Isaiah 66

Chap. LXVI. Ver. 1—24. God must be worshipped in spirit and in truth: his awful judgments on the wicked.—This chapter continues the same subject as the foregoing. The Lord reminds the Jews, who valued themselves much on their temple and pompous worship, that the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; and that no outward rites of worship can please Him who looketh at the heart, while the worshippers are idolatrous and impure. (See (1 Kings 8:23).) This leads to a threat of divine vengeance for their guilt; alluding probably to their rejection of Christ, their persecution of his followers, and their consequent destruction by the Romans. The increase of the Church is announced to be sudden and astonishing; which may be understood of the surprising success of the gospel when first preached, both among Jews and Gentiles; and especially of the future conversion of the Jews and fulness of the Gentiles, who shall eventually be gathered from all quarters to Messiah’s standard.

Then, being united in the new economy, they shall see every enemy of the true Church destroyed, and behold the final perdition of infidels and ungodly men. Here, after tracing the principal events of time, the predictions seem to terminate in eternity, where all revolutions cease; where the blessedness of the righteous shall be unchangeable as the new heavens; and the misery of the wicked, as the fire that shall not be quenched. (See (Revelation 21:1). (Mark 9:44).)

Notes on the verses

Ver. 11. That troop.. that number.—(The disquisitions and conjectures of the learned, says Bishop Lowth, concerning Gad and Meni, are infinite and uncertain: perhaps the most probable may be, that Gad means good fortune, and Meni, the moon. “But why should we be solicitous about it?” says Schmidius; “it appears sufficiently from the circumstances, that they were false gods; either stars, or some natural object; or a mere fiction. The Holy Scriptures did not deign to explain more clearly what those objects of idolatrous worship were; but chose rather, that the memory of the knowledge of them should be utterly abolished. And God be praised, that they are so totally abolished, that we are now quite at a loss to know what and what sort of things they were.”

|—Bagster. Ver. 13. My servant shall eat.—Throughout this chapter, and indeed throughout the Scriptures, two classes of people are pointed out, to one of which belong its promises, and to the other its threatenings. This distinction should be carefully marked. Ver. 18. But be you glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create.—Lowth, “But ye shall rejoice and exult in the age to come, which I create.” So Bishop Chandler; but Boothroyd adheres nearly to the established version, as we are also inclined; yet it is certain that the ancient Rabbins called the days of Messiah “the age to come.” Ver. 20. An infant of days.—[“That is,” says Kimchi, “the people shall live to three or five hundred years of age, as in the days of the patriarchs; and if one die at one hundred years, it is because of his sin; and even at that age he shall be reputed an infant; and they shall say of him, an infant is dead.

These things shall happen to Israel in the days of the Messiah,”]—Bagster. Ver. 22. As the days of a tree.—{It is commonly supposed, observes Bishop Lowth, that the oak, one of the most long-lived of the trees, lasts about 1000 years; being 500 years growing to full perfection, and as many decaying; which seems to be a moderate and probable computation. The prophet’s idea seems to be that they shall live to the age of the antediluvians; which seems to be very justly expressed by the days of a tree, according to our notions.}—Bagster. Ver. 23, Nor bring forth for trouble.—Lowth, “Nor generate short-lived race.” Compare (Psalms 78:33).

Chap. LXVI. Ver. 1. Thus saith, &c.—(This, and the preceding chapter, as Bishop Lowth observes, manifestly relate to the calling of the Gentiles, the establishment of the Christian dispensation, and the reprobation of the apostate Jews, and their destruction executed by the Romans.

The Jews valued themselves much upon their Temple, and the pompous system of services performed in it, which they supposed were to be of perpetual duration; and they assumed great confidence and merit to themselves for the strict observance of all the externals of their religion. And, at the very time when the judgments denounced in ver. 6 and 12 of the preceding chapter were hanging over their heads, they were rebuilding the Temple, by Herod’s munificence, in a most magnificent manner. God admonishes them, that “the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands;” and that a mere external worship, how diligently soever attended, when accompanied with wicked and idolatrous practices in the worshippers, would never be accepted by Him.]—Bagster.

