Isaiah 65 commentary

The Gentiles came to seek God, and find him, because they were first sought and found of him. Often he meets some thoughtless trifler or profligate opposer, and says to him, Behold me; and a speedy change takes place. All the gospel day, Christ waited to be gracious. The Jews were bidden, but would not come. It is not without cause they are rejected of God. They would do what most pleased them. They grieved, they vexed the Holy Spirit. They forsook God's temple, and sacrificed in groves. They cared not for the distinction between clean and unclean meats, before it was taken away by the gospel. Perhaps this is put for all forbidden pleasures, and all that is thought to be gotten by sin, that abominable thing which the Lord hates. Christ denounced many woes against the pride and hypocrisy of the Jews. The proof against them is plain. And let us watch against pride and self-preference, remembering that every sin, and the most secret thoughts of man's heart, are known and will be judged by God.

In the bunch of unripe grapes, at present of no value, the new wine is contained. The Jews have been kept a distinct people, that all may witness the fulfilment of ancient prophecies and promises. God's chosen, the spiritual seed of praying Jacob, shall inherit his mountains of bliss and joy, and be carried safe to them through the vale of tears. All things are for the display of God's glory in the redemption of sinners.

Here the different states of the godly and wicked, of the Jews who believed, and of those who persisted in unbelief, are set against one another. They prepared a table for that troop of deities which the heathen worship, and poured out drink-offerings to that countless number. Their worshippers spared no cost to honour them, which should shame the worshippers of the true God. See the malignity of sin; it is doing by choice what we know will displease God. In every age and nation, the Lord leaves those who persist in doing evil, and despise the call of the gospel. God's servants shall have the bread of life, and shall want nothing good for them. But those who forsake the Lord, shall be ashamed of vain confidence in their own righteousness, and the hopes they built thereon. Wordly people bless themselves in the abundance of this world's goods; but God's servants bless themselves in him. He is their strength and portion. They shall honour him as the God of truth. And it was promised that in him should all the families of the earth be blessed. They shall think themselves happy in having him for their God, who made them forget their troubles.

In the grace and comfort believers have in and from Christ, we are to look for this new heaven and new earth. The former confusions, sins and miseries of the human race, shall be no more remembered or renewed. The approaching happy state of the church is described under a variety of images. He shall be thought to die in his youth, and for his sins, who only lives to the age of a hundred years. The event alone can determine what is meant; but it is plain that Christianity, if universal, would so do away violence and evil, as greatly to lengthen life. In those happy days, all God's people shall enjoy the fruit of their labours. Nor will children then be the trouble of their parents, or suffer trouble themselves. The evil dispositions of sinners shall be completely moritified; all shall live in harmony. Thus the church on earth shall be full of happiness, like heaven. This prophecy assures the servants of Christ, that the time approaches, wherein they shall be blessed with the undisturbed enjoyment of all that is needful for their happiness. As workers together with God, let us attend his ordinances, and obey his commands.

CHAPTER 65

Is 65:1-25. God's Reply in Justification of His Dealings with Israel.

In Is 64:9, their plea was, "we are all Thy people." In answer, God declares that others (Gentiles) would be taken into covenant with Him, while His ancient people would be rejected. The Jews were slow to believe this; hence Paul says (Ro 10:20) that Isaiah was "very bold" in advancing so unpopular a sentiment; he implies what Paul states (Ro 2:28; 9:6, 7; 11:1-31), that "they are not all (in opposition to the Jews' plea, Is 64:9) Israel which are of Israel." God's reason for so severely dealing with Israel is not changeableness in Him, but sin in them (Is 65:2-7). Yet the whole nation shall not be destroyed, but only the wicked; a remnant shall be saved (Is 65:8-10, 11-16). There shall be, finally, universal blessedness to Israel, such as they had prayed for (Is 65:17-25).

1. I am sought--Hebrew, "I have granted access unto Me to them," &c. (so Eze 14:3, "Should I be inquired of"; Ep 2:18).

found--Ro 10:20 renders this, "I was made manifest." As an instance of the sentiment in the clause, "I am sought," &c., see Joh 12:21; of the sentiment in this clause, Ac 9:5. Compare as to the Gentile converts, Ep 2:12, 13.

Behold me--(Is 45:22).

nation ... not called by my name--that is, the Gentiles. God retorts in their own words (Is 63:19) that their plea as being exclusively "called by His name" will not avail, for God's gospel invitation is not so exclusive (Ro 9:25; 1:16).

2. spread out ... hands--inviting them earnestly (Pr 1:24).

all ... day--continually, late and early (Jr 7:13).

rebellious people--Israel, whose rebellion was the occasion of God's turning to the Gentiles (Ro 11:11, 12, 15).

way ... not good--that is, the very reverse of good, very bad (Eze 36:31).

3. continually--answering to "all the day" (Is 65:2). God was continually inviting them, and they continually offending Him (De 32:21).

to my face--They made no attempt to hide their sin (Is 3:9). Compare "before Me" (Ex 20:3).

in gardens--(See on Is 1:29; Is 66:17; Le 17:5).

altars of brick--Hebrew, "bricks." God had commanded His altars to be of unhewn stone (Ex 20:25). This was in order to separate them, even in external respects, from idolaters; also, as all chiselling was forbidden, they could not inscribe superstitious symbols on them as the heathen did. Bricks were more easily so inscribed than stone; hence their use for the cuneiform inscriptions at Babylon, and also for idolatrous altars. Some, not so well, have supposed that the "bricks" here mean the flat brick-paved roofs of houses on which they sacrificed to the sun, &c. (2Ki 23:12; Jr 19:13).

4. remain among ... graves--namely, for purposes of necromancy, as if to hold converse with the dead (Is 8:19, 20; compare Mr 5:3); or, for the sake of purifications, usually performed at night among sepulchres, to appease the manes [Maurer].

monuments--Hebrew, "pass the night in hidden recesses," either the idol's inmost shrines ("consecrated precincts") [Horsley], where they used to sleep, in order to have divine communications in dreams [Jerome]; or better, on account of the parallel "graves," sepulchral caves [Maurer].

eat swine's flesh--To eat it at all was contrary to God's law (Le 11:7), but it much increased their guilt that they ate it in idolatrous sacrifices (compare Is 66:17). Varro (On Agriculture, 2.4) says that swine were first used in sacrifices; the Latins sacrificed a pig to Ceres; it was also offered on occasion of treaties and marriages.

broth--so called from the "pieces" (Margin) or fragments of bread over which the broth was poured [Gesenius]; such broth, made of swine's flesh, offered in sacrifice, was thought to be especially acceptable to the idol and was used in magic rites. Or, "fragments (pieces) of abominable foods," &c. This fourth clause explains more fully the third, as the second does the first [Maurer].

is in--rather, literally, "is their vessels," that is, constitute their vessels' contents. The Jews, in our Lord's days, and ever since the return from Babylon, have been free from idolatry; still the imagery from idolatrous abominations, as being the sin most loathsome in God's eyes and that most prevalent in Isaiah's time, is employed to describe the foul sin of Israel in all ages, culminating in their killing Messiah, and still rejecting Him.

5. (Mt 9:11; Lu 5:30; 18:11; Jude 19). Applicable to the hypocritical self-justifiers of our Lord's time.

smoke--alluding to the smoke of their self-righteous sacrifices; the fire of God's wrath was kindled at the sight, and exhibited itself in the smoke that breathed forth from His nostrils; in Hebrew the nose is the seat of anger; and the nostrils distended in wrath, as it were, breathe forth smoke [Rosenmuller] (Psa 18:8).

6. written before me--"it is decreed by Me," namely, what follows (Job 13:26), [Maurer]; or, their guilt is recorded before Me (compare Da 7:10; Re 20:12; Mal 3:16).

into ... bosom--(Psa 79:12; Jr 32:18; Lu 6:38). The Orientals used the loose fold of the garment falling on "the bosom" or lap, as a receptacle for carrying things. The sense thus is: I will repay their sin so abundantly that the hand will not be able to receive it; it will need the spacious fold on the bosom to contain it [Rosenmuller]. Rather it is, "I will repay it to the very person from whom it has emanated." Compare "God did render the evil of the men of Shechem upon their heads" (Jud 9:57; Psa 7:16) [Gesenius].

7. Their sin had been accumulating from age to age until God at last repaid it in full.

mountains--(Is 57:7; Eze 18:6; 20:27, 28; Ho 4:13).

their--"Your" had preceded. From speaking to, He speaks of them; this implies growing alienation from them and greater distance.

work--the full recompense of their work (so Is 49:4).

8. new wine--as if some grapes having good wine-producing juice in them, be found in a cluster which the vinedresser was about to throw away as bad, and one saith, &c.

blessing--that is, good wine-producing juice (compare Jud 9:13; Joe 2:14).

so--God will spare the godly "remnant," while the ungodly mass of the nation shall be destroyed (Is 1:9; 6:13; 10:21; 11:11, 12-16).

my servants--the godly remnant. But Horsley, "for the sake of my servant, Messiah."

