For, behold, Yahweh will come with fire, and his chariots will be like the whirlwind; to render his anger with fierceness, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
Parallel Translations
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For, behold, Yahweh will come with fire, and his chariots will be like the whirlwind; to render his anger with fierceness, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
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For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
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For, behold, the LORD will come in fire, and His chariots shall be like the whirlwind; to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire.
Cross-references (13)
Passages linked to Isaiah 66:15 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 30:33 For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king it is prepared. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. Yahweh’s breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.
- 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9 Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, punishing those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus, who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might,
- 2 Peter 3:10-12 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore since all these things will be destroyed like this, what kind of people ought you to be in holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, which will cause the burning heavens to be dissolved, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
- Matthew 22:7 When the king heard that, he was angry, and sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
- Psalms 11:6 On the wicked he will rain blazing coals; fire, sulfur, and scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
- Psalms 21:9 You will make them as a fiery furnace in the time of your anger. Yahweh will swallow them up in his wrath. The fire shall devour them.
- Psalms 68:17 The chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands. The Lord is among them, from Sinai, into the sanctuary.
- Psalms 97:3 A fire goes before him, and burns up his adversaries on every side.
- Psalms 50:3 Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy around him.
- Isaiah 30:27-28 Behold, Yahweh’s name comes from far away, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation. His tongue is as a devouring fire. His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction. A bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples.
- Jeremiah 4:3 For Yahweh says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, “Break up your fallow ground, and don’t sow among thorns.
- Daniel 11:40 “At the time of the end the king of the south will contend with him; and the king of the north will come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, with horsemen, and with many ships. He will enter into the countries, and will overflow and pass through.
- Amos 7:4 Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me and behold, the Lord Yahweh called for judgment by fire; and it dried up the great deep, and would have devoured the land.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (18 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain This vengeance God began to execute at the destruction…
This vengeance God began to execute at the destruction of Babylon, and hath ever continued it against the enemies of his Church, and will do till the last day, which shall be the accomplishment thereof.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 66:15 For, behold, the LORD will come with…
Isa 66:15 For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
Ver. 15. For, behold, the Lord will come with fire.] With hell fire, say the Rabbis here; with the fire of the last day, say we, whereof his particular judgments are as pledges and preludes.
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And with his chariots like a whirlwind.] As he did, when he sent forth his armies, the Romans, and destroyed those murderers, the Jews, and burnt up their city. {Mat 22:7} And when they would have rebuilt their city and temple under Julian the apostate, who, in hatred to Christians, animated them thereunto, balls of fire broke forth from the earth, which marred their work, and destroyed many thousands of them.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Here the prophet comes more particularly to expound what…
Here the prophet comes more particularly to expound what indignation should be showed towards his enemies.
The Lord will come with fire; that is, with terrible judgments, nothing being more terrible and wasting than fire; or with fire in a proper sense, understanding it of the fire with which enemies use to consume places brought under their power. With a whirlwind; with a sudden sweeping judgment that like a whirlwind shall destroy this people.
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With fury; that is, with fervour; for fury properly so taken is not in God, Isa 27:4, but God sometimes executes justice and judgment more smartly and severely.
His rebukes: by rebukes he means punishments, for it is said God will execute them
with flames of fire. They had contemned the rebukes of his law, now God will rebuke them with fire and sword.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain These verses, like the pillar of cloud and fire,…
These verses, like the pillar of cloud and fire, have a dark side towards the enemies of God's kingdom and all that are rebels against his crown, and a bright side towards his faithful loyal subjects. Probably they refer to the Jews in captivity in Babylon, of whom some are said to have been sent thither for their hurt, and with them God here threatens to proceed in his controversy; they hated to be reformed, and therefore should be ruined by the calamity (Jer 24:9); others were sent thither for their good, and they should have the trouble sanctified to them, should in due time get well through it and see many a good day after it. Many of the expressions here used are accommodated to that glorious dispensation; but doubtless the prophecy looks further, to the judgment for which Christ did come once, and will come again, into this world, and to the distinction which his word in both makes between the precious and the vile.
I. Christ will appear to the confusion and terror of all those that stand it out against him. Sometimes he will appear in temporal judgments. The Jews that persisted in infidelity were cut off by fire and by his sword. The ruin was very extensive; the Lord then pleaded with all flesh; and, it being his sword with which they are cut off, they are called his slain, sacrificed to his justice, and they shall be many. In the great day the wrath of God will be his fire and sword, with which he will cut off and consume all the impenitent; and his word, when it takes hold of sinners' consciences, burns like fire, and is sharper than any two-edged sword. Idolaters will especially be contended with in the day of wrath, Isa 66:17. Perhaps some of those who returned out of Babylon retained such instances of idolatry and superstition as are here mentioned, had their idols in their gardens (not daring to set them up publicly in the high places) and there purified themselves (as the worshippers of the true God used to do) when they went about their idolatrous rites, one after another, or, as we read it, behind one tree in the midst, behind Ahad or Ehad, some idol that they worshipped by that name and in honour of which they ate swine's flesh (which was expressly forbidden by the law of God), and other abominations, as the mouse, or some other like animal. But the prophecy may refer to all those judgments which the wrath of God, according to the word of God, will bring upon provoking sinners, that live in contempt of God and are devoted to the world and the flesh: They shall be consumed together. From the happiness of heaven we find expressly excluded all idolaters, and whosoever worketh abomination, Rev 21:27; Rev 22:15. In the day of vengeance secret wickedness will be brought to light and brought to the account; for (Isa 66:18), I know their works and their thoughts. God knows both what men do and from what principle and with what design they do it; and therefore is fit to judge the world, because he can judge the secrets of men, Rom 2:16.
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II. He will appear to the comfort and joy of all that are faithful to him in the setting up of his kingdom in this world, the kingdom of grace, the earnest and first-fruits of the kingdom of glory. The time shall come that he will gather all nations and tongues to himself, that they may come and see his glory as it shines in the face of Jesus Christ, Isa 66:18. This was fulfilled when all nations were to be discipled and the gift of tongues was bestowed in order thereunto. The church had hitherto been confined to one nation and in one tongue only God was worshipped; but in the days of the Messiah the partition-wall should be taken down, and those that had been strangers to God should be brought acquainted with him and should see his glory in the gospel, as the Jews had seen it in the sanctuary. As to this, it is here promised,
1. That some of the Jewish nation should, by the grace of God, be distinguished form the rest, and marked for salvation: I will not only set up a gathering ensign among them, to which the Gentiles shall seek (as is promised, Isa 11:12), but there shall be those among them on whom I will set a differencing sign; for so the word signifies. Though they are a corrupt degenerate nation, yet God will set apart a remnant of them, that shall be devoted to him and employed for him, and a mark shall be set upon them, with such certainty will God own them, Eze 9:4. The servants of God shall be sealed in their foreheads, Rev 7:3. The Lord knows those that are his. Christ's sheep are marked.
2. That those who are themselves distinguished thus by the grace of God shall be commissioned to invite others to come and take the benefit of that grace. Those that escape the power of those prejudices by which the generality of that nation is kept in unbelief shall be sent to the nations to carry the gospel among them, and preach it to every creature. Note, Those who themselves have escaped the wrath to come should do all they can to snatch others also as brands out of the burning. God chooses to send those on his errands that can deliver their message feelingly and experimentally, and warn people of their danger by sin as those who have themselves narrowly escaped the danger. (1.) They shall be sent to the nations, several of which are here named, Tarshish, and Pul, and Lud, etc. It is uncertain, nor are interpreters agreed, what countries are here intended. Tarshish signifies in general the sea, yet some take it for Tarsus in Cilicia. Pul is mentioned sometimes as the name of one of the kings of Assyria; perhaps some part of that country might likewise bear that name. Lud is supposed to be Lydia, a warlike nation, famed for archers: the Lydians are said to handle and bend the bow, Jer 46:9. Tubal, some think, is Italy or Spain; and Javan most agree to be Greece, the Iones; and the isles of the Gentiles, that were peopled by the posterity of Japhet (Gen 10:5), probably are here meant by the isles afar off, that have not heard my name, neither have seen my glory. In Judah only was God known, and there only his name was great for many ages. Other countries sat in darkness, heard no the joyful sound, saw not the joyful light. This deplorable state of theirs seems to be spoken of here with compassion; for it is a pity that any of the children of men should be at such a distance from their Maker as not to hear his name and see his glory. In consideration of this, (2.) Those that are sent to the nations shall go upon God's errand, to declare his glory among the Gentiles. The Jews that shall be dispersed among the nations shall declare the glory of God's providence concerning their nation all along, by which many shall be invited to join with them, as also by the appearances of God's glory among them in his ordinances. Some out of all languages of the nations shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, entreating him to take notice of them, to admit them into his company, and to stay a little while for them, till they are ready, "for we will go with you, having heard that God is with you," Zac 8:23. Thus the glory of God was in part declared among the Gentiles; but more clearly and fully by the apostles and early preachers of the gospel, who were sent into all the world, even to the isles afar off, to publish the glorious gospel of the blessed God. They went forth and preached every where, the Lord working with them, Mar 16:20.
3. That many converts shall hereby be made, Isa 66:20.
(1.) They shall bring all your brethren (for proselytes ought to be owned and embraced as brethren) for an offering unto the Lord. God's glory shall not be in vain declared to them, but they shall be both invited and directed to join themselves to the Lord. Those that are sent to them shall succeed so well in their negotiation that thereupon there shall be as great flocking to Jerusalem as used to be at the time of a solemn feast, when all the males from all parts of the country were to attend there, and not to appear empty. Observe, [1.] The conveniences that they shall be furnished with for their coming. Some shall come upon horses, because they came from far and the journey was too long to travel on foot, as the Jews usually did to their feasts. Persons of quality shall come in chariots, and the aged, and sickly, and little children, shall be brought in litters or covered wagons, and the young men on mules and swift beasts. This intimates their zeal and forwardness to come. They shall spare no trouble nor charge to get to Jerusalem. Those that cannot ride on horseback shall come in litters; and in such haste shall they be, and so impatient of delay, that those that can shall ride upon mules and swift beasts. These expressions are figurative, and these various means of conveyance are heaped up to intimate (says the learned Mr. Gataker) the abundant provision of all those gracious helps requisite for the bringing of God's elect home to Christ. All shall be welcome, and nothing shall be wanting for their assistance and encouragement. [2.] The character under which they shall be brought. They shall come, not as formerly they used to come to Jerusalem, to be offerers, but to be themselves an offering unto the Lord, which must be understood spiritually, of their being presented to God as living sacrifices, Rom 12:1. The apostle explains this, and perhaps refers to it, Rom 15:16, where he speaks of his ministering the gospel to the Gentiles, that the offering up, or sacrificing, of the Gentiles might be acceptable. They shall offer themselves, and those who are the instruments of their conversion shall offer them, as the spoils which they have taken for Christ and which are devoted to his service and honour. They shall be brought as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel, with great care that they be holy, purified from sin, and sanctified to God. It is said of the converted Gentiles (Act 15:9) that their hearts were purified by faith. Whatever was brought to God was brought in a clean vessel, a vessel appropriated to religious uses. God will be served and honoured in the way that he has appointed, in the ordinances of his own institution, which are the proper vehicles for these spiritual offerings. When the soul is offered up to God the body must be a clean vessel for it, possessed in sanctification and honour, and not in the lusts of uncleanness (Th1 4:4, Th1 4:5); and converts to Christ are not only purged from an evil conscience, but have their bodies also washed with pure water, Heb 10:22. Now,
(2.) This may refer, [1.] To the Jews, devout men, and proselytes out of every nation under heaven, that flocked together to Jerusalem, expecting the kingdom of the Messiah to appear, Act 2:5, Act 2:6, Act 2:10. They came from all parts to the holy mountain of Jerusalem, as an offering to the Lord, and there many of them were brought to the faith of Christ by the gift of tongues poured out on the apostles. Methinks there is some correspondence between that history and this prophecy. The eunuch some time after came to worship at Jerusalem in his chariot and took home with him the knowledge of Christ and his holy religion. [2.] To the Gentiles, some of all nations, that should be converted to Christ, and so added to his church, which, though a spiritual accession, is often in prophecy represented by a local motion. The apostle says of all true Christians that they have come to Mount Zion, and the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb 12:22), which explains this passage, and shows that the meaning of all this parade is only that they shall be brought into the church by the grace of God, and in the use of the means of that grace, as carefully, safely, and comfortably, as if they were carried in chariots and litters. Thus God shall persuade Japhet and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, Gen 9:27.
