Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 65:13

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed:

13 16. Contrast between the fate of these idolaters and that of Jehovah’s servants.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Therefore, thus saith the Lord God – The design of this verse is to show what would be the difference between those who kept and those who forsook his commandments. The one would be objects of his favor, and have abundance; the other would be objects of his displeasure, and be subjected to the evils of poverty, grief, and want.

My servants shall eat – Shall have abundance. They shall be objects of my favor.

But ye – Ye who revolt from me, and who worship idols.

Shall be hungry – Shall be subjected to the evils of want. The idea is, that the one should partake of his favor; the other should be punished.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Isa 65:13-14

Behold, My servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry

The better feast

It is observable how frequently in Holy Scripture mankind are divided into two classes.

In the text, the Lord God Himself clearly distinguishes between His servants and others. The one shall eat, drink, and rejoice; the other shall hunger, thirst, and be sorrowful.

I. THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE LORDS SERVANTS.

II. THE MISERY OF THOSE WHO DISOBEY HIM. (W. Mudge.)

Incentives to religious decision

I. FROM THE SUPERIOR ADVANTAGES OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE BEYOND ALL THE BOASTED DISTINCTIONS OR PROFESSION OF WORLDLY AND UNGODLY MEN.

1. They have a better Master and portion.

2. They have better resources and supplies.

3. They have better enjoyments.

4. They have better prospects.

II. FROM THE PECULIAR SOURCES OF DISSATISFACTION AND WRETCHEDNESS TO WHICH YOU ARE EXPOSED. (S. Thodey.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 13. My servants shalt eat, but ye shall be hungry] Rabbi Joachan ben Zachai said in a parable: There was a king who invited his servants, but set them no time to come to the feast. The prudent and wary who were among them adorned themselves; and, standing at the gate of the king’s house, said, Is there any thing lacking in the king’s house? i.e., Is there any work to be done in it? But the foolish which were among them went, and mocking said, When shall the feast be, in which there is no labour? Suddenly, the king sought out his servants: they who were adorned entered in, and they who were still polluted entered in also. The king was glad when he met the prudent, but he was angry when he met the foolish. Therefore he said, Let those sit down, and let them eat; but let these stand and look on.

This parable is very like that of the wise and foolish virgins, Mt 25:1-14, and that of the marriage of the king’s son, Mt 22:1-14.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

As there are a party amongst you who, instead of serving God, are the servants of men, in complying with idolatry and superstition; so I have some servants amongst you who have distinguished themselves by keeping close to my institutions from the rest of you, I will distinguish them from you in the dispensations of my providence: those that have eat bread at their idol feasts shall be hungry; my people, that would not do so, they shall have enough: those who have furnished a drink offering to Meni, or that number of idols, shall want that drink by which they have so profaned my name; but

my servants, from whose mouths you pulled the drink, because they would only furnish a drink-offering to me, they shall drink. My servants, whom now you make to mourn, and upon whom you pour shame and contempt, shall rejoice, and you shall be

ashamed; you that now rejoice and shout, while my servants that cannot comply with you are afflicted, and by you made to mourn, you shall cry for sorrow, and howl through vexation, whilst my servants who keep close to my institutions shall sing for joy of heart. Those who in an hour of persecution for religion can have patience under the enemys triumphs and rage, will find that the rod of the wicked shall not always rest upon the lot of the righteous.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

13. eatenjoy all blessingsfrom me (So 5:1).

hungry (Amo 4:6;Amo 8:11). This may refer to thesiege of Jerusalem under Titus, when 1,100,000 are said to haveperished by famine; thus Isa 65:15will refer to God’s people without distinction of Jew and Gentilereceiving “another name,” namely, that of Christians[HOUBIGANT]. A furtherfulfilment may still remain, just before the creation of the “newheavens and earth,” as the context, Isa65:17, implies.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Therefore thus saith the Lord God,…. This being the case, the following contrast is formed between those that believed in Christ, and those that rejected him:

behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: which has been verified in a literal sense; for the Christians, the Lord’s righteous servants, as the Targum in the several clauses calls them, were, as Eusebius e relates, by a divine warning, directed to leave Jerusalem, before the destruction of it; when they removed to a place called Pella, beyond Jordan, where they had proper accommodations; while the unbelieving Jews were penned up in the city, and were starved, and multitudes of them died by famine: and in a figurative sense they had a famine, not of bread, or of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord; the Gospel being taken from them, and sent to another people, who received it, and ate it, and were nourished by it; which is bread that strengthens, meat that is savoury, milk that nourishes, honey that is sweet to the taste, delicious fruit, and all that is wholesome and healthful; Christ in the word particularly, who is the Lamb of God, the fatted calf, the hidden manna, the bread of life and spiritual meat, as his flesh is, is the food which believers eat by faith, and feed upon, and are nourished with; while others starve, feeding upon ashes and husks, on that which is not bread. Kimchi interprets this and the following clauses, figuratively, of the reward of the world to come, and of the delights and pleasures of the soul, signified by eating and drinking; and so, he says, their Rabbins interpret it; see Lu 14:15.

Behold, my servants shall drink, and ye shall be thirsty; which has the same sense as before, the same thing in different words. Particularly true believers in Christ drink of his blood by faith, which is drink indeed; and of the grace of Christ, which is the water of life, of which they may drink freely; and of the Gospel of Christ, which is as wine and milk, and as cold water to a thirsty soul; and of the love of Christ, which is better than wine; and they shall drink of new wine with him in the kingdom of his Father; while the wicked shall thirst after their sins and lusts now, and have no satisfaction in them, and hereafter will want a drop of water to cool their tongues.

Behold, my servants shall rejoice; in Christ, in his person, grace, and fulness; in his righteousness and salvation; and in hope of the glory of God by him:

but ye shall be ashamed; of their vain confidence; of their trust in their own righteousness, in their temple, and the service of it; in their troops and numbers, particularly when taken and carried captive; and more especially this will be their case at the great day of judgment, when they shall see him whom they have pierced.

e Hist. Eccl. I. 3. c. 5. p. 75.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

On the ground of the sin thus referred to again, the proclamation of punishment is renewed, and the different fates awaiting the servants of Jehovah and those by whom He is despised are here announced in five distinct theses and antitheses. “Therefore thus saith the Lord, Jehovah: Behold my servants will eat, but ye will hunger; behold my servants will drink, but ye will thirst; behold my servants will rejoice, but ye will be put to shame; behold my servants will exult for delight of heart, but ye will cry for anguish of heart, and ye will lament for brokenness of spirit. And ye will leave your name for a curse to my chosen ones, and the Lord, Jehovah, will slay thee; but His servants He will call by another name, to that whoever blesseth himself in the land will bless himself by the God of truthfulness, and whoever sweareth in the land will swear by the God of truthfulness, because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they have vanished from mine eyes.” The name Adonai is connected with the name Jehovah for the purpose of affirming that the God of salvation and judgment has the power to carry His promises and threats into execution. Starving, confounded by the salvation they had rejected ( as in Isa 66:5), crying and wailing ( , fut. hiph. as in Isa 15:2, with a double preformative; Ges. 70, 2 Anm.) for sorrow of heart and crushing of spirit ( shebher , rendered very well by the lxx , as in Isa 61:1, ), the rebellious ones are left behind in the land of captivity, whilst the servants of Jehovah enjoy the richest blessings from God in the land of promise (Isa 62:8-9). The former, perishing in the land of captivity, leave their name to the latter as sh e bhuah , i.e., to serve as a formula by which to swear, or rather to execrate or curse (Num 5:21), so that men will say, “Jehovah slay thee, as He slew them.” This, at any rate, is the meaning of the threat; but the words cannot contain the actual formula, not even if we drop the Vav, as Knobel proposes, and change into ; for, in the first place, although in the doxologies a Hebrew was in the habit of saying “ b e rukh sh e mo ” (bless his name) instead of y e h sh e mo barukh (his name be blessed), he never went so far as the Arab with his Allah tabar , but said rather . Still less could he make use of the perfect (indicative) in such sentences as “may he slay thee,” instead of the future (voluntative) , unless the perfect shared the optative force of the previous future by virtue of the consecutio temporum . And secondly, the indispensable or would be wanting (see Jer 29:22, cf., Gen 48:20). We may therefore assume, that the prophet has before his mind the words of this imprecatory formula, though he does not really express them, and that he deduces from it the continuation of the threat. And this explains his passing from the plural to the singular. Their name will become an execration; but Jehovah will call His servants by another name (cf., Isa 62:2), so that henceforth it will be the God of the faithfully fulfilled promise whose name men take into their mouth when they either desire a blessing or wish to give assurance of the truth ( hithbar b e , to bless one’s self with any one, or with the name of any one; Ewald, 133, Anm. 1). No other name of any god is now heard in the land, except this gloriously attested name; for the former troubles, which included the mixed condition of Israel in exile and the persecution of the worshippers of Jehovah by the despisers of Jehovah, are now forgotten, so that they no longer disturb the enjoyment of the present, and are eve hidden from the eyes of God, so that all thought of ever renewing them is utterly remote from His mind. This is the connection between Isa 65:16 and Isa 65:13-15. does not mean eo quod here, as in Gen 31:49 for example, but ita ut , as in Gen 13:16. What follows is the result of the separation accomplished and the promise fulfilled. For the same reason God is called Elohe’ amen , “the God of Amen,” i.e., the God who turns what He promises into Yea and Amen (2Co 1:20). The epithet derived from the confirmatory Amen, which is thus applied to Jehovah, is similar to the expression in Rev 3:14, where Jesus is called “the Amen, the faithful and true witness.” The explanatory k (for) is emphatically repeated in , as in Gen 33:11 and 1Sa 19:4 (compare Job 38:20). The inhabitants of the land stand in a close and undisturbed relation to the God who has proved Himself to be true to His promises; for all the former evils that followed from the sin have entirely passed away.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

Vs. 13-16: THE DIFFERENCE GOD MAKES IS REAL

1. The Lord’s true servants will be adequately supplied with food and drink (Isa 1:19; Psa 34:10; Isa 41:17-18; Isa 49:10; comp. Joh 6:32-35; Joh 7:37-39), while the wicked and rebellious will hunger and thirst, (comp. Isa 8:21; Isa 5:13).

2. While the faithful sing for joy of heart (Isa 61:7; Isa 66:14; Isa 51:11; Psa 66:1-4), the rebellious idolators will be reduced to shame (Isa 42:17; Isa 44:9; Isa 44:11; Isa 66:5) – crying for sorrow of heart, and wailing for vexation of spirit, (Mat 8:12).

3. Since Israel has acted as an adultress, her name will become a curse – referring to the oath with which the priest had to administer the water of jealousy (Num 5:21-24; comp. Jer 24:9; Jer 25:15-18; Zec 8:13).

4. Henceforth, the Lord will call His servants by another name (Isa 62:2; 1Pe 2:9-10), so that whoever blesses himself, or takes an oath, will do so by “the God of Amen” – the God who is faithful to His word, and who always fulfills His covenant.

5. The former troubles will then be forgotten – being hidden, forever, from the Lord’s eyes, (Isa 22:5; Isa 26:16; Jer 31:12; Zep 3:14-20).

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

13. and 14. Behold, my servants shall eat. Here also the Prophet more deafly distinguishes between hypocrites, who held a place in the Church, and the true and lawful children; for, although all without distinction were called children, yet he skews that many shall be disowned as not belonging to the family, and that they who proudly and haughtily exalted themselves, under the name of the people of God, shall be disappointed of their hope, which is vain and false. We must carefully observe the highly emphatic contrast between “the servants of God,” and those who falsely pretend to his name; for he shews that empty titles, and false boasting, or vain confidence, shall avail them nothing.

Shall eat, shall drink. By these words he denotes happiness and a prosperous condition of life; as if he had said, that he will take care that believers shall not be in want of anything. But the Lord promises to his servants something different from what he actually bestows; for they often “are hungry and thirsty,” (1Co 4:11,) while the wicked abound in enjoyments of every kind, and abuse them for luxury and intemperance. But it ought to be observed, that the kingdom of Christ is here described under figures; for otherwise we could not understand it. Accordingly, the Prophet draws comparisons from earthly kingdoms, in which, when the people abound in wealth and enjoy comforts of every kind, there is a visible display of the blessing of God from which we may judge of his fatherly love.

