Isaiah 65
DOYLYIsaiah 65:3
3, 4.—they have chosen their own ways, &c.] God threatens the people, that, because they were abominable in their lives, He would abandon them, and give them over to a spirit of delusion. God is said to choose those things for us, which He permits us to fall into: when men abandon themselves to wickedness and impiety, God withdraws his grace from them; and, by his secret and just judgment, they are deprived of the faculty of discerning between truth and error, between good and evil. See Rom. i. 28; 2 Thess. ii. 10—12. Abp. Tillotson. See notes on chap. vi. 10.
5.—said, Let the Lord be glorified. Or, in derision b Prov. 1. 24. chap. 63. 12. Jer. 7. 13. The marvellous growth of the church. God’s judgments against the wicked. Before CHRIST about 698.
the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.
Isaiah 65:7
- Before she travailed, she brought forth; &c.] In the prophetick language, the affliction which a people suffers, or persecution, in labouring to bring forth a new kingdom, is represented by the pain of a woman in labour to bring forth a man-child. Sir I. Newton. It is intimated here, that the increase of the Christian Church should be so sudden, as to be compared to a woman’s bringing forth before her pains came on her. Dr. Wells.
Isaiah 65:12
- — I will extend peace to her like a river.] Compare chap. xlvii. 18. W. Louth.
Isaiah 65:14
- — your bones shall flourish like an herb.] Ye shall be renewed, as if dry bones should recover their moisture. (Compare Ecclus. xlvi. 12; xlix. 10.) In like manner St. Paul calls the receiving of the Jews into the Church, “life from the dead,” Rom. xi. 15. The Jews from ancient times have used this text as a form over a person interred, at the same time throwing grass into the grave, to testify their belief in a resurrection. W. Louth. See notes on chap. xxvi. 19. This passage, as well as that in chap. xxvi, seems to be, if not a direct assertion, at least an allusion, to a future resurrection of the dead; when the worshippers of the true God, in all ages of the world, shall have their lot in the kingdom promised to the saints of the Most High. Dr. S. Clarke.
Isaiah 65:15
- For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, &c.] See the introductory note on this chapter; and the note on chap. ii. 10.
Isaiah 65:17
- — behind one tree] The last word is supplied. Some versions have the reading which is given in our margin: but many learned men have supposed, that by the Hebrew Achad (signifying one) may be meant the Syrian deity Achad or Adad, which they held to be the highest and greatest of the gods, the same with Jupiter and the Sun, and which name, says Macrobius, signifies one: we trace this idol in the names of the Syrian kings, Ben-hadad, Hadad-ezer, &c.; according to this interpretation we may render, “after the rites of Achad, in the midst of those who eat swine’s flesh,” &c. Vitringa, Bp. Louth. Or, “behind (the chapel or shrine of Achad, or) the Sun, in the midst” (of the garden). W. Louth.
— eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse.] See notes on chap. lxv. 4. The heathens used some meats by way of purification, chiefly such as were not used for common food; such were several of those meats forbidden by the law, and called “abominable” by Moses, Deut. xiv. 3; of this kind was probably “the mouse,” which is expressly prohibited, Lev. xi. 29. W. Louth.
Isaiah 65:19
- — unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, &c.] All quarters of the globe. “Pul” does not occur any where else; it is supposed to be a place in the extremity of
Before CHRIST about 698. Or, one after another.
The Gentiles shall have an holy church, CHAP. LXVI. and see the damnation of the wicked.
fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.
Isaiah 65:21
- And I will also take of them for priests &c.] Such was to be the privilege of the Gospel times! They were not to be legal “priests and Levites,” but “taken from all nations:” such as might be proper ministers of the great High Priest, who was to come from the tribe of Judah, and be, not after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchizedek. Dr. Berriman.
Isaiah 65:22
22.—He new heavens and the new earth, &c.] Very rationally then does the Apostle [Heb. xii. 28.] call the Christian dispensation “a kingdom which cannot be moved.” Dr. Berriman.
Isaiah 65:23
23.—from one new moon to another,—shall all flesh come to worship] The expression here is accommodated to the condition of the Church under the Old Testament; (see note on chap. xix. 19;) but we are to understand, that in the “new world” here treated of, not the Jews only, (as was the case at the time of the delivery of the prophecy,) but all nations should come before the Lord to worship, in the frequent festivals of those blessed times. Jos. Mede. We are perhaps to understand the words to speak of these saints as being perpetually employed in serving and praising Him: see Rev. iv. 8; vii. 15. W. Lowth.
Isaiah 65:24
24.—for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched:] These words of the Prophet are applied by our blessed Saviour (in the passage from St.
the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.