4. That a gospel ministry shall be set up in the church, it being thus enlarged by the addition of such a multitude of members to it (Isa 66:21): I will take of them (of the proselytes, of the Gentile converts) for priests and for Levites, to minister in holy things and to preside in their religious assemblies, which is very necessary for doctrine, worship, and discipline. Hitherto the priests and Levites were all taken from among the Jews and were all of one tribe; but in gospel times God will take of the converted Gentiles to minister to him in holy things, to teach the people, to bless them in the name of the Lord, to be the stewards of the mysteries of God as the priests and Levites were under the law, to be pastors and teachers (or bishops), to give themselves to the word and prayer, and deacons to serve tables, and, as the Levites, to take care of the outward business of the house of God, Phi 1:1; Act 6:2-4. The apostles were all Jews, and so were the seventy disciples; the great apostle of the Gentiles was himself a Hebrew of the Hebrews; but, when churches were planted among the Gentiles, they had ministers settled who were of themselves, elders in every church (Act 14:23, Tit 1:5), which made the ministry to spread the more easily, and to be the more familiar, and, if not the more venerable, yet the more acceptable; gospel grace, it might be hoped, would cure people of those corruptions which kept a prophet from having honour in his own country. God says, I will take, not all of them, though they are all in a spiritual sense made to our God kings and priests, but of them, some of them. It is God's work originally to choose ministers by qualifying them for and inclining them to the service, as well as to make ministers by giving them their commission. I will take them, that is, I will admit them, though Gentiles, and will accept of them and their ministrations. This is a great honour and advantage to the Gentile church, as it was to the Jewish church that God raised up of their sons for prophets and their young men for Nazarites, Amo 2:11.
5. That the church and ministry, being thus settled, shall continue and be kept up in a succession from one generation to another, Isa 66:22. The change that will be made by the setting up of the kingdom of the Messiah is here described to be, (1.) A very great and universal change; it shall be a new world, the new heavens and the new earth promised before, Isa 65:17. Old things have passed away, behold all things have become new (Co2 5:17), the old covenant of peculiarity is set aside, and a new covenant, a covenant of grace, established, Heb 8:13. We are now to serve in newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter, Rom 7:6. New commandments are given relating both to heaven and earth, and new promises relating to both, and both together make a New Testament; so that they are new heavens and a new earth that God will create, and these a preparative for the new heavens and new earth designed at the end of time, Pe2 3:13. (2.) A change of God's own making; he will create the new heavens and the new earth. The change was made by him that had authority to make new ordinances, as well as power to make new worlds. (3.) It will be an abiding lasting change, a change never to be changed, a new world that will be always new, and never wax old, as that does which is ready to vanish away: It shall remain before me unalterable; for the gospel dispensation is to continue to the end of time and not to be succeeded by any other. The kingdom of Christ is a kingdom that cannot be moved; the laws and privileges of it are things that cannot be shaken, but shall for ever remain, Heb 12:27, Heb 12:28. It shall therefore remain, because it is before God; it is under his eye, and care, and special protection. (4.) It will be maintained in a seed that shall serve Christ: Your seed, and in them your name, shall remain - a seed of ministers, a seed of Christians; as one generation of both passes away, another generation shall come; and thus the name of Christ, with that of Christians, shall continue on earth while the earth remains, and his throne as the days of heaven. The gates of hell, though they fight against the church, shall not prevail, nor wear out the saints of the Most High.
6. That the public worship of God in religious assemblies shall be carefully and constantly attended upon by all that are thus brought as an offering to the Lord, Isa 66:23. This is described in expressions suited to the Old Testament dispensation, to show that though the ceremonial law should be abolished, and the temple service should come to an end, yet God should be still as regularly, constantly, and acceptably worshipped as ever. Heretofore only Jews went up to appear before God, and they were bound to attend only three times a year, and the males only; but now all flesh, Gentiles as well as Jews, women as well as men, shall come and worship before God, in his presence, though not in his temple at Jerusalem, but in religious assemblies dispersed all the world over, which shall be to them as the tabernacle of meeting was to the Jews. God will in them record his name, and, though but two or three come together, he will be among them, will meet them, and bless them. And they shall have the benefit of these holy convocations frequently, every new moon and every sabbath, not, as formerly, at the three annual feasts only. There is no necessity of one certain place, as the temple was of old. Christ is our temple, in whom by faith all believers meet, and now that the church is so far extended it is impossible that all should meet at one place; but it is fit that there should be a certain time appointed, that the service may be done certainly and frequently, and a token thereby given of the spiritual communion which all Christian assemblies have with each other by faith, hope, and holy love. The new moons and the sabbaths are mentioned because, under the law, though the yearly feasts were to be celebrated at Jerusalem, yet the new moons and the sabbaths were religiously observed all the country over, in the schools of the prophets first and afterwards in the synagogues (Kg2 4:23, Amo 8:5, Act 15:21), according to the model of which Christian assemblies seem to be formed. Where the Lord's day is weekly sanctified, and the Lord's supper monthly celebrated, and both are duly attended on, there this promise is fulfilled, there the Christian new moons and sabbaths are observed. See, here, (1.) That God is to be worshipped in solemn assemblies, and that it is the duty of all, as they have opportunity, to wait upon God in those assemblies: All flesh must come; though flesh, weak, corrupt, and sinful, let them come that the flesh may be mortified. (2.) In worshipping God we present ourselves before him, and are in a special manner in his presence. (3.) For doing this there ought to be stated times, and are so; and we must see that it is our interest as well as our duty constantly and conscientiously to observe these times.
7. That their thankful sense of God's distinguishing favour to them should be very much increased by the consideration of the fearful doom and destruction of those that persist and perish in their infidelity and impiety, Isa 66:24. Those that have been worshipping the Lord of hosts, and rejoicing before him in the goodness of his house, shall, in order to affect themselves the more with their own happiness, take a view of the misery of the wicked. Observe, (1.) Who they are whose misery is here described. They are men that have transgressed against God, not only broken his laws, but broken covenant with him, and thought themselves able to contend with him. It may be meant especially of the unbelieving Jews that rejected the gospel of Christ. (2.) What their misery is. It is here represented by the frightful spectacle of a field of battle, covered with the carcases of the slain, that lie rotting above ground, full of worms crawling about them and feeding on them; and, if you go to burn them, they are so scattered, and it is such a noisome piece of work to get them together, that it would be endless, and the fire would never be quenched; so that they are an abhorring to all flesh, nobody cares to come near them. Now this is sometimes accomplished in temporal judgments, and perhaps never nearer the letter than in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish nation by the Romans, in which destruction it is computed that above two millions, first and last, were cut off by the sword, besides what perished by famine and pestilence. It may refer likewise to the spiritual judgments that came upon the unbelieving Jews, which St. Paul looks upon, and shows us, Rom 11:8, etc. They became dead in sins, twice dead. The church of the Jews was a carcase of a church; all its members were putrid carcases; their worm died not, their own consciences made them continually uneasy, and the fire of their rage against the gospel was not quenched, which was their punishment as well as their sin; and they became, more than ever any nation under the sun, an abhorring to all flesh. But our Saviour applies it to the everlasting misery and torment of impenitent sinners in the future state, where their worm dies not, and their fire is not quenched (Mar 9:44); for the soul, whose conscience is its constant tormentor, is immortal, and God, whose wrath is its constant terror, is eternal. (3.) What notice shall be taken of it. Those that worship God shall go forth and look upon them, to affect their own hearts with the love of their Redeemer, when they see what misery they are redeemed from. As it will aggravate the miseries of the damned to see others in the kingdom of heaven and themselves thrust out (Luk 13:28), so it will illustrate the joys and glories of the blessed to see what becomes of those that died in their transgression, and it will elevate their praises to think that they were themselves as brands plucked out of that burning. To the honour of that free grace which thus distinguished them let the redeemed of the Lord with all humility, and not without a holy trembling, sing their triumphant songs.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For, behold, the Lord will come with fire,.... Either…
For, behold, the Lord will come with fire,.... Either with material fire, with which mystical Babylon or Rome shall be burnt, Rev 18:8, or with indignation and wrath, which shall be poured out like fire, and be as intolerable and consuming as that:
and with his chariots like a whirlwind; making a great noise, and striking great terror; alluding to chariots in which men used formerly to fight:
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to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire; a heap of words, to show the fierceness of his wrath, and how severe his rebuke of enemies will be; which will be not a rebuke in love, as of his own people, but in a way of vindictive wrath.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain With fire - With terrible judgments, or with fire…
With fire - With terrible judgments, or with fire in a proper sense, understanding it of the fire with which enemies use to consume places brought under their power. Whirlwind - With a sudden sweeping judgment. Fury - That is, with fervour; for fury properly taken is not in God. Rebukes - They had contemned the rebukes of the law, now God will rebuke them with fire, and sword.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 15. The Lord will come with fire -…
Verse 15. The Lord will come with fire - "JEHOVAH shall come as a fire"] For באש baesh, in fire, the Septuagint had in their copy קאש kaesh, as a fire; ὡς πυρ.
