whence by faith and prayer they are drawn.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Isaiah 66:11, 3 voices
Isaiah 66:11
“That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breast of her consolations,.... This, according to our version, expresses the end of the church's friends being called together to rejoice with her, that they might partake of her joys and comforts, delights and pleasures: but the words may be better rendered, either, according to Kimchi's sense, "therefore shall ye suck" (t), &c.; because ye have mourned for her, and because ye have rejoiced with her; or rather, as Noldius (u), "because ye suck", &c.; partake of her privileges and ordinances, so give a reason why they should rejoice with her.”
Isaiah 66:11
“That ye may suck - The same figure occurs in Isa 60:16; and substantidally in Isa 49:23. See the note at those places. That ye may milk out - The image is an obvious one. It means that they who sympathized with Zion would be nourished by the same truth, and comforted with the same sources of consolation.”
Isaiah 66:11
“Consolations - The gospel doctrine was their breasts of consolation. Her glory - Christ was the glory of the people of Israel, though he was also a light to the Gentiles.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
C.The LORD Comes with Fire, and All Flesh Shall Worshipvv. 15-24
Isaiah 66:12-14
the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: Peace extended like a river and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream both picture abundance arriving by a natural, unstoppable channel rather than by conquest, the Gentiles' own wealth pictured flowing toward Jerusalem the way the Nile fed Egypt in the earlier oracles against the nations. As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you makes the comfort personal rather than merely national, the same maternal image carried from the previous unit now spoken directly by the Lord himself. Your bones shall flourish like an herb answers the exile's own despair with a different figure, and Barnes reads the pairing of comfort for the servants with indignation toward his enemies in the same verse as the chapter's consistent refusal to separate blessing from judgment.
Isaiah 66:12, 3 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, in their own words.
Isaiah 66:12
“For thus saith the Lord, behold, I will extend peace to her like a river,.... As the river Euphrates, so the Targum; or as the Nile, which overflowed Egypt, and made it fruitful; or as any flowing river, large and spreading, continuing to flow, and brings blessings with it where it comes; and so denotes the abundance of this peace, the perpetuity of it, and its blessed effects.”
Isaiah 66:12
“Like a river, and - like a flowing stream “Like the great river, and like the overflowing stream” - That is, the Euphrates, (it ought to have been pointed כנהר cannahar, ut fluvius ille, as the river), and the Nile. Then shall ye suck “And ye shall suck at the breast” - These two words על שד al shad, at the breast, seem to have been omitted in the present text, from their likeness to the two words following; על צד al tsad, at the side. A very probable conjecture of Houbigant.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Isaiah 66:12
“Like a river - It is plain this prophecy relates to a farther conversion of the Jews than hath been yet seen. Her sides - The Gentiles were born upon the sides of Jerusalem and dandled upon her knees, as first hearing from the Apostles (who were members of the Jewish church) the glad tidings of salvation.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Isaiah 66:13, 1 voice
Isaiah 66:13
“WE do not intend entering into a discussion of the context and its relationship literally to the Jewish people. We have never hesitated to assert our conviction that there are great blessings in store for God's ancient Israel and that the day shall come when her comfort shall abound, when the glory of the Gentiles shall flow to her like a flowing stream and she shall be comforted by her God as one whom his mother comforts.”
Charles Spurgeon· written before 1892· The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3189: “The Tenderness of God's Comfort” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular (Reformed) Baptist / Five-point Calvinist / 1689 LBCF / 19th-c. evangelical
Isaiah 66:14, 1 voice
Isaiah 66:14
“For it is not only in the present life that I provide consolation for you through my heralds, but also in the heavenly city I will fill you with manifold joys—granting you the resurrection from the dead. This is what he meant by comparing the …”
Theodoret of Cyrus· written before 458· COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 20:66.13-14patristic
Isaiah 66:15-17
with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind: The Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind answers the gentle nursing imagery of the previous unit with its opposite, the same chapter holding comfort for the servants and fire for the enemies within a few verses of each other. By fire and by sword the Lord will plead with all flesh names a judgment reaching beyond Israel to every nation, and the slain of the Lord shall be many states the scale in plain terms rather than figure. The syncretists singled out for this judgment are named by the same practices condemned earlier in the book, purifying themselves in the gardens behind one tree, eating swine's flesh, the abomination, and the mouse, Gill identifying the mouse as an animal eaten in certain pagan rites and forbidden under the law in Leviticus eleven.