But since it is not proper that good men should have their minds engrossed by earthly advantages, it is enough that some taste of those advantages should support their faith. And if they are sometimes oppressed by hunger, yet, being satisfied with a moderate portion of good, they nevertheless acknowledge that God is their Father, and that he is kind to them, and in their poverty have greater riches than kings and nobles. On the other hand, the wicked, whatever may be their abundance of good things, cannot enjoy them with a good conscience, and therefore are the most wretched of all men. The Prophet, therefore, has in his eye the right use of the gifts of God; for they who serve God in a right manner receive, as children from the hand of a father, all that is necessary for this life, while others, like thieves and profane persons, take violent possession of it. Wicked men are never satisfied with any amount of wealth, however great; they have continual fear and trembling, and their conscience can never be at ease.

The Lord, therefore, does not promise here what he does not actually bestow; and this happiness must not be estimated by the outward condition of things. This is still more evident from what follows, where he speaks of joy and thanksgiving. The Prophet undoubtedly intends to state in a few words, that contentment does not lie in abundance of earthly enjoyments, but in calm peace of mind and spiritual joy; for unbelievers have no relish for such things, but to believers a persuasion of God’s fatherly love is more delightful than all earthly enjoyments. Yet let us observe that we ought to look for all prosperity from God alone, who will not permit his people to be in want of anything that belongs to a happy life.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

INCENTIVES TO RELIGIOUS DECISION

Isa. 65:13-15. Behold My servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry, &c.

The principles of Gods conduct are the same in all ages, &c. No temptation is more common than that which arises from the impression that a life of religion is necessarily a life of gloom, &c. I urge upon the undecided some reasons for religious decision.

I. From the superior advantages of the religious life, beyond all the boasted distinctions or professions of worldly and ungodly men.

1. They have a better Master and portion. God loves to speak of them as His servants. He claims them as His own, and they rejoice in their allegiance to Him (Isa. 65:8-15). How greatly God honours His servants! Let Christians rejoice in the Master they serve. Let the impenitent contrast the master they serve, &c. Your master is bad; his service is worse; his wages are worst of all. Abandon Satans service. Become servants of Christhere and now.

2. They have better resources and supplies. They have meat to eat which the world knows not of, and they drink of springs of refreshment which never fail, &c. What has the worldling to put over against the peace which passeth understanding, &c.?

3. They have better enjoyments (Isa. 65:14). Religion has its conflicts, &c. But we maintain that the Christian has a large over-balance of joy.

4. They have better prospects. Even now a portion with the people of God is better than the best portion of the wicked, &c. But look at their hereafter.

II. From the peculiar sources of dissatisfaction and wretchedness to which you are exposed.

You have conscious condemnation, ever growing in evidence, &c.Samuel Thodey.

Isa. 65:14. THE JOY OF GODS SERVANTS (see vol. i. pp. 234, 320, 321).

There is a striking difference between those who keep and those who forsake Gods commands. The one is the object of His favour, the other of His displeasure. Those who serve God have abundant and constant occasion of rejoicing, whereas those who forsake Him exclude themselves from all true joy (Isa. 65:13-15). Consider

I. THE GROUNDS AND REASONS OF THEIR JOY.
Gods servants have the joy of

1. Salvation (Psa. 51:12). Includes acceptance, adoption, cleansing, &c. (Rom. 5:11). What a joy is this!

2. Claiming God as their portion (Lam. 3:24, and others). Excites joy even in adversity. The stream may be cut off, but nothing can deprive them of the fountain.

3. Gods abiding presence.
4. Faith. Trusting Gods care, &c. Brings peace and heart-rest.

5. A well founded hope of heaven (Rom. 5:2). This animates and sustains amid lifes sorrows. In the experience of such blessings Gods servants have good reason to sing for joy of hearts. And if there is so much joy in the way to heaven, what transports shall they have when they come to Zion with songs, &c. (Isa. 51:11).

II. THE DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS OF THEIR JOY.
It is

1. Pure and spiritual (Rom. 14:17; Gal. 5:22). A holy feeling, excited by spiritual objects, apprehended by faith. Suited to the noble faculties and sublime hopes of their heaven-born souls. Leaves no bitter sediment.

2. Satisfying. Such we seek. Only Gods servants realise. God has so made us that no worldly joy can satisfy us.
3. Strengthening. For
(1) Duty. Gives vigour to all the powers of the soul. Not so carnal joys.

(2) Suffering (Rom. 5:3, and others).

(3) Christian work. Feeds zeal like oil to the wick of a lamp.
(4) Spiritual conflict.

4. Enduring (Php. 4:4). Does not depend upon uncertain worldly good (Hab. 3:17-19). Lives through all the vicissitudes of this mortal life (Joh. 15:11; Joh. 16:22).

CONCLUSION.

1. Have you religion enough to make you really happy?

2. Have you to lament that it is much deadened and interrupted. Earnestly seek its increase and fulness (Joh. 15:11; Joh. 17:13). This joy beautifies, adorns, and renders attractive the Christian character. You are bound to be joyful as a means of honouring your Divine master, and being useful to your fellow-men.Alfred Tucker.

Isa. 65:16. The happy change. I. Trouble forgotten, as a thing past. Excluded. II. Blessing secured, on earth. In God, therefore real. In the God of truth, therefore permanent. By direct appeal to God, as the sole object of prayer.

Isa. 65:17-18. I. The regenerated world. Glorious prospect! The feelings it should inspire. II. The power by which it will be effected. III. The blessed results.

Isa. 65:19. Gods joy in His people. I. Its occasion. II. Expression. Favour. Fellowship. Blessing. III. The happy consequencethe alleviation of human sorrow.J. Lyth, D.D.

Isa. 65:20. The sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. I. The shortness of human life. A man a hundred years old is a wonder. Contrast the age of man with that of the works of nature, art, &c. II. The long-suffering of God. Though He sees all the sins of the sinner, and hates, and is able to punish them, He delays His stroke for a hundred years. His power over Himself. III. The malignity of sin. There is no self-restoring power in the soul as in the body. There are no spontaneous cures of spiritual diseases. The power of habit. Worse and worse. IV. The inexhaustibleness of the curse. It is not exhausted by a century, nor by a millennium, nor by the cycles of eternity. V. The claims of religion upon the old. Depict the dangers of hoary-headed sinners. There is still a method of escape. Accept the Saviour immediately.G. Brooks: Outlines of Sermons, p. 341.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

2. CHARACTERIZED

TEXT: Isa. 65:13-16

13

Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be put to shame;

14

behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall wail for vexation of spirit.

15

And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen; and the Lord Jehovah will slay thee: and he will call his servants by another name:

16

so that he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.

QUERIES

a.

Who are Jehovahs servants?

b.

How will Israels name be a curse?

c.

What is the other name?

PARAPHRASE

On account of the fact that there are a few good people who have chosen to serve Me while the majority of Israel has deliberately chosen to do evil, I will fill My servants with spiritual nourishment and satisfaction but those who rebel against Me will suffer spiritual starvation and shame, says Jehovah. Indeed, those who choose to serve Me will express their joy in singing, but those who disobey Me will weep, moan and wail with sorrow and confusion. The name of this disobedient nation will be forever after used as an illustration of rebellion, mockery and blasphemy by those who are really My chosen people. Jehovah is going to deliver a deathblow to Israels status as the elect people and He will choose obedient people from every nation on earth and call them by a new name which will characterize their new nature and blessedness. I will so completely and certainly fulfill My promises, the people who are chosen will invoke My name as the source of all truth for those who are My servants will be pardoned forever from the guilt and penalty of sin.

COMMENTS

Isa. 65:13-14 NURTURED: Continuing the idea of a refined Zion and the contrast between the good grapes and the bad grapes the Lord now pictures the different consequences of the refining process. Those (even of the goiym who were not called by His name) who do find Him and call upon Him and become obedient servants, He will fill with spiritual nutrition growth and satisfaction. Of course, Isaiah is using times coloring here, i.e., writing of future spiritual things in physical terminology. The New covenant scriptures make it plain that Gods richest blessings are spiritual (cf. Eph. 1:3, etc.). Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled (Mat. 5:6); those who seek the Bread of Life shall have it (Joh. 6:52-65); those who thirst for the Water of Life shall drink of it (Joh. 4:13; Joh. 7:37-39, etc.); those who declare joy shall have it abundantly (Joh. 15:1-11, etc.). Eating, drinking, feasting, celebrating and singing merely symbolize the blessings Gods servants will receive (see comments Isa. 25:6 ff). The kingdom of God is essentially character, not food and drink (physical things) (cf. Rom. 14:17). Those who rebel and disobey will find their souls and spirits starving and dying of spiritual nourishment. They will suffer sorrow and vexation (cf. Amo. 8:11-12). There is no torture more excruciating than spiritual torture (cf. Luk. 16:24-31).

Isa. 65:15-16 NAMED: Those of the chosen nation who rebelled against their messianic destiny and their God left their name to the world for a curse. God promised Israel she would become a proverb and a by-word among the nations if she was rebellious and disobedient (cf. Deu. 28:37; 1Ki. 9:7; 2Ch. 7:20; Psa. 44:14). The Jewish nation became the chief illustration for Christians of the consequences of rebelling against the Lord (cf. Mat. 21:33-43; Mat. 22:1-10; Luk. 13:34-35; 1Co. 10:1-13; Heb. 3:1 to Heb. 4:13, etc.).

The Lord will slay the former Israel and create a new Israel (Gal. 6:15-16). Jehovah delivers the deathblow to the former Israel when He cancelled her covenant and nailed it to the cross of Christ. It was definitely prophesied that He would do away with the election of physical Israel (cf. Jer. 3:15-18; Jer. 31:31-34, etc.). These verses (Isa. 65:13-16) clearly show that the genetic nation of Israel as such is not synonymous with Gods chosen (cf. also Rom. 2:28-29). In the light of this precise statement that God is going to slay the disobedient nation and call His servants by another name, what scriptural reason is there for expecting a future resurrection of genetic Israel? Ezekiel 37 undoubtedly refers to the restoration of Judah after the Babylonian captivity in 536 B.C. Certainly the nation that was restored then cannot be the fulfillment of Isa. 65:13-16; neither can the present-day Israel! See our comments on Isa. 62:2 for a discussion of the new name.

The Lord will so completely and evidently fulfill His promises in Christ, those who choose to obey Him will invoke His name as the source of all truth. They will pray to Him for every need and they will proclaim Him as Infinite answer to mans finiteness. He, Himself will become the Way, the Truth and the Life (Joh. 14:6). Those who become His disciples will know the truth and be set free from falsehood (Joh. 8:31 ff). The Incarnate Son of Jehovah will become an oath demonstrating in time and space the veracity of Jehovahs promises once and for all (cf. 1Co. 15:1 ff; 2Co. 1:20; Heb. 6:17-20; Heb. 9:1 ff, etc.). Whoever wishes to be blessed from henceforth must be blessed in the name of Jehovah and His Son; whoever wishes to verify the truthfulness, value, reality or meaning of anything must henceforth verify it in the character and will of Jehovah and His Son as revealed in the written record (the scriptures).

The God of truth is an extremely significant proposition. Jehovah is the truth. In the Person of Jehovah (and His Incarnate Son) is the whole of truth! There is no source of truth outside the character and will of God. He is truth absolute, ultimate, eternal in contradistinction from all that is relative, derived, partial and temporal. All that is true is relative to His character. When we speak of the sanctity of truth we must understand that underlying such a phrase is the sanctity of His character (His love, power, faithfulness, holiness, etc.). He is the God of truth and all truth derives its sanctity from Him. This is why all untruth or falsehood is wrong; it is a contradiction of what God is! This is why God cannot lie or change His will. To do so would contradict Himself and He cannot deny Himself and be God! The devils attack upon man was first an attack upon the veracity of God. He accused God of deliberate falsehood and deception in telling Eve that she should not eat of the tree because God knew if she did her eyes would be opened and she would then know something only God knew. Furthermore, the devil said God lied when He told Eve she would die if she ate of the tree. The devil openly assailed the integrity and veracity of God. And here is the important point; in convincing Eve that God was less than faithful, the devil very subtely destroyed Eves integrity when he seduced her into doubting Gods integrity. The only reference point upon which man may build his own integrity, veracity, truthfulness and faithfulness (his own character, as it were) is in unreserved commitment and belief in Gods integrity and faithfulness. All of mans unfaithfulness (indeed, all of mans sin) has its affinity with that lie by which Eve was seducedthat God is untrustworthy. Man has only the power to believe or disbelieve. Truth is not in man, but in God. Truth can only be in man when man believes and trusts and obeys God! Therefore, if men are to be formed into the image of God it can only be done by preaching the objectively revealed (in the Bible) character of God (His faithfulness, love, and power). All preaching to convert must center on who God is and what He has donenot in what man feels, or thinks or is able to do. It is not in man to be faithful or to love or to be holy. Man can only be faithful and love and be holy when he believes God is absolutely faithful and absolutely loving and absolutely holy.

All that is false and standing against man has been forever conquered and eliminated through the Son of God. The power, the guilt and the penalty of mans rebellion has been atoned for and truth, ultimate saving truth, is resident in Him. Man can be in Him by faith. That is where God chooses His servantsin Him Who is Truth! This is the new, refined Zion.

QUIZ

1.

What kind of eating and drinking is to be given the servants of Jehovah?

2.

What did God promise about the name of the Jews if they rebelled?

3.

What happened when God slew the rebellious Israel?

4.

What is meant about people blessing themselves by the God of truth?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(13) My servants shall eat . . .The form of the punishment is apparently determined by that of the sin. That had been the orgy of an idols feast; the penalty would be hunger and thirst, while joy and gladness would be the portion of those who had abstained from it. The words present a striking parallelism to Luk. 6:20-26.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

13, 14. The turn given to idolatrous feastings (Isa 65:11-12) suggested a course of figures illustrative of the different “fortunes” of the godly and ungodly: their meaning is, “My people shall be satisfied with the rich abundance I shall give, while ye with momentary idolatrous pleasures shall pass into destitution and abandonment. My people, from first to last, shall possess unfailing springs of joy; but ye shall be irredeemably bowed with heart sorrow, despite your cries or howlings for relief, for ever to be unavailing.” This proved true to the bold, bad Jews, down to their final experiences and ineffective struggles with the Romans.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

God’s Chosen Ones Will Receive Great Blessing, But It Will Not Be Shared By These Who Have Been Described. And God Will Create A New Heaven and A New Earth, and A New Jerusalem. The Old Will Have Passed Away ( Isa 65:13-25 ).

We are now approaching the final description of the time of God’s final triumph and it is now made clear that there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and a new Jerusalem. All is to be transformed. The old is to suffer the fate of Edom. A new is necessary. It is describing the final blessing on those who are His true servants, who have truly responded to Him, who trust in Him as ‘the Amen’, but the warning from what happened to Edom still stands. Those who reject His covenant will lose out and face His judgment.

Isa 65:13-14

‘Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh,

“Behold my servants will eat,

But you will be hungry,

Behold my servants will drink,

But you will be thirsty,

Behold my servants will rejoice,

But you will be ashamed,

Behold my servants will sing for joy of heart,

But you will cry for sorrow of heart,

And will howl for breaking of spirit.” ‘

The warning comes from ‘the Lord Yahweh’, repeated in Isa 65:15, the same ‘Lord Yahweh’ Who sent the Anointed One to His people (Isa 61:1, repeated in Isa 61:11). It is He Who will shepherd God’s servants, and will determine the destiny of these Yahweh rejecters.

God’s warnings to those who are feeding and wining their false gods, and who are playing with ‘good fortune’ and with ‘destiny’ are emphasised. In the future it will be Yahweh’s servants who will enjoy all the good things, eating and being satisfied, drinking and having their thirst quenched, rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while the servants of these false gods will be hungry, and thirsty, and shamefaced, and sorrowful of heart and howling because their spirit is broken. Their revelry will become mourning and misery.

Every good which His true people will enjoy, will result in the opposite for those who reject Him. They who thought they had made a wise choice with their eating and drinking with the gods, their celebrations in the mountains and the valleys, their bawdy, wine-produced singing, their partying and their good times will now discover that their destiny is the very reverse of what they have enjoyed, while those who have been faithful to Yahweh will enjoy them to the greatest extent possible.

Isa 65:15-16

“And you will leave your name for a curse (‘an oath’) to my chosen,

And the Lord Yahweh will slay each of you,

And he will call his servants by another name,

In connection with which he who blesses himself in the earth,

Will bless himself in the God of Amen,

And he who swears in the earth,

Will swear by the God of Amen,

Because the former troubles are forgotten,

And because they are hid from my eyes.”

‘And you will leave your name for a curse (‘an oath’) to my chosen, and the Lord Yahweh will slay each of you.’ In the judgment that is coming on them, which will be individual slaying at the hand of Yahweh as previously experienced by the Edomites (Isa 63:1-6), they will leave their name behind, that which represents what they are, and to God’s chosen ones their name will be a name for cursing by (because it will be seen as so hideous). Their reputation will be gone. Their name will be a curse. The righteous on looking back on them will despise and reject them. (It is unimportant what the name was, what matters is that it represented them, and that it is now shamed).

‘And he will call his servants by another name, so that he who blesses himself in the earth, will bless himself in the God of Amen, and he who swears in the earth, will swear by the God of Amen, because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from my eyes.’ But His servants will receive a new name. The renaming of His people, as He renamed Abraham (Gen 17:5) and Jacob (Gen 32:28), indicates a new beginning. They will no longer look back to what they were, nor to themselves as belonging to the people to whom they once belonged, whose very name will be only usable for cursing, a sign of the contempt in which it is held. They will be a separated people, separated to Yahweh. They will be a new people, a new nation, the faithful remnant as augmented by Gentiles (Isa 65:1) who will be grafted in among them. God will have a new chosen people, founded on a remnant of the old.

The remarkable fulfilment of this when they became known as ‘Messiah-men’ (‘Christ-men’ – Christians – Act 11:26) should not be overlooked. They gradually recognised that they were no longer ‘Jews’, and turned their backs on the old Judaism, beginning anew as the Israel of God and as ‘Christ’s men’. And this new name meant that to them God was the God of Amen, the One Who was sure, and would answer and keep all His promises.

But the final new name will be the name of God, the name of the new Jerusalem, and Christ’s own new name as King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev 3:12; Rev 19:16). They will then be named as exclusively His.

There seems also to be the suggestion that their being renamed will mean that God too will be seen in a new way as the God of Amen. But it will only be in a new way because the people had refused it before. For the name means the God Who is a ‘yes’ to His promises (2Co 1:20), Who is faithful and true (Rev 3:14), the One Who will keep the everlasting covenant that He has made. Had Ahaz or Hezekiah recognised Him as the God of Amen things might have happened very differently.

So when His people in the future bless themselves or make a judicial oath it will be in the name of the One Who says ‘yes’ to His promises, which will emphatically change how they view their oaths, and the way they see their future. To ‘bless themselves’ signifies recognising their part in the blessings of God, in the Abrahamic promises (Gen 12:3; Gen 22:18; Gen 26:4). Now it will have a new meaning to them as they recognise that God is the ‘Amen’ to it all. They will have full faith in Yahweh, and doubt will have been done away.

The name that men swear by in judicial proceedings is always that which they hold most sacred. Or the thought may be of swearing allegiance to Yahweh as the God of Amen.

This is all a deeply emphatic way of saying that His new people will begin to trust fully in His promises, as previously His old people had failed to do, and that it is only those who do so who will be His people.

‘Because the former troubles will be forgotten, and because they will be hidden from my eyes.’ At this new beginning all the old failures will be put behind Him, they will be deliberately hidden from His eyes. God will no more remember them.

Isa 65:17-18

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth,

And the former things will not be remembered,

Nor come to mind,

But be glad and rejoice together in what I create,

For behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing,

And her people a joy.”

The grand renewal continues. There will not only be a new people and a new name, and a new trust in the God of Amen, the God of Certainty, but God will also create a new creation, new Heavens and a new Earth, and He will create a new Jerusalem. All is to be created anew. There is to be a totally new beginning. All previous references to the new Jerusalem must be seen in this light. The word for ‘create’ is bara’, a strong word used only of God as creating something new that was not previously there (compare Isa 4:5; and see its use in Gen 1:1; Gen 1:21; Gen 1:27). And we can add ‘out of nothing’, for no prior material is ever described. It stresses the greatness of the transformation.

Isaiah no doubt visualised this vaguely in terms of the old, but hugely expanded and seen as perfected as Yahweh is perfect, a new Jerusalem, a new promised land, a new world. Thus all previous prophecies must be tied into this. The future was seen as the present, only glorified. Here is the everlasting kingdom.

The New Testament sees this promise of a new creation as fulfilled in three ways. Firstly individually and spiritually in each new member of the body of Christ (2Co 5:17), when old things pass away and everything becomes new, so that they are newly created and become a part of His new creation. Secondly in the new creation that results in the Israel of God (Gal 6:15-16), the true church of Jesus Christ, which is transferred into the inheritance of the saints in light, the kingdom of His beloved Son (Col 1:12-13), and lives in the heavenly places (Eph 2:8). And finally literally in a new heaven and earth, and the new Jerusalem, when the old have passed away and have been destroyed (2Pe 3:10-13; Rev 21:1-27).

It is impossible for us to be dogmatic on exactly what Isaiah understood physically by these words. Indeed he was not concerned about the science of the matter, and probably never even thought about it. What he was speaking about was such a total renewal that the old would have passed away, never again to be remembered, and what resulted would be totally new.

‘But be glad and rejoice together in what I create.’ We can compare with this, ‘God saw everything that He had made and behold it was very good’ (Gen 1:31), but here His whole new people will have observed His work of new creation. And they are to exultantly rejoice in it for it is very good indeed.

‘For behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.’ Central to this new heavens and new earth will be a new Jerusalem. This demonstrates how far Isaiah has come in his conception of Jerusalem. It has become totally new and sums up the whole people of God living in the presence of God. He was not bound in his thinking to a literal earthly city. To him Jerusalem had slowly become a concept, the place where men supremely approached God, the place which consisted of all the people of God, where all were holy (Isa 4:3; Isa 12:6; Isa 24:23; Isa 26:1-4; Isa 28:16; Isa 33:20-22; Isa 35:10; Isa 46:13; Isa 51:3; Isa 51:11; Isa 51:16; Isa 52:1; Isa 66:10; Isa 66:13; Isa 66:20). It had become the refuge to the faithful in Israel and the welcomer of the nations. Zion represented His people wherever they may be, but especially (once transformed) as enjoying His presence. Note how now Jerusalem is paralleled with its people (also in Isa 65:19). And both the new Jerusalem and the new people will be a cause for rejoicing, and a delight. We are no longer to think so much of a city but of a people and their God, and of their God-provided spiritual refuge, what Paul speaks of as ‘the heavenly places’. It is the true church of Jesus Christ made up of all believers living in the presence of God and having entrance into His presence (Heb 10:19-21).

This especially comes out here in that all attention in Isa 65:19-25 is now concentrated on the new Jerusalem. The heaven and the earth are left in the background. God is concerned with His new people. But there is no way in which this new Jerusalem is simply the old one done up. It is a totally new conception, and universal in its scope.

Isa 65:19-20

“And I will rejoice in Jerusalem,

And joy in my people,

And the voice of weeping will be no more heard in her,

Nor the voice of crying.

There will be no more there an infant of days,

Nor an old man who has not filled his days,

For the child will die a hundred years old,

And the sinner being a hundred years old will be accursed.

This new ‘Jerusalem’, which will be where all God’s people will be, living in His presence, will be a place of joy and long life. God’s eye will ever be on His people and He will rejoice over them, and His joy will be in them (compare Isa 60:19). There will be no more weeping, no more crying, no more premature deaths, no more deaths before life has been fully lived (see Rev 21:4). Isaiah is thinking of all the causes of grief for mankind, and declaring that they will be gone for ever. No child will die in infancy. There will be no premature death. And the thought is not that the old man will finally die full of years, but that no man will come to such a state. There will be no old and dying men. Such tragedies will not occur at all in the New Jerusalem because no one will die (Isa 25:8; Isa 26:19). Death is not a happening there. There will be no mourning, no tears.

This is then followed by one of the most enigmatic statements in the Old Testament, on any interpretation.

‘For the child will die a hundred years old, and the sinner being a hundred years old will be accursed.’ The application of the round period of a hundred years to both children and sinners should immediately make us beware of taking these phrases literally. This is teaching by exaggeration and contrast and symbolism. ‘The child will die a hundred years old’ does not mean that the period of childhood will be lengthened to that extent, for such an idea would be contradicted by the parallel statement (it would make the ‘sinners’ only children), and even in the days of extreme longevity men were having children, and therefore were adults, well below a hundred (see Genesis 5). It is indicating rather that there will be no such thing as a child dying young. The thought of such a death was so fantastic that it would only happen to a one hundred year old child, that is it was something to be seen as totally incredible.