Ver. 3. He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man, &c.—The sense of our common version is not clear. Our translators probably meant, that they showed as little religious feeling in the sacrificing an ox, as in the sacrifice of a man, or an unclean animal. By omitting the words in italic, supplied in our version, Bishop Lowth gives the passage a very different turn, as thus: “He that slayeth an ox, killeth a man; that maketh an oblation, beheadeth a dog; that maketh an oblation, (offereth) swine’s blood; that burneth incense, blesseth an idol,” &c. The import of which version we take to be, that the people served Baal, as well as Jehovah; and while on the sabbath they served the God of Israel, on other days, with equal zeal, they offered sacrifices, and even human sacrifices, to their idols.

Compare (Ezekiel 23:39). Ver. 7. Before she travailed.—That is, Zion. Ver. 12. Borne upon her sides.—It is customary in the East for women to carry their children on their hips.—Sir J. Chardin. See Orient. Cust. No. 271. Ver. 17., Behind one tree in the midst.—See margin. [Or, as Bishop Lowth renders, “after the rites of Achad;” which is supposed to be the same as the Syrian god Adad, whom they held to be the highest and greatest of the gods, and the same with Jupiter and the sun; and whose name, says Macrobius, signifies one; as does also the word Achad, in this passage.]—Bagster. Many other interpretations have been offered, all of which refer to the idolatrous rites practised in gardens.—In the midst.—Lowth connects this with the following clause; “In the midst of those who eat swine’s flesh,”

&c. CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE BOOK OF ISAIAH. Isaiah has, with singular propriety, been denominated the Evangelical Prophet, on account of the number and variety of his prophecies concerning the advent and character, the ministry and preaching, the sufferings and death, and the extensive and permanent kingdom of the Messiah. So explicit and determinate are his predictions, as well as so numerous, that he seems to speak rather of things past than of events yet future; and he may be rather called an evangelist than a prophet. Though later critics, especially those on the continent, have expended much labour and learning in order to rob the prophet

Ver. 19. Tarshish.—{Tarshish (see on (2 Chronicles 9:21).) seems to be used here for the east; Pal and Lud, (two African nations,) for the south; T’wdal and Javan, (the Tiberians and Grecians,) for the north; and “the isles afar off,” for the west. Draw the bow.—Bishop Lowth suspects that the words moshechey kesheth, “who draw the bow,” are a corruption of Meshech, the Moschi, a nation situated between the Euxine and Caspian seas; and properly joined with Tubal, the Tibareni.]—Bagster. Ver. 20. In litters.—Lowth, “In counes;” these are large hampers, slung on each side a camel. Swift beasts.—(Kirkaroth, rendered by the LXX. “shaded vehicles,” and by the Vulgate, carrucis, “cars,” probably denotes the same as the kar, the coune or pannier used for riding in.

See on (Genesis 31:34).)—Bagster. Ver. 24. Their worm shall not die, &c.—This evidently alludes to Gehenna, or the valley of Hinnom, on the south and east of Jerusalem, where the idolaters used to sacrifice their children to Moloch; in abhorrence of which, king Josiah ordered all the filth and ordure of the city to be thrown there, with the carcasses of dead dogs, and dead men’s bones. These, putrifying, produced worms, and other vermin; to prevent any fatal consequences from which, fires were kept continually burning, and probably on the very spot in which they had formerly sacrificed their children. See (2 Kings 23:10). (Jeremiah 7:31-32).; xix. 13. (Mark 9:44).—[The worm that preyed on the dead bodies in Gehenna died, and the fire which consumed them, was soon extinguished; but in the figurative Gehenna the means of punishment are everlasting.]

—Bagster. of his title; yet no one, whose mind is unprejudiced, can be at a loss in applying select portions of these prophecies to the mission and character of Jesus Christ, and to the events in his history which they are cited to illustrate by the sacred writers of the New Testament. In fact, his prophecies concerning the Messiah seem almost to anticipate the Gospel history; so clearly do they predict his divine character, (Comp. ch. vii. 14. with Mat. 1. 18—23. and Luke 1. 27—35. ch. vi. ix. 6. xxxv. 4. xl. 5, 9, 19. xlii. 6—8. lxi. 1. with (Luke 4:18). ch. lxii. 11. lxiii. 1—4.); his miracles, (ch. sxxv. 5, 6.) 3 sar ign character and