Back to Isaiah 65

Isaiah 65:3-7

a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens, and burning incense on bricks;

who sit among the graves, and spend nights in secret places; who eat pig’s meat, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;

who say, ‘Stay by yourself, don’t come near to me, for I am holier than you.’ These are smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all day.

“Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will repay, yes, I will repay into their bosom,

your own iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together”, says Yahweh, “who have burned incense on the mountains, and blasphemed me on the hills. Therefore I will first measure their work into their bosom.”

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens, and burning incense on bricks;

    who sit among the graves, and spend nights in secret places; who eat pig’s meat, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;

    who say, ‘Stay by yourself, don’t come near to me, for I am holier than you.’ These are smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all day.

    “Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will repay, yes, I will repay into their bosom,

    your own iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together”, says Yahweh, “who have burned incense on the mountains, and blasphemed me on the hills. Therefore I will first measure their work into their bosom.”

  • KJV King James Version

    A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick;

    Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;

    Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.

    Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom,

    Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.

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  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    A people that provoke Me to My face continually, that sacrifice in gardens, and burn incense upon bricks;

    That sit among the graves, and lodge in the vaults; that eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;

    That say: 'Stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou'; these are a smoke in My nose, a fire that burneth all the day.

    Behold, it is written before Me; I will not keep silence, except I have requited, yea, I will requite into their bosom,

    Your own iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, that have offered upon the mountains, and blasphemed Me upon the hills; therefore will I first measure their wage into their bosom.

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Cross-references (85)

  • Psalms 50:3 (v6) Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy around him.
  • Luke 18:9-12 (v5) He spoke also this parable to certain people who were convinced of their own righteousness, and who despised all others. “Two men went up…
  • Jeremiah 16:18 (v6) First I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable…
  • Luke 7:39 (v5) Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “This man, if he were a prophet, would have perceived who and what…
  • Isaiah 66:17 (vv3–4) “Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go to the gardens, behind one in the middle, eating pig’s meat, abominable things,…
Show all 84 cross-references
  • Psalms 50:21 (v6) You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your…
  • Psalms 79:12 (v6) Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord.
  • Isaiah 1:29 (v3) For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen.
  • Isaiah 57:7 (v7) On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed. You also went up there to offer sacrifice.
  • Ezekiel 20:27-28 (v7) “Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel, and tell them, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Moreover, in this your fathers have blasphemed…
  • Exodus 20:5 (v7) you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on…
  • Leviticus 11:7 (v4) The pig, because it has a split hoof, and is cloven-footed, but doesn’t chew the cud, is unclean to you.
  • Deuteronomy 32:21 (v3) They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy…
  • Proverbs 16:5 (v5) Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to Yahweh: they shall certainly not be unpunished.
  • Deuteronomy 32:16-19 (v3) They moved him to jealousy with strange gods. They provoked him to anger with abominations. They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods…
  • 2 Kings 17:14-17 (v3) Notwithstanding, they would not listen, but hardened their neck, like the neck of their fathers, who didn’t believe in Yahweh their God.…
  • Job 1:11 (v3) But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face.”
  • Isaiah 3:8 (v3) For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against Yahweh, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
  • Isaiah 22:14 (v7) Yahweh of Armies revealed himself in my ears, “Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,” says the Lord, Yahweh of…
  • Isaiah 42:14 (v6) “I have been silent a long time. I have been quiet and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and…
  • Isaiah 64:12 (v6) Will you hold yourself back for these things, Yahweh? Will you keep silent and punish us very severely?
  • Isaiah 65:6 (v7) “Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will repay, yes, I will repay into their bosom,
  • Jeremiah 13:25 (v7) This is your lot, the portion measured to you from me,” says Yahweh, “because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.”
  • Jeremiah 32:30-35 (v3) “For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only that which was evil in my sight from their youth; for the children of…
  • Luke 15:28-30 (v5) But he was angry, and would not go in. Therefore his father came out, and begged him. But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years…
  • Romans 2:17-29 (v5) Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, rest on the law, glory in God, know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being…
  • Leviticus 26:39 (v7) Those of you who are left will pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers they shall…
  • Deuteronomy 14:8 (v4) The pig, because it has a split hoof but doesn’t chew the cud, is unclean to you. You shall not eat their meat. You shall not touch their…
  • Deuteronomy 29:20 (v5) Yahweh will not pardon him, but then Yahweh’s anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this…
  • 2 Kings 22:17 (v3) Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands,…
  • Job 2:5 (v3) But stretch out your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to your face.”
  • Psalms 78:40 (v3) How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!
  • Psalms 78:58 (v3) For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.
  • Psalms 106:6-7 (v7) We have sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. Our fathers didn’t understand your wonders in Egypt.…
  • Isaiah 66:3 (v4) He who kills an ox is as he who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, as he who breaks a dog’s neck; he who offers an offering, as he who…
  • Jeremiah 3:6 (v3) Moreover, Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every…
  • Jeremiah 5:9 (v7) Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?” says Yahweh. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
  • Jeremiah 5:29 (v7) “Shouldn’t I punish for these things?” says Yahweh. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
  • Jeremiah 7:19-20 (v7) Do they provoke me to anger?” says Yahweh. “Don’t they provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?” Therefore the Lord Yahweh…
  • Ezekiel 8:17-18 (v3) Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they…
  • Ezekiel 20:28 (v3) For when I had brought them into the land which I swore to give to them, then they saw every high hill, and every thick tree, and they…
  • Ezekiel 22:31 (v6) Therefore I have poured out my indignation on them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have brought their own way on their…
  • Joel 3:4 (v6) “Yes, and what are you to me, Tyre, and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Will you repay me? And if you repay me, I will swiftly and…
  • Malachi 3:16 (v6) Then those who feared Yahweh spoke one with another; and Yahweh listened, and heard, and a book of memory was written before him, for those…
  • Luke 5:30 (v5) Their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?”
  • Revelation 20:12 (v6) I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened books. Another book was opened, which is the book of…
  • Exodus 17:14 (v6) Yahweh said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: that I will utterly blot out the memory…
  • Exodus 20:24-25 (v3) You shall make an altar of earth for me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your…
  • Exodus 30:1-10 (v3) “You shall make an altar to burn incense on. You shall make it of acacia wood. Its length shall be a cubit, and its width a cubit. It shall…
  • Leviticus 17:5 (v3) This is to the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they sacrifice in the open field, that they may bring them…
  • Numbers 32:14 (v7) “Behold, you have risen up in your fathers’ place, an increase of sinful men, to increase the fierce anger of Yahweh toward Israel.
  • Deuteronomy 14:3 (v4) You shall not eat any abominable thing.
  • Deuteronomy 18:11 (v4) or a charmer, or someone who consults with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
  • Deuteronomy 32:20-22 (v5) He said, “I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end will be; for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no…
  • Deuteronomy 32:34 (v6) “Isn’t this laid up in store with me, sealed up among my treasures?
  • 1 Kings 22:43 (v7) He walked in all the way of Asa his father. He didn’t turn away from it, doing that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes. However the high…
  • 2 Kings 12:3 (v7) However the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.
  • 2 Kings 14:4 (v7) However the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.
  • 2 Kings 15:35 (v7) However the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. He built the upper gate of…
  • 2 Kings 16:4 (v7) He sacrificed and burned incense in the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.
  • Psalms 56:8 (v6) You count my wanderings. You put my tears into your container. Aren’t they in your book?
  • Proverbs 6:16-17 (v5) There are six things which Yahweh hates; yes, seven which are an abomination to him: arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed…
  • Proverbs 10:26 (v5) As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him.
  • Ezekiel 4:14 (v4) Then I said, “Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now I have not eaten of that which…
  • Ezekiel 11:21 (v6) But as for them whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their way on their own…
  • Ezekiel 18:6 (v7) and has not eaten on the mountains, hasn’t lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, hasn’t defiled his neighbor’s wife,…
  • Daniel 9:8 (v7) Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.
  • Matthew 8:28 (v4) When he came to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes, two people possessed by demons met him there, coming out of the tombs,…
  • Matthew 9:11 (v5) When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
  • Matthew 23:31-36 (v7) Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You…
  • Matthew 23:32-36 (v3) Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna? Therefore…
  • Mark 5:2-5 (v4) When he had come out of the boat, immediately a man with an unclean spirit met him out of the tombs. He lived in the tombs. Nobody could…
  • Luke 8:27 (v4) When Jesus stepped ashore, a certain man out of the city who had demons for a long time met him. He wore no clothes, and didn’t live in a…
  • Acts 22:21-22 (v5) “He said to me, ‘Depart, for I will send you out far from here to the Gentiles.’” They listened to him until he said that; then they lifted…
  • 1 Thessalonians 2:16 (v7) forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, to fill up their sins always. But wrath has come on them to the uttermost.
  • 1 Peter 5:5 (v5) Likewise, you younger ones, be subject to the elder. Yes, all of you clothe yourselves with humility, to subject yourselves to one another;…
  • Jude 1:19 (v5) These are those who cause divisions and are sensual, not having the Spirit.
  • Exodus 23:19 (v4) You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground into the house of Yahweh your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its…
  • Exodus 34:26 (v4) “You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground to the house of Yahweh your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its…
  • Numbers 19:11 (v4) “He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.
  • Numbers 19:16-20 (v4) “Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven…
  • Deuteronomy 14:21 (v4) You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the foreigner living among you who is within your gates, that he may…
  • Luke 15:2 (v5) The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.”
  • James 4:6 (v5) But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

84 distinct cross-references across this passage (85 total citations).

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

Explain this passage (18 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3–7 Which were dedicated to idols.

Which were dedicated to idols.

Meaning, their altars, which he thus named by contempt.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.

John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv3–7 Isa 65:3 A people that provoketh me to anger…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv3–7 A people that provoketh me to anger: that the…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv3–7 A people that provoketh me to anger continually to…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv3–7 To my face - With the utmost impudence, not…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv3–7 Verse 3. That sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv3, 5, 7 Isa 65:3-4. A people that provoketh me to anger…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv3–7 A people - This verse contains a specification of…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv3–7 Gardens, to the impure Venus and Adonis. --- Bricks,…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3–7 continually--answering to "all the day" (Isa 65:2). God was…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv3, 6 3-5. Sacrificeth in gardens — Entering on heathen worship…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv3–7 3. that sacrificeth in the gardens] Cf. ch. Isa_66:17,…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv3–7 (3) That sacriflceth in gardens.—It is not without significance,…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv3–7 That sacrificeth in gardens. (comp. Isa_1:29 Isa_57:5 Isa_66:17) The…
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv3, 5 A people that provoked Me to anger
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v5 Isa_65:5. Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near…
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3, 5, 6 General Information:
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3–7 65:3 Sacred gardens were a part of the fertility…
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