Isaiah 66:15, 2 voices
Isaiah 66:15
“For behold, the Lord will come with fire - The Septuagint reads this ‘As fire’ (ὡς πύρ hōs pur). Fire is a common emblem to denote the coming of the Lord to judge and punish his enemies Psa 50:3: Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; A fire shall devour before him, And it shall be very tempestuous round about him. So Hab 2:5: Before him went the pestilence, And burning coals went forth at his feet. So Psa 97:3: A fire goeth before him, And burneth up his enemies round about.”
Isaiah 66:15
“With fire - With terrible judgments, or with fire in a proper sense, understanding it of the fire with which enemies use to consume places brought under their power. Whirlwind - With a sudden sweeping judgment. Fury - That is, with fervour; for fury properly taken is not in God.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Isaiah 66:16, 2 voices
Isaiah 66:16
"For he will come like fire." … For he will descend from heaven in the glory of God the Father and with the angels. This is his chariot, as it is praised in the Psalms: "The chariot of the Lord is ten thousand in dimensions with thousands of those rejoicing." For he will come to give judgment in anger and to cast them off with a flame of fire. For "casting off" means rejection, just as he says to those who are dead in their sins, "Depart from me, you evildoers."
Cyril of Alexandria· written before 444· COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 5:6.66:15-17patristic
Isaiah 66:16
“For by fire and by his sword - The sword is an instrument by which punishment is executed (see the notes at Isa 34:5; compare Rom 13:4). Will he plead with all flesh - Or rather, he will judge (נשׁפט nı̂shephaṭ), that is, he will execute his purposes of vengeance on all the human race. Of course, only that part is intended who ought to be subject to punishment; that is, all his foes.”
Isaiah 66:17, 1 voice
Isaiah 66:17
“They that sanctify themselves - That is, who attempt to purify themselves by idolatrous rites, by ablutions, and lustrations. The design here is, to describe those who will be exposed to the wrath of God when he shall come to execute vengeance. And purify themselves in the gardens - (See the notes at Isa 65:3). Behind one tree in the midst - This passage has not a little exercised the ingenuity of commentators. It is quite evident that our translators were not able to satisfy themselves with regard to its meaning.”
Isaiah 66:18-21
I will gather all nations and tongues: , and they shall come, and see my glory turns the judgment just pronounced into an occasion for witness, the nations gathered not only to be judged but to see, a scene the older writers connect to the wider prophetic hope of Gentile inclusion running through the book's second half. The named destinations, Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, Tubal, and Javan, the isles afar off, mark out the known trading world from Spain to inner Africa to Greece, and the escapees sent there are commissioned to declare my glory among the Gentiles, messengers drawn from Israel's own survivors. Whether the priests and Levites taken from among the Gentiles at verse twenty-one describes actual Gentile converts serving in that office, or Israelites scattered among the nations and gathered back to serve, is a question the older commentators answer differently, Delitzsch and Alexander both weighing the Hebrew without settling it the same way.
