CHAPTER 66
Isa 66:1-24.
THE
HUMBLE
COMFORTED, THE
UNGODLY
CONDEMNED, AT THE
LORD'S
APPEARING:
JERUSALEM
MADE A
JOY ON
EARTH.
This closing chapter is the summary of Isaiah's prophecies as to the
last days, hence the similarity of its sentiments with what went before.
1. heaven . . . throne . . . where is
. . . house . . . ye build--The same sentiment
is expressed, as a precautionary proviso for the majesty of God in
deigning to own any earthly temple as His, as if He could be
circumscribed by space
(1Ki 8:27)
in inaugurating the temple of stone; next, as to the temple of the Holy
Ghost
(Ac 7:48, 49);
lastly here, as to "the tabernacle of God with men"
(Isa 2:2, 3;
Eze 43:4, 7;
Re 21:3).
-
where--rather, "what is this house that ye are building, &c.--what
place is this for My rest?" [VITRINGA].
2. have been--namely, made by Me. Or, absolutely, were things
made; and therefore belong to Me, the Creator
[JEROME].
-
look--have regard.
-
poor--humble
(Isa 57:15).
-
trembleth at . . . word--
(2Ki 22:11, 19;
Ezr 9:4).
The spiritual temple of the heart, though not superseding the outward
place of worship, is God's favorite dwelling
(Joh 14:23).
In the final state in heaven there shall be "no temple," but "the Lord
God" Himself
(Re 21:22).
3. God loathes even the sacrifices of the wicked
(Isa 1:11;
Pr 15:8; 28:9).
-
is as if--LOWTH not so well omits these words: "He that killeth an
ox (presently after) murders a man" (as in
Eze 23:39).
But the omission in the Hebrew of "is as if"--increases the
force of the comparison. Human victims were often offered by the
heathen.
-
dog's neck--an abomination according to the Jewish law
(De 23:18);
perhaps made so, because dogs were venerated in Egypt. He does not honor
this abomination by using the word "sacrifice," but uses the degrading
term, "cut off a dog's neck"
(Ex 13:13; 34:20).
Dogs as unclean are associated with swine
(Mt 7:6;
2Pe 2:22).
-
oblation--unbloody: in antithesis to "swine's blood"
(Isa 65:4).
-
burneth--Hebrew, "he who offereth as a memorial oblation"
(Le 2:2).
-
they have chosen--opposed to the two first clauses of
Isa 66:4:
"as they have chosen their own ways, &c., so I will choose
their delusions.
4. delusions--
(2Th 2:11),
answering to "their own ways"
(Isa 66:3;
so
Pr 1:31).
However, the Hebrew means rather "vexations," "calamities,"
which also the parallelism to "fears" requires; "choose their
calamities" means, "choose the calamities which they thought to escape
by their own ways."
-
their fears--the things they feared, to avert which their idolatrous
"abominations"
(Isa 66:3)
were practised.
-
I called . . . none . . .
answer--(See on
Isa 65:12;
Isa 65:24;
Jer 7:13).
-
did . . . chose--not only did the evil deed,
but did it deliberately as a matter of choice
(Ro 1:32).
"They chose that in which I delighted not"; therefore,
"I will choose" that in which they delight not, the
"calamities" and "fears" which they were most anxious to avert.
-
before mine eyes--(See on
Isa 65:3).
5. tremble at . . . word--the same persons as in
Isa 66:2,
the believing few among the Jews.
-
cast you out for my name's sake--excommunicate, as if too polluted
to worship with them
(Isa 65:5).
So in Christ's first sojourn on earth
(Mt 10:22;
Joh 9:22, 34; 16:2; 15:21).
So it shall be again in the last times, when the believing shall be few
(Lu 18:8).
-
Let the Lord be glorified--the mocking challenge of the persecutors,
as if their violence towards you was from zeal for God. "Let the Lord
show Himself glorious," namely, by manifesting Himself in your behalf; as the parallelism to, "He shall appear to your joy," requires (as
in
Isa 5:19;
compare
Isa 28:15; 57:4).
