Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 65:15
And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the Lord GOD shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name:
15. Their names shall be used in a formula of imprecation. Comp. in illustration Jer 29:22: “And from them shall be taken a curse for all the captivity of Judah saying, ‘Jehovah make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire!’.” Have we such a formula quoted in the clause following, “and the Lord Jehovah shall slay thee”? It is objected (1) that the formula would be incomplete, the essential words “like so-and-so” being omitted; (2) the “and” is unaccounted for, while to remove it would leave a perf. with a precative sense, a usage which is very doubtful in Hebr. (Driver, Tenses, 20). On the other hand, the use of 2nd pers. sing. rather favours the view that the words are meant as a specimen of the curse.
and call his servants by another name ] The LXX. (Cod. Vat.), with slight modifications of the text, reads: “And on my servants shall be called a new name” ( ). The is no doubt a slip; but the change of “his” to “my” is an obvious improvement, and may safely be adopted. The promise must not be taken too literally, nor too closely connected with the preceding threat. It is hardly conceivable that the prophet contemplates the abrogation of the name “Israel,” because it has been degraded by unworthy Israelites (Cheyne, Comm.). This would be implied only if the name “Israel” were that which is to remain for a curse, which is again a too violent interpretation. The “other name” is contrasted, not with that which both parties had borne in common, but with names such as “Forsaken,” which describe the present condition of the true believers. Cf. ch. Isa 62:2; Isa 62:4; Isa 62:12.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen – To my people; to those whom I have selected to be my friends. The word rendered here curse ( shebuah) means properly an oath, or a swearing; and then an imprecation or a curse (see Num 5:21; Dan 9:11). The sense here seems to be, that their punishment would be so great that it would become the subject of imprecation when others wished to bind themselves in the most solemn manner by an oath. The pious, who wished to confirm a promise or a covenant in the most solemn manner, would say, If we do not perform the promise, then let us experience the same punishment at the hand of God which they have done (compare Jer 29:22). Or it may mean, that their name would be used proverbially, like that of Sodom, as a signal example of wickedness and of the abhorrence of God.
And call his servants by another name – So disgraceful and dishonorable shall be that name, that Yahweh will apply another name to his people. Is there not an allusion here to the designed change of the name by which the people of God are known? Has it not been by the special providence of God that his true people are now known by another appellation? Is there any name on earth now that is more the subject of reproach and execration than all the appellations by which his ancient people were known? The name Jew – what ideas does it convey to all the nations of the earth? It is connected with reproach; a name regarded as belonging to a people accursed by God; a name more universally detested than any other known among people. And was it not because this name would be thus dishonored, reproached, and despised, that another was given to the true people of God – the name CHRISTIAN – an honored name – denoting true attachment to the Messiah?
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 15. Shall slay thee – “Shall slay you”] For vehemithecha, shall slay thee, the Septuagint and Chaldee read vehemithechem, shall slay you, plural.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Your name shall rot, as Pro 10:7, or only be used when men would curse others, saying, Let them be made like such persons. As the names of Leah and Rachel, Rth 4:11, and others of Gods servants, were used in blessing; so your names shall only be used in cursing; or when men will curse themselves, they shall use your names as examples of the eminent wrath of God upon sinners. For you shall not perish by an ordinary hand, but by the hand of the
Lord God; and as is the God, so is his justice, so is his strength; yea, God himself shall look upon your name as accursed, and not suffer his people to be called by it; they shall not be called Jews, but Christians, Act 11:26, the children of God, Joh 1:12. So detestable a sin is idolatry, that God will not suffer himself to be called by a name given to idols, how proper soever it be to express his perfection, Hos 2:16,17; nor yet suffer his own people to be called by a name by which idolaters are known.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. curseThe name of “Jew”has been for long a formula of execration (compare Jer29:22); if one wishes to curse another, he can utter nothingworse than this, “God make thee what the Jew is!” Contrastthe formula (Ge 48:20)[MAURER].