To render his anger with fury - "To breathe forth his anger in a burning heat"] Instead of להשב lehashib, as pointed by the Masoretes, to render, I understand it as להשב lehashshib, to breathe, from נשב nashab.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Isa 66:15-16. For, behold, &c. — Here the prophet…
Isa 66:15-16. For, behold, &c. — Here the prophet comes more particularly to show the nature of that indignation which should be exercised toward God’s enemies. The passage, it must be observed, is metaphorical, “exhibiting God as about to take vengeance on the enemies of his church, under the figure of a commander and warrior, as well as of a judge, armed at all points, severely to punish those who have provoked his indignation: see Isa 63:1, &c.; Rev 18:8; and Rev 14:20. Some suppose that this passage refers to the general judgment; but it is rather, according to the whole tenor of this prophecy, to be referred to the judgments of God upon the rebellious Jews, and upon the antichristian enemies of the church.” The Lord will come with fire — With terrible judgments: an allusion possibly to the fire with which enemies use to consume places brought under their power. And with his chariots — Like the general of a victorious army. With a whirlwind — With a sudden sweeping calamity, that, like a whirlwind, shall destroy all before it. To render his anger with fury — That is, with fervour; for fury, properly taken, is not in God, Isa 27:4. But God, at certain times, executes judgment more severely than at others. And his rebukes — By rebukes he means punishments, for it is said God will execute them with flames of fire — They had contemned the rebukes of the law, now God will rebuke them with fire and sword. For by fire, &c., will the Lord plead with all flesh — God at first pleads with sinners by word, but if he cannot so prevail, he will plead with them in a way by which he will overcome; by fire, pestilence, and blood. Thus he threatens to do with all flesh, that is, with all sinners continuing in sin, and especially with the impenitent and unbelieving Jews, who, being favoured with the oracles and ordinances of God, held the truth in unrighteousness, and abused their extraordinary privileges to their greater condemnation: see Rom 2:8-9. And the slain of the Lord shall be many — Those whom God should cause to be slain. This was awfully fulfilled in the destruction brought on the Jews by the Romans for crucifying the Messiah; no fewer than eleven hundred thousand, according to Josephus, perishing in the siege of Jerusalem, and at least three hundred thousand more during the war; not to mention the vast numbers that perished in caves, woods, wildernesses, common sewers, of whom no account could be taken; and the great slaughter made of them afterward in the wars waged against them by Adrian, when fifty of their strongest fortresses were razed, and nine hundred and eighty-five of their noblest towns were sacked, and consumed by fire. See note on Deu 28:62.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain For behold, the Lord will come with fire -…
For behold, the Lord will come with fire - The Septuagint reads this ‘As fire’ (ὡς πύρ hōs pur). Fire is a common emblem to denote the coming of the Lord to judge and punish his enemies Psa 50:3 :
Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence;
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A fire shall devour before him,
And it shall be very tempestuous round about him.
So Hab 2:5 :
Before him went the pestilence,
And burning coals went forth at his feet.
So Psa 97:3 :
A fire goeth before him,
And burneth up his enemies round about.
So it is said 2Th 1:8, that the Lord Jesus will be revealed ‘in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God’ (compare Heb 10:27; 2Pe 3:7). So Yahweh is said to breathe out fire when he comes to destroy his foes:
There went up a smoke out of his nostrils,
And fire out of his mouth devoured;
Coals were kindled by it.
Psa 18:8
Compare the notes at Isa 29:6; Isa 30:30. This is a general promise that God would defend his church, and destroy his foes. To what this particularly applies, it may not be possible to determine, and instead of attempting that, I am disposed to regard it as a promise of a general nature, that God, in those future times, would destroy his foes, and would thus extend protection to his people. So far as the language is concerned, it may be applied either to the destruction of Jerusalem, to any mighty overthrow of his enemies, or to the day of judgment. The single truth is, that all his enemies would be destroyed as if Yahweh should come amidst flames of fire. That truth is enough for his church to know; that truth should be sufficient to fill a wicked world with alarm.
And with his chariots like a whirlwind - The principal idea here is, that he would come with immense rapidity, like a chariot that was borne forward as on the whirlwind, to destroy his foes. God is often represented as coming in a chariot - a chariot of the clouds, or of a whirlwind. Psa 104:3 :
Who maketh the clouds his chariot,
Who walketh upon the wings of the wind.
Compare Psa 18:10; see the note at Isa 19:1. See also Jer 4:13 :
Behold, he shall come up as clouds,
And his chariots shall be as a whirlwind.
Chariots were commonly made with two wheels, though sometimes they had four wheels, to which two horses, fiery and impetuous, were attached; and the rapid movement, the swift revolving wheels, and the dust which they raised, had no slight resemblance to a whirlwind (compare the notes at Isa 21:7, Isa 21:9). They usually had strong and sharp iron scythes affixed to the extremities of their axles, and were driven into the midst of the army of an enemy, cutting down all before them. Warriors sometimes fought standing on them, or leaping from them on the enemy. The chariots in the army of Cyrus are said to have been capacious enough to permit twenty men to fight from them.
To render his anger with fury - Lowth renders this, ‘To breathe forth his anger.’ Jerome translates it, Reddere, that is, to render. The Septuagint, Ἀποδοῦναι Apodounai, to give, or to render. Lowth proposes, instead of the present text, as pointed by the Masorites, להשׁיב lehâshı̂yb, to read it להשׁיב lehashı̂yb, as if it were derived from נשׁב nâshab. But there is no necessity of a change. The idea is, that God would recompense his fury; or would cause his hand to turn upon them in fury.
With fury - Lowth renders this, ‘In a burning heat.’ The word used (חמה chēmâh) properly means “heat,” then anger, wrath; and the Hebrew here might be properly rendered, ‘heat of his anger;’ that is, glowing or burning wrath, wrath that consumes like fire.
With flames of fire - His rebuke shall consume like fiery flames; or it shall be manifested amidst such flame.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain 15 For, behold, the Lord will come with fire,
9. GENERAL PICTURE OF THE TIME OF THE END AS THE TIME OF JUDGMENT TO LIFE AND TO DEATH
Isa_66:15-24
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15 For, behold, the Lord will come with fire,
And with his chariots like a whirlwind,
To render his anger with fury,
And his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 26For by fire and by his sword
Will the Lord plead with all flesh:
And the slain of the Lord shall be many.
17 They that sanctify themselves and purify themselves27 in the gardens,
28Behind one tree in the midst,
Eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse,
Shall be consumed together, saith the Lord.
18 29 For I know their works and their thoughts:
It shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues;
And they shall come, and see my glory.
19 And I will set a sign among them,
And I will send those that escape of them unto the nations,
To Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow,
To Tubal and Javan, to the isles afar off,
That have not heard my 30fame,
Neither have seen my glory;
And they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.
20 And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord
Out of all nations
Upon horses, and in chariots, and in 31litters,
And upon mules, and upon 32swift beasts,
To my holy mountain 33Jerusalem, saith the Lord,
As the children of Israel bring an offering
In a clean vessel into the house of the Lord.
21 34And I will also take of them
For priests and for Levites, saith the Lord.
22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make,
Shall remain before me, saith the Lord,
So shall your seed and your name remain.
23 And it shall come to pass, that 35 36from one new moon to another,
And from one Sabbath to another,
Shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.
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.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_66:15. The words וכסופה מרכבתיו occur exactly as here Jer_4:13. There, too, they stand as second subject of the verb יַעֲלֶה, which is first in order. Jeremiah quotes there Hab_1:8 also. מֶרְכָּבָה is never used by Jeremiah elsewhere; he employs the word רֶכֶב (Jer_17:25; Jer_22:4; Jer_46:9; Jer_47:3; Jer_50:37; Jer_51:21). But Isaiah uses מרכבה three times, namely Isa_2:7; Isa_22:18, in addition to the present case. סוּכָּה, too, is never elsewhere used by Jeremiah. He employs always instead of it סַעַר (Jer_23:19; Jer_25:32; Jer_30:23) and סְעָרָה (Jer_23:19; Jer_30:23). But Isaiah has סוכּה five times, including the present place, Isa_5:28; Isa_17:13; Isa_21:1; Isa_29:6. On these grounds we can maintain that the words in Jeremiah are a quotation from the place before us.
Isa_66:16. אֵת is not the sign of the accusative, but a preposition as 1Sa_12:7; Jer_2:35; Eze_17:20; Eze_20:35 sq.; Isa_38:22; Jer_25:31. This last place recalls forcibly the one before us.
Isa_66:17. I hold this verse to be interpolated by the same hand which inserted Isa_64:9 sqq.; Isa_65:3-5; Isa_65:11; Isa_66:3-6. My reasons are, 1) The-special mention of the Israelites who had apostatized to heathenism is not at all necessary in this connection. For Isa_66:15-16 speak of the general judgment extending to all flesh (Isa_66:16). For what purpose then this particular specification of a single class of men? [Criticism of this kind is not worthy of our author. We might apply it to establish the spuriousness of the greater part of the discourse recorded in Mat_25:31-46. There, too, is an account of the judgment of all nations. Yet only a class of persons guilty of a particular sin of omission is condemned by the Judge. It is enough to say that our Lord and the Prophet had their reasons for particularly specifying a certain class of men as the objects of divine judgment.—D. M.]. 2) This verse, as Isa_65:3; Isa_65:11, contains clear allusion to foreign, in particular, to Babylonian heathenism. Such an allusion is suspicious. It cannot be explained from the stand-point of Isaiah. For Isaiah sees into the distant future, it is true, but he does not see as a person standing near. He does not distinguish specific, individual features. [In his remarks on Isa_65:4 Dr. Naegelsbach admits that there is no evidence outside the book of Isaiah that the Babylonians either offered swine in sacrifice, or used them for food. There is really nothing mentioned in this verse which can be proved to be specifically Babylonian. The gardens were connected with idolatrous worship practised by the Israelites at home. See Isa_1:29. The statement that the Prophet could not foresee the practices here mentioned depends on the erroneous theory of prophecy which Dr. Naegelsbach has adopted, and which is animadverted on in the Introduction, pp. 17,18, footnote.—D. M.]. 3) The words are very appropriate in the mouth of an exile who thought that he must apply particularly to the renegades of his time the threatening of judgment contained in Isa_66:15-16. [But the words are quite appropriate in the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah, and we are not warranted to assume that these forms of idolatry were practised by the exiles in Babylon. Unless Isaiah is supposed to testify to this fact, we have no evidence of it. In the Babylonian Captivity the people were cured of their propensity to gross idolatry—D. M.]. 4) The singular phrase אחר אחד בתון clearly betrays a foreign, later hand; and the manifest corruption of the text in the beginning of Isa_66:18 is also to be regarded as an indication of changes in the original text. [The occurrence of the singular phrase referred to is no sign of the hand of an interpolator, who would rather be careful to avoid saying what would be obscure and ambiguous. An interpolator, too, who understood Hebrew, would hardly have left the difficulty complained of in the beginning of Isa_66:18.—D. M.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The Prophet here, too, represents the future under the forms of the present. He seta forth its leading features, and again brings together what is homogeneous without regard to intervening spaces of time. He begins, Isa_66:15-16; Isa_66:18, by describing the judgment of retribution on the wicked. [On Isa_66:17 see under Text. and Gram.]. The Prophet surveys together the beginning and end of the judgment. As we see from Isa_66:19, the beginning of the judgment of the world is for him the judgment on Israel. He, therefore, Isa_66:19 sqq., tells what shall take place after the destruction of the visible theocracy. He beholds a sign set in Israel. We clearly perceive here in the light of the fulfilment what he only obscurely, as through a mist, descried. He intends Him who is set for a sign that is spoken against. After this sign has appeared and been rejected, the judgment begins on the earthly Jerusalem. Persons escaped from this great catastrophe go to the heathen to publish to them the glory of Jehovah (Isa_66:19). And the heathen world turns to Jehovah, and in grateful love brings along with it to the holy mountain the scattered members of Israel that had been visited with judgment. These are as a meat-offering which Jehovah receives from the hand of the Gentiles as willingly as He welcomes a pure meat-offering from the hand of an Israelite (Isa_66:20). And then from Gentiles and Jews a new race arises. The wall of separation is removed. The Lord takes priests and Levites indiscriminately from both (Isa_66:21). The new life which throbs in men, as well as in heaven and earth, is eternal life. Hence the new race of men stand on the new earth and under the new heaven eternally before the Lord (Isa_66:22). And all flesh will then render to the Lord true worship forever (Isa_66:23). But the wicked, of whom the Prophet had declared at the close of the first and second Ennead that they have no peace, will be excluded from the society of the blessed, to be a prey of the undying worm and unquenchable fire, and an object of abhorrence.
2. For, behold, the LORD——my glory.
Isa_66:15-18. The Prophet sees the Lord come to judgment in flaming fire, and he beholds His chariots rush along as a tempest. The image is here, as Psa_18:9; Psa_18:13, borrowed from a thunderstorm. It appears to me better to regard מרככתיו as second subject to יָבֹא than to supply in the translation the substantive verb. For the chariots are not in themselves like a stormy wind, but their rolling is compared with the rushing of a tempest. The plural is certainly the proper plural. For as an earthly commander of an army is accompanied by many chariots, so too is the “Lord of hosts.” Kleinert justly observes on Habakkuk 3 that the elements, clouds and winds, as media of manifestation, are compared with Jehovah’s horses and chariots. In Psa_104:3 the Lord is expressly described as He who “maketh the clouds his chariot.” הֵשִׁיב אַף cannot possibly denote here as Job_9:13; Psa_78:38, to take away wrath. Here retribution is the subject of discourse. We must, therefore, compare places such as Hos_12:3, where השׁיב standing alone means to recompense, and Deu_32:41; Deu_32:43, where it is joined with נָקָם in like signification. In the day of judgment they who have sown evil must reap the wrath of God as necessary harvest (comp. Gal_6:7). God will render his anger to them in the form of חֵמָה, i.e., of burning fury (comp. Isa_42:25; Isa_59:18), and his rebuke comp. Isa_30:17; Isa_50:2; Isa_51:20), in flames of fire (comp Isa_13:8; Isa_29:6; Isa_30:30). Fire must serve not only to indicate the violence of the divine wrath, but also as a real instrument of judgment. for the first judgment of the world was accomplished by water (Genesis 7), the second will be effected by fire. At the first act of the second judgment of the world, the destruction of Jerusalem, fire was not wanting (comp. Joseph. B.J. VI. 7, 2; 8, 5). With fire and sword, igne ferroque, the Lord judges. [“What is here said of fire, sword and slaughter, was fulfilled not only as a figurative prophecy of general destruction, but in its strictest sense in the terrific carnage which attended the extinction of the Jewish State, of which, more emphatically than of any other event outwardly resembling it, it might be said that many were the slain of Jehovah.” Alexander. D. M.]. Isa_66:17. Here people are spoken of, who make a religious consecration of themselves by sanctifying (comp. Isa_30:29; Isa_65:6; Exo_19:22; Num_11:18 et saepe) and purifying themselves (מטהר in Isaiah only here, comp. Lev_14:4; Lev_14:7-8 et saepe; Ezr_6:20; Neh_12:30; Neh_13:22). They do this אֶל־הַגַּנּוֹת (comp. Isa_1:29-30; Isa_61:11; Isa_65:3). The preposition אֶל might be taken, with Hahn, as a case of constr. praegnans, if it were possible to find the idea of motion to a place latent in the verbs הטהר and התקדשׁ. We must, therefore, take אֵל in the sense of “in relation to, in respect to,” i.e. = for (comp. e.g., 1Sa_1:27; Eze_6:10). [In performing their lustrations they have respect to the gardens as places of worship. Translate: that purify themselves for the gardens, not in the gardens as in the E. V.—D. M.]. The words אחר אחד בתוך are very obscure. The old translators (LXX., Targ., Syr., Arab., Theodoret, Symmachus, Hieronymus) were evidently puzzled with the text, and conjectured its meaning rather than explained it according to certain principles. The later interpreters can be classified according to what they understand by אַחַת ,אַחַד) אֶחָד, the last is the reading of the K’ri). Seb. Schmidt and Bochart think (after Saadia) of one of the trees, or of a reservoir in the garden, behind or in which the lustration was performed. Others refer אחד to an idol. Abenezra thinks that אחת (K’ri) is Astarte. Very many interpreters (after Scaliger) take אחד to be the name of a Syrian divinity, Ἄδωδος, who is called in Eusebius (Praep. Ev. I. 10) King of gods. And this explanation has been the rather adopted, because Macrobius (Saturn. I, 23) gives as the meaning of this name “unus;” a statement which is manifestly owing to his want of knowledge of the language. Clericus sees in אחת the name ‘ Εκάτη;. Ben. Carpzov, who is followed by Hahn and Maurer, understands an idol of some kind. Stier, not satisfied with Antichrist, who is thought of by Neteler, understands under the one the “idol of the world in the strictest sense, whose place of concealment is the tree of knowledge in the midst of the garden.” Majus (Œcon. p. 984) takes אחר אחד in the sense of praeter unum, i.e., beside the only true God (Deu_6:4) they follow an idol set in the midst. But this meaning the words will not bear. That explanation has most in its favor, which refers אחד to a human being. Here we must set aside as philologically untenable the view which, after the Targ. Jon., and the Syriac, would in any way bring out the sense alius post alium. After the example of Pfeifer in the Dubia Vexata, it is better to understand a person placed in the midst who acted as leader, initiator, or hierophant. So Gesenius, Hitzig, Hendewerk, Beck, Umbreit, Knobel, Delitzsch, Seinecke, Rohlingבַּתָּוֶךְ is understood by Hitzig, Hendewerk, Beck, Umbreit, Ewald of the middle of the house, the impluvium, the court. But Knobel, Delitzsch, Seinecke, Rohling think of the hierophant standing in the midst, so that אַחַר is not to be understood in the local sense, but in that of acting after, or imitation. Ewald proposes instead of אחר אחד to read a double אחר: Boettcher would strike out the words אחר אחד. Cheyne regards the place as quite corrupt. It seems to me that the words אחר אחד בתוך are either a corrupt reading, or a later expression current in those Babylonian forms of worship. But we have not hitherto been able to explain their meaning satisfactorily. [That Babylonian rites are here referred to is a gratuitous assumption. Of the interpretations put upon the statement that purify themselves for the gardens after one in the midst, the one most entitled to our acceptance is that which regards it as descriptive of a crowd of devotees surrounding their priest or leader, and doing after him the rites which he exhibits for their imitation. Delitzsch is so satisfied with this explanation that he declares that it leaves nothing to be desired. The use of אחד, one, has its reason in the opposition of the one leader of the ceremonies to the many repeaters of the rites after him. D. M.]. אכלי בשׂר ה׳ו׳ is one of the subjects of יסופו. Comp. on Isa_65:4. שֶׁקֶץ stands frequently in Leviticus parallel with שֶׁרֶץ, reptile, e. g., Lev_11:20 comp. ibid. vers, 10, 23, 41. Probably, then, reptiles, such as the snail, lizard and the like, are here chiefly intended. עַכְבָּר is the mouse (comp. Lev_11:29; 1Sa_6:4 sqq.). On edible mice, or rats (glires) see Delitzsch, Comment. in loc., Bochart, Hieroz. II. p. 432 sqq., Herz. R.-Encycl. XIV. p. 602. [“The actual use of any kind of mouse in the ancient heathen rites has never been established, the modern allegations of the fact being founded on the place before us.” Alexander. This commentator contends that the Prophet is still treating of the excision of the Jews and the vocation of the Gentiles. And although the generation of Jews “upon whom the final blow fell were hypocrites, not idolaters, the misdeeds of their fathers entered into the account, and they were cast off not merely as the murderers of the Lord of Life, but as apostates who insulted Jehovah to His face by bowing down to stocks and stones, in groves and gardens, and by eating swine’s flesh, the abomination, and the mouse.” Isaiah would naturally make prominent, in assigning the causes of divine judgment, the most flagrant transgressions of the law that prevailed in his own time. We have had many examples of his practice to depict the future in the colors of the present.—D. M.]. Isa_66:18 is very difficult. It appears to me impossible to obtain an appropriate sense from the text as it stands. I must therefore hold it to be corrupt. The old versions do not enable us to detect any corruption that has taken place since they were made. They all give such translations that they evidently suppose the present Masoretic text. They all use the first person in the rendering of בָּאָה. But this does not justify our inferring a difference of text. It is merely a free translation. The predicate to ואנכי is wanting. Some would supply יָדַעְתּי [as the E. V.], or אֶפְקֹד (Delitzsch), as was done in some manuscripts of the LXX. But is it possible that the writer omitted the predicate? [“The ellipsis is like that in Virgil Quos ego (Aen. I. 139), and belongs to the rhetorical figure of aposiopesis: and I, their works and thoughts—(will know to punish).” Delitzsch. If an ellipsis is to be supplied, there is none more facile than that assumed in the English version, and which can plead the support of the Targum. But it seems to me better to retain the aposiopesis of the original, with Knobel, Ewald, Alexander and Kay. The last mentioned has this remark: “The sentence is interrupted; as if it were too great a condescension to comment on their folly,—so soon to be made evident by the course of events. And I—as for their works and their thoughts, the time cometh for gathering all nations.”—D. M.]. So much can be seen from Isa_66:18, that God’s judgments will rest on a bringing to light not only of the works, but also of the thoughts of the heart (Heb_4:12). בָּאָה is according to the accents to be taken as a participle. The feminine is to be understood in a neuter sense [i.e., it is used impersonally]. בָּא stands for the arrival of the right moment: it is come to this that all nations, etc., comp. Eze_39:8. The words קבִץ את־כל־הגוים seem to be borrowed from Joel 4:2. On the other hand, the Prophet Zephaniah (Isa_3:8) seems to have had this place of Isaiah before him. The expression כל־הגוים does not occur exactly elsewhere. We can compare, on the one hand, Gen_10:20; Gen_10:31 (comp. Isa_66:5), on the other, Dan_3:4; Dan_3:7; Dan_5:19; Dan_6:26; Dan_7:14. Comp. Zec_8:23. If this expression really belonged to a later age, we should find in it a confirmation of the supposition that the text of Isa_66:18 also has been corrupted by an interpolator. [“The use of the word tongues as an equivalent to nations has reference to national distinctions springing from diversity of language, and is founded on Gen_10:5; Gen_10:20; Gen_10:31, by the influence of which passage and the one before us, it became a phrase of frequent use in Daniel, whose predictions turn so much upon the calling of the Gentiles (Dan_3:4; Dan_5:19). The representation of this form of speech as an Aramaic idiom by some modern critics is characteristic of their candor.” Alexander. Some suppose the glory of Jehovah which all nations will be assembled to see to be a gracious display of His glory, and others think that a grand manifestation of judgment is here referred to. In the preceding part of the chapter a revelation of both grace and judgment is foretold. We can take the expression in a general sense for the revelation of Jehovah’s perfections. But here a difficulty arises. If in this verse all nations are represented as gathered, as having come to see the glory of the Lord, where are the distant nations who are to be visited according to the following verse by those that have escaped from the judgment? The seeming inconsistency is removed, if we regard Isa_66:19 as describing the way in which the nations will be brought to see the glory of God, and take the וְ as causal: For I will set a sign, etc. For this causal force of וְ comp. on Isa_64:3. This is better than to suppose, with Delitzsch, that all nations and tongues in Isa_66:18 are not to be understood of all nations without exception.—D. M.].