9. seed--"the holy seed" (Is 6:13), a posterity from Jacob, designed to repossess the Holy Land, forfeited by the sin of the former Jews.

my mountains--Jerusalem and the rest of Judea, peculiarly God's (compare Is 2:2; 11:9; 14:32).

it--the Holy Land.

elect--(Is 65:15, 22).

10. Sharon--(See on Is 33:9; Is 35:2).

Achor--meaning "trouble"; a valley near Jericho, so called from the trouble caused to Israel by Achan's sin (Jos 7:24). "The valley of Achor," proverbial for whatever caused calamity, shall become proverbial for joy and prosperity (Ho 2:15).

11. holy mountain--Moriah, on which the temple was.

troop--rather "Gad," the Babylonian god of fortune, the planet Jupiter, answering to Baal or Bel; the Arabs called it "the Greater Good Fortune"; and the planet Venus answering to Meni, "the Lesser Good Fortune" [Gesenius, Kimchi, &c.]. Tables were laid out for their idols with all kinds of viands, and a cup containing a mixture of wine and honey, in Egypt especially, on the last day of the year [Jerome].

drink offering--rather, "mixed drink."

number--rather, "Meni"; as goddess of fortune she was thought to number the fates of men. Vitringa understands Gad to be the sun; Meni the moon, or Ashtaroth or Astarte (1Ki 11:33).

12. number--"doom" you. Alluding to the "number," as Meni (Is 65:11) means. Retribution in kind, the punishment answering to the sin (compare 2Ch 36:14-17).

I called, ye ... not answer--"I called," though "none had called" upon Me (Is 64:7); yet even then none "answered" (Pr 1:24). Contrast with this God and His people's mutual fellowship in prayer (Is 65:24).

13. eat--enjoy all blessings from me (So 5:1).

hungry--(Am 4:6; 8:11). This may refer to the siege of Jerusalem under Titus, when 1,100,000 are said to have perished by famine; thus Is 65:15 will refer to God's people without distinction of Jew and Gentile receiving "another name," namely, that of Christians [Houbigant]. A further fulfilment may still remain, just before the creation of the "new heavens and earth," as the context, Is 65:17, implies.

14. howl--(Is 15:2; Mt 8:12).

15. curse--The name of "Jew" has been for long a formula of execration (compare Jr 29:22); if one wishes to curse another, he can utter nothing worse than this, "God make thee what the Jew is!" Contrast the formula (Ge 48:20) [Maurer].

my chosen--the elect Church, gathered from Jews and Gentiles, called by "another name," Christians (Ac 11:26). However (see on Is 65:13), as "My chosen," or "elect," in Is 65:9, refers to the "seed of Jacob," the believing Jews, hereafter about to possess their land (Is 65:19, 22), are ultimately meant by "My chosen," as contrasted with the unbelieving Jews ("ye"). These elect Jews shall be called by "another," or a new name, that is, shall no longer be "forsaken" of God for unbelief, but shall be His "delight" and "married" to Him (Is 62:2, 4).

thee--unbelieving Israel. Isaiah here speaks of God, whereas in the preceding sentences God Himself spake. This change of persons marks without design how completely the prophet realized God with him and in him, so that he passes, without formally announcing it, from God's words to his own, and vice versa, both alike being from God.

16. That he--rather, "he who," &c.

blesseth, &c.--(Psa 72:17; Jr 4:2).

God of truth--very God, as opposed to false gods; Hebrew, Amen: the very name of Messiah (2Co 1:20; Re 3:14), faithful to His promises (Joh 1:17; 6:32). Real, substantial, spiritual, eternal, as opposed to the shadowy types of the law.

sweareth, &c.--God alone shall be appealed to as God (Is 19:18; De 6:13; Psa 63:11).

troubles--that is, sins, provocations [Lowth]. Rather, calamities caused by your sins; so far from these visiting you again, the very remembrance of them is "hid from Mine eyes" by the magnitude of the blessings I will confer on you (Is 65:17, &c.). [Maurer].

17. As Caleb inherited the same land which his feet trod on (De 1:36; Jos 14:9), so Messiah and His saints shall inherit the renovated earth which once they trod while defiled by the enemy (Is 34:4; 51:16; 66:22; Eze 21:27; Psa 2:8; 37:11; 2Pe 3:13; He 12:26-28 Re 21:1).

not be remembered--See on Is 65:16, note on "troubles"; the words here answer to "the former ... forgotten," &c. The former sorrows of the earth, under the fall, shall be so far from recurring, that their very remembrance shall be obliterated by the many mercies I will bestow on the new earth (Re 21:4-27).

18. rejoice for ever ... Jerusalem--(Is 51:11). "Everlasting joy ... Zion." Spiritually (1Th 5:16).

19. (Is 62:5).

weeping ... no more--(Is 25:7, 8; 35:10; Re 7:17; 21:4), primarily, foretold of Jerusalem; secondarily, of all the redeemed.

20. The longevity of men in the first age of the world shall be enjoyed again.

thence--from that time forward.

infant of days--that is, an infant who shall only complete a few days; short-lived.

filled ... days--None shall die without attaining a full old age.

child ... die ... hundred years--that is, "he that dieth an hundred years old shall die a mere child" [Lowth].

sinner ... hundred ... be accursed--"The sinner that dieth at an hundred years shall be deemed accursed," that is, his death at so early an age, which in those days the hundredth year will be regarded, just as if it were mere childhood, shall be deemed the effect of God's special visitation in wrath [Rosenmuller]. This passage proves that the better age to come on earth, though much superior to the present will not be a perfect state; sin and death shall have place in it (compare Re 20:7, 8), but much less frequently than now.

21. (See on Is 62:8; Am 9:14).

22. They shall not experience the curse pronounced (Le 26:16; De 28:30).

tree--among the most long-lived of objects in nature. They shall live as long as the trees they "plant" (compare Is 61:3, end of verse; Psa 92:12).

enjoy--Hebrew, "consume," "wear out"; they shall live to enjoy the last of it (Is 62:9).

23. bring forth for trouble--literally, "for terror," that is, "They shall not bring forth children for a sudden death" (Le 26:16; Jr 15:8).

seed ... blessed--(Is 61:9).

offspring with them--(Ho 9:12). "Their offspring shall be with themselves" [Maurer]; not "brought forth" only to be cut off by "sudden death" (see the parallel clause).

24. Contrast Is 64:7, "none ... calleth," &c.; and see on Is 65:12, "I called, ye did not answer." Maurer translates, "They shall hardly (literally, "not yet") call, when (literally, "and") I will answer; they shall be still speaking, when I will hear" (Psa 32:5; Da 9:20, 21).

25. (See on Is 11:6).

and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock--(See on Is 11:7).

and dust--rather, "but dust," &c. The curse shall remain on the serpent [Horsley], (Ge 3:14; Mi 7:17). "To lick the dust" is figurative of the utter and perpetual degradation of Satan and his emissaries (Is 49:23; Psa 72:9). Satan fell self-tempted; therefore no atonement was contrived for him, as there was for man, who fell by his temptation (Jude 6; Joh 8:44). From his peculiar connection with the earth and man, it has been conjectured that the exciting cause of his rebellion was God's declaration that human nature was to be raised into union with the Godhead; this was "the truth" concerning the person of the Son of God which "he abode not in"; it galled his pride that a lower race was to be raised to that which he had aspired to (1Ti 3:6). How exultingly he might say, when man fell through him, "God would raise manhood into union with Himself; I have brought it down below the beasts by sin!" At that very moment and spot he was told that the seed of the abhorred race, man, should bruise his head (1Jo 3:8). He was raised up for this, to show forth God's glory (Ex 9:16; Ro 9:17). In his unfallen state he may have been God's vicegerent over the earth and the animal kingdom before man: this will account for his assuming the form of a serpent (Ge 3:1). Man succeeded to that office (Ge 2:19, 20), but forfeited it by sin, whence Satan became "prince of this world"; Jesus Christ supplants the usurper, and as "Son of man" regains the lost inheritance (Psa 8:4-8). The steps in Satan's overthrow are these: he is cast out, first, from heaven (Re 12:7-9) on earth; next, he is bound a thousand years (Re 20:2, 3); finally, he is cast into the lake of fire for ever (Re 20:10).

the serpent's meat--(See on Is 11:8).

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain--(See on Is 11:9).

I am sought of them that asked not for me "I am made known to those that asked not for me" - נדרשתי nidrashti, εμφανης εγενομην, the Septuagint, Alexandrian, and St. Paul, Rom 10:20; who has however inverted the order of the phrases, εμφανης εγενομην, "I was made manifest, "and ευρεδην, "I was found, "from that which they have in the Septuagint. נדרשתי nidrashti means, "I am sought so as to be found." Vitringa. If this be the true meaning of the word, then שאלו shaalu, "that asked," which follows, should seem defective, the verb wanting its object: but two MSS., one of them ancient, have שאלוני shealuni, "asked me;" and another MS. שאלו לי shealu li, "asked for me;" one or other of which seems to be right. But Cocceius in Lex., and Vitringa in his translation, render נדרשתי nidrashti, by "I have answered;" and so the verb is rendered by all the ancient Versions in Eze 20:3, Eze 20:31. If this be right, the translation will be, "I have answered those that asked not." I leave this to the reader's judgment; but have followed in my translation the Septuagint and St. Paul, and the MSS. above mentioned. בקשני bikeshuni is written regularly and fully in above a hundred MSS. and in the oldest edition, בקשוני bikeshuni. - L.

That sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick "Sacrificing in the gardens, and burning incense on the tiles" - These are instances of heathenish superstition, and idolatrous practices, to which the Jews were immoderately addicted before the Babylonish captivity. The heathen worshipped their idols in groves; whereas God, in opposition to this species of idolatry, commanded his people, when they should come into the promised land, to destroy all the places wherein the Canaanites had served their gods, and in particular to burn their groves with fire, Deu 12:2, Deu 12:3. These apostate Jews sacrificed upon altars built of bricks; in opposition to the command of God in regard to his altar, which was to be of unhewn stone, Exo 20:26. Et pro uno altari, quod impolitis lapidibus Dei erat lege constructum, coctos lateres et agrorum cespites hostiarum sanguine cruentabant. "And instead of one altar which, according to the law of God, was, to be constructed of unhewn stones, they stained the bricks and turfs of the fields with the blood of their victims." Hieron. in loc. Or it means, perhaps, that they sacrificed upon the roofs of their houses, which were always flat, and paved with brick, or tile, or plaster of terrace. An instance of this idolatrous practice we find in 2Kgs 23:12, where it is said that Josiah "beat down the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made." See also Zep 1:5. Sir John Chardin's MS. note on this place of Isaiah is as follows: "Ainsi font tous les Gentiles, sur les lieux eleves, et sur les terrasses, appellez latcres, pareeque sont faits de briq." "Who dwell in the sepulchres, and lodge in the caverns," for the purposes of necromancy and divination; to obtain dreams and revelations. Another instance of heathenish superstition: so Virgil: -

Huc dona sacerdos

Cum tulit, et caesarum ovium sub nocte silenti

Pellibus incubuit stratis, somnosque petivit:

Multa modis simulacra videt volitantia miris,

Et varias audit voces, fruiturque deorum

Colloquio, atque imis Acheronta affatur Avernis.

Aen. 7:86. - L. "Here in distress the Italian nations come,

Anxious, to clear their doubts, and learn their doom.

First, on the fleeces of the slaughtered sheep,

By night the sacred priest dissolves in sleep:

When in a train, before his slumbering eye,

Thin airy forms and wondrous visions fly.

He calls the powers who guard the infernal floods,

And talks inspired, familiar with the gods."

Pitt.

There was a practice exactly like this which prevailed among the Highlanders of Scotland; an authentic account of this is given by Sir Walter Scott, in a note on his poem called The Lady of the Lake. It is as follows: - "The Highlanders, like all rude people, had various superstitious modes of inquiring into futurity. One of the most noted was the Taghairm, mentioned in the text. A person was wrapped up in the skin of a newly-slain bullock, and deposited beside a waterfall, or at the bottom of a precipice, or in some other strange, wild, and unusual situation, where the scenery around him suggested nothing but objects of horror. In this situation he revolved in his mind the question proposed; and whatever was impressed upon him by his exalted imagination passed for the inspiration of the disembodied spirits who haunt these desolate recesses. In some of the Hebrides, they attributed the same oracular power to a large black stone by the sea-shore, which they approached with certain solemnities; and considered the first fancy which came into their own minds after they did so, to be the undoubted dictate of the tutelar deity of the stone; and as such to be, if possible, punctually complied with. Martin has recorded the following curious modes of Highland augury, in which the Taghairm, and its effects upon the person who was subjected to it, may serve to illustrate the text. "It was an ordinary thing among the over-curious to consult an invisible oracle concerning the fate of families and battles, etc. This was performed three different ways; the first was by a company of men, one of whom, being detached by lot, was afterwards carried to a river, which was the boundary between two villages. Four of the company laid hold on him; and, having shut his eyes, they took him by the legs and arms, and then, tossing him to and again, struck his hips with force against the bank. One of them cried out, What is it you have got here? Another answers, A log of birch-wood. The other cries again, Let his invisible friends appear from all quarters, and let them relieve him by giving an answer to our present demands; and in a few minutes after, a number of little creatures came from the sea, who answered the question, and disappeared suddenly. The man was then set at liberty; and they all returned home, to take their measures according to the prediction of their false prophets; but the poor deluded fools were abused, for the answer was still ambiguous. This was always practiced in the night, and may literally be called the works of darkness. "I had an account from the most intelligent and judicious men in the Isle of Skie, that, about sixty-two years ago, the oracle was thus consulted only once, and that was in the parish of Kilmartin, on the east side, by a wicked and mischievous race of people, who are now extinguished, both root and branch. "The second way of consulting the oracle was by a party of men, who first retired to solitary places, remote from any house; and there they singled out one of their number, and wrapt him in a big cow's hide, which they folded about him. His whole body was covered with it, except his head, and so left in this posture all night, until his invisible friends relieved him, by giving a proper answer to the question in hand; which he received, as he fancied, from several persons that he found about him all that time. His consorts returned to him at the break of day, and then he communicated his news to them; which often proved fatal to those concerned in such unwarrantable inquiries. "There was a third way of consulting, which was a confirmation of the second above mentioned. The same company who put the man into the hide took a live cat, and put him on a spit. One of the number was employed to turn the spit, and one of his consorts inquired of him, What are you doing? He answered, I roast this cat until his friends answer the question; which must be the same that was proposed by the man shut up in the hide. And afterwards, a very big cat (in allusion to the story of 'the King of the Cats,' in Lord Lyttleton's Letters, and well known in the Highlands as a nursery tale) comes, attended by a number of lesser cats, desiring to relieve the cat turned upon the spit, and then answers the question. If this answer proved the same that was given to the man in the hide, then it was taken as a confirmation of the other, which, in this case, was believed infallible. "Mr. Alexander Cooper, present minister of North-Vist, told me that one John Erach, in the Isle of Lewis, assured him it was his fate to have been led by his curiosity with some who consulted this oracle, and that he was a night within the hide, as above-mentioned; during which time he felt and heard such terrible things, that he could not express them. The impression it made on him was such as could never go off; and he said for a thousand worlds he would never again be concerned in the like performance, for this had disordered him to a high degree. He confessed it ingenuously, and with an air of great remorse; and seemed to be very penitent under a just sense of so great a crime. He declared this about five years since, and is still living in the Lewis for any thing I know." - Description of the Western Isles p. 110. See also Pennant's Scottish Tour, vol. 2 p. 361.

Which remain among the graves - "For the purpose of evoking the dead. They lodged in desert places that demons might appear to them; for demons do appear in such places, to those who do believe in them." - Kimchi.

In the monuments "In the caverns" - בנצורים bannetsurim, a word of doubtful signification. An ancient MS. has בצורים batstsurim, another בצרים batstsurim, "in the rocks;" and Le Clec thinks the Septuagint had it so in their copy. They render it by εν τοις στηλαιοις, "in the caves."

Which eat swine's flesh - This was expressly forbidden by the law, Lev 11:7, but among the heathen was in principal request in their sacrifices and feasts. Antiochus Epiphanes compelled the Jews to eat swine's flesh, as a full proof of their renouncing their religion, 2 Maccabees 6:18 and 7:1. "And the broth of abominable meats," for lustrations, magical arts, and other superstitious and abominable practices.

In their vessels - For כליהם keleyhem, a MS. had at first בכליהם bichleyhem. So the Vulgate and Chaldee, (and the preposition seems necessary to the sense), "in their vessels."

For I am holier than thou - So the Chaldee renders it. קדשתיך kedashticha is the same with קדשתי ממך kadashti mimmecha. In the same manner חזקתני chazaktani, Jer 20:7, is used for חזקת ממני chazacta mimmenni, "thou art stronger than I." - L.

Behold, it is written before me - Their sin is registered in heaven, calling aloud for the punishment due to it.

I will - recompense into their bosom - The bosom is the place where the Asiatics have their pockets, and not in their skirts like the inhabitants of the west. Their loose flowing garments have scarcely any thing analogous to skirts.

Into their bosom - For על al, ten MSS. and five editions have אל el. So again at the end of this verse, seventeen MSS. and four editions have אל al. - L.

Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers "Their iniquities, and the iniquities of their fathers" - For the pronoun affixed of the second person חם chem, your, twice, read הם hem, their, in the third person; with the Septuagint and Houbigant. - L.

A blessing is in it - The Hebrews call all things which serve for food ברכה berachah, "a blessing." On this verse Kimchi remarks: "As the cluster of grapes contains, besides the juice, the bark, and the kernels, so the Israelites have, besides the just, sinners among them. Now as the cluster must not be destroyed because there is a blessing, a nutritive part in it; so Israel shall not be destroyed, because there are righteous persons in it. But as the bark and kernels are thrown away, when the wine is pressed out, so shall the sinners be purged away from among the just, and on their return from exile, shall not be permitted to enter into the land of Israel;" Eze 20:38.

For my servant's sakes "For the sake of my servant" - It is to be observed that one of the Koningsburg MSS. collated by Lilienthal points the word עבדי abdi, singular; that is, "my servant," meaning the Messiah; and so read the Septuagint, which gives a very good sense. In two of my old MSS. it is pointed עבדי abadai, and עבדי abdi, "my servant, "this confirms the above reading.

An inheritor of my mountains "An inheritor of my mountain" - הרי hari, in the singular number; so the Septuagint and Syriac; that is, of Mount Sion. See Isa 65:11 and Isa 56:7, to which Sion, the pronoun feminine singular, added to the verb in the next line, refers; ירשוה yereshuah, "shall inherit her." - L.

Sharon - and the valley of Achor - Two of the most fertile parts of Judea; famous for their rich pastures; the former to the west, not far from Joppa; the latter north of Jericho, near Gilgal.

That prepare a table for that troop "Who set in order a table for Gad" - The disquisitions and conjectures of the learned concerning Gad and Meni are infinite and uncertain: perhaps the most probable may be, that Gad means good fortune, and Meni the moon. "But why should we be solicitous about it?" says Schmidius. "It appears sufficiently, from the circumstances, that they were false gods; either stars, or some natural objects; or a mere fiction. The Holy Scriptures did not deign to explain more clearly what these objects of idolatrous worship were; but chose rather, that the memory of the knowledge of them should be utterly abolished. And God be praised, that they are so totally abolished, that we are now quite at a loss to know what and what sort of things they were." Schmidius on the place, and on Jdg 2:13, Bibl. Hallensia.

Jerome, on the place, gives an account of this idolatrous practice of the apostate Jews, of making a feast, or a lectisternium, as the Romans called it, for these pretended deities. Est in cunctis urbibus, et maxime in Aegypto, et in Alexandria, idololatriae vetus consuetudo, ut ultimo die anni, et mensis ejus qui extremus est, ponant mensam refertam varii generis epulis, et poculum mulso mixtum; vel praeteriti anni vel futuri fertilitatem auspicantes. Hoc autem faciebant et Israelitae, omnium simulachrorum portenta venerantes; et nequaquam altari victimas, sed hujusmodi mensae liba fundebant. "In all cities, and especially in Egypt and Alexandria, it was an ancient idolatrous custom on the last day of the year, to spread a table covered with various kinds of viands, and a goblet mixed with new wine, referring to the fertility either of the past or coming year. The Israelites did the same, worshipping all kinds of images, and pouring out libations on such tables," etc. See also Le Clerc on the place; and on Isa 66:17, and Dav. Millii Dissert. v.

The allusion to Meni, which signifies number, is obvious. If there had been the like allusion to Gad, which might have been expected, it might perhaps have helped to let us into the meaning of that word. It appears from Jerome's version of this place, that the words τῳ δαιμονιω, to a demon, (or δαιμονι, as some copies have it), and τῃ τυχῃ, to fortune, stood in his time in the Greek version in an inverted order from that which they have in the present copies; the latter then answering to גד gad, the former to מני meni: by which some difficulty would be avoided; for it is commonly supposed that גד gad signifies τυχη, Fortune. See Gen 30:11, apud Sept. This matter is so far well cleared up by MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. II., which agree in placing these two words in that order, which Jerome's version supposes. - L.

My Old MS. Bible translates: That putten the borde of fortune; and offreden licours upon it; and so the Vulgate. Ἑτοιμαζοντες τῳ δαιμονιῳ τραπεζαν, και πληρουντες τῃ τυχῃ κερασμα. Preparing a table for the demon, and filling up, or pouring out, a libation to fortune."

Septuagint.

Ye have set up an aulter unto fortune

And geven rich drink offeringes unto treasure.

Coverdale.

Therefore will I number you - Referring to Meni, which signifies number "Rabbi Eliezar said to his disciples, Turn to God one day before you die. His disciples said, How call a man know the day of his death? He answered, Therefore it is necessary that you should turn to God to-day, for possibly ye may die to-morrow."

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

This parable is very like that of the wise and foolish virgins, Matthew 25, and that of the marriage of the king's son, Matthew 22.

Shall slay thee "Shall slay you" - For והמיתך vehemithecha, shall slay thee, the Septuagint and Chaldee read והמיתכם vehemithechem, shall slay you, plural.

I create new heavens and a new earth - This has been variously understood. Some Jews and some Christians understand it literally. God shall change the state of the atmosphere, and render the earth more fruitful. Some refer it to what they call the Millennium; others, to a glorious state of religion; others, to the re-creation of the earth after it shall have been destroyed by fire. I think it refers to the full conversion of the Jews ultimately; and primarily to the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity.

Rejoice for ever in that which I create "Exult in the age to come which I create" - So in Isa 9:5 אבי עד abi ad, πατηρ του μελλοντος αιωνος, "the father of the age to come," Sept. See Bishop Chandler, Defence of Christianity, p. 136.

The voice of weeping, etc. - "Because of untimely deaths shall no more be heard in thee; for natural death shall not happen till men be full of days; as it is written, Isa 65:20 : There shall be no more thence an infant of days, i.e., the people shall live to three or five hundred years of age, as in the days of the patriarchs; and if one die at one hundred years, it is because of his sin; and even at that age he shall be reputed an infant; and they shall say of him, An infant is dead. These things shall happen to Israel in the days of the Messiah." - Kimchi.

Thence "There" - For משם mishsham, thence, the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read שם sham, there.

They shall not build, and another inhabit - The reverse of the curse denounced on the disobedient, Deu 28:30 : "Thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell therein; thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof."

For as the days of a tree - It is commonly supposed that the oak, one of the most longlived of the trees, lasts about a thousand years; being five hundred years growing to full perfection, and as many decaying: which seems to be a moderate and probable computation. See Evelyn, Sylva, B. 3 chap. 3. The present emperor of China, in his very ingenious and sensible poem entitled Eloge de Moukden, a translation of which in French was published at Paris, 1770, speaks of a tree in his country which lives more than a hundred ages: and another, which after fourscore ages is only in its prime, pp. 37, 38. But his imperial majesty's commentators, in their note on the place, carry the matter much farther; and quote authority, which affirms, that the tree last mentioned by the emperor, the immortal tree, after having lived ten thousand years, is still only in its prime. I suspect that the Chinese enlarge somewhat in their national chronology, as well as in that of their trees. See Chou King. Preface, by Mons. de Guignes. The prophet's idea seems to be, that they shall live to the age of the antediluvians; which seems to be very justly expressed by the days of a tree, according to our notions. The rabbins have said that this refers to the tree of life, which endures five hundred years. - L.

They shall not labor in vain "My chosen shall not labor in vain" - I remove בחירי bechirai, my elect, from the end of the twenty-second to the beginning of the twenty-third verse, on the authority of the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, and a MS.; contrary to the division in the Masoretic text. - L. The Septuagint is beautiful: My chosen shall not labor in vain, neither shall they beget children for the curse; for the seed is blessed of the Lord, and their posterity with them."

Nor bring forth for trouble "Neither shall they generate a short-lived race" - לבהלה labbehalah, in festinationem, "what shall soon hasten away." Εις καταραν for a curse, Sept. They seem to have read לאלה lealah. - Grotius. But Psa 78:33 both justifies and explains the word here: - ימיהם בהבל ויכל yemeyhem bahebel vayechal בבהלה ושנותם babbehalah ushenotham "And he consumed their days in vanity;

And their years in haste." μετα σπουδης, say the Septuagint. Jerome on this place of Isaiah explains it to the same purpose: "εις ανυπαρξιαν, hoc est, ut esse desistant."

Before they call, I will answer - I will give them all they crave for, and more than they can desire.

The wolf and the lamb, etc. - The glorious salvation which Jesus Christ procures is for men, and for men only: fallen spirits must still abide under the curse: "He took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham."

Shall feed together - For כאחד keechad, as one, an ancient MS. has יחדו yachdav, together; the usual word, to the same sense, but very different in the letters. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate seem to agree with the MSS. - L.

I am, &c. - This in the primary sense of this text, is a prophecy of the conversion of the Gentiles, upon the rejection of the Jews; for their contempt and crucifying of Christ, cannot be doubted by any, who will not arrogate to themselves a greater ability to interpret the prophesies of the Old Testament, than St. Paul had, who, Rom 10:20, expressly so interprets it, and applies it, which shews the vanity of the Jews in their other interpretations of it. Sought - The word signifies properly a diligent enquiry in things relating to God. Asked not - That in times past made no enquiry after me; l am now found by them that formerly sought me not. I said - I invited whole nations by the preaching of my gospel to behold me, and that with importunity, doubling my words upon them, and this I did unto a nation not called by my name, with whom I was not in covenant.