Would we really rejoice at, or approve of, the fact that parents are to see their children die, even if they have lasted for such a long period? Why is this any better in the long run than the child dying at birth? Surely the grief would be even greater. In days of extreme longevity such a death would be an equal tragedy to any death known today. We would simply be looking at tragedy on a longer scale. And yet this is supposed to be a place where there is no weeping and no tears.

We must therefore suggest that it is rather a statement utilising exaggeration and saying that such deaths are now not to be thought of. It is stating the ridiculous. It is saying that so impossible will the thought of death be that if a child were to die it would not be until more than a whole lifetime had passed, (for by this time seventy years was seen as the standard lifetime). Thus the fear of premature death, and indeed of any normal death, is seen as no more. It is saying that if such an impossibility were to occur it could not be until long after the standard lifetime was past. But the reality, of course, is that it will not occur. There will be no more death. Death will have been swallowed up for ever (Isa 25:8). The exaggeration reveals that it is not to be literalised. The idea to be extracted from it is that death is defeated.

A hundred years old was seen as ‘a long time’. Few people used such numbers precisely. But it was ten time ten. And ten indicated ‘many times’ (Gen 31:7). Thus one hundred means ‘many times, multiplied by many times’, a period beyond thought, especially when thinking of ages.

And why if children are to literally die at a hundred is the sinner to be seen as accursed because he has lived that long? It would mean that for some a hundred years old is but childhood, while for others it is living a long time. If taken literally this would be totally contradictory. And surely in Old Testament terms living to a hundred would as indicating that the sinner was being blessed? And if the sinner dying at one hundred was seen to be accursed, would that not also apply to the ‘child’ who would also be seen as one whose dying was accursed? Taking the words literally they are full of contradictions.

Nor can we see how having a child die at a hundred is any better than a premature death. This is supposed to be a statement of the joy of the new Jerusalem, not of its delayed pain. Isaiah is not saying that God has improved things slightly so that children die less quickly. He is declaring that all pain is now over. So any literal interpretation founders on the fact that having a child die at one hundred years old is no less a tragedy than for one to die at one year old. All that would have been delayed is the pain. And because there has been such a length of time in which to get to know the child the pain would be even greater. Thus it is clear that in fact death for such children is being seen as not possible. No child will die because life will then be such that only ‘one-hundred-year-old’ ones could die, and they are simply creatures of imagination.

‘And the sinner being a hundred years old will be accursed.’ This cannot mean that the sinner is cursed because he reaches a hundred, unless the idea is that he will reach it in a pathetic state. But such an idea does not tie in with the idea of longevity. It is much more likely that it is saying vividly that sinners would not  want  to live to a hundred there. That it would be unbearable for them, a curse to them. For such is this new Jerusalem that to sinners survival there could only be seen as a curse, and the longer the survival the greater the curse. In other words it is saying picturesquely and firmly that this is no place for sinners. They would not want to live even that long here, indeed they would not want to live here at all, for it is for those who are holy (Isa 4:3; Isa 52:1).

So in this new Jerusalem, death for the righteous will no longer be there as an enemy, while, for the sinner, extended life, if it were theoretically to occur because he had slipped through unnoticed, could only be a curse. He would not want to be living there. It will be no place for him. This is because it is most pure. (Rev 21:27 in fact points out that sinners could not enter it. It is saying the same thing in a different way).

Thus the idea is of death being no longer a problem for the righteous, it could not happen until long after their lifetime, while it would be very desirable for any sinner who might squeeze in, because he would consider himself accursed not to die. (This also rids us of the contradiction that no child dies before one hundred but the majority of sinners do).

Alternately we may see it as simply indicating Isaiah’s deliberate intention to stress the longevity of life in the new heaven and earth, with it being such that no one will die under one hundred, and if they do die at or before that date it will either be as still a child, or because they are a deep sinner. All others will live for an undescribed period, which is immeasurable. The point having been made we are then not intended to enquire too closely into the detail, which Isaiah did not intend to be worked out, his aim being to portray a longevity beyond that even of the early patriarchs, whose children ceased to be children at a much younger age than a hundred, and to explain any premature death.

But what is this New Jerusalem? It is the ideal place. It is the place of men’s dreams. We can therefore only be intended to see in this new Jerusalem the everlasting kingdom.

Isa 65:21-23

‘And they will build houses, and inhabit them,

And they will plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them,

They will not build and another inhabit,

They will not plant and another eat,

For as the days of a tree will be the days of my people,

And my chosen will long enjoy the work of their hands.

They will not labour in vain,

Nor bring forth for calamity,

For they are the seed of the blessed of Yahweh,

And their offspring with them.’

The perfection of the place is now described. We have seen before something of the pain people suffered when they saw all that they had laboured for destroyed or taken away from them by invaders (Isa 62:8-9; Deu 28:30). That is again in mind here, together also with the consequences of natural disasters and the possibility of losing their land through debt caused by such calamities. Life had been a constant toil because of such experiences and they were regular occurrences.

But in the new Jerusalem this will no longer be so. Houses that they build will be safe to them, neither being destroyed by invaders nor taken from them to pay their debts; the produce of plants they plant will be for them to enjoy, it will be a place safe from invasion and calamity. The vineyard is used as an example because of the length of time before it became productive after planting. No matter how long it took all would be well. And everything would have a new permanence.

‘As the days of a tree will be the days of my people, and my chosen will long enjoy the work of their hands.’ During the period between the planting of a tree and its final decease His people will be there to enjoy its fruits. There will be no interruptions, no vain labour, no calamities. And trees often seem to go on for ever. That too will be how people’s lives are. It is a deliberate portraying of Utopia.

And this will be because they are the seed of the blessed of Yahweh. This probably signifies that they are the seed of Abraham, of Jacob and of the Servant, the blessed of Yahweh (Isa 41:8; Isa 65:9; Isa 53:10; Gen 12:3). Because of their response in righteousness to Yahweh they and their children are accounted as their offspring.

All these blessings are in terms of the ideal for the agricultural community. They are seeking to portray this ideal. Indeed the whole purpose here is to build up a picture of perfection, a picture of Paradise. The details should not be pressed. (I have myself no desire in eternity to be a DIY builder or to engage in horticulture, nor do I really see myself as in future being required do so). The stress is on protection and fruitfulness which will be unimpeded by a hostile world, a life of perfect fulfilment.

Isa 65:24

‘And it will come about that before they call I will answer,

And while they are yet speaking, I will hear.’

Such will be the new Jerusalem that Yahweh will be aware of all that His chosen are doing or are in need of. Even before they call He will answer them. As soon as they speak He will hear them. By this His daily concern for His own is revealed. Jesus applied this to His own followers when He informed them that they had no need to pray for their daily need, for their heavenly Father knew what they needed before they asked Him (Mat 6:8; Mat 6:25-34). It is thus to some extent already true for those who believe in Him. It is even more true for His own now in ‘the Jerusalem which is above’ (Gal 4:26) to which all His people belong, and will reach its epitome in the heavenly (or should we say new-earthly) Jerusalem of Revelation 21-22.

Note the contrast with Isa 65:12 and with Isa 66:4. In Isa 65:12 and Isa 66:4 the people who claimed to be His but were not His revealed it by their unresponsiveness to God. When He called, they did not answer. When He spoke they did not hear. But for those who are His there is a glorious reversal. when they call on Him He hears them, As soon as they speak to Him, He hears.

Isa 65:25

“The wolf and the lamb will feed together,

And the lion will eat straw like the ox,

And dust will be the serpent’s meat.

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,” says Yahweh.’

Note how what in Isa 11:6-9 was said of the whole earth is now spoken of this new Jerusalem. In the new Jerusalem there will be no violence of any kind. Wolf and lamb will feed in the same pasture, the wolf no longer being carnivorous, the lion similarly will eat straw just as oxen do. Wild and domestic beasts will thus thrive together.

‘And dust will be the serpent’s meat.’ The one unchanging factor is the defeat of the serpent. The serpent will continue to eat the dust. The ‘eating of dust’ is a symbol of defeat and humiliation (Psa 72:9; Mic 7:17; Isa 47:1) and crawling on the belly was widely known as something expected by kings of their humbled foes ( see also Psa 44:25 where it symbolises affliction and oppression). Thus this refers to the curse on, and the ignominious defeat of, the serpent (Gen 3:14) as symbolising the evil power that lies behind the serpent. There will be no mercy for the tempter. He will still eat the dust.

For this verse compare Isa 11:6-9. In both cases the holy mountain is mentioned. The description ‘holy mountain’ probably refers to the whole of Israel/Judah whose main settlement was on ‘the mountain’ which ran from north to south, seen as holy because it is God’s land, although it may refer to Mount Zion as God’s dwellingplace. Isaiah and his readers receive the revelation in terms of their understanding, the new being described in terms of the old. But in Isa 11:9 the blessing spreads out to the whole earth. (We have in fact no other way of describing Heaven. Compare how Revelation sees it in terms of a temple, a sea of crystal and so on, all based on the earthly temple).

So the new heavens and the new earth, and the new Jerusalem are being spoken of in terms of a greater Paradise (compare Rev 22:1-5).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

THE COMING OF THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH ( Isa 65:13 to Isa 66:24 ).

The final vision of Isaiah centres on the fact that there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Old things will pass away and all things will become new, just as he has constantly promised.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

3. THE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS GOD GIVES TO EVERY ONE HIS OWN

Isa 65:13-16

13Therefore thus saith the Lord God, [Jehovah]

Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry:
Behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty:
Behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed:

14Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart,

But ye shall cry for sorrow of heart,
And shall howl for 12vexation of spirit.

15And ye shall leave your name for 13a curse unto my chosen:

For the Lord God [Jehovah] shall slay thee,

And call his servants by another name:

16That he who blesseth himself in the earth

Shall bless himself in the 14God of truth;

And he that sweareth in the earth
Shall swear by the God of truth;
Because the former troubles are forgotten,
And because they are hid from mine eyes.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. [On the ground of the renewed mention of the offence there is a fresh announcement of punishment, and the different lot of the servants of Jahve, and of those who despised Him, is expressed in five clauses and antithetic clauses.Del.] The servants of Jehovah will eat, drink, rejoice (comp. Isa 25:6 sqq.; Isa 55:1; Isa 56:9), the wicked will do the opposite of all this (Isa 65:13-14). The name of the wicked will only remain to serve the servants of Jehovah for an oath; they themselves will be dead, and the Lord will give His servants another name (Isa 65:15). Then will both the promises and the threatenings of Jehovah be fulfilled. Jehovah will have proved Himself as the true One. He who blesses himself and he who swears, will do this henceforward only in the name of this true God. All tribulation of the former time shall be forgotten, and shall have disappeared (Isa 65:16).