3. And I will set——all flesh.
Isa_66:19-24. [This verse explains the gathering of all nations mentioned in the previous verse. The Hebrew often employs the simple connective and where we would use for.—D. M.]. The mention of פליטים, Isa_66:19, implies that the judgment from which they have escaped is not the general judgment. After it there will remain no nations on the earth to whom the messengers could come to announce Jehovah’s glory. That judgment, then, from which the messengers have escaped, must be only the first act of the general judgment, i.e., the judgment on Israel. If we consider this place in the light of fulfilment, we must take the destruction of the theocracy by the Romans for this first act of the general judgment, which the Prophet views together with its last act or last acts, just as our Lord does in His oratio eschatological, Matthew 24. They who have escaped from that dreadful catastrophe which befalls the church of the Old Covenant are the church of the New Covenant, for whose flight and deliverance the Lord has so significantly cared in that discourse (Mat_24:16 sqq.). If this is the case, what opinion have we to form regarding the sign, which the Lord, according to the words commencing Isa_66:19, will set “among them,” i.e., among those on whom that first great act of judgment has fallen? The expression שׂוּם אוֹת occurs Gen_4:15; Exo_10:2; Jer_32:20; Psa_78:43; Psa_105:27. It alternates with נָהַן or עָשָׂה אוֹת (Deu_13:2; Jos_2:12; Jdg_6:17; Psa_86:17 et saepe). Of these forms שׂוּם אוֹת is the most emphatic. It denotes, we might say, setting a sign as a monument for general and permanent observation. To regard this sign as a signal to call the nations does not suit the context [?], for the nations are not called to the judgment upon Israel. The announcement is rather borne to them. Calvin’s explanation “I make a sign on them,” namely, on the elect for their deliverance, is justified by the language; but the suffixes in בָּהֶם and מֵהֶם refer to those who are judged, and not to those who are saved. The old orthodox explanation, according to which the “sign” is the Spirit poured out upon the disciples as evidence of their divine mission, is exposed to the same objection. When, on the other hand, Hitzig and Knobel consider as the sign, the judgment upon the heathen, a great slaughter, there is this objection that it is to the heathen that they who escaped the judgment go. And when Stier refers the sign to the judgment upon Israel, it seems strange that mention should be made of the sign after the description of the judgment and its happy consequences, and they shall come and see my glory. [But if we regard the וְ at the beginning of Isa_66:19 as explicative or causal, this objection falls away,—D. M.]. Ewald, Umbreit, Delitzsch, Seinecke think that the escape of some from the all-destroying slaughter is itself the miracle. But is it something so extraordinary and wonderful that individuals should escape from a slaughter, be it ever so bloody? I would not say with the Catholic interpreters that this אוֹת is the sign of the cross. But I think that Luke [Simeon] when he, Luk_2:34, speaks of Him who is set for a sign which shall be spoken against had our place before him. And I would refer the sign of the Son of man (Mat_24:30) to the same source. It was the purpose of God, which Isaiah here announces without knowing how it should be fulfilled, that out of the ashes of the old covenant the phœnix of the new should arise. [Alexander, who sees in the פְלֵיטִים who go to the nations the first preachers of the Gospel, who were escaped Jews, saved from that perverse generation (Act_2:40), thinks that the sign to be set denotes “the whole miraculous display of divine power, in bringing the old dispensation to a close and introducing the new, including the destruction of the unbelieving Jews, on the one hand, and, on the other, all those signs and wonders, and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost (Heb_2:4), which Paul calls the signs of an apostle (2Co_12:12), and which Christ Himself had promised should follow them that believed (Mar_16:17). All these were signs placed among them, i.e., among the Jews, to the greater condemnation of the unbelievers, and to the salvation of such as should be saved.” But if we compare Isa_11:10 and its connection with the place before us and the context, it would appear that Messiah is the sign here spoken of.—D. M.]. The following names of nations represent the entire heathen world. The Prophet designedly mentions the names of the most remote nations to intimate that to all, even the most distant peoples, the joyful message (εὐαγγέλιον) should come. Respecting Tarshish (comp. on Isa_2:16) The name Pul occurs as the name of a people only here (as name of a person, comp. 2Ki_15:19). In Jer_46:9; Eze_27:10; Eze_30:5, the name פוּט is mentioned in conjunction with לוּד. The LXX., too, have in our place Φούδ. In the places in Jer. and Ezek. just cited the LXX. have Δίβυες for פוּט. Bochart understands by Pul the island Philae. Most scholars hold the identity of פוּל and פוּט, and assume either an error in writing, or an interchange of ט and ל (Hitzig). Regarding פוּט, it is pretty generally held, after the LXX., to be Libyia. Ebers, indeed, affirms that on the Egyptian monuments Punt or Put always denotes a country east of Egypt, namely, Arabia. We must in regard to this point defer a decision. It is not quite certain what people we have to understand under לוּד. In Gen_10:13לוּדים is named as the first son of Mizraim; but there, too, in Isa_66:22 the fourth son of Shem is called Lud. Ebers holds, with Rougemont (L’age du bronze), the son of Shem for the Lutennu, i.e., Syrians, while according to him the Ludu or Rutu are the native Egyptians in opposition to the non-Egyptian elements of the kingdom of Pharaoh. Ebers properly leaves it undecided whether these native Egyptians, or “the fourth son of Shem” is here meant. We cannot apply to the place before us a strict ethnographical measure. We cannot expect that the Prophet should mention the nations of only one part of the world, or that he should mention the nations in regular succession. He means only to name very distant peoples. Do the Egyptians who are never called in the Old Testament by another name than מִצְרַיִם belong to these? The Ludim are celebrated as archers also in Jer_46:9. Under Tubal (Gen_10:2; Eze_27:13; Eze_32:26; Eze_38:2-3; Eze_39:1) the Tibareni, a tribe in the south-eastern corner of the Black Sea, are, since the time of Bochart, supposed to be intended. That יָוָן are the Greeks is universally acknowledged (comp. Gen_10:2; Eze_27:13; Dan_8:21; Zec_9:13). There will take place a centrifugal and a centripetal motion. After the judgment on Israel, the holy centre will be forsaken, yea, trodden, down (Luk_21:24; Rev_11:2). The escaped of Israel will carry out from the destroyed centre the salvation of Israel to the heathen. The heathen will receive it; but Israel shall not be mixed with them.—[But the escaped Israelites who brought salvation to the Gentiles have been in fact blended with the Gentiles who embraced it. That these escaped Israelites should remain distinct from the converted Gentiles is not here affirmed.—D. M.]—But when the time shall have come (according to Paul: “when the fulness of the Gentiles shall have come in,” Rom_11:25), a centripetal streaming back will take place, which will find the Israelites still existing among the nations. But they are no longer hated, but loved and highly honored. Jerusalem will again have become a centre, but not for Israel only, but for all nations. The nations will then flow to Jerusalem (Isa_2:2 sqq.; Isa_60:4 sqq.), and take with them the Israelites who will now know aright the Lord their God.—[Alexander understands the subject of הֵבִיאוּ, Isa_66:20, to be the messengers of Isa_66:19; but the subject of the verb is clearly “the heathen won for Jehovah by the testimony of those escaped ones” that had gone to them. The messengers could hardly be supposed to be those who supply the multifarious means of conveyance mentioned here. They who do this are moreover, evidently regarded as different from the children of Israel named at the close of the verse. If the subject of the הֵבִיאוּ is the Gentile nations, then your brethren would naturally be regarded as the scattered Jews rather than the converted Gentiles. Comp. Zep_3:10 : “From beyond the rivers of Cush will they (the Gentiles) bring my worshippers, the daughter of my dispersed, to me as an offering (מִנְחָה) This passage of Zephaniah is an abbreviation of what Isaiah here says, and determines the sense of אֲחֵיכֶם as referring to the Jews. See Keil on Zep_3:10.—D. M.]—The nations will conduct back the scattered Jews most honorably. On horses, in chariots, on couches (comp. Num_7:3), on mules (פֶרֶד only here in Isaiah), on dromedaries (כִּרְכָּרָח, ἅπ. λεγ. from the root כַּר, currere, saltare), will they be brought. And this bringing of His people the Lord will regard as a precious, unbloody offering which the Gentiles render to Him. Heretofore the Gentiles durst not tread the temple of Jehovah to make offerings on His altar in the holy place. But then they will be admitted to this service; and their offering will be as acceptable to the Lord as a pure מִנְחָה presented to Him by Israelites (comp. Isa_56:7; Mal_1:11; Mal_3:3). יביאו is not to be taken as the future, as if in the present time the meat-offering were not brought in a clean vessel. But it is the imperfect which indicates a lasting condition. בית י is Acc. localis in answer to the question where? For the act of offering is performed in the house of Jehovah by the presentation of the offering (Isa_43:23), not on the way thither. But the offering of the Israelites as a מִנְחָה consists not in offering them in the house of the Lord, but in bringing them to the house of the Lord. The Gentiles, who bring them thither on their horses, mules, etc., are, as it were, the clean vessel (comp. Isa_18:7; Psa_68:32). But a still greater thing will happen. The Gentiles will be admitted not only to the congregation of Israel; they will also be admitted to the office of priests and Levites. However much the Prophet is seen to be governed in respect to form by the time to which he belonged, we clearly perceive how in respect to the substance he boldly breaks through the limits of the present time, and prophesies a quite new order of things. For it was a fundamental law of the old theocracy that only those belonging to the tribe of Levi could be admitted to the office of Levites and priests. But in the glorious time future the middle wall of partition (Eph_2:14) will be taken away. Then twain will be made one; there will be one flock and one Shepherd (Joh_10:16). Then the Lord will choose not only out of all the tribes of Israel, but also from the Gentiles, those whom He will add to the Aaronic priests and to the Levites. We are not to explain לַכֹּהֲנִים and לַלְוִיִםfor priests and Levites, but in addition to the already existing priests and Levites. All things will become new. The explanation which refers מֵהֶם, Isa_66:21, to the אַחִים (Isa_66:20) is at variance with the context.—[Against this interpretation, which applies of them to the restored Israelites, an interpretation which, beside Jewish writers and Grotius, Hitzig and Knobel have put forward, it may be objected that the promise in this view of it would be needless, as the priests and Levites would not have forfeited their right to their hereditary office by a foreign residence. Hofmann shows well how it suits the context to understand וְגַם מֵהֶם of the Gentiles: “God recompenses this bringing of an offering, by taking to Himself out of the number of those who make the offering, priests, who as such are added to the Levitical priests.” Instead of I will also take of them, as in the E. V., translate: also of them will I take, etc. The expression implies that those to be chosen to the offices of priests and Levites are not the ordinary and regular priests and Levites—D. M.]—The time will be that of the καινὴ κτίσις. Without it that fundamental change could not be conceived. For in it the powers of the ζωὴ αἰώνιος manifest themselves. In Isa_66:22 there are two thoughts combined into one: for as heaven and earth so shall ye also be new, and this new life will be eternal. In Isa_66:23-24 also we perceive this singular blending of what belongs specifically to the present, and of what belongs to a totally different future. The Prophet still sees the old forms of worship, Sabbath and new moon. But at the same time the relations are so fundamentally new that what was not possible even to the Israelites will be possible to all flesh.—[“The Prophet, in accordance with his constant practice, speaks of the emancipated church in language borrowed from her state of bondage.” Alexander.]—The males of the Israelites, from their twelfth year, had to appear before the Lord three times in the year. To appear every new moon and Sabbath would have been impossible even for the inhabitants of circumscribed Palestine. But according to the Prophet’s declaration, this will be in that remote future possible for all flesh. Comp. for a real parallel Zec_14:16. I do not see what objection can be made to taking חֹדֶשׁ and שַׁבָּת in a double sense here. חֹדשׁ (renovatio) is first, the new moon, then, the month beginning with the new moon, governed, as it were, by it. מדי־חדשׁ בח׳ is pro ratione mensis novilunio suo, i.e. every month on the new moon belonging to it. And מדי שׁבת בשׁבת is every week on the Sabbath belonging to it. שַׁבָּת is used even in the Old Testament in the signification of week, Num_23:15; comp. the parallel place, Deu_16:4. And in the New Testament σάββατον and σάββατα denote a week.