my chosenthe electChurch, gathered from Jews and Gentiles, called by “anothername,” Christians (Ac11:26). However (see on Isa65:13), as “My chosen,” or “elect,” in Isa65:9, refers to the “seed of Jacob,” the believingJews, hereafter about to possess their land (Isa 65:19;Isa 65:22), are ultimatelymeant by “My chosen,” as contrasted with the unbelievingJews (“ye”). These elect Jews shall be called by “another,”or a new name, that is, shall no longer be “forsaken”of God for unbelief, but shall be His “delight” and”married” to Him (Isa 62:2;Isa 62:4).
theeunbelievingIsrael. Isaiah here speaks of God, whereas in the precedingsentences God Himself spake. This change of persons markswithout design how completely the prophet realized God with him andin him, so that he passes, without formally announcing it, from God’swords to his own, and vice versa, both alike being from God.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen,…. Execrable and abominable to them, as the name of a Jew is to this day, and in all places; for their unbelief and impenitence, for their perfidy and insincerity, for their tricking and covetousness, and other crimes they are addicted to; see Jer 24:9:
for the Lord God shall slay them; by the sword of the Romans, and by his judgments, which continue upon them; the Targum says, with the second death; and so Jarchi interprets it of eternal death, which is the just wages of sin:
and call his servants by another name; a new name, as the Septuagint and Arabic versions; the name of the people of God, the Gentiles formerly were not called by; but now all that believe in Christ, whether Jews or Gentiles, are his people; the name of the sons of God, a name better than that of sons and daughters of the greatest potentate; the name which the mouth of the Lord calls, “Hephzibah” and “Beulah”, being delighted in by the Lord, and married to him; or rather the name of Christians, first given to the disciples of Christ at Antioch, and ever since continued, Ac 11:26.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
15. And ye shall leave your name for a curse (212) to my elect. He continues the same doctrine, and teaches that God will at length separate hypocrites from the true servants. And indeed we need not wonder that the Prophet dwells so much on this point; for there is nothing of which it is harder to convince hypocrites, who, puffed up with pride, deceive and blind themselves. He affirms that “their name” shall be “accursed,” because they thought that they were the holy seed, and that nothing else under heaven was worthy of being remembered. Such is also the import of the word “Leave;” as if he had said that false boasting, to which they were so strongly attached, shall be shaken off by violence; and therefore, that they may not flatter themselves with a glory that is temporal, and that shall speedily pass away, the Lord rebukes that haughtiness, and declares that he will have other servants, to whom they shall be a curse, so that even in solemn cursing this shall be taken as an example, “May God curse thee as he has cursed the Jews!”
And shall call his servants by another name. He shews how ill-founded is the confidence of that nation, which thought that God would have no people, if he had not the posterity of Abraham; for he solemnly declares that he will adopt a new people, and that he is not confined to the Jews, so as not easily to find others whom he shall adorn with the “name” of his people. The opinion entertained by some, that by “another name” is meant the Christian name, is exceedingly unnatural; and even from the context it is evident that the Prophet had quite a different object in view; for, in consequence of the Jews boasting proudly of the antiquity of their name, and growing insolent at having been elected by God long ago, as if God could not do without them, he shews that he will elect and adopt another people, and yet that he cannot be accused of capriciousness or fickleness, as if he had changed his mind. He will execute his purpose and his righteous judgments against those who, under a false pretense of his name, obscure his glory and corrupt all godliness.
(212) “Oath is here put for curse, as it is added to it in Dan 9:11, and the two are combined in Num 5:21, where the oath of cursing may be regarded as the complete expression, of which oath is here an ellipsis. To leave one’s name for a curse, according to Old Testament usage, is something more than to leave it to be cursed. The sense is, that the name shall be used as a formula of cursing, so that men shall be able to wish nothing worse to others, than a like character and fate. This is clear from Jer 29:22, compared with Zec 3:2, as well as from the converse or correlative promise to the patriarchs and their children, that a like use should be made of their names as a formula of blessing. (Gen 22:18.)” — Alexander.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(15) Ye shall leave your name for a curse . . .The phrase has parallels in Num. 5:21; Zec. 8:13; Jer. 29:22, the thought in each case being that the person named is under so heavy a penalty from the wrath of Jehovah that he becomes a representative instance of what that wrath can accomplish, and because the old name, say of Jacob or of Judah, has been thus identified with evil. He will call His chosen ones, the true Israel, as by another name, which shall be for blessing, and not for cursing. (Comp. Isa. 62:2, Rev. 2:17; Rev. 3:12.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15, 16. Ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen “Name for a curse,” is that by which an imprecation is called on one’s own head if he do not what he pledges to do, or if he do what he pledges himself not to do. Canaan is such a curse; “let what Canaan imports befall me, if,” etc.