So again Christ on the cross
(Mt 27:42, 43).
-
appear to your joy--giving you "joy" instead of your "rebuke"
(Isa 25:8, 9).
6. God, from Jerusalem and His "temple," shall take vengeance on the
enemy
(Eze 43:1-8;
Zec 12:2, 3; 14:3, 19-21).
The abrupt language of this verse marks the suddenness with which God
destroys the hostile Gentile host outside: as
Isa 66:5
refers to the confounding of the unbelieving Jews.
-
voice of noise--that is, the Lord's loud-sounding voice
(Ps 68:33; 29:3-9;
1Th 4:16).
7. she--Zion.
-
Before . . . travailed . . . brought forth--The accession of numbers,
and of prosperity to her, shall be sudden beyond all expectation and
unattended with painful effort
(Isa 54:1, 4, 5).
Contrast with this case of the future Jewish Church the
travail-pains of the Christian Church in bringing forth
"a man child"
(Re 12:2, 5).
A man child's birth is in the East a matter of special joy, while that
of a female is not so; therefore, it here means the manly sons
of the restored Jewish Church, the singular being used collectively for
the plural: or the many sons being regarded as one under
Messiah, who shall then be manifested as their one representative
Head.
8. earth--rather, to suit the parallelism, "is a country (put
for the people in it) brought forth in one day?"
[LOWTH]. In
English Version it means, The earth brings forth its productions
gradually, not in one day
(Mr 4:28).
-
at once--In this case, contrary to the usual growth of the nations
by degrees, Israel starts into maturity at once.
-
for--rather, "is a nation born at once, that Zion has, so soon
as she travailed, brought forth?" [MAURER].
9. cause to bring forth, and shut--rather, "Shall I who beget, restrain the birth?"
[LOWTH],
(Isa 37:3;
Ho 13:13);
that is, Shall I who have begun, not finish My work of restoring
Israel?
(1Sa 3:12;
Ro 11:1;
Php 1:6).
-
shut--(compare
Re 3:7, 8).
10. love . . . mourn for her--
(Ps 102:14, 17, 20; 122:6).
11. suck--
(Isa 60:5, 16; 61:6; 49:23).
-
abundance--Hebrew, "the ray-like flow of her opulence," that
is, with the milk spouting out from her full breasts (answering to the
parallel, "breast of her consolations") in ray-like streams
[GESENIUS].
12. extend--I will turn peace (prosperity) upon her, like a
river turned in its course
[GESENIUS]. Or, "I will spread peace
over her as an overflowing river"
[BARNES],
(Isa 48:18).
-
flowing stream--as the Nile by its overflow fertilizes the whole of
Egypt.
-
borne upon . . .
sides--(See on
Isa 60:4).
-
her . . . her--If "ye" refers to the Jews, translate, "ye shall be
borne upon their sides . . . their knees," namely, those of the
Gentiles, as in
Isa 49:22;
and as "suck"
(Isa 60:16)
refers to the Jews sucking the Gentile wealth. However,
English Version gives a good sense: The Jews, and all who love
Jehovah
(Isa 66:10),
"shall suck, and be borne" by her as a mother.
13. mother--
(Isa 49:15).
-
comforteth--
(Isa 40:1, 2).
14. bones--which once were "dried up" by the "fire" of God's wrath
(La 1:13),
shall live again
(Pr 3:8; 15:30;
Eze 37:1,
&c.).
-
flourish . . . herb--
(Ro 11:15-24).
-
known toward--manifested in behalf of.
15.
(Isa 9:5;
Ps 50:3;
Hab 3:5;
2Th 1:8;
2Pe 3:7).
-
chariots . . . whirlwind--
(Jer 4:13).
-
render--as the Hebrew elsewhere
(Job 9:13;
Ps 78:38)
means to "allay" or "stay wrath." MAURER
translates it so here: He stays His anger with nothing but
fury," &c.; nothing short of pouring out all His fiery fury will
satisfy His wrath.
