Isaiah 66:21
in Isaiah 66“And I will select some of them as priests and Levites,” says the LORD.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And of them also will I take for priests and for Levites, saith Jehovah.
KJV
And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the Lord.
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This verse in Isaiah 66
Commentary
4 notes on this verseon Isaiah 66:21-22
And I will select, says the Lord, priests and Levites from among them, so that those who are saved may proclaim the message to the nations. Of whom one spoke: Thus let a man consider us as ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God (I Cor. IV, 1). And Luke the evangelist says: Just as they handed down to us, who from the beginning saw and were ministers of the word. Of whom we also read above: You shall be priests to me, says the Lord (Isaiah LXI, 6).
This site's exposition
I will gather all nations and tongues
on 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.
The record, by era
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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.
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.”
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְגַם־ | vegam- | and also | H1571 → | 769 times |
| מֵהֶ֥ם | mehem | some of them | ||
| אֶקַּ֛ח | ʾekach | I will take | H3947 → | 966 times |
| לַכֹּהֲנִ֥ים | lakohanim | to <the> priests | H3548 → | 750 times |
| לַלְוִיִּ֖ם | lalviyim | to <the> Levites | H3881 → | |
| אָמַ֥ר | ʾamar | he says | H559 → | 5305 times |
| יְהוָֽה׃ | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
וְגַם־and also
vegam-H1571 →769 times
מֵהֶ֥םsome of them
mehem
אֶקַּ֛חI will take
ʾekachH3947 →966 times
לַכֹּהֲנִ֥יםto <the> priests
lakohanimH3548 →750 times
לַלְוִיִּ֖םto <the> Levites
lalviyimH3881 →
אָמַ֥רhe says
ʾamarH559 →5305 times
יְהוָֽה׃Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
1 Peter 2:9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
it leads to
- Revelation 5:10
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign upon the earth.”
Reached by 4 separate paths from here.
- Deuteronomy 7:6
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Revelation 1:6
who has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and power forever and ever! Amen.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Exodus 19:5–6
Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.
- Isaiah 61:6
But you will be called the priests of the LORD; they will speak of you as ministers of our God; you will feed on the wealth of nations, and you will boast in their…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Revelation 5:10
Through
1 Peter 2:5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
it leads to
- 1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Ephesians 2:20–22
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.
- 1 Corinthians 3:9
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
- 1 Peter 2:9
About Isaiah
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 992: “A New Order of Priests and Levites” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah and Joseph Addison Alexander, Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah.