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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 66:24

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And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.

24. And they (the worshippers) shall go forth ] to some place in the vicinity of Jerusalem, no doubt the Valley of Hinnom, Neh 11:30; cf. Jos 15:8; Jos 18:16; 2Ch 28:3; Jer 7:32; 2Ki 23:10. (See below.)

the men that rebelled against me ] The apostates so often referred to in the last two chapters.

for their worm shall not die, &c. ] (see below) Jdt 16:17 ; Sir 7:17 ; Mar 9:44 ff.

an abhorring ] The Hebrew word ( dr’n) occurs again only in Dan 12:2.

This verse is the basis of the later Jewish conception of Gehenna as the place of everlasting punishment (see Salmond, Christian Doctrine of Immortality, pp. 355 360). Gehenna is the Hebrew G-Hinnm (Valley of Hinnom), the place where of old human sacrifices were offered to Molech (Jer 7:31 f., et passim), and for this reason desecrated by king Josiah (2Ki 23:10). Afterwards it became a receptacle for filth and refuse, and Rabbinical tradition asserts that it was the custom to cast out unclean corpses there, to be burned or to undergo decomposition. This is in all probability the scene which had imprinted itself on the imagination of the writer, and which was afterwards projected into the unseen world as an image of endless retribution. The Talmudic theology locates the mouth of hell in the Valley of Hinnom. But how much of the later theology lies in this passage it is difficult to say. Nothing is expressly said of torment endured by the dead, but only of the loathsome spectacle they present to the living; although the former idea may be implied and is suggested by a comparison with ch. Isa 50:11. “If this passage is of too early a date, as Dillmann thinks, to admit of a reference to the horrors of the Valley of Gehinnom, the double figure of the worm and the fire may be due to the two ways of disposing of the dead, by interment and by cremation. The immediate object of the description of the worm as never dying and the fire as never being quenched, appears to be to mark the destination of those men as a perpetual witness to the consuming judgements of God, and one which all flesh may see. The incongruity of the idea of a fire burning a dead body and never going out, is supposed, however, to point to something more. It may be that the dead body is poetically conceived to be conscious of the pains of the worm and the fire, as Dillmann supposes [cf. Job 14:22 ]. But even that goes beyond the immediate object, which is to present the men in question as a perpetual spectacle of shame to all beholders” (Salmond, l.c. p. 212). The view thus expressed is reasonable if the passage was written by the author of the preceding chapters. But there is much to be said for the opinion (of Duhm and Cheyne) that the last two verses are an appendix to the prophecy, written at a later time, so that the language may to some extent be saturated with the ideas which were afterwards associated with the word Gehenna.

In Heb. Bibles and MSS. part of Isa 66:23 is repeated (without the vowel signs) after Isa 66:24, in accordance with a Massoretic direction, so that the reading in the Synagogue might” close with words of comfort.” The same practice was followed in the reading of the “Twelve” (Minor) Prophets, Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes. see Ginsburg’s Introduction, p. 850.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

And they shall go forth – The sense of this verse evidently is, that the pious and happy worshippers of God shall see the punishment which he will execute on his and their foes, or shall see them finally destroyed. It refers to the time when the kingdom of God shall be finally and perpetually established, and when all the mighty enemies of that kingdom shall be subdued and punished. The image is probably taken from a scene where a people whose lands have been desolated by mighty armies are permitted to go forth after a decisive battle to walk over the fields of the slain, and to see the dead and the putrifying bodies of their once formidable enemies.

And look upon the carcasses of the men – The dead bodies of the foes of God (see Isa 66:15-16).

For their worm shall not die – This image is evidently taken from the condition of unburied bodies, and especially on a battlefield. The Hebrew word ( tola) properly refers to the worms which are generated in such corrupting bodies (see Exo 16:20; the notes at Isa 14:11). It is sometimes applied to the worm from which the crimson or deep scarlet color was obtained (the notes at Isa 1:18); but it more properly denotes that which is produced in putrid substances. This entire passage is applied by the Saviour to future punishment; and is the fearful image which he employs to denote the final suffering of the wicked in hell. My views on its meaning may be seen in the notes at Mar 9:44, Mar 9:46.

Neither shall their fire be quenched – The fire that shall consume them shall burn perpetually. This image is taken evidently from the fires kindled, especially in the valley of Hinnom, to consume puffed and decaying substances. That was a valley on the south side of Jerusalem, into which the filth of the city was thrown. It was the place where, formerly, an image of brass was raised to Moloch, and where children were offered in sacrifice 2Ki 16:3; 2Ch 28:3. See a description of this in the notes at Mat 5:22. This place was subsequently regarded as a place of special abomination by the Jews. The filth of the city was thrown there, and it became extremely offensive. The air was polluted and pestilential; the sight was terrific; and to preserve it in any manner pure, it was necessary to keep fires continually burning there. The extreme loathsomeness of the place, the filth and putrefaction, the corruption of the atmosphere, and the lurid fires blazing by day and by night, made it subsequently one of the most appalling and loathsome objects with which a Jew was acquainted.

It was called the gehenna of fire, and was the image which the Saviour often employed to denote the future punishment of the wicked. In that deep and loathsome vale it seems to have been the common expectation of the Jews that some great battle would be fought which would establish the supremacy of their nation over all others. Hence, the Chaldee renders this, They shall go forth, and shall look upon the dead bodies of the sinners who have rebelled against my word; because their souls shall not die, and their fire shall not be extinguished; and the wicked shall be judged in Gehenna ( b^egeyhnam from gay and hinnom, hence coming down into Greek as geenna), until the righteous shall say, We have seen enough. It is, however, by no means certain that Isaiah refers here especially to the valley of Hinnom. The image in his mind is evidently that of a vast army slain, and left to putrify on the field unburied, and where fires would be kindled in part to consume the heaps of the slain, and in part to save the air from pestilential influences, All the enemies of God and his church would be like such a vast host strewed on the plains, and the perpetuity of his kingdom would be finally established.

And they shall be an abhorring – An object of loathing. So the Hebrew word dera’on, means. It is derived from dara’, an obsolete root, signifying, in Arabic, to thrust away, to repel. Jerome renders it, Ad satietatem visionis – understanding by it, that all flesh should look upon those dead bodies Until they were satisfied. The Septuagint, Eis horasin – For a vision; or that all flesh might look upon them. It is evident that the Septuagint reads the word as if it were derived from the verb ra’ah), to see.

Unto all flesh – (See Isa 66:23). The sense is, that so entire would be their overthrow, and such objects of loathing would they become, that all the friends of God would turn from them in abhorrence. All the enemies of God would be destroyed; the pure religion would triumph, and the people of God would be secure.

It may be made a question, perhaps, to what period this refers. The Saviour Mar 9:44, Mar 9:46, applied the language to the future punishment of the wicked, and no one, I think, can doubt that in Isaiah it includes that consummation of worldly affairs. The radical and essential idea in the prophet is, as it seems to me, that such would be the entire overthrow and punishment of the enemies of God; so condign their punishment; so deep their sufferings; so loathsome and hateful would they be when visited with the divine vengeance for their sins, that they would be an object of loathing and abhorrence. They would be swept off as unworthy to live with God, and they would be consigned to punishment – loathsome like that of ever gnawing worms on the carcasses of the slain, and interminable and dreadful like everconsuming and extinguishable fires.

This is the consummation of the series of bright visions that passed before the mind of Isaiah, and is an appropriate termination of this succession of wonderful revelations. Where could it more appropriately close than in the final triumph of the true religion, and in the complete and final destruction of all the enemies of Gods. The vision stretches on to the judgment, and is closed by a contemplation of those scenes which commence there, but which never end. The church is triumphant. Its conflicts cease. Its foes are slain. Its Redeemer is revealed; and its everlasting happiness is founded on a basis which can never be shaken.

Here I close my labors in endeavoring to elucidate the visions of this wonderful prophet. I thank God – the source of every right feeling and every holy desire, and the suggester of every plan that will in any way elucidate his word or promote his glory – that he ever inclined my heart to these studies. I thank him for the preservation of my life, and the continuance of my health, until I am permitted to bring this work to a close. I record, with grateful emotions, my deep conviction, that if in any way I have been enabled to explain that which was before dark; to illustrate that which was obscure; or to present any views which have not before occurred to those who may peruse this work, it is owing to the gracious influences of his Holy Spirit. And I desire to render thanks to the Great Source of light and truth, if I have been enabled to throw any light on the prophecies recorded here more than 2500 years ago; or to confirm the faith of any in the truth of the inspiration of the Bible by tracing the evidences of the fulfillment of those predictions.

And I now commend the work to the blessing of God, and devote it to the glory of his name and to the advancement of the Redeemers kingdom, with a humble prayer that it may be useful to other minds; but with the deep conviction, that whatever may be its effect on other minds, I have been abundantly compensated for all my labor in the contemplation of the inimitable beauties, and the sublime visions of Isaiah. thanks to God for this book; thanks for all its beauties, its consolations, its promises, its views of the Messiah, its predictions of the certain triumph of truth, and its glowing descriptions of the future conquest of the church, when God shall extend to it peace like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream. Come soon that blessed day, when the ransomed of the Lord shall return to Zion, with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads Isa 35:10; when the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose Isa 35:1; and when it shall be announced to the church, thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself, for Yahweh shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended Isa 60:20.

May I be permitted to close my labors on this book in the beautiful language of Vitringa? These words Isa 66:23-24 express the final doom of the two opposite classes of people, the righteous and the wicked, when, after various preparatory judgments of God, the fates of all ages, and our own also, shall be determined; with which also this divine book of Isaiah itself is terminated.

Be it our lot, with those who are holy; with those who fear God and love the truth; with the humble, meek, and merciful, and with those who persevere in every good work to the end of life, from the gracious sentence of our great Lord, Saviour, and Judge, Jesus Christ, to obtain, by the will of the Father, the same portion with them. In which hope, I also, now deeply affected, and prostrate before his throne, give humble thanks to God the Father, and his Son Christ Jesus, through the Spirit, for the grace and light with which he has endowed me, his unworthy servant, in commencing and completing the commentary on this book; entreating, with earnest prayer, of his grace and mercy, that, pardoning those errors into which erroneously I may have fallen, he will employ this work, such as it is, to the glory of his name, the use of the church, and the consolation of his people; and to Him be the glory throughout all ages.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Isa 66:24

And they shall go forth

Transgressors punished

Those that transgressed or rebelled against the Lord are the obstinate idolaters referred to in chaps, 65.

, 66. Their carcasses lies spectacle to all who come up to worship at Jerusalem, subject to never-ending corruption and never-ending burning. According to the prophets conception, the scene takes place on the earth, in me vicinity of Jerusalem, probably in the Valley of Hinnom, but the language may have suggested a punishment by everlasting fire in the world to come. (A. B.Davidson, D. D.)

Gehenna

This verse is the basis of the later Jewish conception of Gehenna as the place of everlasting punishment (see Salmonds Christian Doctrine of Immortality). Gehenna is the Hebrew Ge-Hinnom (Valley of Hinnom), the place where, of old, human sacrifices were offered to Moloch, and for this reason desecrated by King Josiah (2Ki 23:10). Afterwards it became a receptacle for filth and refuse, and Rabbinical tradition asserts that it was the custom to cast out unclean corpses there, to be burned or to undergo decomposition. This is, in all probability, the scene which had imprinted itself on the imagination of the writer, and which was afterwards projected into the unseen world as an image of endless retribution. The Talmudic theology locates the mouth of hell in the Valley of Hinnom. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)

The eternal imaged by the temporal

The prophet blends temporal and eternal This world and the next coalesce to his view. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)

Hell

Hell is of both worlds, so that in the same essential sense, although in different degree, it may be said both of him who is still living but accursed, and of him who perished centuries ago, that his worm dieth not and his fire is not quenched. (J. A. Alexander.)

Doom following unfaithfulness and transgression

1. It is a terrible ending, but it is the same as upon the same floor Christ set to His teaching–the Gospel net cast wide, but only to draw in both good and bad upon a beach of judgment; the wedding feast thrown open and men compelled to come in, but among them a heart whom grace so great could not awe even to decency; Christs Gospel preached, His example evident, and Himself owned as Lord, and nevertheless some whom neither the hearing nor the seeing nor the owning with their lips did lift to unselfishness or stir to pity-. Therefore He who had cried, Come all unto Me, was compelled to close by saying to many, Depart.

2. It is a terrible ending: but one only too conceivable. For though God is love, man is free–free to turn from that love; free to be as though he had never felt it; free to put away from himself the highest, clearest, most urgent grace that God can show. But to do this is the judgment.

3. Lord, are there few that be saved? The Lord did not answer the question but by bidding the questioner take heed to himself Strive to enter in at the strait gate, (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)

Eternal punishment

I. THE WICKEDNESS OF THE WICKED. II. ITS PUNISHMENT. Certain. Terrible. Without alleviation or hope.

III. THE PERPETUATION OF ITS MORAL LESSONS. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

The goodness and severity of God

The public reading of the synagogue repeats once more after Isa 66:24, on account of its terrible import, the encouraging words of Isa 66:23 in order to conclude with words of comfort.(F. Delitzsch, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 24. For their worm shall not die] These words of the prophet are applied by our blessed Saviour, Mr 9:44, to express the everlasting punishment of the wicked in Gehenna, or in hell. Gehenna, or the valley of Hinnom, was very near to Jerusalem to the south-east: it was the place where the idolatrous Jews celebrated that horrible rite of making their children pass through the fire, that is, of burning them in sacrifice to Moloch. To put a stop to this abominable practice, Josiah defiled, or desecrated, the place, by filling it with human bones, 2Kg 23:10; 2Kg 23:14; and probably it was the custom afterwards to throw out the carcasses of animals there, when it also became the common burying place for the poorer people of Jerusalem. Our Saviour expressed the state of the blessed by sensible images; such as paradise, Abraham’s bosom, or, which is the same thing, a place to recline next to Abraham at table in the kingdom of heaven. See Mt 8:11. Coenabat Nerva cum paucis. Veiento proximus, atque etiam in sinu recumbebat. “The Emperor Nerva supped with few. Veiento was the first in his estimation, and even reclined in his bosom.” Plin. Epist. iv. 22. Compare Joh 13:23; for we could not possibly have any conception of it but by analogy from worldly objects. In like manner he expressed the place of torment under the image of Gehenna; and the punishment of the wicked by the worm which there preyed on the carcasses, and the fire that consumed the wretched victims. Marking however, in the strongest manner, the difference between Gehenna and the invisible place of torment; namely, that in the former the suffering is transient:-the worm itself which preys upon the body, dies; and the fire which totally consumes it, is soon extinguished:-whereas in the figurative Gehenna the instruments of punishment shall be everlasting, and the suffering without end; “for there the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”

These emblematical images, expressing heaven and hell, were in use among the Jews before our Saviour’s time; and in using them he complied with their notions. “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God,” says the Jew to our Saviour, Lu 14:15. And in regard to Gehenna, the Chaldee paraphrase as I observed before on Isa 30:33, renders everlasting or continual burnings by “the Gehenna of everlasting fire.” And before his time the son of Sirach, Sirach 7:17, had said, “The vengeance of the ungodly is fire and worms.” So likewise the author of the book of Judith, Judith 16:17: “Wo to the nations rising up against my kindred: the Lord Almighty will take vengeance of them in the day of judgment, in putting fire and worms in their flesh;” manifestly referring to the same emblem. – L.

Kimchi‘s conclusion of his notes on this book is remarkable: –

“Blessed be God who hath created the mountains and the hills,

And hath endued me with strength to finish the book of

salvation:

He shall rejoice us with good tidings and reports;

He shall show us a token for good: –

And the end of his miracles he shall cause to approach us.”

Several of the Versions have a peculiarity in their terminations: –

And they shall be to a satiety of sight to all flesh.

VULGATE.

And thei schul ben into fyllyng of sigt to all fleshe.

Old MS. BIBLE.

And they shall be as a vision to all flesh.

SEPTUAGINT.

And the wicked shall be punished in hell till the righteous

shall say, – It is enough.

CHALDEE.

They shall be an astonishment to all flesh;

So that they shall be a spectacle to all beings.

SYRIAC.

The end of the prophecy of Isaiah the prophet.

Praise to God who is truly praiseworthy.

ARABIC.

One of my old Hebrew MSS. after the twenty-first verse repeats the twenty-third: “And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.”

MASORETIC NOTES

Number of verses in this book, 1295.

Middle verse, – Isa 33:21.

Masoretic sections, 26.

chazak, Be strong.

In the course of these notes the reader will have often observed two MSS. of the Septuagint referred to by Bp. Lowth, and marked I. B. II., I. D. II. They are both in the British Museum. The former contains the prophets, and was written about the tenth or eleventh century; and because it once belonged to Pachomius, patriarch of Constantinople, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, the bishop often quotes it by the title MS. Pachom. The other contains many of the historical books, beginning with Ruth, and ending with Ezra; and has also the Prophet Isaiah. This MS. consists of two parts, – one apparently written in the eleventh or twelfth century; the other, in the beginning of the fourteenth. Dr. Grabe and Dr. Woide, as well as Bp. Lowth, considered these MSS. of great value and authority.

It may be necessary to say something of the Hebrew MSS. which I have also frequently quoted. The collations of Kennicott and De Rossi have been long before the public, and to describe them would be useless. The collections of the latter Bp. Lowth had never seen, else he could have strengthened his authorities: these, for the first time, I have in the preceding notes incorporated with Bishop Lowth’s references, and thus added double strength to the learned prelate’s authorities. But of my own I should say something, as they form no part of the above collections; and yet are among the oldest MSS. known to exist. Independently of rolls, which contain only the Megillah, Esther, and the Pentateuch, they are ten in number, and formerly belonged to the Rev. Cornelius Schulting, a Protestant minister of Amsterdam. After his death in 1726, they were sold by public auction, and came into the possession of the Rev. John Van der Hagen, a reformed minister of the same place.

In 1733, Jo. Christ. Wolf described these MSS. in the fourth volume of his Bibliotheca Hebraea, p. 79. A few years ago I had the singular good fortune to purchase the whole of these at Utrecht; a collection of MSS., which Dr. Kennicott complains that he could not by any entreaties obtain the privilege of collating. These are his own words, – “Wolfius, (Bib. Heb. iv. 79-82,) memorat codices 10. olim penes Schultingium; quorum plurimi postea erant penes Rev. Joh. Van der Hagen. Usum Codd. Hagenianorum obtinere nulla potuit a me precatio.” Dissert. Gener. p. 78. sub Cod. 84. Dr. Kennicott supposed that three of those MSS. had been collated for him: but in this I believe he was mistaken; as he was also in supposing that only the greater part of the ten MSS. of Schulting had fallen into the hands of Mr. Van der Hagen; for the fact is, the whole ten were purchased by Van der Hagen, and the same ten are now in my library, being precisely those described by Wolfius, as above. I have collated the Prophet Isaiah throughout, in two of the most ancient of these MSS.; and have added their testimony in many places to the various readings collected by Kennicott and De Rossi. The very bad state of my health, and particularly of my eyes, prevented a more extensive collation of these very ancient and invaluable MSS. Some of the oldest are without any date. They are marked with the ten first letters of the alphabet. Cod. C. was written A.D. 1076, – D. in 1286, – G. in 1215, – H. in 1309, – I. in 1136. In most of these there is an ample harvest of important various readings.

Bishop Lowth, in giving an account of his labours on this prophet, takes a general view of the difficulties and helps he met with in his work. This being of considerable importance, I shall lay an abstract of it before the reader, as a proper supplement to the preceding sheets. He observes: –

“The Masoretic punctuation, – by which the pronunciation of the language is given, and the forms of the several parts of speech, the construction of the words, the distribution and limits of the sentences, and the connexion of the several members, are fixed, – is in effect an interpretation of the Hebrew text made by the Jews of late ages, probably not earlier than the eight century; and may be considered as their translation of the Old Testament. Where the words unpointed are capable of various meanings, according as they may be variously pronounced and constructed, the Jews by their pointing have determined them to one meaning and construction; and the sense which they thus give is their sense of the passage, just as the rendering of a translator into another language is his sense. The points have been considered as part of the Hebrew text, and as giving the meaning of it on no less than Divine authority. Accordingly our public translations in the modern tongues, for the use of the Church among Protestants, and so likewise the modern Latin translations, are for the most part close copies of the Hebrew pointed text, and are in reality only versions at second hand, translations of the Jews’ interpretation of the Old Testament.

“To what a length an opinion lightly taken up, and embraced with a full assent without due examination, may be carried, we may see in another example of much the same kind. The learned of the Church of Rome, who have taken the liberty of giving translations of Scripture in the modern languages, have for the most part subjected and devoted themselves to a prejudice equally groundless and absurd. The Council of Trent declared the Latin translation of the Scriptures, called the Vulgate, which had been for many ages in use in their Church, to be authentic; a very ambiguous term, which ought to have been more precisely defined than the fathers of this council chose to define it. Upon this ground many contended that the Vulgate Version was dictated by the Holy Spirit; at least was providentially guarded against all error; was consequently of Divine authority, and more to be regarded than even the original Hebrew and Greek texts.

“But a very fruitful source of error proceeded from the Jewish copyists consulting more the fair appearance of their copy than the correctness of it, by wilfully leaving mistakes uncorrected, lest by erasing they should diminish the beauty and the value of the transcript, (for instance, when they had written a word or part of a word wrong, and immediately saw their mistake, they left the mistake uncorrected, and wrote the word anew after it;) their scrupulous regard to the evenness and fulness of their lines, which induced them to cut off from the ends of lines a letter or letters for which there was not sufficient room, (for they never divided a word, so that the parts of it should belong to two lines,) and to add to the ends of lines letters wholly insignificant, by way of expletives to fill up a vacant space: their custom of writing part of a word at the end of a line, where there was not room for the whole, and then giving the whole word at the beginning of the next line.

“These circumstances considered, it would be the most astonishing of all miracles, if the Hebrew writings of the Old Testament had come down to us through their hands absolutely pure, and free from all mistakes whatsoever.

“The ancient VERSIONS, as the principal sources of emendation, and highly useful in rectifying as well as in explaining the Hebrew text, are contained in the London Polyglot.

“The Greek Version, commonly called the Septuagint, or of the seventy interpreters, probably made by different hands, (the number of them uncertain,) and at different times, as the exigence of the Jewish Church at Alexandria and in other parts of Egypt required, is of the first authority. and of the greatest use in correcting the Hebrew text, as being the most ancient of all; and as the copy from which it was translated appears to have been free from many errors which afterwards by degrees got into the text. But the Greek Version of Isaiah is not so old as that of the Pentateuch by a hundred years and more, having been made in all probability after the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, when the reading of the prophets in the Jewish synagogues began to be practised; and even after the building of Onias’ temple to favour which there seems to have been some artifice employed in a certain passage of Isaiah (Isa 19:18) in this Version. And it unfortunately happens that Isaiah has had the hard fate to meet with a Greek translator very unworthy of him, there being hardly any book of the Old Testament so ill rendered in that Version as this of Isaiah.

“The Arabic Version is sometimes referred to as verifying the reading of the Septuagint, being, for the most part at least, taken from that Version.

“The Chaldee paraphrase of Jonathan ben Uzziel, made about or before the time of our Saviour, though it often wanders from the text in a wordy allegorical explanation, yet very frequently adheres to it closely, and gives a verbal rendering of it; and accordingly is sometimes of great use in ascertaining the true reading of the Hebrew text.

“The Syriac Version stands next in order of time, but is superior to the Chaldee in usefulness and authority, as well in ascertaining as in explaining the Hebrew text. It is a close translation of the Hebrew language into one of near affinity to it. It is supposed to have been made as early as the first century.

“The fragments of the three Greek Versions of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, all made in the second century, which are collected in the Hexapla of Montfaucon, are of considerable use for the same purpose.

“The Vulgate, being for the most part the translation of Jerome, made in the fourth century, is of service in the same way, in proportion to its antiquity.

“In referring to Dr. Kennicott’s Collections, I have given the whole number of manuscripts or editions which concur in any particular reading; what proportion that number bears to the whole number of collated copies which contain the Book of Isaiah, may be seen by comparing it with the catalogue of copies collated, which is given at the end of that book in the doctor’s edition of the Hebrew Bible.

“Among the manuscripts which have been collated, I consider those of the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries as ancient, comparatively and in respect of the rest. Therefore in quoting a number of manuscripts, where the variation is of some importance, I have added, that so many of that number are ancient, that is, are of the centuries above mentioned.

“The design of the notes is to give the reasons and authorities on which the translation is founded; to rectify or to explain the words of the text; to illustrate the ideas, the images, and the allusions of the prophet, by referring to objects, notions, and customs which peculiarly belong to his age and his country; and to point out the beauties of particular passages. If the reader would go deeper into the mystical sense, into theological, historical, and chronological disquisitions, there are many learned expositors to whom he may have recourse, who have written full commentaries on this prophet to which title the present work has no pretensions. The sublime and spiritual uses to be made of this peculiarly evangelical prophet, must be all founded on a faithful representation of the literal sense which his words contain. This is what I have endeavoured closely and exactly to express.”

IN conclusion, it may be necessary to give some account of what I have ventured to superadd to the labours of this very learned prelate. After consulting the various commentators, who have spent much time and labour in their endeavours to illustrate this prophet, I found their interpretations of many of the most important prophecies strangely different, and often at variance. Former commentators have taken especial care to bring forth in the most prominent point of view all those passages which have been generally understood to refer to our blessed Lord, and the Christian dispensation. Later critics, especially those on the continent, have adopted the Jewish plan of interpretation, referring the parts belonging to the Messiah in his sufferings, c., to the prophet himself, or to the children of the captivity in their state of suffering and those passages which speak of the redemption of the world, and the glorious state of the Christian Church, they apply to the deliverance of the Israelites from the Babylonish captivity. It is really painful to see what labour and learning these critics spend to rob the prophet of his title of evangelical; and to show that even the sacred writers of the New Testament, in their application of select passages to our Lord, only followed the popular custom of accommodating passages of the Sacred Writings to occurrences and events, to which their leading circumstances bore some kind of resemblance, the application being only intended to convey the idea of similitude, and not of identity.

While I have cautiously handled those passages, the application of which was dubious, I have taker care to give my opinion with firmness on those which seem to have no other meaning than what they derive from their application to the great work of redemption by Jesus Christ, and the glory that should follow the outpouring of his Spirit. Many readers will no doubt suppose that I should have dwelt more on the spiritual parts of this inimitable book; but to this there would be scarcely any end. Who could exhaust the stores of this prophet! and if any thing were left unsaid, some would still be unsatisfied, to say nothing of the volume being thereby swollen beyond all reasonable bounds. I have marked enough for the reader’s meditation; and have thrown out a sufficient number of hints to be improved by ministers of the word of God. To another class it may appear too critical; but this chiefly applies to the learned bishop, whose plan, as by far the best in my judgment, I have followed; and whose collection of various readings I felt it my duty to complete, a thing that none of his editors have attempted before. I have therefore added the various readings collected by De Rossi to those of Dr. Kennicott, which the bishop had cited as authorities, on which he built his alterations and critical conjectures.

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

Either the Gentiles, or the sincerer part of the Jews, shall go forth from their places, or from Jerusalem, or

go out of their graves, at the last day, and look upon the vengeance I have taken upon these vile idolaters and formalists, for their satisfaction, Psa 58:10; they shall see none of them alive, but they shall see their carcasses. For the worms that feed on their slain carcasses shall not suddenly die, and the enemys fire burning upon their habitations shall not go out till they be wholly consumed; and after this life, and at the day of judgment, they shall go into eternal torments; see Mar 9:44,46,48; where they will feel a worm of conscience that shall never die, and a fiery wrath of God upon their souls and bodies that shall never go out.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

24. go forth, and lookas theIsraelites looked at the carcasses of the Egyptians destroyed at theRed Sea (Ex 14:30; compareIsa 26:14-19; Psa 58:10;Psa 49:14; Mal 4:1-3).

carcasses, c. (Isa66:16), those slain by the Lord in the last great battle nearJerusalem (Zec 12:2-9Zec 14:2-4); type of thefinal destruction of all sinners.

worm . . . not die(Mar 9:44; Mar 9:46;Mar 9:48). Image of hell, frombodies left unburied in the valley of Hinnom (whence comes Gehenna,or “hell”), south of Jerusalem, where a perpetual firewas kept to consume the refuse thrown there (Isa30:33). It shall not be inconsistent with true love for the godlyto look with satisfaction on God’s vengeance on the wicked (Re14:10). May God bless this Commentary, and especially its solemnclose, to His glory, and to the edification of the writer and thereaders of it, for Jesus’ sake!

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

And they shall go forth,…. That is, those constant and spiritual worshippers shall go forth from the holy mountain Jerusalem, the church of God, whither they are brought as an offering to the Lord, and where they worship him; for this is not to be understood of going out of Jerusalem literally, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi; or of their going out of their graves after the resurrection, as others; but either out of the Christian assemblies, or out of the houses of the saints, and the beloved city, when fire shall come down from heaven, and destroy the wicked, Re 20:9:

and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me. The Targum is,

“against my Word;”

against Christ, whose person they blasphemed, denying him to be God; whose office, as a Mediator and Saviour, they rejected; whose doctrines they contradicted; and whose ordinances they despised: these are not the carcasses of the camp of Gog and Magog, the Jews so call, as Kimchi interprets it; though it may have reference to the carcasses of Gog’s army, the Turks, that will be slain in their attempt to recover Judea,

Eze 38:1 or else the carcasses of those that will be slain at the battle at Armageddon, Re 16:16 or the army of Gog and Magog, at the end of the thousand years, Re 20:8. The Talmudists t observe from hence, that the wicked, even at the gate of hell, return not by repentance; for it is not said, that “have transgressed”, but “that transgress”; for they transgress, and go on for ever; and so indeed the word may be rendered, “that transgress”, or “are transgressing” u; for they interpret it of the damned in hell, as many do; and of whom the following clauses may be understood:

for their worm shall not die; with which their carcasses shall be covered, they lying rotting above ground; or figuratively their consciences, and the horrors and terrors that shall seize them, which they will never get rid of. The Targum is,

“their souls shall not die;”

as they will not, though their bodies may; but will remain to suffer the wrath of God to all eternity: neither shall their fire be quenched; in hell, as Jarchi interprets it; those wicked men, the followers and worshippers of antichrist, will be cast into the lake which burns with fire and brimstone; they will for ever suffer the vengeance of eternal fire; and the smoke of their torment shall ascend for ever and ever,

Re 14:10:

and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh; the true worshippers of God, Isa 66:23 to whom their carcasses will be loathsome, when they look upon them; and their souls abominable, because of their wicked actions; and who cannot but applaud the justice of God in their condemnation; and admire distinguishing grace and mercy, that has preserved them from the like ruin and destruction. The Targum is,

“and the ungodly shall be judged in hell, till the righteous shall say concerning them, we have seen enough;”

see Mr 9:44, where our Lord mentions and repeats some of the clauses of this, text, and applies them to the torments of hell.

t T. Bab. Erubim, fol. 19. 1. R. Hona in Midrash Tillim in Psal. i. 6. u “praevaricantium in me”, Pagninus, Montanus; “qui transgressi sunt contra me”, Piscator; “deficientium a me”, Cocceius.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

They who go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem every new moon and Sabbath, see there with their own eyes the terrible punishment of the rebellious. “And they go out and look at the corpses of the men that have rebelled against me, for their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched, and they become an abomination to all flesh.” They perfects are perf. cons. regulated by the foregoing . (accented with pashta in our editions, but more correctly with m unach) refers to their going out of the holy city. The prophet had predicted in Isa 66:18, that in the last times the whole multitude of the enemies of Jerusalem would be crowded together against it, in the hope of getting possession of it. This accounts for the fact that the neighbourhood of Jerusalem becomes such a scene of divine judgment. always denotes a fixed, lingering look directed to any object; here it is connected with the grateful feeling of satisfaction at the righteous acts of God and their own gracious deliverance. , which only occurs again in Dan 12:2, is the strongest word for “abomination.” It is very difficult to imagine the picture which floated before the prophet’s mind. How is it possible that all flesh, i.e., all men of all nations, should find room in Jerusalem and the temple? Even if the city and temple should be enlarged, as Ezekiel and Zechariah predict, the thing itself still remains inconceivable. And again, how can corpses be eaten by worms at the same time as they are being burned, or how can they be the endless prey of worms and fire without disappearing altogether from the sight of man? It is perfectly obvious, that the thing itself, as here described, must appear monstrous and inconceivable, however we may suppose it to be realized. The prophet, by the very mode of description adopted by him, precludes the possibility of our conceiving of the thing here set forth as realized in any material form in this present state. He is speaking of the future state, but in figures drawn from the present world. The object of his prediction is no other than the new Jerusalem of the world to come, and the eternal torment of the damned; but the way in which he pictures it, forces us to translate it out of the figures drawn from this life into the realities of the life to come; as has already been done in the apocryphal books of Judith (16:17) and Wisdom (7:17), as well as in the New Testament, e.g., Mar 9:43., with evident reference to this passage. This is just the distinction between the Old Testament and the New, that the Old Testament brings down the life to come to the level of this life, whilst the New Testament lifts up this life to the level of the life to come; that the Old Testament depicts both this life and the life to come as an endless extension of this life, whilst the New Testament depicts is as a continuous line in two halves, the last point in this finite state being the first point of the infinite state beyond; that the Old Testament preserves the continuity of this life and the life to come by transferring the outer side, the form, the appearance of this life to the life to come, the New Testament by making the inner side, the nature, the reality of the life to come, the , immanent in this life. The new Jerusalem of our prophet has indeed a new heaven above it and a new earth under it, but it is only the old Jerusalem of earth lifted up to its highest glory and happiness; whereas the new Jerusalem of the Apocalypse comes down from heaven, and is therefore of heavenly nature. In the former dwells the Israel that has been brought back from captivity; in the latter, the risen church of those who are written in the book of life. And whilst our prophet transfers the place in which the rebellious are judged to the neighbourhood of Jerusalem itself; in the Apocalypse, the lake of fire in which the life of the ungodly is consumed, and the abode of God with men, are for ever separated. The Hinnom-valley outside Jerusalem has become Gehenna, and this is no longer within the precincts of the new Jerusalem, because there is no need of any such example to the righteous who are for ever perfect.

In the lessons prepared for the synagogue Isa 66:23 is repeated after Isa 66:24, on account of the terrible character of the latter, “so as to close with words of consolation.”

(Note: Isaiah is therefore regarded as an exception to the rule, that the prophets close their orations ( b. Berachoth 31 a), although, on the other hand, this exception is denied by some, on the ground that the words “they shall be an abhorring” apply to the Gentiles ( j. Berachoth c. V. Anf. Midras Tillim on Psa 4:8).)

But the prophet, who has sealed the first two sections of these prophetic orations with the words, “there is no peace to the wicked,” intentionally closes the third section with this terrible picture of their want of peace. The promises have gradually soared into the clear light of the eternal glory, to the new creation in eternity; and the threatenings have sunk down to the depth of eternal torment, which is the eternal foil of the eternal light. More than this we could not expect from our prophet. His threefold book is now concluded. It consists of twenty-seven orations. The central one of the whole, i.e., the fourteenth, is Isaiah 52:13-53:12; so that the cross forms the centre of this prophetic trilogy. Per crucem ad lucem is its watchword. The self-sacrifice of the Servant of Jehovah lays the foundation for a new Israel, a new human race, a new heaven and a new earth.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

24. And they shall go forth. We must not here attempt to obtain subtle and ingenious interpretations; for he simply informs those who shall be adopted into the Church that they shall see, all around them, the dreadful vengeance of God. Yet there is an implied contrast between the straits of the calamity and the free departure; as if he had said, “Out of the dark prison in which they had been confined they shall again come forth to the light.”

And shall see the dead bodies of men. He does not mean that this slaughter shall take place in the assembly of believers; for this would greatly diminish the happiness of the Church, in which God displays all testimonies of joy and gladness. But as he formerly spoke of the perpetual glory by which he shall dignify his people, so he now threatens the punishment which he shall inflict on the reprobate, that the godly may be more careful to keep themselves in the fear of God.

And their fire shall not be extinguished. When he says that they shall be tormented by “fire,” this mode of expression, as I have formerly remarked, (232) is metaphorical. And this is clearly evident from the succeeding clause; for worms will not be formed out of the earth to gnaw the hearts of unbelievers. The plain meaning, therefore, is, that the wicked shall have a bad conscience as an executioner, to torment them without end, and that torment awaits them greater than all other torments; and finally, that they shall tremble and be agitated in a dreadful and shocking manner, as if a worm were gnawing the heart of a man, or a fire were consuming it, and yet thus consumed, he did not die.

And they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh. Because the wicked are now held in the highest honor, and from their lofty position look down with contempt on good men, the Prophet threatens a shocking change; for, along with unutterable torments, they shall also endure the deepest disgrace; as it is just and right that they who despised and reproached the glory of God shall be loaded with every reproach, and shall be the objects of abhorrence to angels and to the whole world.

(232) Commentary on Isaiah, vol. 2 p. 387.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(24) And they shall go forth . . .As at the close of Isaiah 48, 57, each ending a great section of the volume, so here, the vision of restoration and blessedness is balanced by that of the righteous condemnation of the wicked. The outward imagery is suggested, as in Joe. 3:12; Zec. 14:12, by that of the great battle of the Lord (Isa. 66:15-16). Those who are slain in that battle are thought of as filling the valleys round about Jerusalem, especially the valley of Jehoshaphat (Jehovah judges ), devoured by worms, or given to the flames. Taken strictly, therefore, the words do not speak of the punishment of the souls of men after death, but of the defeat and destruction upon earth of the enemies of Jehovah. The words that tell us that the worm shall not die and that the fire shall not be quenched point, however, to something more than this, to be read between the lines. And so those words became the starting-point of the thoughts of later Judaism as to Gehenna (Sir. 8:17; Jdt. 16:17, and the Targum on this passage), of the words in which our Lord Himself gave utterance to what, at least, seemed to express those thoughts (Mar. 9:44-48), of the dominant eschatology of Christendom. Even so taken, however, with this wider range, it is still a question whether the words are to be taken literally or figuratively (though this, perhaps, is hardly a question), whether the bodies, which represent souls, are thought of as not destroyed, but only tormented, or as consumed to nothing, by the fire and by the worm, whether those two agents represent sufferings of sense or spirit. The one aspect of the future life which they tend to exclude is that which presents the idea of a suffering that may be purifying. That idea is not without apparent support in other passages of Scripture (e.g., Rom. 5:17-21; Rom. 11:32; 1Pe. 3:19; 1Pe. 4:6); but we cannot say that it entered into the prophets thoughts here. What he emphasises is the eternal antagonism between the righteousness of God and mans unrighteousness, and this involves the punishment of the latter as long as it exists. In any case there is a strange solemnity in this being the last word of the prophets book of revelation, even as there is a like awfulness in the picture of the final judgment, which appears in Mat. 25:46, at all but the close of our Lords public teaching. Cheyne quotes a singular rubric of the Jewish ritual, that when this chapter, or Ecclesiastes 12, or Malachi 3, was read in the synagogue, the last verse but one should be repeated after the last, so that mercy might appear as in the end triumphant after and over judgment.

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

24. They shall go forth The restored of the true Israel, embracing all devout Jews and converted Gentiles, constitute a vast host, enclosed within the walls of the typical, but now holy, Jerusalem. They have been collected from all regions of the earth. Already Jehovah has closed fiery judgment with apostate Israel, and has gathered the corpses of “the slain of the Lord” into the Hinnom valley (now called Gehenna) below, there to have unending consumption by unquenched fire and never-dying worm. The happy denizens of Jerusalem are called to go forth and survey the scene. The place, once by our prophet called Tophet, (Isa 30:33,) and more fully so called by Jeremiah, (Jer 7:30-33; Jer 19:6-15,) to which also our Lord alludes, (Mar 9:44; Mar 9:46; Mar 9:48,) was at one time the scene of Moloch worship; hence the name Tophet a drum beaten to drown the cries of infants sacrificed to Moab’s god, Moloch. Hence, too, the whole imagery here, that of illustrating the horrors of doom befalling apostates from the true God, and the future punishment to all who incorrigibly are defiant of Jehovah to the last.

For purposes of Isaiah’s profound drama, herewith closed, this is a fitting and legitimate monumental scene; on this, want of space does not allow enlargement. It is, moreover, with some grotesqueness, a didactic scene. Prediction is in the scene, the object of which is, first, the New Jerusalem of the world to come; and second, the eternal misery of condemned ones. The picture is drawn in figures from the present world figures from the present life adapted to the realities of the life to come. This, however, is just the distinction between the Old Testament and the New the former bringing down the life to come to the end of this life, while the latter does just the opposite. (This thought is due to Delitzsch.) He says: “The New Jerusalem of our prophet has indeed a new heaven above it and a new earth under it, but it is only the old Jerusalem of earth lifted up to its highest glory and happiness; whereas the New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse comes down from heaven, and is therefore of a heavenly nature. In the former dwells the Israel that has been brought back from exile; in the latter, the risen Church of those who are written in the Book of Life. And whilst our prophet transfers the place in which the rebellious are judged to the neighbourhood of Jerusalem itself; in the Apocalypse the lake of fire in which the life of the ungodly is consumed, and the abode of God with men, are for ever separated. The Hinnom valley outside Jerusalem has become Gehenna, and this is no longer within the precincts of Jerusalem, because there is no need of any such example to the righteous who are for ever perfect.”

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

Isa 66:24. And they shall go forth We have here the end of all transgressors, of incredulous Jews, and apostate Christians, like them obstinate in unbelief or apostacy, and hardened in spiritual death, to begin in this world, and to continue for ever. The prophet here speaks of the punishment of sinners, who had been in the communion of the external church, so called, had despised the divine vocation, had excommunicated and oppressed their brethren, see Isa 66:5 and who are here called, the men that have transgressed, have rebelled, or revolted against me.They shall go forth, means those who had joined themselves to the communion of the church, spoken of in the preceding verses. See Mat 8:12. Mar 9:44; Mar 9:50. The reader will observe, that the ideas in this verse are figurative; the first figure is taken from the valley of the children of Hinnom; the second from worms preying upon dead bodies. Instead of an abhorring, we may read, an execration. Our Lord, in his judicial sentence upon the impenitent, will say, Depart, ye cursed, or, execrated, into eternal fire: An evil which will be added to their state of pain, and to a condemning conscience: Separated from the communion of God and the saints, cast into the profoundest misery and torment, they will be exposed to the ignominy, contempt, and execration of devils and condemned spirits; unlike the pious, who shall worship for ever before the Lord. These are the different ends of the different kinds of men, the pious and the wicked; in which, after various preparatory judgments of God, the end of all ages will arrive, and our conditions respectively be determined for ever: with which this divine book of our inimitable prophet terminates also. God grant that our lot may be with the holy, with those who reverence the Lord, and love the truth; with the humble, the meek, the merciful, and those who persevere in good works to the end of life; through the grace of our Almighty Lord, Saviour, and Judge, Jesus Christ, who is to distribute these blessings according to the will of his Father! “Full of which hope,” says Vitringa, “and prostrate before his throne, I return, with the most profound humility, my sincerest thanks to God the Father in his Son Jesus Christ by the Spirit, for the grace and light wherewith he hath favoured me, his unworthy servant, during my comment on this book; earnestly requesting of his mercy, that, pardoning the errors into which I have ignorantly fallen, he would render this work conducive to the glory of his great name, the benefit of the church, and the consolation of the pious.”

To conclude.The regularity, sublimity, and elegance of composition of this divine poem are alone sufficient to recommend it to every reader of taste; but when the depth, the clearness, and extent of the prophesies contained in it, are taken into the account, we shall not be thought to speak too largely when we say, that the book of Isaiah is one of the most complete and excellent of all compositions human or divine, and deserving the most attentive and repeated perusal.

REFLECTIONS.1st, The grand delusion of the Jewish people was, the confidence they placed in their outward privileges and ritual services, their temple and sacrifices. To undeceive them herein, the prophets and evangelists warn them of the vanity of these things, and that the temple which they so highly prized, would soon be razed from its foundations, as it was by the Chaldeans, and more intirely afterwards by the Romans.

1. The prophet rebukes their mean and unworthy notions of God, as if confined to the temple which they had built, whom heaven, and the heaven of heavens, cannot contain. Thus saith the Lord, the Heaven is my throne, where most transcendently he displays the infinite brightness of his glory; and the earth is my footstool, subject to his government, and at his disposal. Where is the house that ye build unto me? which can contain his immensity, or be worthy of his dignity, who is exalted above all blessing and praise; and where is the place of my rest? who needs no repose, and can take no satisfaction in the wretched fabrics of puny mortals: for all those things hath mine hand made; heaven, earth, and the inhabitants of both: and all those things have been, or are, saith the Lord; were created by his power, and subsist by his providence: how impossible, therefore, for this eternal Creator of all to need a temple made with hands, or this omnipresent Deity to be circumscribed within these narrow bounds?

2. The temple he delights in is not that which consists of hewn stones, and cedars overlaid with gold; a far nobler mansion he hath formed for himself. To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word; which some interpret of Christ, in whom dwelt all the fulness of the godhead bodily; but more generally may be applied to every believer, who is an habitation of God through the Spirit, and whose character is here delineated; poor in his own eyes, sensible of his spiritual wants and utter weakness; of a contrite heart, broken with a consciousness of intire demerit; and trembling at my word, with that reverence and godly fear which faith inspires; such a heart is the living temple of the Deity.

3. Their sacrifices are rejected, abolished, abhorred: they were ever detestable, when offered by those whose ways were wickedness; but now to persist in them, and depend upon them for acceptance with God, when the one great sacrifice once offered put a period to the ritual service, was utterly abominable. Murder, idolatry, and the most unclean and forbidden sacrifices, as the offering of a dog, or the blood of swine, were not more highly criminal, and abhorred of God, nor would be attended with deeper and more condign punishment, than the continuance of their incense and oblations, which was now in effect to trample under foot the blood of the Son of God, to reject his Gospel, and do despite to the Spirit of grace. Note; Many think that they take great pains to save their souls by duties and services springing from a proud unregenerate heart, and will not be persuaded that their trust in these only brings upon them more sure destruction.

4. God gives them up to their own inventions; and woe to that soul which he abandons! Yea, they have chosen their own way; cleaving to the law for righteousness, they wilfully and obstinately rejected Christ and his salvation; and their soul delighteth in their abominations; they are pleased with their own services, and flatter themselves that God approves them, when in fact he abhors them. Therefore, says he, I also will choose their delusions, giving them up to their own deceived hearts; and will bring their fears upon them; the calamities which they dreaded, especially the horrible devastations of the Romans, who they feared would take away their place and nation, Joh 11:48; which to prevent, they crucified the Redeemer, and thereby most effectually drew upon their own heads the judgments which they sought to avoid: because when I called, none did answer; when I spoke, they did not hear; deaf to the preaching of Christ and his apostles, they hardened their hearts in unbelief and impenitence. But they did evil before mine eyes; reviling, blaspheming, persecuting, and at last murdering the Lord Jesus, and utterly rejecting his Gospel; and choose that in which I delighted not; not only the ways of wickedness and sin, but the false confidences of a legal righteousness, and the vain interpretations of oral tradition. Note; (1.) They who are deaf to God’s warnings, will be made to feel his wrath. (2.) Wilful rejection of the light is justly punished by God’s leaving a sinner to the delusions that he hath chosen, and giving him up to a reprobate mind. (3.) Nothing more is needful to kindle up a hell within sinners’ hearts, even on this side the grave, than to bring their own fears upon them.

2nd, The prophet turns from the disobedient, against whom God’s judgments are denounced, to those who trembled at his word; and encourages the humble and contrite with the assurances of God’s regard, and his blessing upon them.
1. God will appear to vindicate them against their persecutors. Your brethren that hated you, and cast you out for my name’s sake; as the Jews did the apostles and disciples of Christ, though their brethren, excommunicated them from their synagogues, and were their bitterest and most implacable enemies, stirring up the Gentiles against them in every place; said, Let the Lord be glorified; pretending zeal for his honour, and many really thinking that he who killed them did God service: but he shall appear to your joy, supporting and strengthening them against all opposition, giving success to their labours, and comforting them in all their tribulation: and they shall be ashamed; all their devices baffled, the Gospel spreading in spite of their opposition, and speedy destruction hastening upon their own heads. Note; (1.) A Christian’s bitterest foes are often those of his own house. (2.) Church rulers have been in general the chief persecutors in times of persecution, and cover, with the fair pretext of zeal for religion, the enmity of their hearts against the truly faithful ministers, whose boldness, diligence, and exemplary lives, reproach their sloth, negligence, and carnality. (3.) They who suffer for their fidelity, shall find the comforts of God an abundant support and recompense.

2. Heavy will be the vengeance of God on their enemies. A voice of noise from the city; the shrieks of the wounded, the groans of the dying, and the shouts of the conquerors: a voice from the temple; of lamentation, when set on fire by the Romans; or that which Josephus reports was heard in the temple shortly before its destruction, when the doors flew open of their own accord, and a voice issued from the holy place, crying, Let us depart hence: A voice of the Lord that rendereth recompense to his enemies, by whose direction and order all these judgments came upon them.

3. To the wonder and joy of his people, and the confusion and astonishment of his enemies, God will enlarge and establish his church in the earth. Before she travailed, she brought forth: before her pain came, she was delivered of a man-child. The church of Christ is represented as a pregnant woman, that immediately, with little or no pain, brings forth her son; so speedily and easily, by the preaching of a single sermon, Act 2:41 were multitudes regenerated and converted to Christ. Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? so strange and uncommon. Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? since the creation the seasons go on in gradual succession, and the fruits require time to ripen them: or shall a nation be born at once? which is usually the work of ages: for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children; no sooner began the Gospel to be preached, than multitudes both of men and women, as the drops of dew from the womb of the morning, were added to the church daily, Act 4:4. Shall I bring to the birth, in conviction, and not cause to bring forth, in conversion and regeneration? Shall I cause to bring forth, in one place and age, and shut the womb, saith thy God? that there should not be a constant succession of spiritual births? Note; (1.) Whatever labour, pains, and prayer ministers use according to their bounden duty, so as to be said to travail in birth till Christ be formed in their hearers, it is still God’s work to regenerate the soul, and every real convert is born of him. (2.) God will have a church to serve him in the world to the end of time; and we may expect the fulfilment of this prophesy more eminently hereafter, both respecting Jews and Gentiles, Hos 1:10-11. Rom 11:25-26.

4. All the friends of Jerusalem are called to rejoice with her, as we congratulate each other on the birth of a son. Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her. They who love God love his church and people, have their interests at heart, pray for their peace and prosperity, take delight in her communion, and mourn over her sorrows, afflictions, declensions, and persecutions, and therefore they cannot but partake in her joys as their own: That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations: as full breasts afford the sweetest nourishment to the infant, and abundantly supply its wants; so plenteous, so precious, shall the consolations of God’s Spirit be to the soul which by faith feeds on the sincere milk of the word, and on those great and precious promises contained in the oracles of God: that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory; a glorious Saviour, a glorious Spirit, a glorious provision of promises, a glorious hope, a glorious inheritance: these are the delight of the believing soul, and there is abundance for all who seek it; they may come and milk out from these breasts of glory, to the satisfying of the most boundless desires of their souls.

5. God will give them most abundant cause for joy in the gathering of the Gentiles, and the ruin of every enemy. For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river; so plentiful, so abundant; peace with God, peace of conscience, peace among themselves, and, like a river full to its margin, it shall flow uninterrupted through the faithful soul into the boundless ocean of eternal joy: and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream; multitudes of converts shall be made, and these of the mighty and noble, numerous as the drops of water in the river; or, as Egypt by the overflowing of the Nile, the church shall be enriched with their abundance of good things. Then shall ye suck the milk, the riches of the Gentiles, or the breasts of the church’s consolations: ye shall be borne upon her sides, or at her side, as the nurse carries her infant charge, tenderly and safely, and be dandled upon her knees, as the mother with fond delight dandles her darling boy. And this represents the tenderness with which young converts must be treated, and the delight of the church, her members, and especially her ministers, in those that are born unto her. As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; with that unutterable affection which mothers only know, yea, with tenderness infinitely greater than theirs, will God comfort his people. If he chides, and they return sorrowing, their sorrows melt his heart, and he returns with the kisses of his love to dry up the falling tear; if they be afflicted, he feels with more than human sympathy, with his kind arm supports their reclining head, refreshes them with his consolations, and raises them from the bed of languishing. And ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem, in the church and her ordinances, where God especially manifests his favour towards his people: and when ye see this, experiencing the wondrous grace of this compassionate God and Saviour, your heart shall rejoice, with joy unspeakable and full of glory, and your bones shall flourish like an herb; you shall both be strengthened and comforted with divine consolations, springing up within the heart, as an herb in a well-watered garden, and which will be as marrow to the bones, Pro 17:22. And the hand of the Lord shall be known towards his servants; his care and protection of them, and kindness towards them, shall be manifested to their comfort and honour, and his great glory; and his indignation towards his enemies, upon whom his vengeance will fall so remarkably and terribly, that they who behold it will own that it is the finger of God.

3rdly, We have here an awful display of the wrath of God revealed from heaven against the ungodliness of men, and a bright prospect of the glory and triumphs of the saints, which, like the pillar of the cloud, gives light to God’s Israel, but hangs lowering with vengeance over his enemies.
1. Christ will appear, to the terror of the wicked, in flaming fire, and with fury like a whirlwind, his judgments irresistible as terrible. Arraigned at his bar, and their guilt too glaring to be denied, the sword of inexorable justice is unsheathed, and the multitude of criminals executed. Their crimes are idolatry, superstition, and every abomination committed in defiance of God’s law. They purify themselves in the gardens, and, according to their idolatrous rites, behind one tree in the midst. Some suppose Achad, which we render one, to be the name of their idol; and others read the words, one after another, eagerly crowding to this hated worship; eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse; unclean and forbidden animals; and therefore they are consumed together: God, being privy to their works and thoughts, and seeing their utter apostacy from his worship and service, executes vengeance upon them. This relates either to the Jews, as some interpret it, many of whom might have brought back with them, and practiced in secret, those idolatries which they had learnt in Babylon: or, as others, to the Antichristian church, in which idolatry shall revive, and Christ’s ordinances be disregarded: or it may more generally refer to all the wicked who rebel against God. We have seen fire and sword terribly devour Jerusalem; with the same temporal judgments shall the seat of Antichrist be destroyed, Rev 18:8 and we expect Jesus, the Judge of all, to be at last revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on all who know not God, and obey not his Gospel.