—[But there is no need of taking חדשׁ and שׁבת in a double sense. We cannot take שִׁבָּה in a double sense in Zec_14:16 and 1Sa_7:16, where the construction is similar. Comp. these places with the one before us to see that there is a valid objection, which our author did not see, to the construction which he proposes.—D. M.]—The last verse carries out more fully the refrain: There is no peace to the wicked (Isa_48:22; Isa_57:21). The Prophet has here, too, the outlines of the topography of the old Jerusalem before his eyes. As this has outside its walls, but in its immediate neighborhood, a place into which all the filth of the city is thrown, because it was a place profaned by abominable idolatry, namely, the valley of Hinnom, he conceives of Gehenna as adjacent to the new Jerusalem. Our Lord appropriates this view of the Prophet so far that he, too, describes γέεννα as the place “where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched” (Mar_9:43-48). רָאָה with following בְּ denotes a qualified seeing, as with pleasure, with abhorrence, with interest. [Here with horror, as appears from the last clause.—D. M.] (Comp. Isa_66:5; Isa_53:2; Ps. 22:18; 54:9; Gen_21:16; Gen_44:34, et saepe.) Regarding the worm that dies not and the fire that is not quenched, we are to guard against the extremes of a gross material view and of an abstract ideal one.—[“Ordinarily, the worm feeds on the disorganized body, and then dies; the fire consumes its fuel, and goes out. But here is a strange mystery of suffering—a worm not dying, a fire not becoming extinct; a remorseful memory of past guilt, and all-penetrating sense of Divine justice.” Kay.—D. M.]—דֵּרָאוֹן is found besides here only Dan_12:2. The root דּרא does not occur in Hebrew. The word is explained from Arabic roots which denote repellere, taedio, contemtui esse. [“The Prophet had spoken in Isa_38:14, also, of ‘everlasting burnings.’ He, whose lips have been touched with the ‘live coal’ from the heavenly altar, understood that Holy Love must be to all that is unholy ‘a consuming fire’ ” (Heb_12:29). Kay.—D. M.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_65:1-2. Our Lord has said, “He that seeketh findeth” (Mat_7:8). How, then, does it come that the Jews do not find what they seek, but the heathen find what they did not seek? The Apostle Paul puts this question and answers it, Rom_9:30 sqq.; Isa_10:19 sqq.; Isa_11:7. [See also Isa_10:3]. All depends on the way in which we seek. Luther says: Quaerere fit dupliciter. Primo, secundum praescriptum verbi Dei, et sic invenitur Deus, Secundo, quaeritur nostris studiis et consiliis, et sic non invenitur.” The Jews, with exception of the ἐκλογή (Rom_11:7), sought only after their own glory and merit. They sought what satisfies the flesh. They did not suffer the spirit in the depths of their heart to speak,—the spirit which can be satisfied only by food fitted for it. The law which was given to them that they might perceive by means of it their own impotence, became a snare to them. For they perverted it, made what was of minor importance the chief matter, and then persuaded themselves that they had fulfilled it and were righteous. But the Gentiles who had not the law, had not this snare. They were not tempted to abuse the pædagogical discipline of the law. They felt simply that they were forsaken by God. Their spirit was hungry. And when for the first time God’s word in the Gospel was presented to them, then they received it the more eagerly in proportion to the poverty, wretchedness and hunger in which they had been. The Jews did not find what they sought, because they had not a spiritual, but a carnal apprehension of the law, and, like the elder brother of the prodigal son, were full, and blind for that which was needful for them. But the Gentiles found what they did not seek, because they were like the prodigal son, who was the more receptive of grace, the more he needed it, and the less claim he had to it. [There is important truth stated in the foregoing remarks. But it does not fully explain why the Lord is found of those who sought Him not. The sinner who has obtained mercy when he asks why? must have recourse to a higher cause, a cause out of himself, even free, sovereign, efficacious grace. “It is of God that showeth mercy,” Rom_9:16. “Though in after-communion God is found of those that seek Him (Pro_8:17), yet in the first conversion He is found of those that seek Him not; for therefore we love Him, because He first loved us.” Henry. D. M.].
2. On Isa_65:2. God’s long-suffering is great. He stretches out His hands the whole day and does not grow weary. What man would do this? The disobedient people contemns Him, as if He knew nothing, and could do nothing.
3. On Isa_65:2. “It is clear from this verse gratiam esse resistibilem. Christ earnestly stretched out His hands to the Jews. He would, but they would not. This doctrine the Remonstrants prove from this place, and rightly too, in Actis Synodi Dodrac. P. 3. p. 76.” Leigh. [The grace of God which is signified by His stretching out His hands can be, and is, resisted. That figurative expression denotes warning, exhorting, entreating, and was never set forth by Reformed theologians as indicating such grace as was necessarily productive of conversion. The power by which God quickens those who were dead in sins (Eph_2:5), by which He gives a new heart (Eze_36:26), by which He draws to the Son (Joh_6:44-45; Joh_6:65), is the grace which is called irresistible. The epithet is admitted on all hands to be faulty; but the grace denoted by it is, from the nature of the case, not resisted. Turrettin in treating De Vocatione et Fide thus replies to this objection, “Aliud est Deo monenti et vocanti externe resistere; Aliud est conversionem intendenti et efficaciter ac interne vocanti. Prius asseritur Isa. lxv. 2, 3. Quum dicit Propheta se expandisse totâ die manus ad populum perversum etc., non posterius. Expansio brachiorum notat quidem blandam et benevolam Dei invitationem, quâ illos extrinsecus sive Verbo, sive beneficiis alliciebat, non semel atque iterum, sed quotidie ministerio servorum suorum eos compellando. Sed non potest designate potentem et efficacem operationem, quâ brachium Domini illis revelatur qui docentur á Deo et trahuntur a Patre, etc.” Locus XV.; Quaestio VI .25.—D. M.].
4. On Isa_65:2. (Who walk after their own thoughts.)
Duc me, nec sine, me per me, Deus optime, duci.
Nam duce me pereo, te duce certus eo.
[“If our guide be our own thoughts, our way is not likely to be good; for every imagination of the thought of our hearts is only evil.” Henry. D. M.].
5. On Isa_65:3 sq. “The sweetest wine is turned into the sourest vinegar; and when God’s people apostatize from God, they are worse than the heathen (Jer_3:11).” Starke.
6. On Isa_65:5. [I am holier than thou. “A deep insight is here given us into the nature of the mysterious fascination which heathenism exercised on the Jewish people. The law humbled them at every turn with mementoes of their own sin and of God’s unapproachable holiness. Paganism freed them from this, and allowed them (in the midst of moral pollution) to cherish lofty pretensions to sanctity. The man, who had been offering incense on the mountain-top, despised the penitent who went to the temple to present ‘a broken and contrite heart.’ If Pharisaism led to a like result, it was because it, too, had emptied the law of its spiritual import, and turned its provisions into intellectual idols.” Kay. D. M.].
7. On Isa_65:6-7. “The longer God forbears, the harder He punishes at last. The greatness of the punishment compensates for the delay (Psa_50:21).” Starke after Leigh.
8. On Isa_65:8 sqq. [“This is expounded by St. Paul, Rom_11:1-5, where, when upon occasion of the rejection of the Jews, it is asked Hath God then cast away His people? He answers, no; for, at this time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. This prophecy has reference to that distinguished remnant…Our Saviour has told us that for the sake of these elect the days of the destruction of the Jews should be shortened, and a stop put to the desolation, which otherwise would have proceeded to that degree that no flesh should be saved. Mat_24:22. Henry. D. M.].
9. On Isa_65:15. The judgment which came upon Israel by the hand of the Romans, did not altogether destroy the people, but it so destroyed the Old Covenant, i.e., the Mosaic religion, that the Jews can no more observe its precepts in essential points. For no Jew knows to what tribe he belongs. Therefore, they have no priests, and, consequently, no sacrifices. The Old Covenant is now only a ruin. We see here most clearly that the Old Covenant, as it was designed only for one nation, and for one country, was to last only for a certain time. If we consider, moreover, the way in which the judgment was executed, (comp. Josephus), we can truly say that the Jews bear in themselves the mark of a curse. They bear the stamp of the divine judgment. The beginning of the judgment on the world has been executed on them as the house of God. But how comes it that the Jews have become so mighty, so insolent in the present time, and are not satisfied with remaining on the defensive in their attitude toward the Christian church, but have passed over to the offensive? This has arisen solely from Christendom having to a large extent lost the consciousness of its new name. There are many Christians who scoff at the name of Christian, and seek their honor in combating all that is called Christian. This is the preparation for the judgment on Christendom itself. If Christendom would hold fast her jewel, she would remain strong, and no one would dare to mock or to assail her. For she would then partake of the full blessing which lies in the principle of Christianity, and every one would be obliged to show respect for the fruits of this principle. But an apostate Christendom, that is ashamed of her glorious Christian name, is something more miserable than the Jews, judged though they have been, who still esteem highly their name, and what remains to them of their old religion. Thus Christendom, in so far as it denies the worth and significance of its name, is gradually reaching a condition in which it will be so ripe for the second act of the judgment on the world, that this will be longed for as a benefit. For, this apostate Christendom will be the kingdom of Antichrist, as Antichrist will manifest himself in Satanic antagonism to God by sitting in the temple of God, and pretending to be God (2Th_2:3 sqq.). [We do not quite share all the sentiments expressed in this paragraph. We are far from being so despondent as to the prospects of Christendom, and think that there is a more obvious interpretation of the prophecy quoted from 2 Thess., than that indicated.—D. M.].
10. On Isa_65:17. [If we had only the present passage to testify of new heavens and a new earth, we might say, as many good interpreters do, that the language is figurative, and indicates nothing more than a great moral and spiritual revolution. But we cannot thus explain 2Pe_3:10-13. The present earth and heavens shall pass away; (comp. Isa_51:6; Psa_102:25-26). But how can we suppose that our Prophet here refers to the new heavens and new earth, which are to succeed the destruction of the world by fire? In the verses that follow Isa_65:17, a condition of things is described which, although better than the present, is not so good as that perfectly sinless, blessed state of the redeemed, which we look for after the coming of the day of the Lord. Yet the Apostle Peter (2Pe_3:13) evidently regards the promise before us of new heavens and a new earth, as destined to receive its accomplishment after the conflagration which is to take place at the end of the world. If we had not respect to other Scriptures, and if we overlooked the use made by Peter of this passage, we should not take it literally. But we can take it literally, if we suppose that the Prophet brings together future events not according to their order in time. He sees the new heavens and new earth arise. Other scenes are disclosed to his prophetic eye of a grand and joy-inspiring nature. He announces them as future. But these scenes suppose the continued prevalence of death and labor (Isa_65:20 sqq.), which, we know from definite statements of Scripture, will not exist when the new heaven and new earth appear (comp. Rev_21:1-4). The proper view then of Isa_65:17 is to take its prediction literally, and to hold at the same time that in the following description (which is that of the millennium) future things are presented to us which are really prior, and not posterior to the promised complete renovation of heaven and earth. Nor should this surprise us, as Isaiah and the other Prophets place closely together in their pictures future things which belong to different times. They do not draw the line sharply between this world and the next. Compare Isaiah’s prophecy of the abolition of death (Isa_25:8) in connection with other events that must happen long before that state of perfect blessedness.—D. M.].