I have spread - Applied to the Jews, Rom 10:21. I have stretched out my hands, I have used all means to reduce them, I have stretched out the hands of a passionate orator to persuade them, of a liberal benefactor to load them with my benefits; this I have done continually in the whole course of my providence with them.

To my face - With the utmost impudence, not taking notice of God's omnipresence, and omniscience. In gardens, &c. - Directly contrary to the divine rule.

Remain - They remained among the graves, there consulting with devils, who were thought to delight in such places; or to practice necromancy, all which were forbidden, Deut 18:11 Isa 8:19. Monuments - Some interpret it of idol temples, some of caves and dens, in which the Heathens used to worship their idols. Broth of abominable things - Of such flesh as was to the Jews unclean by the law.

Holier - Thus they esteemed themselves holier than others, though all their holiness lay in rituals, and those too, such as God never commanded. Of these God saith, These are a smoak in my nostrils, a fire that burneth all the day; that is, a continual provocation to me: as smoak is an offence to our noses.

Behold - They may think I take no notice of these things; but I will as certainly remember them, as princes or great men that record things in writing which they would not forget.

Together - Yea, and when I reckon with them, I will punish them, not only for their personal sins, but for the sins of their parents, which they have made their own, by imitation. Their former - I will not only punish the late sins that they have committed, but the former sins of this kind, which those that went before did commit, and they have continued in.

Thus, &c. - These word's may be conceived as a gracious answer from God to the prophet, pleading God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. To this God replies, that he intended no such severity. His threatening should be made good upon the generality of this people. Blessing - But yet, as in a vineyard, which is generally unfruitful, there may be some vine that brings forth fruit, and has the hopes of new wine in the cluster, and as to such, the gardener bids his servant destroy it not, for there is in them what speaks God's blessing. So - So (saith God) will I do for my servants sake, that I may not destroy them all, for the sake of my servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Judah - God farther promises to bring out of Judah, an inheritor of his mountains which refers to the Jews return out of the captivity of Babylon to Jerusalem, to worship God in his temple, upon mount Zion. Mine elect - My chosen ones. The term signifies such as are dignified with some special favour. The whole nation of the Jews are called a chosen people.

A fold - Sharon was a place of great fruitfulness for pastures. It was become like a wilderness, God here promises that it should again be a place for the flocks.

Forget - To forget God's holy mountains, signifies not to regard the true worship of God. God calls Zion his holy mountain. That troop - The idols of the ten tribes, and of the Assyrians, were a troop, where as the God of Israel was one God. By preparing a table, here seems to be meant, the feasts they made upon their sacrifices in imitation of what the true God had commanded his people. Furnish - God had appointed drink offerings for his honour, but the people had paid their homage to idols. Number - The multitude of their idols.

To the sword - A great number of you shall perish by the sword; or possibly the term number may refer to all in the next phrase, so that none of them should escape. God saith he will number them, tell them out one by one to the sword. Bow down - As you have bowed down to idols. I called - By my prophets, you did not answer by doing the things which I enjoined. Chuse - You sinned deliberately chusing sinful courses, the things which I hated.

A curse - They shall use your names as examples, of the eminent wrath of God upon sinners. Another name - He will not suffer his own people to be called by a name by which idolaters are known.

God of truth - Because they shall see what God promised is fulfilled. Are hid - That is, they are at an end.

I create - I am about wholly to change the state not only of my people, but to bring a new face upon the world, which shall abide until a new heavens and earth appear, in which shall dwell nothing but righteousness. Not be remembered - That state of things shall be so glorious, that the former state of my people shall not be remembered.

You - The church, as well under the gospel, as under the law.

An infant - Those that were now children, shall die at a great age. But - Yet none of these things shall be of any advantage to wicked men, but if any of them shall live to be an hundred years old, yet they shall die accursed.

With them - Is blessed with them.

Before they call - God promised, chap.58:9, to answer them, when they called: here he promises to answer the words, as soon as they should be formed in their hearts before they could get them out of their lips. While - Yea, while they were speaking.

The wolf, &c. - God here promises to take off the fierceness of the spirits of his peoples enemies, so that they shall live quietly and peaceably together. And dust - God promises a time of tranquility to his church under the metaphor of serpents eating the dust, their proper meat, Gen 3:14, instead of flying upon men: it signifies such a time, when wicked men shall no more eat up the people of God.

1 I am sought of them that asked not for me : I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.

The word signifies properly a diligent enquiry in things relating to God, 2 Chr. 14. 4. Psal. 34. 4. Ier 37. 7. I am diligently enquired of by them.

That in times before made no enquiry after me; (as the Gentiles, and not being without God in the world, Eph. 2. 12.) as seeking may more strictly relate to Prayer, as the word is used, Isa. 55. 6. so this word translated asked, may also be so taken, and is so 1. Sam 1. 20. 1 Sam. 22. 13. but (possibly) it is better interpreted more generally.

Yea, I was found of them before they sought me, those who formerly did not seek me, now seek me, but they were found of me before they sought me, I prevented them by my Grace, sending my Son to preach p[illegible: 1+ letters]ace to those that were afar off, Eph. 2. 17. and my Apostles to intreat them to be reconciled to God, 2 Cor. 5. 20. and my Spirit to convince the wo[illegible: 1+ letters]ld of Sin, Righteousness, and Iudgment, Joh. 16. 8.

I invited whole Nations by the preaching of my Gospel to behold me, and I invited them with importunity, doubling my words upon them, and this I did unto a Nation not call'd by my name, with whom I was not in Covenant, and which did not profess any relation to me, which none of the Gentiles could pretend unto. The Prophet speaks of a thing to come many years after, as if it were a thing then done, to signifie the certainty of it. God doth the same thing yet in every soul that is converted. But the Text is manifestly to be interpreted of the conversion of the Gentiles.

That in the primary sense of this Text, is a Prophecy of the Convers[illegible: 1+ letters]on of the Gentiles, upon the rejection of the Jews, for their [illegible: 1 word] and crucifying of [illegible: 1 word], cannot be [illegible: 1 word] by any, who will not arrogat[illegible: 1+ letters] to themselves a greater ability to interpr[illegible: 1+ letters] the Prophesies of the old [illegible: 1 word], than Paul had, who, Rom. 10. 20. expresly so interpreteth it, and appl[illegible: 1+ letters]th it, which sheweth the vanity of the Jews in their other interpretations of it.

Marginal references: Rom. [illegible: 1+ letters]. 24▪ 25, 26. & 10. 20. Eph. 2. 12, 13.

2 I have spread out my hands all the day long to a rebellious people , which walketh in a way that was not good after their own thoughts :

Applied to the Jews, Rom. 10. 21. I have stretched out my hands, that is, I have used all probable means to reduce them, I have stretched out the hands of a passionate Orator to persuade them, of a tender Mother to protect and defend them, of a liberal Benefactor to load them with my Benefits; this I have done continually in the whole course of my Providence with them, yet

They are a rebellious people; Paul expoundeth it by [non-Latin text not transcribed], a People not persuaded, not believing, but contradicting the will of God.

That walketh in a way that is not good, that term, is not good, often signifies what is very bad, see 1 Sam. 2. 24. Prov. 28. 21. & 24. 23. Psal. 36. 5. Though all sins be not equal, yet what is not good is bad.

After their own thoughts. What is here called after their own thoughts, is elsewhere called a walking after the imaginations of their hearts, an ordinary Phrase, by which sin (especially sins in the matter of the Worship of God) are expressed eight times, in the Prophet Ieremiah sinning is thus expressed, Ier. 3. 17. & 7. 24. & 9. 14. & 11. 8. & 13. 10. & 16. 12. & 18. 12. & 23. 17. so also Deut. 29. 19. Errours in matter of Worship are ordinarily thus expressed, certainly to let us know, that all Worship must be according to Gods revealed Will, and of such errours this Text seemeth by what followeth, to speak, though indeed, the reason of all sin is mens fondness of their own imaginations in opposition to Gods revealed Will, whence it is that self-denial is made the Law of a Discipleship to Christ.

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

That the Jews are the People here intended is without question; the Prophet speaking of the calling of the Gentiles upon their rejection, reckons up their sins, which were the causes. For though their rejection and crucifying of Christ, was that sin which was the proximate cause, yet God did but visit on that Generation their Iniquities, and the iniquities of their fathers together, they having by that act filled up their measure. They had provoked God continually to anger to his face.

Either in his Temple, the place where he used to manifest himself: or (considering what followeth) more probably the Phrase signifieth their impudence, not taking notice of Gods Omnipresence, and Omniscience.

The particular provocations instanced in, are deviations in the matter of divine Worship. Sacrificing in gardens is one thing instanced in, and burning incense on brick, or altars of brick, is another, Deut. 12. 13. there was a particular Altar of Gold appointed for Incense, Exod. 40. 5. God commanded, Exod. 20. 24, 25. That his Altars should be made of Earth, or rough stone. This people transgressed both these Laws, sacrificing in gardens, for which the Prophet reflected on them, ch. 1. 29. and again, ch. 66. 17. whether in gardens consecrated to Idols, or in such Gardens as the Heathens worshipped Idols in, is not much material for us to know, and burning incense upon altars of brick, directly contrary to the divine Rule. Their Worship was doubtless Idolatrous, and these Phrases signifie committing Idolatry, but the expressing that sin by these Phrases lets us know that the doing contrary to the direction of the Divine Rule in Gods Worship is a great part of the sinfulness of Idolatry.