2. Therefore, thus saithmine eyes. Isa 65:13-16. [These verses merely carry out the general threatening of the one preceding, in a series of poetical antitheses, where hunger, thirst, disgrace and anguish take the place of sword and slaughter, and determine these to be symbolical or emblematic terms. Alexander.D. M.] recalls Deu 28:47. The expression does not elsewhere occur. The adjectival construction is found 1Ki 8:66; 2Ch 7:10; Est 1:10; Est 5:9; Pro 15:15. The expression (comp. Isa 17:11; Pro 14:13) occurs only here, , too, occurs only here (comp. Psa 51:19). The punishment of the wicked shall not cease with the termination of a wretched life; after death it shall be continued in a memory laden with a curse. This last point the Prophet mentions first as the climax of the punishment, and only parenthetically introduces the threatening of destruction. The threatening: Ye shall leave your name for an oath, supposes the death of those threatened. This matter the Prophet afterwards refers to as a thing of only minor importance. For all men must die. But in the words, the Lord God shall slay thee, there is intimated a death which should be a marked expression of the Divine displeasure. before is to be taken as causal. The sudden change of number need no more surprise us than the sudden change of person elsewhere. Comp. Isa 1:23; Isa 5:23; Isa 5:26; Isa 17:10; Isa 19:25; Isa 29:13. The singular may perhaps be here employed for a rhetorical reason. It renders the speech more concise and emphatic. The wicked will be destroyed so that nothing will remain of them but a name on which a curse rests. To such a degree will they appear as objects of the curse, that one in swearing will believe that he cannot take a stronger oath than by invoking on himself the curse of those wicked persons, in case of being guilty of falsehood (comp. Num 5:21; Jer 29:22; Psa 102:9). One name originally united the wicked and the godly. For they were both called Israelites. Can the elect of the Lord continue to bear the name which, after the judgments of God, has become accursed? No. The Lord will therefore give His servants another name. He does not say: A new name, as Isa 62:2, but another name. The Prophets look surveys rapidly the whole period which embraces thousands of years, from the beginning till the completion of redemption, i. e., from the end of the Exile till the last day. He sees how in this period the separation between the enemies and the friends of Jehovah is accomplished, but he does not distinguish the stages of time, but all events which he beholds present themselves to him on one and the same plane. He sees only a decrease of the ; he sees this carnal Israel endure great pain and distressa judgment of God resting on it, in consequence of which it appears as accursed. Further, the Prophet beholds a people of God, with another name, in the place of the old Israel. Is not the new covenant, that should come in the place of the old, in this way intimated? It seems to me that Jerome is not altogether wrong in regard to the main point, when he says: Nomen autem novum sive aliud nullum est, nisi quod ex Christi nomine derivatur, ut nequaquam vocetur populus Dei Jacob et Juda et Israel et Ephraim et Joseph, sed Christianus. [According to the usage of the prophecies the promise of another name imports a different character and state, and in this sense the promise has been fully verified. But in addition to this general fulfilment, which no one calls in question, it is matter of history that the Jewish commonwealth or nation is destroyed; that the name of Jew has been for centuries a bye-word and a formula of execration, and that they who have succeeded to the spiritual honors of this once favored race, although they claim historical identity therewith, have never borne its name, but another, which from its very nature could have no existence until Christ had come, and which in the common parlance of the Christian world is treated as the opposite of Jew. Alexander.D. M.]. The destruction of the wicked supposes as corresponding to it the salvation of the godly. Through both the veracity of God is attested. Is Jehovah shown to be true by the history of the world, then no one naturally will think of uttering an oath or benediction by another God than by Him. is therefore=quare, quapropter, or in a demonstrative sense=so that (comp. Gen 13:16; Deu 3:24; Deu 28:27; Deu 28:51, et saepe). with stands here as Jer 4:2, which place seems to refer to ours. The expression occurs only here. [A remarkable expression; lit. the God of Amen,of what is firm and true. Vulg. in Deo Amen. The God to whom that quality of covenant-keeping truth essentially belongs, is He in whom all shall bless themselves. A comparison of Gen 22:18 and Psa 72:17 with the present verse shows that the Seed of Abraham and the Son of David are to be identified with this God of truth:a mystery completely realized in Him who is the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness (Rev 3:14; comp. Isa 19:11). In Him all the promises of God areAmen (2Co 1:20). Kay.D. M.]. When all promises are fulfilled, then, too, all troubles must necessarily be past. For the promises of God have respect not to partial, limited, but to full, complete salvation. In the time, then, when men will swear and bless by none other than the true and veracious God, all troubles will end, so that men will know no more what trouble is. But not only this. There could still be danger of new troubles. But this will not be, for God Himself will with His all-seeing eye perceive no where the trace of a trouble. is=becauseand because (Gen 33:11; Jos 10:2; 1Sa 19:4).

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. On Isa 65:1-2. Our Lord has said, He that seeketh findeth (Mat 7:8). How, then, does it come that the Jews do not find what they seek, but the heathen find what they did not seek? The Apostle Paul puts this question and answers it, Rom 9:30 sqq.; Isa 10:19 sqq.; Isa 11:7. [See also Isa 10:3]. All depends on the way in which we seek. Luther says: Quaerere fit dupliciter. Primo, secundum praescriptum verbi Dei, et sic invenitur Deus, Secundo, quaeritur nostris studiis et consiliis, et sic non invenitur. The Jews, with exception of the (Rom 11:7), sought only after their own glory and merit. They sought what satisfies the flesh. They did not suffer the spirit in the depths of their heart to speak,the spirit which can be satisfied only by food fitted for it. The law which was given to them that they might perceive by means of it their own impotence, became a snare to them. For they perverted it, made what was of minor importance the chief matter, and then persuaded themselves that they had fulfilled it and were righteous. But the Gentiles who had not the law, had not this snare. They were not tempted to abuse the pdagogical discipline of the law. They felt simply that they were forsaken by God. Their spirit was hungry. And when for the first time Gods word in the Gospel was presented to them, then they received it the more eagerly in proportion to the poverty, wretchedness and hunger in which they had been. The Jews did not find what they sought, because they had not a spiritual, but a carnal apprehension of the law, and, like the elder brother of the prodigal son, were full, and blind for that which was needful for them. But the Gentiles found what they did not seek, because they were like the prodigal son, who was the more receptive of grace, the more he needed it, and the less claim he had to it. [There is important truth stated in the foregoing remarks. But it does not fully explain why the Lord is found of those who sought Him not. The sinner who has obtained mercy when he asks why? must have recourse to a higher cause, a cause out of himself, even free, sovereign, efficacious grace. It is of God that showeth mercy, Rom 9:16. Though in after-communion God is found of those that seek Him (Pro 8:17), yet in the first conversion He is found of those that seek Him not; for therefore we love Him, because He first loved us. Henry. D. M.].

2. On Isa 65:2. Gods long-suffering is great. He stretches out His hands the whole day and does not grow weary. What man would do this? The disobedient people contemns Him, as if He knew nothing, and could do nothing.

3. On Isa 65:2. It is clear from this verse gratiam esse resistibilem. Christ earnestly stretched out His hands to the Jews. He would, but they would not. This doctrine the Remonstrants prove from this place, and rightly too, in Actis Synodi Dodrac. P. 3. p. 76. Leigh. [The grace of God which is signified by His stretching out His hands can be, and is, resisted. That figurative expression denotes warning, exhorting, entreating, and was never set forth by Reformed theologians as indicating such grace as was necessarily productive of conversion. The power by which God quickens those who were dead in sins (Eph 2:5), by which He gives a new heart (Eze 36:26), by which He draws to the Son (Joh 6:44-45; Joh 6:65), is the grace which is called irresistible. The epithet is admitted on all hands to be faulty; but the grace denoted by it is, from the nature of the case, not resisted. Turrettin in treating De Vocatione et Fide thus replies to this objection, Aliud est Deo monenti et vocanti externe resistere; Aliud est conversionem intendenti et efficaciter ac interne vocanti. Prius asseritur Isa. lxv. 2, 3. Quum dicit Propheta se expandisse tot die manus ad populum perversum etc., non posterius. Expansio brachiorum notat quidem blandam et benevolam Dei invitationem, qu illos extrinsecus sive Verbo, sive beneficiis alliciebat, non semel atque iterum, sed quotidie ministerio servorum suorum eos compellando. Sed non potest designate potentem et efficacem operationem, qu brachium Domini illis revelatur qui docentur Deo et trahuntur a Patre, etc. Locus XV.; Quaestio VI .25.D. M.].

4. On Isa 65:2. (Who walk after their own thoughts.)

Duc me, nec sine, me per me, Deus optime, duci.

Nam duce me pereo, te duce certus eo.

[If our guide be our own thoughts, our way is not likely to be good; for every imagination of the thought of our hearts is only evil. Henry. D. M.].

5. On Isa 65:3 sq. The sweetest wine is turned into the sourest vinegar; and when Gods people apostatize from God, they are worse than the heathen (Jer 3:11). Starke.

6. On Isa 65:5. [I am holier than thou. A deep insight is here given us into the nature of the mysterious fascination which heathenism exercised on the Jewish people. The law humbled them at every turn with mementoes of their own sin and of Gods unapproachable holiness. Paganism freed them from this, and allowed them (in the midst of moral pollution) to cherish lofty pretensions to sanctity. The man, who had been offering incense on the mountain-top, despised the penitent who went to the temple to present a broken and contrite heart. If Pharisaism led to a like result, it was because it, too, had emptied the law of its spiritual import, and turned its provisions into intellectual idols. Kay. D. M.].

7. On Isa 65:6-7. The longer God forbears, the harder He punishes at last. The greatness of the punishment compensates for the delay (Psa 50:21). Starke after Leigh.

8. On Isa 65:8 sqq. [This is expounded by St. Paul, Rom 11:1-5, where, when upon occasion of the rejection of the Jews, it is asked Hath God then cast away His people? He answers, no; for, at this time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. This prophecy has reference to that distinguished remnantOur Saviour has told us that for the sake of these elect the days of the destruction of the Jews should be shortened, and a stop put to the desolation, which otherwise would have proceeded to that degree that no flesh should be saved. Mat 24:22. Henry. D. M.].

9. On Isa 65:15. The judgment which came upon Israel by the hand of the Romans, did not altogether destroy the people, but it so destroyed the Old Covenant, i.e., the Mosaic religion, that the Jews can no more observe its precepts in essential points. For no Jew knows to what tribe he belongs. Therefore, they have no priests, and, consequently, no sacrifices. The Old Covenant is now only a ruin. We see here most clearly that the Old Covenant, as it was designed only for one nation, and for one country, was to last only for a certain time. If we consider, moreover, the way in which the judgment was executed, (comp. Josephus), we can truly say that the Jews bear in themselves the mark of a curse. They bear the stamp of the divine judgment. The beginning of the judgment on the world has been executed on them as the house of God. But how comes it that the Jews have become so mighty, so insolent in the present time, and are not satisfied with remaining on the defensive in their attitude toward the Christian church, but have passed over to the offensive? This has arisen solely from Christendom having to a large extent lost the consciousness of its new name. There are many Christians who scoff at the name of Christian, and seek their honor in combating all that is called Christian. This is the preparation for the judgment on Christendom itself. If Christendom would hold fast her jewel, she would remain strong, and no one would dare to mock or to assail her. For she would then partake of the full blessing which lies in the principle of Christianity, and every one would be obliged to show respect for the fruits of this principle. But an apostate Christendom, that is ashamed of her glorious Christian name, is something more miserable than the Jews, judged though they have been, who still esteem highly their name, and what remains to them of their old religion. Thus Christendom, in so far as it denies the worth and significance of its name, is gradually reaching a condition in which it will be so ripe for the second act of the judgment on the world, that this will be longed for as a benefit. For, this apostate Christendom will be the kingdom of Antichrist, as Antichrist will manifest himself in Satanic antagonism to God by sitting in the temple of God, and pretending to be God (2Th 2:3 sqq.). [We do not quite share all the sentiments expressed in this paragraph. We are far from being so despondent as to the prospects of Christendom, and think that there is a more obvious interpretation of the prophecy quoted from 2 Thess., than that indicated.D. M.].

10. On Isa 65:17. [If we had only the present passage to testify of new heavens and a new earth, we might say, as many good interpreters do, that the language is figurative, and indicates nothing more than a great moral and spiritual revolution. But we cannot thus explain 2Pe 3:10-13. The present earth and heavens shall pass away; (comp. Isa 51:6; Psa 102:25-26). But how can we suppose that our Prophet here refers to the new heavens and new earth, which are to succeed the destruction of the world by fire? In the verses that follow Isa 65:17, a condition of things is described which, although better than the present, is not so good as that perfectly sinless, blessed state of the redeemed, which we look for after the coming of the day of the Lord. Yet the Apostle Peter (2Pe 3:13) evidently regards the promise before us of new heavens and a new earth, as destined to receive its accomplishment after the conflagration which is to take place at the end of the world. If we had not respect to other Scriptures, and if we overlooked the use made by Peter of this passage, we should not take it literally. But we can take it literally, if we suppose that the Prophet brings together future events not according to their order in time. He sees the new heavens and new earth arise. Other scenes are disclosed to his prophetic eye of a grand and joy-inspiring nature. He announces them as future. But these scenes suppose the continued prevalence of death and labor (Isa 65:20 sqq.), which, we know from definite statements of Scripture, will not exist when the new heaven and new earth appear (comp. Rev 21:1-4). The proper view then of Isa 65:17 is to take its prediction literally, and to hold at the same time that in the following description (which is that of the millennium) future things are presented to us which are really prior, and not posterior to the promised complete renovation of heaven and earth. Nor should this surprise us, as Isaiah and the other Prophets place closely together in their pictures future things which belong to different times. They do not draw the line sharply between this world and the next. Compare Isaiahs prophecy of the abolition of death (Isa 25:8) in connection with other events that must happen long before that state of perfect blessedness.D. M.].

11. On Isa 65:20. [The extension of the Gospel every where,of its pure principles of temperance in eating and drinking, in restraining the passions, in producing calmness of mind, and in arresting war, would greatly lengthen out the life of man. The image here employed by the Prophet is more than mere poetry; it is one that is founded in reality, and is designed to convey most important truth. Barnes. D. M.].