11. On Isa_65:20. [“The extension of the Gospel every where,—of its pure principles of temperance in eating and drinking, in restraining the passions, in producing calmness of mind, and in arresting war, would greatly lengthen out the life of man. The image here employed by the Prophet is more than mere poetry; it is one that is founded in reality, and is designed to convey most important truth.” Barnes. D. M.].
12. On Isa_65:24. [It occurs to me that an erroneous application is frequently made of the promise, Before they call, etc. This declaration is made in connection with the glory and blessedness of the last days. It belongs specifically to the millennium. There are, indeed, occasions when God even now seems to act according to this law. (Comp. Dan_9:23). But Paul had to pray thrice before he received the answer of the Lord (2Co_12:8). Compare the parable of the importunate widow, Luk_18:1-7. The answer to prayer may be long delayed. This is not only taught in the Bible, but is verified in Christian experience. But the time will come when the Lord will not thus try and exercise the faith of His people.—D. M.].
13. On Isa_65:25. “If the lower animals live in hostility in consequence of the sin of man, a state of peace must be restored to them along with our redemption from sin.” J. G. Mueller in Herz. R.-Encycl. xvi. p. 45. [“By the serpent in this place there seems every reason to believe that Satan, the old seducer and author of discord and misery, is meant. During the millennium he is to be subject to the lowest degradation. Compare for the force of the phrase to lick the dust, Psa_72:9; Mic_7:17. This was the original doom of the tempter, Gen_3:14, and shall be fully carried into execution. Comp. Rev_20:1-3.” Henderson. D. M.].
14. On Isa_66:1. [“Having held up in every point of view the true design, mission and vocation of the church or chosen people, its relation to the natural descendants of Abraham, the causes which required that the latter should be stripped of their peculiar privileges, and the vocation of the Gentiles as a part of the divine plan from its origin, the Prophet now addresses the apostate and unbelieving Jews at the close of the old dispensation, who, instead of preparing for the general extension of the church and the exchange of ceremonial for spiritual worship, were engaged in the rebuilding and costly decoration of the temple at Jerusalem. The pride and interest in this great public work, felt not only by the Herods but by all the Jews, is clear from incidental statements of the Scriptures (Joh_2:20; Mat_24:1), as well as from the ample and direct assertions of Josephus. That the nation should have been thus occupied precisely at the time when the Messiah came, is one of those agreements between prophecy and history, which cannot be accounted for except upon the supposition of a providential and designed assimilation.” Alexander after Vitringa. D. M.].
15. On Isa_66:1-2. What a grand view of the nature of God and of the way in which He is made known lies at the foundation of these words! God made all things. He is so great that it is an absurdity to desire to build a temple for Him. The whole universe cannot contain Him (1Ki_8:27)! But He, who contains all things and can be contained by nothing, has His greatest joy in a poor, humble human heart that fears Him. He holds it worthy of His regard, it pleases Him, He enters into it, He makes His abode in it. The wise and prudent men of science should learn hence what is chiefly necessary in order to know God. We cannot reach Him by applying force, by climbing up to Him, by attempting to take Him by storm. And if science should place ladder upon ladder upwards and downwards, she could not attain His height or His depth. But He enters of His own accord into a child-like, simple heart. He lets Himself be laid hold of by it, kept and known. It is not, therefore, by the intellect [alone] but by the heart that we can know God.
16. On Isa_66:3. He who under the Christian dispensation would retain the forms of worship of the ancient ritual of shadows would violate the fundamental laws of the new time, just as a man by killing would offend against the foundation of the moral law, or as he would by offering the blood of dogs or swine offend against the foundation of the ceremonial law. For when the body, the substance has appeared, the type must vanish. He who would retain the type along with the reality would declare the latter to be insufficient, would, therefore, found his salvation not upon God only, but also in part on his own legal performance. But God will brook no rival. He is either our All, or nothing. Christianity could tolerate animal sacrifices just as little as the Old Testament law could tolerate murder or the offering of abominable things.
17. On Isa_66:5. [“The most malignant and cruel persecutions of the friends of God have been originated under the pretext of great zeal in His service, and with a professed desire to honor His name. So it was with the Jews when they crucified the Lord Jesus. So it is expressly said it would be when His disciples would be excommunicated and put to death, Joh_16:2. So it was in fact in the persecutions excited against the apostles and early Christians. See Act_6:13-14; Act_21:28-31. So it was in all the persecutions of the Waldenses, in all the horrors of the Inquisition, in all the crimes of the Duke of Alva. So it was in the bloody reign of Mary; and so it has ever been in all ages and in all countries where Christians have been persecuted.” Barnes.—D. M.].
18. On Isa_66:10. “The idea which is presented in this verse is, that it is the duty of all who love Zion to sympathize in her joy. The true friends of God should rejoice in every real revival of religion, they should rejoice in all the success which attends the Gospel in heathen lands. And they will rejoice. It is one evidence of piety to rejoice in her joy; and they who have no joy when souls are born into the kingdom of God, when He pours down His Spirit and in a revival of religion produces changes as sudden and transforming as if the earth were suddenly to pass from the desolation of winter to the verdure and bloom of summer, or when the Gospel makes sudden and rapid advances in the heathen world, have no true evidence that they love God and His cause. They have no religion.” Barnes.—D. M.
19. On Isa_66:13. The Prophet is here completely governed by the idea that in the glorious time of the end, love, maternal love will reign. Thus He makes Zion appear as a mother who will bring forth with incredible ease and rapidity innumerable children (Isa_66:7-9). Then the Israelites are depicted as little children who suck the breasts of their mother. Further, the heathen who bring back the Israelites into their home, must do this in the same way in which mothers in the Orient are wont to carry their little children. Lastly, even to the Lord Himself maternal love is ascribed (comp. Isa_42:14; Isa_49:15), and such love as a mother manifests to her adult son. Thus the Israelites will be surrounded in that glorious time on all sides by maternal love. Maternal love will be the characteristic of that period.
20. On Isa_66:19 sqq. The Prophet describes remote things by words which are borrowed from the relations and conceptions of his own time, but which stand in strange contrast to the reality of the future which he beholds. Thus the Prophet speaks of escaped persons who go to Tarshish, Pul, Lud, Tubal, and Javan. Here he has rightly seen that a great act of judgment must have taken place. And this act of judgment must have passed on Israel, because they who escape, who go to the Gentiles to declare to them the glory of Jehovah, must plainly be Jews How accurately, in spite of the strange manner of expression, is the fact here stated that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was proclaimed to the Gentiles exactly at the time when the old theocracy was destroyed! How justly does he indicate that there was a causal connection between these events! He did not, indeed, know that the shattering of the old form was necessary in order that the eternal truth enclosed in it might be set free, and fitted for filling the whole earth. For the Old Covenant cannot exist along with the New, the Law cannot stand with equal dignity beside the Gospel. The Law must be regarded as annulled, in order that the Gospel may come into force. How remarkably strange is it, however, that he calls the Gentile nations Tarshish, Pul, Lud, etc. And how singular it sounds to be told that the Israelites shall be brought by the Gentiles to Jerusalem as an offering for Jehovah! But how accurately has he, notwithstanding, stated the fact, which, indeed, still awaits its fulfilment, that it is the conversion of the heathen world which will induce Israel to acknowledge their Saviour, and that they both shall gather round the Lord as their common centre! How strange it sounds that then priests and Levites shall be taken from the Gentiles also, and that new moon and Sabbath shall be celebrated by all flesh in the old Jewish fashion! But how accurately is the truth thereby stated that in the New Covenant there will be no more the priesthood restricted to the family of Aaron, but a higher spiritual and universal priesthood, and that, instead of the limited local place of worship of the Old Covenant, the whole earth will be a temple of the Lord! Verily the prophecy of the two last chapters of Isaiah attests a genuine prophet of Jehovah. He cannot have been an anonymous unknown person. He can have been none other than Isaiah the son of Amoz!
HOMILETICAL HINTS
1. On Isa_65:1 sq. [I. “It is here foretold that the Gentiles, who had been afar off, should be made nigh, Isa_65:1. II. It is here foretold that the Jews, who had long been a people near to God, should be cast off, and set at a distance, Isa_65:2.” Henry, III. We are informed of the cause of the rejection of the Jews. It was owing to their rebellion, waywardness and flagrant provocations, Isa_65:2 sqq.—D. M.]
2. On Isa_65:1-7. A Fast-Day Sermon. When the Evangelical Church no more holds fast what she has; when apostasy spreads more and more, and modern heathenism (Isa_65:3-5 a) gains the ascendency in her, then it can happen to her as it did to the people of Israel, and as it happened to the Church in the Orient. Her candlestick can be removed out of its place.—[By the Evangelical Church we are not to understand here the Church universal, for her perpetuity is certain. The Evangelical Church is in Germany the Protestant Church, and more particularly the Lutheran branch of it.—D. M.]
3. On Isa_65:8-10. Sermon on behalf of the mission among the Jews. Israel’s hope. 1) On what it is founded (Israel is still a berry in which drops of the divine blessing are contained); 2) To what this hope is directed (Israel’s Restoration).
4. On Isa_65:13-16. [“The blessedness of those that serve God, and the woful condition of those that rebel against him, are here set the one over against the other, that they may serve as a foil to each other. The difference of their states here lies in two things: 1) In point of comfort and satisfaction, a. God’s servants shall eat and drink; they shall have the bread of life to feed, to feast upon continually, and shall want nothing that is good for them. But those who set their hearts upon the world, and place their happiness in it, shall be hungry and thirsty, always empty, always craving. In communion with God and dependence upon Him there is full satisfaction; but in sinful pursuits there is nothing but disappointment. b. God’s servants shall rejoice and sing for joy of heart; they have constant cause for joy, and there is nothing that may be an occasion of grief to them but they have an allay sufficient for it. But, on the other hand, they that forsake the Lord shut themselves out from all true joy, for they shall be ashamed of their vain confidence in themselves, and their own righteousness, and the hopes they had built thereon. When the expectations of bliss, wherewith they had flattered themselves, are frustrated, O what confusion will fill their faces! Then shall they cry for sorrow of heart and howl for vexation of spirit. 2) In point of honor and reputation, Isa_65:15-16. The memory of the just is, and shall be, blessed; but the memory of the wicked shall rot.” Henry.—D. M.]
5. On Isa_66:1-2. Carpzov has a sermon on this text. He places it in parallel with Luk_18:9-14, and considers, 1) The rejection of spiritual pride; 2) The commendation of filial fear.