Marginal references: Or, upon brick.

4 Which remain amongst the graves , and and lodge in the monuments , which eat swines flesh , and broth of abominable things in their vessels.

They remained amongst the Graves, either there expecting Revelations by dreams, or there consulting with Devils, who were thought to delight in such places, or to practice Necromancy, all which were forbidden, Deut. 18. 11. ch. 8. 19.

And they lodged in the Monuments, the Hebrew word here used gives advantage to Interpreters to vary in their senses. The word signifying onely places kept, or observed, some interpret it of Idol Temples, some of Caves and Denns, in which the Heathens used to worship their Idols, some of Tombs or Monuments for dead persons, besides the Idolatry of the thing, there was in it a sinful imitation of the Heathens, and a swerving from the Rule which God had given them.

They also are Swines flesh, contrary to the divine Law, L[illegible: 1+ letters]v, 11. 7. Deut. 14. 8. and they indured in their vessels,

Broth of abominable things, so the word is used, Iud. 6. 19, 20. others read it parts or pieces of abominable things, that is, broth, or pieces of such flesh as was to the Jews unclean by the Law, Levit. 11. Every Creature of God is good, but Gods Prohibition had made the flesh of divers Creatures an abominable thing to the Jews, they might not touch their flesh, Lev. 11 28. but they taking the measures of their duty from their Appetite, or from their Reason, concluding from natural Principles, made no Conscience of the positive Law of God. This was their iniquity which is further aggravated in the next verse.

Marginal references: pieces.

5 Which say, Stand by thy self, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou : These are a smoak in my nose , a fire that burneth all the day.

Though they were so exceedingly guilty, yet they pretended to a singular Sanctity, so as they would not suffer others to come near, or touch them. The Samaritans are usually charged with this uncharitableness, and the use of this form of Words, but as some do more excuse the Samaritans than the other Jews as to this rigour, so it may be questioned whether they were not at this time carried into Captivity: and certain it is, that amongst the Jews there was such a generation from whom the Pharisees in our Saviours time were derived, and this was the reason of their not eating, exc[illegible: 1+ letters]pt they washed, when they came from the Market, Mark 7. 4. lest peradventure they should there have touched some Heathen, or some person who was legally unclean.

Thus they esteemed themselves holier than others, though all their holiness lay in these rituals, and those too such as God never commanded. And indeed those who most exceed in such ritual Holiness (lying meerly in a separation from others, by the usage of some unwritten traditions) come most short in moral and true Holiness: For of these God saith, These are a smoak in my nostrils, a fire that burneth all the day; that is, a continual provocation to me: as smoak is an offence to our Noses, Prov. 10. 26. which seemeth to be the sense rather than what some make, who make it a threaming of Gods wrath smoaking against them, which is sufficiently expressed in the following verses.

Marginal references: Or, [illegible: 1 word].

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

They may think that I take no notice of these things, or if I take any notice, I will forget them, or at least not enter into judgment with them for them; but I as certainly know and will remember them, as Princes or great men that record things in writing which they would not forget. And they shall know that I know, and take notice of, and will remember them; for

I will not long neglect the punishment of them, though for a while I have delayed it like a man who bites in his wrath, for some wise reasons which are known unto himself best. Psal. 50. 21.

My punishment of them shall be severe, and certain, but yet it shall be just, but a giving them what is their own, as they are obnoxious to my Justice, Ier. 32. 18. Deut. 7. 10. like the payment of an Ox for an Ox, Exod. 21▪ 36. (where the same word is used) they have been froward against me, and I will shew my self froward against them, Psal. 18. 26.

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

Yea, and when I reckon with them, I will punish them, not onely for their personal sins, but for the sins of their Parents, which they have testified their approbation of, by continuing in them, and so made them their own, by an apish sinful imitation.

Their Fathers burnt Incense upon the mountains, there performing to Idols that homage which I obliged them to pay unto me, or if any of them pretend it was to me, though before an Image, yet it was in a way which I directed them not, who had appointed them the place where I would be worshipped.

So as that instead of blessing, they indeed blasphemed me upon the hills, instead of speaking well they spake ill of my name, worshipping me in a way which I had not appointed, and for which they onely took their copy from Idolaters.

Therefore I will punish them, and that justly, as he that rendereth another his due by measure, giving measure for measure, and weight for weight, only they must expect that I should not onely punish the late sins that they have committed of this nature, but the for[illegible: 1+ letters]er sins of this kind which those in this nation, that went before this present Generation did commit, and the presentage hath continued in the guilt of.

8 Thus saith the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, destroy it not , for a blessing is in it , so will I do for my servants sake , that I may not destroy them all.

These words must be conce[illegible: 1+ letters]ved as a gracious answer from God to the Prophet, saying as Abraham, Gen. 18. 23. 25. or as Moses, Ex. 32. 11, 12, 13. pleading Gods covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. To this God repheth, that he intended no such severity, the unfaithfulness of men should not make his promise of no effect, Rom. 3. 3. His threatning should be made good upon the generality of this people, whose Vine was of Sodom, and of the fields of Go [illegible: 1+ letters], Deut. 32. 32.

But yet, as in a Vineyard, which is generally unfruitful, there may be some particular Vine that brings forth fruit, or as in a Vine which is full of luxuriant branches that bring forth no fruit, there may be here and there a branch, that bringeth forth fruit, and hath the hop[illegible: 1+ letters]s of new wins in the c[illegible: 1+ letters]uster, and as to such, the Gardiner bids his Servant destroy it not, or them not; for they are fruitful, there is in them what speaketh Gods blessing, or what may be of use, and do us good.

So ([illegible: 1+ letters]aith God) will I do for my Servants sake, that I may not destroy them all, either for the sake of my Servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Iacob, with whom I anciently made a Covenant, or for my Servant Davids sake, or for the sake of such as are my Elect, at this time amongst them, see Ier. 30. 11. Amos 9. 8.

Marginal references: Joel 2. 14.

9 And I will bring a seed out of Jacob , and out of Judah , an inheritor of my mountains g: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.

No seed beareth a proportion to the tree, or plant that it produceth, but in comparison with that is very little, yet it is enough through the vertue which the God of nature hath put into it, to preserve and uphold the species to which it doth relate. They are but a remnant (saith God) that shall be saved, see Rom. 11. 5. but a small number that shall come out of the Captivity of Babylon, or (which I rather chuse) they will be but a few that shall believe in my Son, yet they shall be enough for my promise to live in; this, Paul argueth, Rom. 11. as the plant yet lives in the seed, when the root is pluckt up, the leaves dropt off, and the Stalk is burnt up, so the promise of God lives in a few, when the generality of a people for their sins are cast off and destroyed. The favour of God to men, and the promise of God to good men, lived in one family of Lot, when the five Cities were burned, and in the one family of Noah, when the world was drowned, the favour and promise of God to Abraham, Isaac, and Iacob, and David, lived in the few that returned out of Babylon, and in those few who under the Gospel received Christ, and believed in him, though the generality of them rejected the counsel of God against themselves.

God further promiseth to bring out of Iudah an inheritor of his Mountains, which the most, and best interpreters do interpret of the Jews return o[illegible: 1+ letters]t of the Captivity of Babylon to Hierusalem, and into their own Country, and particularly to worship God in his Temple, upon Mount Sion, the Country of Iudea was a Mountainous Country, Ezek. 36. 1. 8. The Mountains were round about Hierusalem, Psal. 125. 2. See also Ezekiel 38. 8. God calls these Mountains his Mountains, because he had chosen that Country before all others, and was once truly worshipped there.

Mine Elect signifieth here Gods chosen Ones, as in Psal. 106. 23. ch. 48. 10. The term doth not always signify such as belong to the Election of Grace, but such as are dignified with some special favour. The whole Nation of the Jews are called a chosen people. But possibly this promise is to be interpreted, with relation to the sincerer part of that people, after that the others should be wasted by the Captivity.

10 And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks and the Valley of Achor , a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me .

Sharon was a place of great fruitfulness for pastures. Davids herds were kept there, 1 Chron. 27. 29. It was become like a wilderness, Isaiah 33. 9. God here promis[illegible: 1+ letters]th that it should again be a place for the flocks. So Ier. 31. 27. God promised to sow again the house of Iudah, with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.

The Valley of Achor had its name from the stoning of Achan there, Iosh. 7. 26. It is thought to have been the first place the Jews set foot in when they had passed Iordan, hence Hos. 2. 14. God promised to make it a door of hope, and here the text saith, the flocks should lie down.

But lest the wicked idolatrous Jews should apply this promise to themselves, God limiteth it in the last words to the people that had sought him, that is, that had truly worshipped him, according to his own institution, and that the words have the force of such a limitation, appeareth from what followeth.