Isaiah 66:18, 2 voices
Isaiah 66:18
“For I know their works - A word is here lost out of the present text, leaving the text quite imperfect. The word is יודע yodea, knowing, supplied from the Syriac. The Chaldee had the same word in the copy before him, which he paraphrases by קדמי גלן kedemi gelon, their deeds are manifest before me; and the Aldine and Complutensian editions of the Septuagint acknowledge the same word επισταμαι, which is verified by MS. Pachom. and the Arabic version. I think there can be little doubt of its being genuine.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Isaiah 66:18
“As to this, it is here promised, 1. That some of the Jewish nation should, by the grace of God, be distinguished form the rest, and marked for salvation: I will not only set up a gathering ensign among them, to which the Gentiles shall seek (as is promised, ch. xi. 12 ), but there shall be those among them on whom I will set a differencing sign; for so the word signifies.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Isaiah 66:19, 2 voices
Isaiah 66:19
“And I will set a sign among them - (See the notes at Isa 11:12; Isa 18:3). On the meaning of the word ‘sign’ (אות 'ôth), see the notes at Isa 7:11. What is its meaning here is to be determined by the connection.”
Isaiah 66:19
“Afar off - To all the quarters of the world. They shall - This was eminently made good after the destruction of Jerusalem, when the believers among the Jews, as well as the apostles went about publishing the gospel to all people, which was declaring the Lord's glory.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Isaiah 66:20, 3 voices
Isaiah 66:20
“And in chariots “And in counes” - There is a sort of vehicle much used in the east, consisting of a pair of hampers or cradles, thrown across a camel’s back, one on each side; in each of which a person is carried. They have a covering to defend them from the rain and the sun. Thevenot calls them counes, 1 p. 3”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Isaiah 66:20
“Your brethren -- those who are the children of Abraham, not considered as the father of the Jewish nation only, but considered as the father of many nations, and as the father of the faithful, and so are your brethren, shall be brought out of all nations for an offering to the Lord.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Isaiah 66:20
“The eunuch some time after came to worship at Jerusalem in his chariot and took home with him the knowledge of Christ and his holy religion. [2.] To the Gentiles, some of all nations, that should be converted to Christ, and so added to his church, which, though a spiritual accession, is often in prophecy represented by a local motion.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Isaiah 66:21, 2 voices
Isaiah 66:21
“And I will also take of them for priests - I will give to them an honorable place in my public service; that is, I will make them ministers of religion as if they were priests and Levites. This cannot be taken literally - because the priests and Levites among the Jews were determined by law, and by regular genealogical descent, and there was no provision for substituting any in their place.”
Isaiah 66:21
THIS chapter is surrounded with critical difficulties, and yet it is full of spiritual instruction. The verse before us is by some referred to Gentiles, and supposed to mean that the Lord promises that he will take out of the heathen nations a people whom he will make into priests and Levites. Others would say it points to the Jews, rejected for their unbelief and dispersed in judgment among all nations. When their own Messiah came, it was not with a devout faith, but with a profane imprecation, they said, “His blood be on us, and on our children.”
Charles Spurgeon· The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 992: “A New Order of Priests and Levites” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) (1871)Particular (Reformed) Baptist / Five-point Calvinist / 1689 LBCF / 19th-c. evangelical
Isaiah 66:22-23
so shall your seed and your name remain: The new heavens and the new earth from chapter sixty-five return as the guarantee of a lesser promise, as the new creation shall remain before me, so shall your seed and your name remain, the permanence of the renewed cosmos made the measure of the permanence promised Israel's own line. All flesh worshipping from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another extends Israel's own calendar of appointed worship to the whole earth, the monthly and weekly rhythms that marked the covenant people now marking universal worship. Henry reads the verse as the fulfillment toward which the sabbath itself had always pointed, a rest no longer bounded to one nation's calendar but kept by all flesh before the Lord.
Isaiah 66:22, 3 voices
Isaiah 66:22
“For as the new heavens and the new earth - (See the notes at Isa 65:17). Shall remain before me - They shall not pass away and be succeeded by others. The idea is, that the state of things here described would be permanent and abiding. So shall your seed and your name remain - (See the notes at Isa 65:15).”