12. On Isa 65:24. [It occurs to me that an erroneous application is frequently made of the promise, Before they call, etc. This declaration is made in connection with the glory and blessedness of the last days. It belongs specifically to the millennium. There are, indeed, occasions when God even now seems to act according to this law. (Comp. Dan 9:23). But Paul had to pray thrice before he received the answer of the Lord (2Co 12:8). Compare the parable of the importunate widow, Luk 18:1-7. The answer to prayer may be long delayed. This is not only taught in the Bible, but is verified in Christian experience. But the time will come when the Lord will not thus try and exercise the faith of His people.D. M.].

13. On Isa 65:25. If the lower animals live in hostility in consequence of the sin of man, a state of peace must be restored to them along with our redemption from sin. J. G. Mueller in Herz. R.-Encycl. xvi. p. 45. [By the serpent in this place there seems every reason to believe that Satan, the old seducer and author of discord and misery, is meant. During the millennium he is to be subject to the lowest degradation. Compare for the force of the phrase to lick the dust, Psa 72:9; Mic 7:17. This was the original doom of the tempter, Gen 3:14, and shall be fully carried into execution. Comp. Rev 20:1-3. Henderson. D. M.].

14. On Isa 66:1. [Having held up in every point of view the true design, mission and vocation of the church or chosen people, its relation to the natural descendants of Abraham, the causes which required that the latter should be stripped of their peculiar privileges, and the vocation of the Gentiles as a part of the divine plan from its origin, the Prophet now addresses the apostate and unbelieving Jews at the close of the old dispensation, who, instead of preparing for the general extension of the church and the exchange of ceremonial for spiritual worship, were engaged in the rebuilding and costly decoration of the temple at Jerusalem. The pride and interest in this great public work, felt not only by the Herods but by all the Jews, is clear from incidental statements of the Scriptures (Joh 2:20; Mat 24:1), as well as from the ample and direct assertions of Josephus. That the nation should have been thus occupied precisely at the time when the Messiah came, is one of those agreements between prophecy and history, which cannot be accounted for except upon the supposition of a providential and designed assimilation. Alexander after Vitringa. D. M.].

15. On Isa 66:1-2. What a grand view of the nature of God and of the way in which He is made known lies at the foundation of these words! God made all things. He is so great that it is an absurdity to desire to build a temple for Him. The whole universe cannot contain Him (1Ki 8:27)! But He, who contains all things and can be contained by nothing, has His greatest joy in a poor, humble human heart that fears Him. He holds it worthy of His regard, it pleases Him, He enters into it, He makes His abode in it. The wise and prudent men of science should learn hence what is chiefly necessary in order to know God. We cannot reach Him by applying force, by climbing up to Him, by attempting to take Him by storm. And if science should place ladder upon ladder upwards and downwards, she could not attain His height or His depth. But He enters of His own accord into a child-like, simple heart. He lets Himself be laid hold of by it, kept and known. It is not, therefore, by the intellect [alone] but by the heart that we can know God.

16. On Isa 66:3. He who under the Christian dispensation would retain the forms of worship of the ancient ritual of shadows would violate the fundamental laws of the new time, just as a man by killing would offend against the foundation of the moral law, or as he would by offering the blood of dogs or swine offend against the foundation of the ceremonial law. For when the body, the substance has appeared, the type must vanish. He who would retain the type along with the reality would declare the latter to be insufficient, would, therefore, found his salvation not upon God only, but also in part on his own legal performance. But God will brook no rival. He is either our All, or nothing. Christianity could tolerate animal sacrifices just as little as the Old Testament law could tolerate murder or the offering of abominable things.

17. On Isa 66:5. [The most malignant and cruel persecutions of the friends of God have been originated under the pretext of great zeal in His service, and with a professed desire to honor His name. So it was with the Jews when they crucified the Lord Jesus. So it is expressly said it would be when His disciples would be excommunicated and put to death, Joh 16:2. So it was in fact in the persecutions excited against the apostles and early Christians. See Act 6:13-14; Act 21:28-31. So it was in all the persecutions of the Waldenses, in all the horrors of the Inquisition, in all the crimes of the Duke of Alva. So it was in the bloody reign of Mary; and so it has ever been in all ages and in all countries where Christians have been persecuted. Barnes.D. M.].

18. On Isa 66:10. The idea which is presented in this verse is, that it is the duty of all who love Zion to sympathize in her joy. The true friends of God should rejoice in every real revival of religion, they should rejoice in all the success which attends the Gospel in heathen lands. And they will rejoice. It is one evidence of piety to rejoice in her joy; and they who have no joy when souls are born into the kingdom of God, when He pours down His Spirit and in a revival of religion produces changes as sudden and transforming as if the earth were suddenly to pass from the desolation of winter to the verdure and bloom of summer, or when the Gospel makes sudden and rapid advances in the heathen world, have no true evidence that they love God and His cause. They have no religion. Barnes.D. M.

19. On Isa 66:13. The Prophet is here completely governed by the idea that in the glorious time of the end, love, maternal love will reign. Thus He makes Zion appear as a mother who will bring forth with incredible ease and rapidity innumerable children (Isa 66:7-9). Then the Israelites are depicted as little children who suck the breasts of their mother. Further, the heathen who bring back the Israelites into their home, must do this in the same way in which mothers in the Orient are wont to carry their little children. Lastly, even to the Lord Himself maternal love is ascribed (comp. Isa 42:14; Isa 49:15), and such love as a mother manifests to her adult son. Thus the Israelites will be surrounded in that glorious time on all sides by maternal love. Maternal love will be the characteristic of that period.

20. On Isa 66:19 sqq. The Prophet describes remote things by words which are borrowed from the relations and conceptions of his own time, but which stand in strange contrast to the reality of the future which he beholds. Thus the Prophet speaks of escaped persons who go to Tarshish, Pul, Lud, Tubal, and Javan. Here he has rightly seen that a great act of judgment must have taken place. And this act of judgment must have passed on Israel, because they who escape, who go to the Gentiles to declare to them the glory of Jehovah, must plainly be Jews How accurately, in spite of the strange manner of expression, is the fact here stated that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was proclaimed to the Gentiles exactly at the time when the old theocracy was destroyed! How justly does he indicate that there was a causal connection between these events! He did not, indeed, know that the shattering of the old form was necessary in order that the eternal truth enclosed in it might be set free, and fitted for filling the whole earth. For the Old Covenant cannot exist along with the New, the Law cannot stand with equal dignity beside the Gospel. The Law must be regarded as annulled, in order that the Gospel may come into force. How remarkably strange is it, however, that he calls the Gentile nations Tarshish, Pul, Lud, etc. And how singular it sounds to be told that the Israelites shall be brought by the Gentiles to Jerusalem as an offering for Jehovah! But how accurately has he, notwithstanding, stated the fact, which, indeed, still awaits its fulfilment, that it is the conversion of the heathen world which will induce Israel to acknowledge their Saviour, and that they both shall gather round the Lord as their common centre! How strange it sounds that then priests and Levites shall be taken from the Gentiles also, and that new moon and Sabbath shall be celebrated by all flesh in the old Jewish fashion! But how accurately is the truth thereby stated that in the New Covenant there will be no more the priesthood restricted to the family of Aaron, but a higher spiritual and universal priesthood, and that, instead of the limited local place of worship of the Old Covenant, the whole earth will be a temple of the Lord! Verily the prophecy of the two last chapters of Isaiah attests a genuine prophet of Jehovah. He cannot have been an anonymous unknown person. He can have been none other than Isaiah the son of Amoz!

HOMILETICAL HINTS

1. On Isa 65:1 sq. [I. It is here foretold that the Gentiles, who had been afar off, should be made nigh, Isa 65:1. II. It is here foretold that the Jews, who had long been a people near to God, should be cast off, and set at a distance, Isa 65:2. Henry, III. We are informed of the cause of the rejection of the Jews. It was owing to their rebellion, waywardness and flagrant provocations, Isa 65:2 sqq.D. M.]

2. On Isa 65:1-7. A Fast-Day Sermon. When the Evangelical Church no more holds fast what she has; when apostasy spreads more and more, and modern heathenism (Isa 65:3-5 a) gains the ascendency in her, then it can happen to her as it did to the people of Israel, and as it happened to the Church in the Orient. Her candlestick can be removed out of its place.[By the Evangelical Church we are not to understand here the Church universal, for her perpetuity is certain. The Evangelical Church is in Germany the Protestant Church, and more particularly the Lutheran branch of it.D. M.]

3. On Isa 65:8-10. Sermon on behalf of the mission among the Jews. Israels hope. 1) On what it is founded (Israel is still a berry in which drops of the divine blessing are contained); 2) To what this hope is directed (Israels Restoration).

4. On Isa 65:13-16. [The blessedness of those that serve God, and the woful condition of those that rebel against him, are here set the one over against the other, that they may serve as a foil to each other. The difference of their states here lies in two things: 1) In point of comfort and satisfaction, a. Gods servants shall eat and drink; they shall have the bread of life to feed, to feast upon continually, and shall want nothing that is good for them. But those who set their hearts upon the world, and place their happiness in it, shall be hungry and thirsty, always empty, always craving. In communion with God and dependence upon Him there is full satisfaction; but in sinful pursuits there is nothing but disappointment. b. Gods servants shall rejoice and sing for joy of heart; they have constant cause for joy, and there is nothing that may be an occasion of grief to them but they have an allay sufficient for it. But, on the other hand, they that forsake the Lord shut themselves out from all true joy, for they shall be ashamed of their vain confidence in themselves, and their own righteousness, and the hopes they had built thereon. When the expectations of bliss, wherewith they had flattered themselves, are frustrated, O what confusion will fill their faces! Then shall they cry for sorrow of heart and howl for vexation of spirit. 2) In point of honor and reputation, Isa 65:15-16. The memory of the just is, and shall be, blessed; but the memory of the wicked shall rot. Henry.D. M.]

5. On Isa 66:1-2. Carpzov has a sermon on this text. He places it in parallel with Luk 18:9-14, and considers, 1) The rejection of spiritual pride; 2) The commendation of filial fear.

6. On Isa 66:2 Arndt, in his True Christianity I. cap. 10, comments on this text. He says among other things: The man who will be something is the material out of which God makes nothing, yea, out of which He makes fools. But a man who will be nothing, and regards himself as nothing, is the material out of which God makes something, even glorious, wise people in His sight.

7. On Isa 66:3. [Saurin has a sermon on this text entitled Sur l Insuffisance du culte exterieur in the eighth volume of his sermons.D. M.]

8. On Isa 66:13. As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you. These words stand, let us consider it, 1) In the Old Testament; 2) In the heart of God always; 3) But are they realized in our experience? Koegel in Aus dem Vorhof ins Heiligthum, II. Bd., p. 242, 1876.

9. On Isa 66:24. The punishment of sin is twofoldinward and outward. The inward is compared with a worm that dies not; the outward with a fire that is not quenched. This worm and this fire are at work even in this life. He who is alarmed by them and hastens to Christ can now be delivered from them.[It is better not to fall into this fire and never to have any experience of this worm, even though, as some imagine, eternity should not be eternal, and the unquenchable fire might be quenched, and the worm that shall never die, should die, and Jesus and His apostles should not have expressed themselves quite in accordance with the compassionate taste of our time. Better, I say, is better. Save thyself and thy neighbor before the fire begins to burn, and the smoke to ascend. Gossner.D. M.]

Footnotes:

[12]Heb. breaking.

[13]an oath.

[14]the God of Amen.

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

Reader! do not hastily pass over the review of these verses. They are like the pillar of cloud in the camp, which, while giving light to Israel, became darkness to, their foes, the Egyptians. Who can read what is here said, but with a mingled feeling of joy and trembling? You will soon discover your personal interest in the blessing here spoken of, if you can say, as the verse here expresseth it, that in blessing yourself in the earth, that is in all that concerns you while sojourning upon earth, your blessings, in nature, in providence, and in grace, are all in Jesus. For this is to bless ourselves in the God of truth, when, from knowing him to be the way, and the truth, and the life, and knowing ourselves to be united to him, and members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, all our springs of all blessings, and of all spiritual life, are in him! Reader! what sayest your experience to this statement?

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Isa 65:13 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed:

Ver. 13. Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry. ] Lepidas antitheses ponit. You have spent your meat and drink upon idols; therefore ye shall fast another while, yea, you shall feed upon the fierce wrath of God in hell, and drink deep of that cup of his that hath eternity to the bottom.

But ye shall be ashamed. ] Your hopes and hearts failing you together, ye shall pine away in your iniquities. Eze 24:23

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 65:13-16

13Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD,

Behold, My servants will eat, but you will be hungry.

Behold, My servants will drink, but you will be thirsty.

Behold, My servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame.

14Behold, My servants will shout joyfully with a glad heart,

But you will cry out with a heavy heart,

And you will wail with a broken spirit.

15You will leave your name for a curse to My chosen ones,

And the Lord GOD will slay you.

But My servants will be called by another name.

16Because he who is blessed in the earth

Will be blessed by the God of truth;

And he who swears in the earth

Will swear by the God of truth;

Because the former troubles are forgotten,

And because they are hidden from My sight!

Isa 65:13-16 This is the continuing emphasis on the contrast between the two types of seed (i.e., descendants) of Abraham-believing and unbelieving. In the NT this turns to all humans (cf. Rom 2:28-29).

Isa 65:14 Notice the contrast between

1. the faithful – shout with a glad heart

2. the unfaithful – cry out with a heavy, painful heart

There is a division among humans (cf. Mat 7:13-27; Luk 13:22-30), even those who seem religious!

Isa 65:15 You will leave your name for a curse to My chosen ones This is another play on the word name (BDB 1027). Here it is the concept that the name of the unbelievers will become accursed, while the believers will have a new name. From the immediate context we do not know the new name by which they will be called. A new name for God is given in Isa 65:16 -the God of Amen, the God of Truth, or the God of faithfulness (cf. Rev 3:14). The believer’s new name will possibly be related to that.

In Genesis YHWH’s promise to Abraham carried a warning and a blessing related to the treatment of Abraham using name to represent him as a person (cf. Gen 12:2; Gen 18:18; Gen 22:18).

Isa 65:16 Because the former troubles are forgotten,

And because they are hidden from My sight In the Bible when God forgets is a metaphor for total forgiveness. Notice the continuing metaphor that sins are hidden from His sight. This is a repeated theme of the OT. When God forgives, God forgets (cf. Psa 103:11-13; Isa 1:18; Isa 38:17; Isa 43:25; Isa 44:22; and Mic 7:19)!

NASB, NKJV,

NJBthe God of truth

NRSVthe God of faithfulness

TEVthe faithful God

LXX, JPSOAthe true God

REBby God whose name is Amen

The title for Deity, God, (BDB 43), is often used in ancient poems (cf. Deu 32:15; Deu 32:17; Job 3:4; Psa 18:32; Psa 50:22; Psa 114:7; Psa 139:19; Pro 30:5; Isa 44:8; Hab 3:3).

The second part of the title is Amen. See Special Topic below.

SPECIAL TOPIC: AMEN

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

Behold, &c. Figure of speech Asterismos (App-6), for emphasis. Figure of speech Symploke. Luk 6:25 refers to the period prophesied here.

My servants. Refers to the new Israel of Isa 26:2; Isa 66:7, Isa 66:8. Mat 21:43.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Isa 65:13-16

Isa 65:13-16

“Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; behold my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be put to shame; behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall wail for vexation of spirit. And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen; and the Lord Jehovah will slay thee; and he will call his servants by another name: so that he that blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.”

Isa 65:13-14 here enumerates a number of contrasts between the blessings of God upon the righteous and the punishments of God upon the wicked. Also, in Isa 65:15, the ultimate fate of those who reject God will issue in their name’s becoming a curse. The thought is that, the name of the wicked nation has so defamed and degraded the name of Israel that God will have to invent an altogether New Name, called here “another name” for his people. Again we have that “here a little and there a little:” pattern of this prophet’s writings, this being the third passage where the “new name” is promised. See the special article under Isa 62:2.

Isa 65:13-14 NURTURED: Continuing the idea of a refined Zion and the contrast between the good grapes and the bad grapes the Lord now pictures the different consequences of the refining process. Those (even of the goiym who were not called by His name) who do find Him and call upon Him and become obedient servants, He will fill with spiritual nutrition growth and satisfaction. Of course, Isaiah is using times coloring here, i.e., writing of future spiritual things in physical terminology. The New covenant scriptures make it plain that Gods richest blessings are spiritual (cf. Eph 1:3, etc.). Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled (Mat 5:6); those who seek the Bread of Life shall have it (Joh 6:52-65); those who thirst for the Water of Life shall drink of it (Joh 4:13; Joh 7:37-39, etc.); those who declare joy shall have it abundantly (Joh 15:1-11, etc.). Eating, drinking, feasting, celebrating and singing merely symbolize the blessings Gods servants will receive (see comments Isa 25:6 ff). The kingdom of God is essentially character, not food and drink (physical things) (cf. Rom 14:17). Those who rebel and disobey will find their souls and spirits starving and dying of spiritual nourishment. They will suffer sorrow and vexation (cf. Amo 8:11-12). There is no torture more excruciating than spiritual torture (cf. Luk 16:24-31).

Isa 65:15-16 NAMED: Those of the chosen nation who rebelled against their messianic destiny and their God left their name to the world for a curse. God promised Israel she would become a proverb and a by-word among the nations if she was rebellious and disobedient (cf. Deu 28:37; 1Ki 9:7; 2Ch 7:20; Psa 44:14). The Jewish nation became the chief illustration for Christians of the consequences of rebelling against the Lord (cf. Mat 21:33-43; Mat 22:1-10; Luk 13:34-35; 1Co 10:1-13; Heb 3:1 to Heb 4:13, etc.).

The Lord will slay the former Israel and create a new Israel (Gal 6:15-16). Jehovah delivers the deathblow to the former Israel when He cancelled her covenant and nailed it to the cross of Christ. It was definitely prophesied that He would do away with the election of physical Israel (cf. Jer 3:15-18; Jer 31:31-34, etc.). These verses (Isa 65:13-16) clearly show that the genetic nation of Israel as such is not synonymous with Gods chosen (cf. also Rom 2:28-29). In the light of this precise statement that God is going to slay the disobedient nation and call His servants by another name, what scriptural reason is there for expecting a future resurrection of genetic Israel? Ezekiel 37 undoubtedly refers to the restoration of Judah after the Babylonian captivity in 536 B.C. Certainly the nation that was restored then cannot be the fulfillment of Isa 65:13-16; neither can the present-day Israel! See our comments on Isa 62:2 for a discussion of the new name.

The Lord will so completely and evidently fulfill His promises in Christ, those who choose to obey Him will invoke His name as the source of all truth. They will pray to Him for every need and they will proclaim Him as Infinite answer to mans finiteness. He, Himself will become the Way, the Truth and the Life (Joh 14:6). Those who become His disciples will know the truth and be set free from falsehood (Joh 8:31 ff). The Incarnate Son of Jehovah will become an oath demonstrating in time and space the veracity of Jehovahs promises once and for all (cf. 1Co 15:1 ff; 2Co 1:20; Heb 6:17-20; Heb 9:1 ff, etc.). Whoever wishes to be blessed from henceforth must be blessed in the name of Jehovah and His Son; whoever wishes to verify the truthfulness, value, reality or meaning of anything must henceforth verify it in the character and will of Jehovah and His Son as revealed in the written record (the scriptures).

The God of truth is an extremely significant proposition. Jehovah is the truth. In the Person of Jehovah (and His Incarnate Son) is the whole of truth! There is no source of truth outside the character and will of God. He is truth absolute, ultimate, eternal in contradistinction from all that is relative, derived, partial and temporal. All that is true is relative to His character. When we speak of the sanctity of truth we must understand that underlying such a phrase is the sanctity of His character (His love, power, faithfulness, holiness, etc.). He is the God of truth and all truth derives its sanctity from Him. This is why all untruth or falsehood is wrong; it is a contradiction of what God is! This is why God cannot lie or change His will. To do so would contradict Himself and He cannot deny Himself and be God! The devils attack upon man was first an attack upon the veracity of God. He accused God of deliberate falsehood and deception in telling Eve that she should not eat of the tree because God knew if she did her eyes would be opened and she would then know something only God knew. Furthermore, the devil said God lied when He told Eve she would die if she ate of the tree. The devil openly assailed the integrity and veracity of God. And here is the important point; in convincing Eve that God was less than faithful, the devil very subtely destroyed Eves integrity when he seduced her into doubting Gods integrity.

The only reference point upon which man may build his own integrity, veracity, truthfulness and faithfulness (his own character, as it were) is in unreserved commitment and belief in Gods integrity and faithfulness. All of mans unfaithfulness (indeed, all of mans sin) has its affinity with that lie by which Eve was seduced-that God is untrustworthy. Man has only the power to believe or disbelieve. Truth is not in man, but in God. Truth can only be in man when man believes and trusts and obeys God! Therefore, if men are to be formed into the image of God it can only be done by preaching the objectively revealed (in the Bible) character of God (His faithfulness, love, and power). All preaching to convert must center on who God is and what He has done-not in what man feels, or thinks or is able to do. It is not in man to be faithful or to love or to be holy. Man can only be faithful and love and be holy when he believes God is absolutely faithful and absolutely loving and absolutely holy.

All that is false and standing against man has been forever conquered and eliminated through the Son of God. The power, the guilt and the penalty of mans rebellion has been atoned for and truth, ultimate saving truth, is resident in Him. Man can be in Him by faith. That is where God chooses His servants-in Him Who is Truth! This is the new, refined Zion.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

a New Earth for Gods Servants

Isa 65:13-25

Notice the wide difference that religion makes to the soul. The children of God are secured against the evils which visit all others. They eat; they drink; they rejoice; they sing; they are called by another name, Isa 65:13-15.

Behold a new creation, Isa 65:17-25! The present dispensation is ended. Jerusalem, restored to her former glory, sings for very joy; and her rejoicing sends a thrill of joy through the nature of God. Long years of life and security of tenure are granted again to man. The red rapine of the forest is ended, for creation is emancipated from its bondage and participates in the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Peace shall reign in the forest glades, never again to abdicate her throne, Isa 65:25. But, best of all, there shall be such unity between man and God that prayer will be anticipated, and the pleading soul shall be conscious of the listening ear of God. Hasten, O day of days, for which creation groans, and the saints groan with inexpressible desire!

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

my servants shall eat: Psa 34:10, Psa 37:19, Psa 37:20, Mal 3:18, Luk 14:23, Luk 14:24, Luk 16:24, Luk 16:25

my servants shall rejoice: Isa 61:7, Isa 66:5, Isa 66:14, Dan 12:2

Reciprocal: Exo 9:4 – General Exo 10:23 – but all Jos 5:12 – but they did eat Job 8:21 – rejoicing Psa 5:11 – But Psa 22:26 – The meek Psa 31:17 – wicked Psa 35:26 – ashamed Psa 40:16 – all Psa 70:4 – General Psa 92:4 – General Psa 109:28 – but let Psa 112:10 – wicked Psa 118:15 – voice Psa 128:2 – thou shalt eat Pro 3:35 – but Pro 13:25 – the belly Pro 31:25 – and she Ecc 5:20 – because Ecc 7:6 – as Ecc 8:12 – surely Son 5:1 – eat Isa 3:11 – Woe Isa 14:30 – the poor Isa 17:11 – a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow Isa 40:1 – comfort Isa 49:9 – They shall feed Isa 50:11 – ye shall Isa 55:12 – ye shall Eze 35:14 – General Hos 4:10 – they shall eat Mic 6:14 – eat Zep 3:11 – shalt thou Zep 3:14 – shout Zec 9:17 – corn Mat 5:6 – for Luk 6:21 – for ye shall be Luk 6:25 – full Luk 15:23 – the fatted Joh 4:13 – Whosoever Joh 16:22 – But 1Ti 4:8 – having Rev 2:17 – to eat Rev 7:16 – hunger

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

4

Though God has to pronounce judgment upon the evildoers, which must be executed in due time, He delights in the mercy and blessing that He bestows upon His true servants. This He makes manifest in the passage which begins with verse Isa 65:13. We notice, of course, that earthly blessings and earthly judgments are in view; food, drink, rejoicing and song, on the one hand; hunger, thirst, shame and sorrow, on the other. A curse and death will come upon them; their very name being considered a curse, while the chosen servants will be called by another name.

This will be fulfilled in days to come, but it is remarkable how we can see a fulfilment of it even in our day. The very name “Jew” has acquired an unpleasant flavour, which is explained by what the Apostle Paul wrote in Thessalonians Isa 2:14-16. On the other hand a remnant, according to the election of grace, is still being called out of that people and incorporated with elect Gentiles as the church of God. Upon such another Name is called, for they are CHRISTian.