2. He will set up his kingdom in the world, to the great joy of his people, as he did at the first preaching of the Gospel, or as he will do more universally at last, when his name will be spread from pole to pole.
[1.] All nations shall hear the Gospel word, and be gathered in to Christ. It shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come and see my glory; the glory of Christ in his person and offices, or of his Gospel, in the great and precious promises of it; or of the church, into which they will be gathered, and where the members shall in purity of manners, beauty of order, and unity of affection, eminently adorn their profession, and glorify their Lord. And I will set a sign among them; an ensign, such as Christ is, lifted up in the Gospel word, to whom the gathering of the people will be; or some miraculous sign, as when on the day of Pentecost the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the apostles, and, to the astonishment of the different nations assembled at Jerusalem, they heard them speak all their several languages: and it is not improbable, that before the great day of the Lord’s power, these miraculous gifts may be again restored.

[2.] Preachers shall for this purpose be sent forth. I will send those that escape of them unto the nations; either the apostles and converts of the Jews, who escaped the general impenitence of their countrymen, and went forth into every place preaching the Gospel; or, those who escape when the Antichristian powers shall be broken, and are as brands plucked out of the burning, will be enabled feelingly to preach the grace of a Redeemer, and the dreadful danger of sin: to Tarshish, Pul and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, and to the isles afar off. Concerning the countries here meant, interpreters are divided and uncertain; but the sense is clear, that they should go into all lands far and near, even to the most distant isles of the sea, preaching the Gospel to those that have not heard my fame, nor seen my glory; strangers to Christ and his word; and to whom his fame had never reached: and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles, the glory of the pardoning, sanctifying, comforting, and saving grace of the Redeemer.

[3.] The effect of their ministry in the conversion of the Gentiles would be great. They shall bring all your brethren, the Gentiles, and all converts who have one father, for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations; either the ministers shall present them before the Lord, as the fruit of their labours; or they should offer up themselves, their bodies, souls, and spirits, as living sacrifices, Rom 12:1. Upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, according to the condition and circumstances of the several converts; some rich, some poor, some weak, some strong; but all eager to come into the church of Christ; or these carriages may represent the Gospel ministers, by whom the souls of men are brought home to Christ; to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, the place of general resort; as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord, so shall the Gentiles be presented to God in the beauty of holiness, their hearts purified by faith, and sanctified by the Holy Ghost, as vessels of honour, and accepted as a well pleasing oblation, Rom 15:16. Note; (1.) They who are brethren in Christ, must love as brethren. (2.) The most acceptable offering is the sinner’s heart; for this shall please the Lord better than a bullock that hath horns and hoofs.

[4.] God will appoint the ministers of this sanctuary out of these Gentile converts. I will also take of them for priests, and for Levites, saith the Lord. Though the Aaronical priesthood is destroyed, God reserves this prerogative to himself, to appoint his own ambassadors; and no man who is not called of God has any right to minister, no ordination of man being able to make those ministers of God, who are not first inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take this office upon them. Let those who dare make that profession in order to intrude into the sacred office, while conscious of their utter unacquaintedness with any inward call, tremble at the complicated guilt which they incur, by lying not only against their own consciences, but against the Holy Ghost.

[5.] There shall be a succession of such Gospel ministers to the end of time. For as the new heavens, and the new earth which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord; the Gospel dispensation, which succeeded the Mosaical, wherein all things are become new, a new covenant established, new institutions made, new commandments given, and these to abide for ever; so shall your seed and your name remain; a spiritual seed, both of ministers and people, who shall have a name in the earth, and in whom the church will be maintained and preserved against all the powers of darkness.

3. The solemn, frequent, and constant returns of worship in the Gospel church, are described in terms borrowed from the Jewish dispensation. Their new moons, indeed, and sabbaths are abolished; but in their stead the Lord’s day is appointed for the religious assemblies of Christians for prayer, the preaching of the word, and joining in the Lord’s Supper; and all true believers are careful to maintain and keep up these stated opportunities of worship, not forsaking the assembling of themselves together, as the manner of some is.

Lastly, They shall with joy behold the Redeemer’s triumphs in the final and eternal destruction of his enemies and theirs. They shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me; either of the Jews who should be massacred by the Roman sword, whom the Christians would see lying unburied on the earth; or of the Antichristian powers overthrown and destroyed, Rev 19:19-21. By the word of God: or at the resurrection day, the saints of God going forth from their graves, shall see the wicked, loathsome and abhorred as putrid carcases, cast into the everlasting burnings of hell: for their worm shall not die; eternal horrors gnawing incessantly their guilty consciences; neither shall their fire be quenched; consuming, yet unconsumed; cursed with immortality amid the unutterable tortures of those raging flames, no death, though courted, shall come to their release; but, tormented day and night for ever, they shall have no rest: and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh; the saints of God beholding them with abhorrence, and applauding the justice of God in their damnation. Note; (1.) Let sinners hear and fear; sin will certainly receive its wages at the last; and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of that God who is a consuming fire. (2.) In eternity, God will be magnified for his judgments executed on the wicked, as well as for his grace manifested to the faithful; and they who join the songs of angels in celebrating redeeming mercy, will find matter for their praises also even in the miseries of the damned: for when the smoke of their torment ascendeth up, for ever and ever, the saints of God will cry Allelujah! Rev 19:2-3.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

REFLECTIONS

READER! let us pause over the close of Isaiah’s prophecy, and observe with the humblest reverence and godly fear, how the Prophet in folding up his ministry, calls the Church in this last Chapter, once more, finally and fully, to the contemplation of Jehovah. With what a solemn close; Thus saith the Lord. As if, with an indelible seal, the whole was to be left upon the minds of the people. As if the Prophet had given in his commission, with reminding them, that what he had delivered, was all in the name, and by the authority: of Him that was, and that is, and that is to come! And observe how he speaks of his distinguishing character: The heaven is his throne, and the earth is his footstool. God’s throne is indeed everywhere, but in an eminent special manifestation of himself, as the Prophet was commissioned to set forth. His throne is in the person of Christ. It is there that he promiseth to come and meet and bless his people. Christ is, and was the mercy-seat; and in him, and from him, he communeth with the man that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, His dwelling is in Christ; his ordinances are in him; the whole of his mercy, grace, goodness, love, as displayed to poor fallen man, are all in him. And therefore to slight Jesus is to slight God in Christ; to kill an ox in sacrifice, is as if the sinner crucified the Son of God afresh, because he thereby intimates as if the one offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all, had not forever perfected them that are sanctified. Pause, Reader, over the solemn view, and let us learn to bless God, more and more for his unspeakable gift!

And oh! thou blessed, eternal, glorious Jehovah! give us grace to hail thee, in thy threefold character of person, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and give us grace to accept all thy gracious purposes of salvation, thus brought home and unfolded to us, in and by Jesus Christ. Truly, Lord, we may, and do cry out, in the words of this scripture, who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall the earth bring forth in one day? But, in truth and indeed, Lord, in that one memorable day of Jesus’s incarnation, a nation was born in him at once; and therefore shall not every poor sinner, in his new birth in Christ, say, Oh! Lord! thou hast indeed brought to the birth, and caused to bring forth. Thou hast caused to bring forth, and not shut the womb, oh our God! we will therefore rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her in her glorious King; and we will in him, and his name, milk out the breasts of her consolations, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory!

Farewell, Isaiah! farewell, thou servant of the most high God while we bless thy Lord and Master, because he hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servants, we would love thee, as the instrument of so much good to his Church and people, as it hath pleased the Lord, by thy preaching and writings, to accomplish; and in thine own words, we would say, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth, good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! Thou art entered into his rest. Thou hast found, according to thine own prophecy, that Jesus is the rest, wherewith he causeth the weary to rest, and this is the refreshing. And He that gave thee, and the Patriarchs and Prophets, faith to live and die in the full enjoyment of faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar of, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them: will give us grace and faith now to be the patient followers of them, who through faith and patience now inherit the promises!

Oh! thou to whom give all the Prophets witness! Do thou, blessed Lord Jesus, give witness by thy Holy Spirit in our hearts, to their word; that seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, we may lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and that we may run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto thee, the Author and finisher of our faith! Amen.

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

Isa 66:24 And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.