-
fury--"burning heat"
[LOWTH], to which the parallel, "flames of
fire," answers.
16. Rather, "With fire will Jehovah judge, and with His sword
(He will judge) all flesh." The parallelism and collocation of the
Hebrew words favor this
(Isa 65:12).
-
all flesh--that is, all who are the objects of His wrath. The
godly shall be hidden by the Lord in a place of safety away from the
scene of judgment
(Isa 26:20, 21;
Ps 31:20;
1Th 4:16, 17).
17. in . . . gardens--Hebrew and the Septuagint rather require,
"for (entering into) gardens," namely, to sacrifice there
[MAURER].
-
behind one tree--rather, "following one," that is, some idol or other,
which, from contempt, he does not name
[MAURER].
VITRINGA, &c., think
the Hebrew for "one," Ahhadh, to be the name of the god; called
Adad (meaning One) in Syria (compare
Ac 17:23).
The idol's power was represented by inclined rays, as of the sun
shining on the earth. GESENIUS translates,
"following one," namely, Hierophant ("priest"), who led the rest
in performing the sacred rites.
-
in . . . midst--namely, of the garden
(see on
Isa 65:3, 4).
-
mouse--legally unclean
(Le 11:29)
because it was an idol to the heathen (see on
Isa 37:36;
1Sa 6:4).
Translate, "the field mouse," or "dormouse" [BOCHART]. The Pharisees with their self-righteous
purifications, and all mere formalists, are included in the same
condemnation, described in language taken from the idolatries prevalent
in Isaiah's times.
18. know--not in the Hebrew. Rather, understand the words by
aposiopesis; it is usual in threats to leave the persons threatened to
supply the hiatus from their own fears, owing to conscious guilt: "For
I . . . their works and thoughts," &c.; namely, will punish
[MAURER].
-
it shall come--the time is come that I will, &c.
[MAURER].
-
gather . . . nations--against Jerusalem, where the ungodly Jews
shall perish; and then the Lord at last shall fight for Jerusalem
against those nations: and the survivors
(Isa 66:19)
shall "see God's glory"
(Zec 12:8, 9; 14:1-3, 9).
-
tongues--which have been many owing to sin, being confounded at
Babel, but which shall again be one in Christ
(Da 7:14;
Zep 3:9;
Re 7:9, 10).
19. sign--a banner on a high place, to indicate the place of
meeting for the dispersed Jewish exiles, preparatory to their return to
their land
(Isa 5:26; 11:12; 62:10).
-
those that escape of them--the Gentile survivors spared by God
(see on
Isa 66:18;
Zec 14:16).
Isa 2:2, 3;
Mic 5:7; and
Zec 14:16-19
represent it, not that the Jews go as missionaries to the Gentiles, but
that the Gentiles come up to Jerusalem to learn the Lord's ways there.
-
Tarshish--Tartessus in Spain, in the west.
-
Pul--east and north of Africa: probably the same as
Philœ, an island in the Nile, called by the Egyptians
Pilak, that is, the border country, being between Egypt and
Ethiopia [BOCHART].
-
Lud--the Libyans of Africa
(Ge 10:13),
Ludim being son of Mizraim (Egypt): an Ethiopian people famous as
bowmen
(Jer 46:9):
employed as mercenaries by Tyre and Egypt
(Eze 27:10; 30:5).
-
Tubal--Tibarenians, in Asia Minor, south of the Caucasus,
between the Black Sea and Araxes. Or, the Iberians [JOSEPHUS]. Italy [JEROME].
-
Javan--the Greeks; called Ionians, including all the descendants
of Javan, both in Greece and in Asia Minor
(Ge 10:2-4).
-
my glory . . . Gentiles--
(Mal 1:11).
20. they--the Gentiles
(Isa 66:19).
-
bring . . . your brethren--the Jews, back to the Holy Land
(Isa 49:22).
It cannot mean the me