As far back as Isa 42:1-25, we had Jehovah’s declaration, “New things do I declare” (verse Isa 65:9), and now we discover the wide scope of that declaration. There is to be a complete sweeping away of the old order and the creation of new heavens as well as a new earth. The verses that follow show that the millennial age is referred to and not the eternal state, which is announced in Rev 21:1.

At present the heavens are the seat of Satan’s power, as Eph 6:12 indicates. They will be in a new condition when those evil power are cast out, and heavenly saints are installed, as from the New Testament we know they will be. When the Messiah acts as “the Arm of the Lord,” and His dominion extends to the ends of the earth, it will be a new earth indeed. In comparison therewith the old order will be so horrible that men will banish it from their minds.

The remaining verses of the chapter give a description of the happy conditions that will characterise the millennial age, beginning with the joy and blessing of Jerusalem, which will be then, as always intended, the centre of earthly blessing. Yet it will not be an age of absolute perfection as verse Isa 65:20 shows. For the righteous, life will be greatly prolonged, yet it will be possible for sinners to be discovered and come under a curse. Still those who are the elect will have their days as the days of a tree, and we know how many a tree does not grow old for centuries.

Hence earthly blessings will be enjoyed to the full; houses, vineyards, fruit, and above all they will be in close touch with Jehovah their God. So much so, that not only will He hear them while they are yet speaking to Him, but He will answer their desires even before they express them by calling upon Him. This indicates that a place of remarkable nearness to Him will be theirs.

Moreover mercy will be extended even to the animal creation, which at the outset was placed under man, and so has suffered as the result of his fall. No longer shall strong animals slay and devour the weak Those most opposed, like the wolf and the lamb, will feed together, and the most voracious, like the lion, will be satisfied with vegetable food. All hurt and destruction shall cease.

To this there will be just one exception. The serpent was used by Satan in deceiving Eve, and the curse upon it ran, “Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life” (Gen 3:11). Now this sentence is not to be revoked. It seems that in the ranks of the lower creation it will be retained as a sign and reminder of the tragic effects of sin. The serpent will not be able to hurt nor destroy, but its degraded and miserable state will remain.

Isa 66:1-24 opens on a very lofty note. The earth is but the footstool of Jehovah’s feet for the heavens are His shone. Recognizing this, we are conscious that no earthly house built for Him is anything but a small matter. What is a great matter is the right spiritual state and attitude, which should be found in man, who by nature is sinful and estranged from God. To be poor and contrite in spirit, and to receive the word as being truly the Word of God, and therefore to tremble at it and be governed by it – this invites the Divine regard. To such a man the Lord will look in blessing. We may remember that when the Lord Jesus opened His mouth on the mountain, the first beatitude He uttered was, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 5:3).

But once more the prophet has to turn to the people, in their then existing state, with words of denunciation. They might be killing oxen, sacrificing lambs, offering oblation, burning incense, and yet all was an utter offence before God because their hearts were astray. They were anything but poor in spirit, but rather self-assertive, choosing their own ways and taking pleasure in abominable things. For this reason they came under God’s judgment. Instead of calling upon God, and receiving His immediate attention, He had called to them and they paid no attention whatever.

From these the prophet turned, in verse Isa 65:5, once more to assure those who really did tremble at the word of God. They had been hated and cast out by the men of that day, and this they claimed to do in the name of the Lord and for His glory. We at once recognize that this is no uncommon thing. Something similar has happened again and again. It was thus when our Lord was on earth and in the days of the apostles. It has been so all too often in the sad history of Christendom, as witness the burning of “heretics” whether in Spain or in Britain. In Spain such an act was called by an expression, which in English means, “an act of faith,” and since of faith of course, as they thought, to the glory of God.

The answer of the Lord to this kind of thing is not immediate but inevitable. The word is, “He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.” He SHALL – the thing is determined and certain, but it is future. The voice of the Lord will yet be heard, and when He speaks the thing is done. It will bring joy to the godly while a just recompence in judgment will be the portion of the enemies.

But now a further great prophetic fact comes before us. This mighty intervention of God, delivering His people, and judging His foes, will be accompanied by a wonderful work of grace in the souls of those He will deliver. The earth will be made to bring forth in one day, and a nation will be born at once. The figure used in verse Isa 65:7 indicates that this deliverance will be a “birth,” which takes place in a way quite unexpected. So here we have Isaiah alluding to that great work of the Spirit of God, which is described more fully in Eze 36:22-33, to which the Lord Jesus referred when He spoke to Nicodemus of being born, “of water and of the Spirit.”

Shall a nation be born at once? is the question asked in surprise. And the answer quite clearly is – Yes, it will. Of the old Israel, that the world has known, Moses had to complain at the start of their sad history, “They are a perverse and crooked generation…a very forward generation, children in whom is no faith” (Deu 32:5, Deu 32:20). The Israel that will enter into millennial blessedness will be a new Israel, born again and therefore cleansed from their old life and ways. The Apostle Peter, writing to the scattered Jewish Christians of the early days, could say to them, “But ye are a chosen generation” (1Pe 2:9), and he had previously spoken of their having been born again. As regards the new birth, converted Jews of today are advance samples of what will be wrought in the children of Israel, who finally enter the kingdom.

In view of this, all those who love Jerusalem, and at present mourn for her, may well rejoice. Her prosperity and glory will be a joy to behold. The sons of Israel through the long centuries of their unbelief and rejection of their Messiah, have been noted for the ability with which they have managed to “suck” wealth and profit out of the Gentile world. The objectionable features, which have characterized them in doing this, will have disappeared when they are a born-again nation. The saved of the nations will act toward them as a nursing mother, and peace will flow as a river, instead of there being resentment and disturbance on every side. The hand of God will be in all this, for His word is, “so will I comfort you.”

But the prophet leaves us in no doubt as to what God’s intervention will mean to the world at large. It will be the day when the inhabitants of the earth will learn righteousness because God’s judgments are in the earth, as Isaiah told us in chapter 26. Jehovah will come with fire and whirlwind and sword, as we see in verses Isa 65:15-16, and when we turn to such a passage as Rev 19:1-21, we discover that the Person who will thus come in judgment is no other than Jehovah-Jesus.

Verse Isa 65:17 would indicate, we judge, that judgment will be specially severe against false religion – against those who practise abominable things, of an idolatrous nature, while professing to sanctify and purify themselves by them. Religious evil always incurs judgment of a very severe nature. This we see exemplified in our Lord’s day. His strongest denunciations were directed against the Pharisees and Scribes.

The millennial reign will be preceded by the gathering together before God of the masses of mankind and before them the Divine glory will be displayed. The gathering of the nations that they may see the glory is described in verses Isa 65:18-19, but the outcome of this is not described here. We turn to Mat 25:31-46, and there we discover what will take place. All of them will be judged on the basis of their attitude towards the Son of Man who is the King, as revealed by their treatment of messengers, who have represented Him, and whom He owns as His “brethren.”

In Isaiah, however, the term used is “your brethren,” for the prophet is more occupied with the re-gathering of the children of Israel from the most distant places to which they had been scattered. Their coming in this way will be like the bringing of an offering to God in a clean vessel – an offering therefore acceptable to Him and for His pleasure. Brought thus to the house of Jehovah, they will be taken for priests and Levites in the millennial age.

Now this was the original intention of God, as we see if we refer to Exo 19:6. Had Israel kept the law that was delivered through Moses at Sinai, they would have been “a kingdom of priests.” They broke the law, so this they never were. But the purpose of God is never defeated, and so here we are permitted to know that what failed then is ultimately achieved, as the fruit of the mercy of God. That it will be the fruit of MERCY is made very clear in the closing part of Rom 11:1-36,

Had it been brought about on a legal basis, some future breach of the law would imperil the whole position; as it stands on the basis of mercy, it is a permanent thing, as stable as the new heavens and new earth of the millennial age. From the overthrow of David’s kingly line the world has seen a succession of kingdoms, rising up as the result of some overthrow, and each being overthrown in its turn, as predicted in Eze 21:27; but here at last is a kingdom that abides.

And it will prove to be a kingdom in which Jehovah at last obtains His rightful place as the Object of worship. What He originally intended in connection with Israel, His people, will be fully accomplished, His glory will be in their midst; they will surround His house as a kingdom of priests; they will render Him due worship from one sabbath and new moon to another. He will have accomplished His original design.

The contemplation of these things is surely a great encouragement to us. We are not called to find our part in, “My holy mountain Jerusalem,” since our calling is a heavenly one, but we may rest assured that God will reach His original purpose with the church, as really and as fully as He will with Israel. Not one item of His good pleasure as to us will fail. And He will do it in such fashion as will command our glad recognition and worship. The saints in their heavenly seats will render a worship that will not need to be governed by sabbaths or new moons.

The last verse of our prophet is one of much solemnity. When Israel is re-gathered and blessed, and the earth rests in the blessedness indicated at the end of chapter 65, there will yet be a perpetual reminder of the awful result of rebellion and sin. When the Lord Jesus spoke of “the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not,” (Mar 9:43, Mar 9:44), it would seem that He alluded to this verse, and gave it an application stretching far beyond the millennial age. In “the lake of fire,” which is “the second death” (Rev 20:14), there will be an eternal witness to the awful effects of sin.

Let us rejoice in the greatness of the salvation that has reached us through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary

Isa 65:13-15. Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry, &c. I will make a great difference between my faithful servants and such unbelievers as you are. This promise the Lord fulfilled in a remarkable manner before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. In consequence of the direction given by Christ to his disciples, (Mat 26:15,) when they observed the Roman armies approaching toward Jerusalem, they left the devoted city and fled to the mountains, an opportunity for doing which being given them by the special providence of God. For after the Romans, under Cestius Gallus, made their first advance toward Jerusalem, they suddenly withdrew again in a most unexpected, and, indeed, impolitic manner; at which Josephus testifies his surprise, since the city might then have been easily taken. By this means they gave, as it were, a signal to the Christians to retire; which, out of regard to their Lords admonition, they did, some to Pella, and others to mount Libanus, and thereby not only preserved their lives, but obtained a supply of all their wants; while, in the mean time, the unbelieving and disobedient Jews, who had rejected and crucified their Messiah, pertinaciously seeking to defend themselves in the city, were overwhelmed with the greatest calamities that ever came upon any people, and perished with hunger and thirst, the sword of their enemies, and mutual slaughters, in the greatest anguish and despair, crying, as it is here said, for sorrow of heart, and howling for vexation of spirit. And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen That is, to the Christians. They shall use your name as examples of the eminent wrath of God upon sinners; or, as Vitringa reads it, Ye shall leave your name for an oath to my chosen; explaining the meaning to be, 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 those wicked and apostate Jews. See Jer 29:22. For the Lord shall slay thee For you shall not perish by an ordinary hand, but by the hand of the Lord God. Your destruction shall be most extraordinary. The prophet may either allude in this expression to the total abolition of the Jewish economy, or to the prodigious slaughter made of that people by one dreadful massacre after another, especially during the siege of Jerusalem; and shall call his servants by another name God himself shall consider your very name as infamous and accursed, and will not suffer his people to be called by it. They shall not be called Jews or Israelites, but Christians. See note on Isa 62:2.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Isa 65:13-20. The Coming Good Fortune of the Righteous.Yahweh again is the speaker. My people shall rejoice in the satisfaction of their wants when ye, rebellious ones, are wailing in your need. Nought shall be left of you but your name, which My people shall employ as a curse, saying, As Yahweh slew those so may He slay thee. But My people shall be called by a new name (cf. Isa 62:4). The fulfilment of My promises shall make My faithfulness a proverb. The former trials shall be forgotten because, to mens exultation, I shall change existing conditions so that it is as though I had created the earth anew. I will transform Jerusalem so that she shall be joy personified, and in her people will I find My joy. There shall be no more mourning in Jerusalem, for none shall die in infancy or prematurely: all shall live a hundred years.

Isa 65:14. vexation: read mg.

Isa 65:16. truth: read, with change of vowel-points, faithfulness.

Isa 65:20. and the sinner . . . accursed: probably a theological gloss.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

65:13 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, my servants shall {r} eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed:

(r) By these words, eat and drink, he means the blessed life of the faithful, who have always had consolation and full contentment of all things in their God, though sometimes they lack these corporal things.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The Sovereign Lord’s true servants, those in Israel who obeyed His covenant, would enjoy blessings of body and spirit, all types of blessings, whereas those who rebelled would experience all types of curses.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)