He who blesseth That is, one who invokes blessings on himself does so in the name, or in the personal attributes, of the true God. He neither needs nor desires any blessing except as the God of truth is willing to bestow it. Calling for a blessing in the name of an idol is invoking a curse. So then, every oath made, or any good asked for, is valid, is acceptable, only as it is made or asked in the name of the God of truth. Swearing and blessing, in this sense, are therefore acts of worship of the God of truth. They are acts of self-consecration and prayer to him. When these become universal with Jew and Gentile, then, and by very reason of their being so, the former troubles are forgotten. There is no more retribution for sin. All have become the spiritual Israel the faithful followers of the true God.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 65:15. And ye shall leave your name, &c. Vitringa reads, Ye shall leave your name for an oath to my chosen: the meaning, says he, is, that the punishment and calamity of these apostates should be so remarkable, that in the forms of swearing men should take their example from the severity of the divine judgment inflicted upon them, and from their miserable state; saying, “If I knowingly and wilfully deceive, may as great calamities happen to me, as have happened to these wicked and apostate Jews!” See Jer 29:22. The Lord shall slay thee, is thought to allude to the total abolition of the Jewish oeconomy. The following verse seems to justify the translation and interpretation given by Vitringa.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 65:15 And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the Lord GOD shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name:
Ver. 15. And ye shall leave your name for a curse. ] So that when mine elect shall denounce my curse against any one, they shall say, God make thee such another as was such a cursed wretch. See Jer 24:9 ; Jer 29:22 ; Jer 44:8; Zec 8:13 , See Trapp on “ Zec 8:13 “ Iadaeus sim si fallo, say the Turks at this day; As hard-hearted and unhappy as a Jew, say we.
And call his servants by another name.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
by another name: i.e. Hephzi-bah. See Isa 62:4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
ye shall: Pro 10:7, Jer 29:22, Zec 8:13
my chosen: Isa 65:9, Isa 65:22
the Lord: Isa 65:12, Isa 66:15, Mat 21:41, Mat 22:7, 1Th 2:16
his servants: Isa 62:2, Act 11:26, Rom 9:26, 1Pe 2:9, 1Pe 2:10
Reciprocal: Gen 17:5 – but thy name Gen 32:28 – Thy name Num 5:21 – The Lord make Num 5:27 – the woman Deu 28:45 – Moreover 1Ki 9:7 – and Israel 2Ki 9:34 – this cursed woman Psa 109:15 – cut off Isa 43:20 – my chosen Isa 43:28 – and have Isa 66:24 – and they Jer 24:9 – a curse Jer 26:6 – a curse Jer 29:18 – to be a curse Jer 42:18 – ye shall be Jer 44:8 – a curse Jer 44:12 – and they shall be Eze 14:8 – a sign Zec 11:3 – for their Mal 4:6 – and smite Mar 12:9 – and will Act 6:14 – change Act 13:41 – for Rom 3:3 – shall Eph 3:15 – is 2Ti 2:19 – Let Heb 4:6 – some Jam 2:7 – by Rev 2:17 – a new Rev 3:12 – my new
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
65:15 And ye shall leave your name for a curse to my {s} chosen: for the Lord GOD shall slay thee, and call his servants by {t} another name:
(s) Meaning, that he would call the Gentiles, who would abhor even the very name of the Jews for their infidelities sake.
(t) Than by the name of the Jews.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The reputation (name) of the rebellious Israelites would remain as a curse to all the Israelites, and Sovereign Yahweh would slay them. This is not a replacement of all Israel by the church, but a replacement of all who depended on formal worship for their relationship with God by those who genuinely loved and obeyed God. But those who faithfully served the Lord by keeping His covenant would have another reputation, namely, the reputation of the God of truth (lit. amen). People would bless and swear by this God, whom the "godly" served. Their godly conduct would testify to their solidarity with Him. In contrast to those whom He would slay (Isa 65:15), the faithful would be those whom He had forgiven.