Ver. 24. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcases. ] Rhetoricians tell us that in the introduction to a discourse milder affections, suit best to insinuate; but in the conclusion , passionate passages, such as may leave a sting behind them and stick by the hearers. This art the prophet here useth, for being now to period his prophecy, he giveth all sorts to know what they shall trust to. The godly shall go forth, i.e., salvi evadent, liberi abibunt; they shall have safety here, and salvation hereafter. “They shall also look upon the carcases,” &c.; they shall be eye-witnesses of God’s exemplary judgments executed on the wicked, that would not have Christ to reign over them, Rev 19:21 who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the glory of the Lord and from the presence of his power. 2Th 1:9 This the righteous shall “see, and fear, and laugh at them,” Psa 52:6 giving God the glory of his justice and goodness. Some think they shall have at the last day a real sight of hell, and the damned there, Rev 14:10 and this may very well be. Oh that wicked men would in their daily meditations take a turn or two in hell, and so be forewarned to flee from the wrath to come! Is it nothing to have the worm of conscience ever grabbing upon their entrails, and the fire of God’s vengeance feeding upon their souls and flesh throughout all eternity? Oh that sternity of extremity! Think of it seasonably and seriously, that ye never suffer it. The Jewish masters a have, in some copies, wholly left out this last verse, as in other copies they repeat – both here and in the end of Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, and Malachi – the last verse save one, which is more sweet and fuller of comfort; and that for this reason, that the reader may not be sent away sad, and so fall into desperation. But of that there is no such danger, since most people are over slight in their thoughts of hell torments, regarding them no more than they do a fire painted on the wall, or a serpent wrought in arras. And besides, non sinit in Gehennam incidere, Gehennae meminisse, saith Chrysostom: to remember hell, is a good means to preserve us from it. This verse hath sufficient authority from our Saviour’s citing of it. Mar 9:44 See Trapp on “ Mar 9:44 “ Plato b also – if that be anything – in his description of hell, which be calleth , a fiery lake, saith the same as here – that their worm dieth not, neither is their fire quenched. He might possibly have read Isaiah as he had done Moses. It is thought, Laertius telleth us, that he travelled into Egypt, where he conversed with some Hebrews, and learned much of them. c

And they shall be an abhorring to all flesh, ] i.e., All good men abominate them now as so many living ghosts, walking carcases, Eph 2:2 Pro 29:27 and shall much more at the last day, when they shall arise again to everlasting shame and contempt. Dan 12:2

“ Scribendo haec studui bene de pietate mereri;

Sed quicquid potui, Gratia, Christe, tua est. ”

a Amama in Antibarb.

b In Phaed. p. 400.

c Inde dictus este, Moses Atticus.

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

men. Hebrew, plural of ‘Enosh. App-14.

transgressed. Hebrew. pasha’. App-44.

their worm. Quoted in Mar 9:44. Referred by our Lord to Gehenna, of which the fires in the valley of Hinnom were an illustration. Hebrew. tola’, the maggot bred from putrid substances. See Exo 16:20. Deu 28:39. Job 25:6 (second word). Psa 22:6. Psa 14:11 (second word); Isa 41:14; Isa 66:24; and Jon 4:7, which are all the occurrences of tola’ in O.T. In the synagogue use, Isa 66:23 is repeated after Isa 66:24, so that the book may end with comfort. Compare end of Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Malachi.

an abhorring. The Hebrew occurs only here.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

and look: Isa 66:16, Psa 58:10, Psa 58:11, Eze 39:9-16, Zec 14:12, Zec 14:18, Zec 14:19, Rev 19:17-21

their worm: Isa 14:11, Mar 9:44-49, Rev 14:10, Rev 14:11

their fire: Isa 34:10, Mat 3:12

and they: Isa 65:15, Dan 12:2, 1Th 2:15, 1Th 2:16

Reciprocal: 1Ki 8:33 – pray 1Ki 14:11 – that dieth 1Ki 16:3 – will make thy house Job 7:5 – loathsome Job 34:26 – in Pro 24:24 – him shall Isa 1:31 – and they Isa 10:17 – for a flame Isa 11:11 – set his hand Isa 33:14 – everlasting Isa 41:24 – an abomination Isa 51:8 – the moth Jer 7:20 – and shall Jer 17:4 – for Eze 20:47 – the flaming Eze 32:4 – General Zec 13:8 – two Luk 16:24 – for Act 12:23 – and he 2Th 1:9 – be Rev 14:20 – and blood

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Isa 66:24. And they shall go forth Namely, those who had joined themselves to the communion of the church spoken of in the preceding verses; and look upon the carcasses of the men that have sinned against me Meaning chiefly the unbelieving Jews who rejected Christ and his gospel, including, however, all impenitent sinners, and especially all the enemies and persecutors of Gods truth and people. By looking upon their carcasses is meant beholding the dreadful vengeance taken on them. This is here represented in figurative language. The misery is described by an allusion to the frightful spectacle of a field of battle covered with the carcasses of the slain, which lie rotting upon the ground, full of worms, crawling about them, and feeding on them. It seems the Lord, by his prophet, first intends to set forth the dreadful temporal calamities that should come upon the Jews, in the destruction of their city and nation by the Romans; in which destruction, as has been intimated in the note on Isa 66:16, not less than between two and three millions, first and last, were cut off by the sword, famine, and pestilence. But when it is added, for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, it is certain the punishment of the wicked in the world to come is chiefly intended. These words, it is well known, are applied by our Saviour, (Mar 9:44,) to express the everlasting punishment of the wicked in Gehenna, or hell, so called, in allusion to the valley of Hinnom, the place where the idolatrous Jews celebrated that horrible rite of making their children pass through the fire, that is, of burning them in sacrifice to Moloch; concerning which place see note Isa 30:33. Our Saviour, says Bishop Lowth, expressed the state of the blessed by sensible images; such as paradise, Abrahams bosom, or, which is the same thing, a place to recline next to Abraham at table, in the kingdom of heaven; (see Mat 8:11; Joh 13:23;) for we could not possibly have any conception of it, but by analogy from worldly objects: in like manner he expressed the place of torment under the image of Gehenna; and the punishment of the wicked by the worm, which there preyed on the carcasses, and the fire, which consumed the wretched victims. Marking, however, in the strongest manner, the difference between Gehenna and the invisible place of torment: namely, that in the former, the suffering is transient; the worm itself, that preys on the body, dies: whereas, in the figurative Gehenna, the instruments of punishment shall be everlasting, and the suffering without end; for there the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. These emblematical images, expressing heaven and hell, were in use among the Jews before our Saviours time; and in using them, he complied with their notions. Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God, says the Jew to our Saviour, Luk 14:15. And, in regard to Gehenna, the Chaldee paraphrast renders everlasting, or continual burnings, by the Gehenna of everlasting fire. And before this time the son of Sirach (Sir 7:17) had said, The vengeance of the ungodly is fire and worms. So likewise the author of the book of Judith, Wo to the nation rising up against my kindred, the Lord Almighty will take vengeance on them in the day of judgment, putting fire and worms in their flesh: Jdt 16:17, manifestly referring to the same emblem.

And they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh Hebrew , an execration, as Dr. Waterland renders it. Christ the Lord, says Vitringa, in passing his judicial sentence on false Christians and wicked persons, will say, Go, ye cursed: or execrated, into eternal fire. That evil will be added to their state of pain, and a condemning conscience. Separated from the blessed and glorious communion of God and the saints, cast into the deepest state of misery, they will be exposed to the reproach, ignominy, contempt, and execration of angels and saints, (say rather of devils and condemned spirits,) suffering the punishment of their pride, arrogance, tyranny, cruelty, injustice, crimes, hatred of the truth, persecutions, by which things in this life, fighting against God, and afflicting his saints, they knowingly and willingly provoked his displeasure. These are the ends of the two opposite kinds of men, the pious and the ungodly, in which, after various preparatory judgments of God, the fates of all ages as well as our own fates, will be terminated, and in which this divine book of the great Prophet Isaiah also terminates. May our lot be with the saints, with those who reverence God and love the truth; with the humble, the meek, the merciful, and those that persevere in good works to the end of life, through the grace of our great Lord, Saviour, and Judge, Jesus Christ, who will distribute these blessings according to the will of his Father.

This eminent divine concludes his very learned commentary on this incomparable prophecy with the following devout prayer and thanksgiving, with which the author of this work, adopting his words, also closes his observations thereon. Influenced by which hope, and prostrate before his throne, I return, with the most profound humility, my sincerest thanks to God the Father, in his Son Jesus Christ, by the Spirit, for the grace and light wherewith he hath favoured me, his unworthy servant, during my comment on this book; earnestly requesting from his grace and mercy that, pardoning the errors into which I have ignorantly fallen, he would render this work, of whatever sort it is, conducive to the glory of his great name, the benefit of the church, and the consolation of the pious. Amen!

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

66:24 And they shall go forth, and look upon the {k} carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their {l} worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorrence {m} to all flesh.

(k) As he who declared the happiness that will be within the Church for the comfort of the godly, so does he show what horrible calamity will come to the wicked, that are out of the Church.

(l) Meaning, a continual torment of conscience, which will always gnaw them, and never permit them to be at rest, Mr 9:44 .

(m) This is the just recompense for the wicked, who contemning God and his word, will be by God’s just judgments abhorred by all his creatures.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The worshippers would be able to view the corpses of those whom the Lord will judge. This probably includes those killed in the battle of Armageddon and those sentenced to eternal damnation. The picture is of Jerusalem-dwellers going outside the city to the Hinnom Valley, where garbage and corpses burned constantly, and where worms (corruption) and fire (holy wrath) were always working (cf. Mat 5:22; Mar 9:43; Luk 12:5). As those who worship God rejoice before Him perpetually, so those who rebel against Him will die perpetually (cf. Mat 25:46).

"Perhaps the most enduring lessons from the Book of Isaiah are the reminders that (a) there is a God, (b) He is coming back, and (c) our eternal destiny is determined by our response to Him in this life." [Note: Dyer, in The Old . . ., p. 587.]

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

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