6. On Isa_66:2 Arndt, in his True Christianity I. cap. 10, comments on this text. He says among other things: “The man who will be something is the material out of which God makes nothing, yea, out of which He makes fools. But a man who will be nothing, and regards himself as nothing, is the material out of which God makes something, even glorious, wise people in His sight.”
7. On Isa_66:3. [Saurin has a sermon on this text entitled “Sur l’ Insuffisance du culte exterieur” in the eighth volume of his sermons.—D. M.]
8. On Isa_66:13. As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you. “These words stand, let us consider it, 1) In the Old Testament; 2) In the heart of God always; 3) But are they realized in our experience?” Koegel in “Aus dem Vorhof ins Heiligthum, II. Bd., p. 242, 1876.
9. On Isa_66:24. The punishment of sin is twofold—inward and outward. The inward is compared with a worm that dies not; the outward with a fire that is not quenched. This worm and this fire are at work even in this life. He who is alarmed by them and hastens to Christ can now be delivered from them.—[“It is better not to fall into this fire and never to have any experience of this worm, even though, as some imagine, eternity should not be eternal, and the unquenchable fire might be quenched, and the worm that shall never die, should die, and Jesus and His apostles should not have expressed themselves quite in accordance with the compassionate taste of our time. Better, I say, is better. Save thyself and thy neighbor before the fire begins to burn, and the smoke to ascend.” Gossner.—D. M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain (Isa 9:5; Psa 50:3; Hab 3:5; Th2 1:8; Pe2…
(Isa 9:5; Psa 50:3; Hab 3:5; Th2 1:8; Pe2 3:7).
chariots . . . whirlwind-- (Jer 4:13).
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render--as the Hebrew elsewhere (Job 9:13; Psa 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.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 15, 16. Will come with fire — The figure…
15, 16. Will come with fire — The figure partakes of imagery from Sinai — a figure always at hand when demonstration of great trial scenes are before us. Isa_34:3.
For by… his sword — As a mighty warrior.
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Plead with all flesh — With all men who are hostile to God and his Zion. The tenor of the words in this passage shows God’s pleading “with all flesh,” that is, representatively with the whole hostile Jewish race, to be not literally in words of reasoning, but in terrific pleadings (so to call it) of “fire” and “sword.” Such fierce judgment came at last to tie Jews as a nation, at which time the slain of the Lord was indeed many. Who will say this prophecy was not terribly fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem?
But prophecy grows in fulfilment, and who will say the events of A.D. 70 were not a type of after terrific fulfilments in the form of trial-crises, wherein fire and sword played their part, involving Gentile and Jewish atrocities alike? As to what befell, in the sphere of prophecy, the mass of Israel, see Romans 9-11.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 15. with fire] in fire. Cf. Deu_5:22 ff.
15. with fire] in fire. Cf. Deu_5:22 ff.
and his chariots shall be like the whirlwind (R.V.)] Cf. Hab_3:8; Psa_68:17. The image is derived from the storm-clouds on which Jehovah rides; ch. Isa_19:1; Psa_18:10; Psa_68:33; Deu_33:26. The phrase is applied in Jer_4:13 to the Chaldæans (or Scythians).
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15, 16. In fire and tempest—the accompaniments of the theophany—Jehovah will appear to take vengeance on His enemies. There is a connexion with the last clause of Isa_66:14; but the passage reads like a continuation of Isa_66:6. Comp. ch. Isa_29:6, Isa_30:27 ff.; Psalms 50, 3.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (15) With his chariots . . .—i.e., the storm-clouds…
(15) With his chariots . . .—i.e., the storm-clouds sweeping on their way, while the lightnings and the winds do their work. (Comp. Psa_18:10; Psa_68:33)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 15-18. THE VENGEANCE WHICH GOD WILL TAKE ON…
Vers. 15-18. THE VENGEANCE WHICH GOD WILL TAKE ON HIS ENEMIES. A signal outpouring of God"s vengeance upon his enemies precedes the settlement of the Church in its final glorious condition, both in Isaiah and in the Revelation of St. John. (see Isa 34 Isa 35 and Revelation 19-21) The wicked have to be removed before the righteous can be established in peace. Here the agencies employed against the wicked are "fire" and "sword fire pointing (as Delitzsch remarks) to destructive occurrences of nature, and the sword to destructive occurrences of history. God himself is represented as guiding and directing both agencies, to the punishment of the ungodly and the relief of those who trust in him.
Behold, the Lord will come with fire. "Fire" is a usual accompaniment of a "theophany." God descended on Sinai "in fire", (Exo_19:18) and led the Israelites through the wilderness by the pillar of the cloud and of fire, (Exo_13:21, Exo_13:22) and filled the tabernacle with a glory as of fire, (Exo_40:34) and "answered David from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering", (1Ch_21:26) and in the same way answered Solomon (2Ch_7:1) and Elijah. (1Ki_18:38) Isaiah almost always describes a theophany as a "coming with fire". (see Isa_10:16-18 Isa_27:4 Isa_29:6 Isa_30:27, 30 33:12, 14, etc.) The agency of fire in the judgment that will overtake the wicked simultaneously with Christ"s second coming, appears in 2Th_1:8 2Pe_3:7-10. With his chariots (comp. Psalm Hab_3:8). "Chariots," in the plural, may be regarded as symbolizing the "hosts" of natural and supernatural forces that God has at his command (Cheyne). Like a whirlwind. The whirring of the wheels of chariots, their noise, the swiftness of their pace, and the destruction that they cause, make this simile most appropriate. To render his anger; or, to expend his anger to vent it.
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Vers. 15-17. The purging of the earth by the destruction of the wicked.
The kingdom of Christ cannot be fully set up in all its blessedness until the earth is prepared for its reception; and the main preparation required is the elimination from it of those wicked persons who, while they remain, must always constitute a disturbing element, inimical to the earth"s peace and a hindrance to the Church"s happiness. The teaching of Scripture is that, before the Church is finally established in the blissful position which it is intended to occupy, the removal of this element will have taken place. Partly by wars and tumults, by their swords being turned against each other, but still more completely by some miraculous outpouring of God"s wrath, typified under the figure of fire, the wicked will be cleared out from all parts of the earth"s surface, and only the godly will remain. The description of the day of vengeance is given, with the greatest fulness, in the Revelation of St. John, (Rev_19:11-21) where, however, it is difficult to determine how much is imagery, how much literal description. "I saw heaven opened," says the beloved apostle, "and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, (comp. Isa_3:14) and in righteousness does he judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. (comp. Isa_63:1-6) And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords. And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him,... these both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
Vers. 15-24. The manifestation of Jehovah.
I IT IS A MANIFESTATION IN FIRE. Very common is the representation of this coming by or in the element of fire. Its associations are of judgment, vengeance devouring fire. (Psa_50:3) So it is associated with the pestilence. (Hab_2:5) It consumes God"s enemies. (Psa_97:3) Nor can we deny that such representations do in part enter into Christianity. (2Th_1:8 Heb_10:27 2Pe_3:7; cf. also Psa_18:8 Isa_29:6 Isa_30:30) The whirlwind is poetically congruent with the fire: a swift and sudden descent is thought of. (Psa_104:3 Jer_4:13) The image of the charioteer is full of warlike energy, (cf. Hab_3:8) and the furious and fiery anger of his advance points to the same conception; and the slain will fall before him in multitudes. Do these figures strike us as inconsistent with the Christian conception of God the "Father of Jesus, God of love"? How are we to reconcile them? If there is a Providence in the violent revolutions of the nations; if "the wrath of man praises him;" if no terrible war but becomes the means of a purification: then these figures may be taken as the poetic representation of a great truth. We can hardly conceive deep-rooted evils giving way except to some violent agency of change.
II THE DENUNCIATION OF IDOLATRY. This is the great evil, in all its forms, which draws down God"s fulminations. Men are seen undergoing purifications preparatory to initiation into heathen mysteries, probably of some licentious god or goddess. Unclean things have been indulged in, contrary to the Law of Moses. We may, perhaps, take the general description of idolatry and of idolaters as pointing to the enemies of God, who are destined to be consumed by his vengeance. These enemies are to be gathered together in some valley, perhaps; (Joe_3:2) and the glory of his judicial splendour will be unveiled to them. The section closes with vague adumbrations of coming judgments.
III VISIONS OF FUTURE WORSHIP. Amid all that is obscure in the imagery, we may discover some great leading thoughts.
1. There is the universal effulgence of Jehovah"s glory, which is to shine among distant lands, and those that have not hitherto heard of his Name. And this is equivalent to the spread of one religion throughout the earth.
2. There is to be unity of worship. Jerusalem and the sacred hill of Zion are to form the great centre. From all quarters, and by different modes of conveyance, the dispersed ones are to come thronging thither. There will be a renewed consecration of the chosen people to its God; they will be like the sacred meal offering.
3. Exclusiveness will be broken down. The strict Levitical system, it seems, will give way; and Gentile converts as well as Jews will be admitted to share in the sacred ministry of the temple. For the Jewish priestly system was only for a time, was provisional; and the people were one day to be, as a whole, "priests of Jehovah". (Isa_61:6)
4. The permanence of true religion. The seed and the name of the people shall stand, even so the new heavens and the new earth. No more of the old order changing and giving place to the new, the successive efforts of men after frivolity in religion being successively defeated; but at last fixity and rest.
5. Simplicity of true religion. "The old forms of religion have been reduced to the utmost; new moons and sabbaths alone remain." For the multitude of times and seasons and of ceremonies is burdensome to flesh and blood, and they tend to obscure the spirituality of true religion. We are reminded of the first chapter, where it is said that" Jehovah cannot away with them.
6. Universality of true religion. We take the language as poetical, symbolic, to be understood in the ideal and inward sense. Where is the true seat of worship? Not on Mount Gerizim, nor even on Mount Zion. (Joh_4:21) The spirit of man is the true temple. And who, in best and most loving moments of worship, does not feel that the heart of humanity beats with one pulse, is stirred by one faith, is secretly gathering around one spiritual centre? Let us cease with this verse, which we are told the Jewish readers repeated to correct the sad impression of the last. J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain render his anger (Day of Jehovah)
Marg
render his anger (Day of Jehovah)
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Isa 2:10-22; Isa 4:1-6; Isa 11:10-13; Isa 13:9-16; Isa 24:21-23; Isa 26:20; Isa 26:21; Isa 63:1-6; Isa 66:15-24; Rev 19:11-21
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Isaiah continues speaking to God's faithful people.
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coming with fire
Yahweh's appearances in the Old Testament are often accompanied by fire that represents Yahweh's anger and judgment. (See: Metaphor)
like the windstorm
Storms represent Yahweh's powerful actions to make his judgment effective. (See: Simile)
with his sword
"Sword" is one weapon that represents all of warfare and killing. (See: Synecdoche)
Those killed by Yahweh will be many
This can be stated in active form. AT: "Yahweh will kill many people" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
Yahweh
fire
chariot
anger
rebuke
judge
sword
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 66:15-16 the Lord is coming with fire: God will…
66:15-16 the Lord is coming with fire: God will appear with furious judgment against his enemies (see Ps 7:13). By contrast, he will reveal his glory to his people (see Isa 40:5, 10). • God will judge all creation as a part of the process of renewing the earth (see 24:1-4; 65:17).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.