Marginal references: Hos. 2. 15.

11 But ye are they that forsake the Lord , that forget my holy mountain , that prepare a table for that troop , and that furnish the drink offerings unto their number .

Do not you that are Idolaters, think that these promises belong to you, ye are they that forsake the Lord, that is, the way of the Lord, it is a phrase opposed to a walking with God, our walking with God is in the way of his statutes, forsaking of him, signifieth a declining, or turning aside from that way.

To forget Gods holy Mountain, signifies not to regard the true worship of God, or not to mind it. God calleth Zion his holy Mountain, Ioel 3. 17. and Ierusalem is called Gods holy Mountain. The hill of Zion is called the Mountain of Gods holiness, Psal. 48. 1. as the Temple is called the beauty of holiness, Psal. 29. 2. Psal. 96. 9. their not regarding the worship of God there, but worshipping God or Idols in Gardens, amongst the graves and monuments is what is here called, a forgetting his holy Mountain. Isaiah prophecied in the time of A[illegible: 1+ letters]az, ch. 1. 1. of whom it is said, 2 Chron. 28. 23, 24. that he sacrificed to the Gods of Damascus, that he cut in pieces the vessels of the Lords house, shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and made him altars in every corner of Hierusalem, and in every several City of Judah he made high places to b[illegible: 1+ letters]rn incense to other Gods. See also more of his practices. v. 2. 3▪ 4. of that chap▪ and 2 Kings 16. 3. 10▪ 11, 12. and there were certainly many of his people that joined with him, in his worship, who are all here said to forget Gods holy Mountain.

And to prepare a table for that troop: The Idols of the ten Tribes, 2 Kings 16. 3. and of the Assrrians, 2 Chron. 28. 23. which were a troop, whereas the God of Israel was one God. And as God had altars, which are sometimes called a table, as in Eze. 41. 22. So they prepared altars for the Idols, as may be read in the a[illegible: 1+ letters]orementioned story of Ahaz: though by preparing a table, here seems rather to be meant the feasts they made upon their sacrifices in their festival days, which was in imitation of [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1+ letters]he true God had commanded his people, Deut. 16. [illegible: 1 word] 15▪ [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] made in honour to their Idols, as appears from [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] 18. 6, 11. Amos 2. 8. 1 Cor. 8. 10.

Nor did they [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] honour to the Idols, but they furnished drink offerings unto their Number. God had appointed Drink-offerings for his honour, and as a piece of homage to him. Exod. 29. 40, 41. Levit. 23. 18, 37. these people had paid this homage to Idols. See Ier. 7. 18. & 19. 13. & 32. 29.

What we translate Number in the Heb. is La Meni to Meni. Avenarius translates it Mercury, an Idol whom Merchants worshipped for good success in trading, others understand it of the Host of Heaven, others of the multitude of their idols, our translation reads it their number. The word coming from an Heb. root, which signifieth to number, is no where else found in Scripture, which makes it hard, too positively to assert the true meaning of it.

Marginal references: Or God.; Or Meni.

12 Therefore will I number you to the sword , and you shall all bow down to the slaughter , because when I called you did not answer, when I spake, you did not hear, but did evil before mine eyes, and did chuse that wherein I delighted not.

You have offended in number, worshipping a multitude, a troop of Idols, there shall be a great number of you perish by the Sword, or possibly the term number may refer to all in the next phrase, so let them know that none of them should escape, God saith he will number them, tell them out one by one to the Sword.

As you have bowed down to Idols Isa. 44. 17. (which are mine Enemies) I will make you bow down to your Enemies Swords.

I called you by my Prophets, Zech. 7. 7, 11, 12. you did not answer by doing the things which I by them spake to you for, but not considering that I saw you, or if considering it, yet not regarding it, you impudently did evil; yea,

You sinned deliberately, chusing sinful courses, the things which I hated, which are here (as often) expressed by a Meiosis, & called the things in which God delighteth not. In matters of Worship we ought to chuse nothing wherein God delighteth not, and reason, as well as Scripture will assure us, he can delight in nothing of that nature which himself hath not directed. It is observable that ruine is here threatned to this people, not for their immoralities, or lewd lives, but for their errors, and superstitions in Divine Worship. Other sins provoke God to wrath, but those of this nature alone, are enough to ruine Souls and Nations.

Marginal references: Prov. 1. 24. ch. 66. 4. Jer. 7. 13.

13 Therefore thus saith the Lord God : Behold my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry ▪ Behold my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty: Behold my Servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed:

You sinned deliberately, chusing sinful courses, the things which I hated, which are here (as often) expressed by a Meiosis, & called the things in which God delighteth not. In matters of Worship we ought to chuse nothing wherein God delighteth not, and reason, as well as Scripture will assure us, he can delight in nothing of that nature which himself hath not directed. It is observable that ruine is here threatned to this people, not for their immoralities, or lewd lives, but for their errors, and superstitions in Divine Worship. Other sins provoke God to wrath, but those of this nature alone, are enough to ruine Souls and Nations.

As there are a party amongst you, who instead of serving God, are the Servants of men, in complying with Idolatry, and superstition; so I have some Servants amongst you who have distinguished themselves by keeping close to my institutions from the rest of you, I will distinguish them from you in the dispensations of my Providence, those that have eat bread at their Idol Feasts, shall be hungry, my people that would not do so, they shall have enough, those who have furnished a drink-offering to Meni, or that number of Idols, shall want that drink by which they have so prophaned my name, but my Servants, from whose mouths you pull'd the drink, because they would only furnish a drink-offering to me, they shall drink. My Servants whom now you make to mourn, and upon whom you pour shame, and contempt, shall rejoice, and you shall be ashamed, you that now rejoice, and shout, while my Servants that cannot comply with you are afflicted, and by you made to mourn, you shall cry for sorrow, and houl through vexation, whiles my Servants who keep close to my institutions shall sing for joy of heart. Those who in an hour of Persecution for Religion, can have patience under the Enemies Triumphs and Rage, will find that the Rod of the wicked shall not alwaies rest upon the lot of the righteous.

15 And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen , for the Lord God shall slay thee , and call his servants by another name.

Your name shall rot, as P[illegible: 1+ letters]ov. 10. 7. or only be used when men would curse others, saying, let them be made like such persons, as the names of Leah and Rac[illegible: 1+ letters]el, Ruth 4. 11. and others of Gods Servants were used in blessing: so your names shall only be used in cursing, or when men will curse themselves, they shall use your names as examples of the eminent wrath of God upon sinners.

For you shall not perish by an ordinary hand, but by the hand of the Lord God, and as is the God, so is his justice, so is his strength, yea God himself shall look upon your name as accursed, and not suffer his people to be called by it, they shall not be called Iews, but Christians, Acts 11. 26. The Children of God, Iohn 1. 12. So detestable a sin is Idolatry, that God will not suffer himself to be called by a name given to Idols, how proper soever it be to express his perfection, Hos. 2. 16, 17. Nor yet suffer his own people to be called by a name by which Idolaters are known.

Marginal references: Chap. 62. 2.

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

I will bring it to pass, that over all the world, if any man bless himself, or bless another it shall be in God, Amen. So the Heb. (we translate it the God of truth) Amen is a name given to Christ, Rev. 3. 14. [illegible: 1 word] things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, being here applied to God, many think it makes a great proof of the God-head of Christ, and judge the sense of this text to be: That under the times of the Gospel men should not bless themselves (as before) in the names of Abraham, & Isaac, and Iacob, but in the name of Christ, in the God Amen, nor is this an improbable sense. Others taking it more appellatively by Elohim, Amen, here understand that God, who shews himself true and faithful in his promises.

In like manner it is prophesied, that those that swear, (by which some understand worship God, others calling God to be a witness) should swear by the God of truth; or in the God of truth. Either worshipping God in Christ the Amen, or calling the faithful God to attest their sincerity, or swearing by that God who hath approved his truth and faithfulness by saving and delivering his people.

because they shall see what God promised is fulfilled, the troubles of his people are at an end, and they are hid from Gods Eyes, that is, they are at an end.

Marginal references: Deut. 6. 13. Psal. 63. 11. Chap. 19. 18. & 45. 23. Zeph. 1. 5.

17 For behold , I create new heavens, and a new earth , & the former shall not be remembred nor come into mind .

I will tell you yet a more admirable thing, I am about wholly to alter and change the state not only of my people, who are now afflicted, restoring them to a more lightsome state, more free from trouble & afflictions, but

Bringing a new face upon the world, sending my Son to raise up a new Church, and to institute a new worship, Iohn 4. 21. 24. and giving out my spirit in a more plentiful manner, Acts 2. 17. which new state shall abide until a new Heavens and Earth appear, in which shall dwell nothing but righteousness, 2 Pet. 3. 13. Rev. 21. 1. and

That state of things shall be such, and so glorious, as the former state of my People shall not be remembred, nor come into mind; whether this new Heavens, and new Earth here promised, signifies such a state of the Church, wherein Christ shall personally reign upon Earth, over his Saints, the wicked being destroyed (as some have thought he shall for a thousand years) I very much doubt, & do not see how from this, and the parallel texts any such thing can be concluded.