Isaiah 66:22
“The new heavens - The new state of the church to be raised up under the Messiah. Remain - As I intend that shall abide, so there shall be a daily succession of true believers for the upholding of it.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Isaiah 66:22
“Old things have passed away, behold all things have become new ( 2 Cor. v. 17 ), the old covenant of peculiarity is set aside, and a new covenant, a covenant of grace, established, Heb. viii. We are now to serve in newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter, Rom. vii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Isaiah 66:23, 2 voices
Isaiah 66:23
“And it shall come to pass - As the prophet closes the book and winds up his whole prophecy, he directs the attention to that future period which had occupied so much of his attention in vision, when the whole world should be acquainted with the true religion, and all nations should worship Yahweh. Of such a book there could be no more appropriate close; and such a contemplation especially became the last prophetic moments of the ‘evangelical prophet’ Isaiah.”
Isaiah 66:23
“And, &c. - In the gospel-church there shall be as constant and settled a course of worship (though of another nature) as ever was in the Jewish church: Christians are not bound to keep the Jewish sabbaths or new-moons. But New Testament worship is expressed by Old Testament phrases.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Isaiah 66:24
their worm shall not die: The book's last verse turns from the worshippers to the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me, and gives them the words the Lord himself takes up three times in one breath at Mark 9:44-48, verified, their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, applying Isaiah's closing image directly to final judgment. Neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh ends the book on unrelieved judgment rather than comfort, and Alexander notes the deliberate placement, the same worship described in the previous verse continuing in view of this scene, judgment and worship left standing side by side rather than sequenced apart. The bench records that Jewish liturgical practice, when this chapter is read as the closing haftarah, repeats verse twenty-three's words of worship after verse twenty-four's judgment, a synagogue custom named here as the practice it is rather than a change to the text.
Isaiah 66:24, 2 voices
Isaiah 66:24
“If heaven and earth are renewed, how can we doubt the possibility of our renewal, for whom heaven and earth were made? If the transgressor is kept for punishment, why should not the just person be preserved for glory? If the worm of sinners does not die, how shall the flesh of the just perish? For the resurrection, as the very form of the word indicates, is this: What has fallen shall rise again, what has died shall live again.”
Ambrose of Milan· written before 397· On the Death of Satyrus 2.87patristic
Isaiah 66:24
“For their worm shall not die - These words of the prophet are applied by our blessed Savior, Mar 9:44, to express the everlasting punishment of the wicked in Gehenna, or in hell.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Where the chapter sits
Isaiah 66 falls in The new community and the new creation (chapters 56–66). The house of prayer opened to the foreigner (56); true fasting (58); the Nazareth manifesto (61, read by Jesus in Luke 4); the new heavens and the new earth close the book (65–66).
New heavens and new earth. The book's closing dual: worship final and universal, judgment final and severe.
Before it: The Servant's mission and suffering, chapters 49–55.
The whole shape of Isaiah→Key words
The Hebrew words this chapter turns on, by how often it uses them. Each one opens its word study.
| Word | What it means | Verses |
|---|---|---|
| יְהֹוָהYᵉhôvâh18 times, as יְהוָ֔ה, יְהוָ֑ה, יְהוָ֗ה | yahweh | 1, 2, 5, 6 and 10 more |
| אָמַרʼâmar8 times, as אָמַ֣ר, אָמְרוּ֩, יֹאמַ֣ר | to say | 1, 5, 9, 12 and 3 more |
| בּוֹאbôwʼ8 times, as אָבִ֣יא, יָב֥וֹא, יָב֔וֹא | to come | 4, 7, 15, 18 and 2 more |
| רָאָהrâʼâh6 times, as וְנִרְאֶ֥ה, רָאָה֙, וּרְאִיתֶם֙ | to see | 5, 8, 14, 18 and 2 more |
| גּוֹיgôwy6 times, as גּ֖וֹי, גּוֹיִ֖ם, הַגּוֹיִ֖ם | nation | 8, 12, 18, 19 and 1 more |
| יָלַדyâlad5 times, as יָלָ֑דָה, יִוָּ֥לֵֽד, יָלְדָ֥ה | she gave birth | 7, 8, 9 |
Cross references
The 8 chapters this one speaks with, most first. Open a row for the verses it shares.
