Isaiah 65:5

Which say, stand by thyself, c], According to Aben Ezra, Jarchi, and Kimchi, these are the unclean persons that did the above things who say to the righteous, "draw near to thyself" (p); so the words

Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.

Though they were so exceedingly guilty, yet they pretended to a singular sanctity, so as they would not suffer others to come near or touch them. The Samaritans are usually charged with this uncharitableness, and the use of this form of words; but as some do more excuse the Samaritans than the other Jews as to this rigour, so it may be questioned whether they were not at this time carried into captivity; and certain it is, that among the Jews there was such a generation from whom the Pharisees in our Saviour’ s time were derived, and this was the reason of their not eating, except they washed, when they came from the market, , lest peradventure they should there have touched some heathen, or some person who was legally unclean. Thus they esteemed themselves holier than others, though all their holiness lay in these rituals, and those too such as God never commanded. And indeed those who most exceed in such ritual holiness (lying merely in a separation from others, by the usage of some unwritten traditions) come most short in moral and true holiness; for of these God saith, These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burneth all the day; that is, a continual provocation to me; as smoke is an offence to our noses, ; which seemeth to be the sense rather than what some make, who make it a threatening of God’ s wrath smoking against them, which is sufficiently expressed in the following verses.

Isaiah 65:5 Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These [are] a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.Ver. 5. Which say, Stand by thyself; come not near to me.] These Jews were all manner of naughts, and therefore worthily rejected by God; necromancers, idolaters, epicures, gross hypocrites, as here their words, full of pride and contempt of others, show them to be. Such were the Pharisees with their sanctior sum quam tu the monks and mass priests among the Papists, and the Brownists with their broad leaves of formal profession among us. From Matthew 18:19, because Christ promiseth not doing for them that ask, except they agree on earth, Brownists peremptorily conclude that they ought not to pray with them that do not consent with them in their opinions; nor will they pray with their own wives and children, though never so pious, if they do not meet in the same centre of conceits. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day,] i.e., A continual offence to me, as smoke is to the nose and eyes, and shall be perpetually tormented by me in the hottest fire of hell; whereof hypocrites are the freeholders, and other sinners are but tenants as it were to them, while they are said to have their portion with the devil and hypocrites. Some think he hinteth at their smoking and sacrificing in their gardens and groves. Abbott’ s Trial of Church Forsakers, p. 148.

(5) Which say, Stand by thyself . . .—The picture, in its main outlines, reminds us of the proud exclusiveness of the later Pharisees, and the root-evil is, of course, identical. Here, however, the ground of the exclusiveness is not the consciousness of the peculiar privileges of Israel, but rests on what was an actual apostasy. Those of whom Isaiah speaks boasted of their initiation into heathen mysteries (Baal, Thammuz, or the like) as giving them a kind of consecrated character, and separating them from the profanum vulgus of the Israelites, who were faithful to the God of their fathers. I am holier than thou.—Literally, I am holy to thee: i.e., one whom thou mayest not approach. (Comp. Leviticus 21:8.) By some commentators the verb is taken as transitive, I make thee holy: i.e., have power to impart holiness; but this is less satisfactory, both grammatically and as to meaning. These are a smoke in my nose . . .—The point of the clause is that the punishment is represented as not future. The self-exalting idolaters are already as those who are being consumed in the fire of the Divine wrath, and their smoke is “a savour of death” in the nostrils of Jehovah.

Verse 5. For I am holier than thou] So the Chaldee renders it. קדשתיך kedashticha is the same with קדשתי ממך kadashti mimmecha. In the same manner חזקתני chazaktani, Jeremiah 20:7, is used for חזקת ממני chazacta mimmenni, "thou art stronger than I." - L.

5. Stand by thyself] Lit. “Draw near to thyself.” Cf. Isaiah 49:20. for I am holier than thou] This construction of the accus. suffix is hardly admissible. The verb is to be pointed as Piel, and the clause rendered: else I sanctify thee (cf. the similar use of the perf. in 1 Samuel 2:16). The words express no Pharisaic sense of superior virtue; they are addressed by a Mystagogue (see on Isaiah 66:17), or at least a member of a special religious fellowship, to the uninitiated, warning them against the dangerous degree of holiness (taboo) which would be incurred by contact with the initiated (cf. Ezekiel 44:19). (See Rel. of Sem.2 pp. 343, 357–368). It is true we have no further evidence of the existence of such mystic societies in Palestine at any time. But the whole passage (Isaiah 65:3-5) is unique, and furnishes a startling revelation of a state of things without parallel in the O.T., although something similar may be inferred from Ezekiel 8:10. Its emergence at this particular period is no doubt to be explained by the collapse of the old national religions, which was the inevitable result of the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests. This naturally led to a recrudescence of primitive superstitions which had been handed down in obscure circles, but had been kept in check so long as the public religion of the state retained its vitality (Rel. of Sem.2 pp. 357 f.). But while this general explanation may be sufficient, the situation becomes perhaps still more intelligible if we suppose the description to apply to descendants of the colonists settled by Assyrian kings in Samaria (Cheyne, Introd. p. 369). these are a smoke in my nose] If the clause stood alone it would be interpreted as a figurative expression of the idea of Isa 65:3 a,—a smoke entering into and irritating the nostrils. The parallel clause, however, has led nearly all commentators to understand the “smoke” as a symbol of the Divine anger (cf. Psalms 18:8); and to paraphrase the line thus: “these are (the cause of) a smoke (proceeding from) my nostrils.” This is certainly very unnatural. Why should not the second line be subordinate to the first,—the continually burning fire being the source of the “smoke” as the emblem of provocation? a fire that burneth all the day] Probably a citation from Jeremiah 17:4; cf. Deuteronomy 32:22.

Which say, Stand by thyself - Who at the time that they engage in these abominations are distinguished for spiritual pride.

3-5. Sacrificeth in gardens — Entering on heathen worship in the face of Jehovah’s temple, within the precincts of Jerusalem — perhaps within the courts of great houses wherein were gardens. In this, daring impiety is charged.