Isaiah 653 verses
Isaiah 66:17
Isaiah 65:3A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick;Isaiah 66:4
Isaiah 65:12Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.Isaiah 66:22
Isaiah 65:17For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.- Read Isaiah 65 →
Isaiah 602 verses
Isaiah 66:20
Isaiah 60:3And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.Isaiah 66:11, 12
Isaiah 60:16Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings: and thou shalt know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.- Read Isaiah 60 →
Matthew 52 verses
Isaiah 66:5
Matthew 5:10Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Isaiah 66:1
Matthew 5:34But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:- Read Matthew 5 →
Isaiah 12 verses
Isaiah 66:3
Isaiah 1:11To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.Isaiah 66:17
Isaiah 1:28And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.- Read Isaiah 1 →
The rest of the chapters this one speaks with, 4 of them, for a reader following a thread past the four above
Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.
The world behind itThe place, the time and the people around this chapter, for a reader who wants the setting.
The world behind this chapter
Isaiah 66The history
The opening question is aimed at temple pride: heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool; where is the house that you build for me, and where is the place of my rest? A throne with a footstool was the standard way a great king was pictured, and every court in the region had one. Isaiah's point is one of scale. And then the answer about who God does look at: the poor and contrite in spirit, and the one who trembles at my word.
The list of corrupted sacrifices is deliberately shocking, pairing each legitimate offering with an abomination. Killing an ox is like murdering a man; sacrificing a lamb is like breaking a dog's neck; offering a grain offering is like offering swine's blood; burning incense is like blessing an idol. The dog was an unclean scavenger in that world, and swine's blood was the worst thing that could go on an altar. The charge is not that they stopped sacrificing. It is that they kept it up while choosing their own ways.
The birth image in the middle is medical and impossible. Before she was in labor she gave birth; before her pain came she delivered a boy. Shall a nation be born at once? Every hearer knew that labor is the price of a child; this one arrives without it.
Then the mother nursing: you will be carried on her side and dandled on her knees, the hip-carry of a toddler and the bouncing on the knees that anyone with children has done, and God says, as one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you.
The final mission goes out to the map's edges. Survivors are sent to Tarshish, Pul, Lud, Tubal, and Javan, the far west, Africa, Asia Minor, and the Greek lands, to the coastlands that have not heard my fame or seen my glory, and they declare his glory among the nations. Then the scattered brothers are brought back on horses, chariots, litters, mules, and camels, as an offering, and God says he will take some of them for priests and Levites.
The last verse looks at a valley the hearers could see from the city. Corpses of the rebels, with a worm that does not die and a fire not quenched, the picture is the burning refuse ground in the ravine outside Jerusalem, where the bodies of the disgraced were thrown. Jesus later used the name of that valley for the final judgment.
What it meant to them
The book ends where it began, in the temple courts, arguing about worship, but the terms have changed. In chapter 1 the sacrifices were rejected. Here the man God regards is the one who trembles at his word, and that man is being thrown out of the assembly by his own brothers.
And the closing scene answers the question the whole book asked. From one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before me. Not one nation. All of them, on the ordinary calendar of Israel's worship.
Sources cited
- J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary
- Walton, Matthews & Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
Connections
Where this chapter reaches into the rest of Scripture, with the verse each connection stands on.
v. 24 · Bookends: the same words open and close
BOOK-LEVEL. Isaiah frames rebellion ('they have rebelled against me', 1:2) with final judgment on transgressors (66:24), the new heavens/new earth (65:17; 66:22) answering ch. 1. Assumes final-form unity (multiple-authorship debate noted).
Isaiah 1:2→Listen, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the LORD has spoken: “I have raised children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against Me.
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Isaiah 66. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on 14 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes; Ambrose of Milan, On the Death of Satyrus 2.87; Athanasius of Alexandria, FESTAL LETTERS 19:2; Charles Spurgeon; Cyril of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 5:6.66:15-17; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765); Joseph Addison Alexander, Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Matthew Henry and Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 20:66.13-14.