Marginal references: Ch. 66. 22. 2 Pet. 3. 13. Rev. 21. 1.; Heb. shall come upon thy heart.

18 But be you glad, and rejoice for ever , in that which I create, for behold I create Hierusalem a rejoycing, and her people a joy.

You that are my people, though you cannot rejoice with that degree of joy, that attendeth a present fruition of good, yet be glad, and rejoice with the rejoycing of hope, for the thing is certain, what I am already doing, nor let your present state, or the discouragements you have from seeming improbabilities, spoil your joy, for it is not a work to be produced in an ordinary course, or by an ordinary power, but by the power of me who brings something out of nothing, or out of what hath no fittedness to such a production, and I will create

Hierusalem a rejoycing, and her people a joy; by Hierusalem, here must be meant the Church, as well under the Gospel, as under the law, (because the Gospel Church is grafted into that Olive) or else this prophecy, m[illegible: 1+ letters]st be understood as fulfilled in the coming of Christ, Luke 2. 10. Or else it referreth to a more full calling of the Jews, then we have yet seen or heard of.

19 And I will rejoice in Hierusalem, and joy in my people , and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying .

The nature of joy lying in the satisfaction, and well pleasedness of the Soul in the obtaining of the thing it hath willed; agreeth unto God, and joy and rejoycing are applied to him, ch. 62. 5. and in this text, so also, Ier. 32. 41. Zeph. 3. 17.

Such kind of promises are to be found, ch. 35. 10. & 51. 11. Ier. 31. 12. Rev. 21. 4. which must be understood either comparatively. They shall indure no such misery as formerly, or (if interpreted to a state in this life) as signifying only some long, or eminent state of happiness, if as to another life they may be taken strictly, as signifying perpetuity, and persection of joy and happiness.

Marginal references: Chap. 62. 5.; Chap. 35. 10. Rev. 7. 17. & 21. 4.

20 There shall be no more thence, an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days : for the child shall die an hundred years old, but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accur [illegible: 1+ letters]ed m.

Whereas God had made many promises of long life to [illegible: 1 word] Jews, they should all be fulfilled to Gods people among them, so as there should be rare abortions among them, Exod. 23. 26. few infants should be carried out to burial, nor but few that should not have filled up their years, those that were now Children, should die at a great age, nor none of these things should be of any advantage to wicked men, but if any of them should live to be an hundred years old, yet they should die accursed. This seemeth to be the plain sense. If any desires to read more opinions of these words, he may find enough in the English Annotations.

21 And they shall build houses and inhabit them. And they shall plant Vineyards, and eat of the fruit of them .

The quite contrary to what is said of the sloathful man and Iob 27. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. Prov. 12. 27.

Marginal references: Amos 9. 14.

22 They shall not build, and another inhabit, they shall not plant, and another eat, for * as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands .

Duration, and perpetuity are promised to them, in their happy estate.

Marginal references: † Psa. 92. 12.; Shall make them continue long, or shall wear out.

23 They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble, for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their off-spring with them .

And not only a blessing to them, but also to their Off-springs, But, what is here promised which wicked men do not oft times enjoy, and Gods People oft times want? Ans. 1. Wicked men may have them for their good parents sake, and good men may sometimes want them for evil parents sake. 2. Bad men may have some of these things, but they cannot expect them: good men may at present want them, but they may expect them from the hand of God, if they be good for them. 3. Bad men may have them in wrath, the blessing of God gives them to good men and adds no sorrow therewith.

24 And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer , and whiles they are yet speaking I will hear.

God promised, ch. 58. 9. to answer them, when they called: here he promiseth to be so ready to answer, as to answer the words assoon as they should be formed in their hearts before they should get them out of their lips, Psal. 32. 5. Dan. 10. 12.

Yea while they were speaking, Dan. 9. 20. 23. Acts 10. 44. nor doth God say only, they shall have the things they would have (for so wicked men may sometimes have from the bountiful hand of Divine Providence) but they shall have them, as an answer or return unto their prayers.

25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock , and dust shall be the serpents meat , they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain saith the Lord.

This verse containeth a promise much like that, ch. 11. 6, 9. And relates to the ceasing of persecution. The People of God for their whiteness, and innocency, are often compared to Lambs, and Sheep, wicked men to Wolves and Lions, for their antipathy to the seed of the Woman, God here promiseth to take off the fierceness of the Spirits of his Peoples Enemies, so that they shall live quietly and peaceably together.

Wicked men are compared to Serpents, Micah. 7. 17. compared with, Psal. 72. 9. God promiseth a time of tranquillity to his Church under the Metaphor of Serpents eating the dust, their proper meat, Gen. 3. 14. instead of flying upon men: it signifies such a time, when wicked men should mind their proper business, and not make it their work to eat up the people of God like bread.

For the last phrase, see ch. 11. 9. what is before noted. But will some say, When shall these things be? The Scripture gives us no record of any such period of time yet past. And it is very probable that this is a promise yet to be fulfilled, and it is not for us to know the times and seasons: but in the mean time to let our faith and patience be seen; in the mean time we my learn, That it is Gods work to restrain the Wolves and Serpents of the world, who would else be always doing what they are some times doing, & it is a sad sign that God is not yet at peace with that people, where we see Wolves devouring Lambs▪ and Serpents destroying men instead of licking up dust, nor well pleased with that part of his holy mountain where there is nothing but hurting, and destroying, biting and devouring one another, when▪ God shall be at peace with a people these things shall not be found amongst them.

Marginal references: Ch. 11. 6. 9.

Isa 65:1-2

After the people have poured out their heart before Jehovah, He announces what they may expect from Him. But instead of commencing with a promise, as we might anticipate after the foregoing prayer, He begins with reproach and threatening; for although the penitential portion of the community had included the whole nation in their prayer, it was destruction, and not deliverance, which awaited one portion of the nation, and that portion was the greater one. The great mass were in that state of “sin unto death” which defies all intercession (1Jo 5:16), because they had so scornfully and obstinately resisted the grace which had been so long and so incessantly offered to them. “I was discernible to those who did not inquire, discoverable by those who did not seek me. I said, 'Here am I, here am I,' to a nation where my name was not called. I spread out my hands all the day to a refractory people, who walked in the way that was not good, after their own thoughts.” The lxx (A) render Isa 65:1, “I was found by those who did not seek me, I became manifest to those who did not ask for me” (B reverses the order); and in Rom 10:20-21, Paul refers Isa 65:1 to the Gentiles, and Isa 65:2 to Israel. The former, to whom He has hitherto been strange, enter into fellowship with Him; whilst the latter, to whom He has constantly offered Himself, thrust Him away, and lose His fellowship. Luther accordingly adopts this rendering: “I shall be sought by those who did not ask for me, I shall be found by those who did not seek me. And to the heathen who did not call upon my name, I say, Here am I, here am I.” Zwingli, again, observes on Isa 65:1, “This is an irresistible testimony to the adoption of the Gentiles.” Calvin also follows the apostle’s exposition, and observes, that “Paul argues boldly for the calling of the Gentiles on the ground of this passage, and says that Isaiah dared to proclaim and assert that the Gentiles had been called by God, because he announced a greater thing, and announced it more clearly than the reason of those times would bear.” Of all the Jewish expositors, where is only one, viz., Gecatilia, who refers v. 1 to the Gentiles; and of all the Christina expositors of modern times, there is only one, viz., Hendewerk, who interprets it in this way, without having been influenced by the quotation made by Paul. Hofman, however, and Stier, feel obliged to follow the apostle’s exposition, and endeavour to vindicate it. But we have no sympathy with any such untenable efforts to save the apostle’s honour. In Rom 9:25-26, he also quotes Hos 2:23 and Hos 2:1 in support of the calling of the Gentiles; whereas he could not have failed to know, that it is the restoration of Israel to favour which is alluded to there. He merely appeals to Hos 2 in support of the New Testament fact of the calling of the Gentiles, so far as it is in these words of the Old Testament prophet that the fact is most adequately expressed. And according to 1Pe 2:10, Peter received the same impression from Hosea’s words.

But with the passage before us it is very different. The apostle shows, by the way in which he applies the Scripture, how he depended in this instance upon the Septuagint translation, which was in his own hands and those of his readers also, and by which the allusion to the Gentiles is naturally suggested, even if not actually demanded. And we may also assume that the apostle himself understood the Hebrew text, with which he, the pupil of Rabban Gamaliel, was of course well acquainted, in the same sense, viz., as relating to the calling of the Gentiles, without being therefore legally bound to adopt the same interpretation. The interchange of גּוי (cf., Isa 55:5) and עם; the attribute בשׁים קרא לא, which applies to heathen, and heathen only; the possibility of interpreting Isa 65:1-2, in harmony with the context both before and after, if Isa 65:1 be taken as referring to the Gentiles, on the supposition that Jehovah is here contrasting His success with the Gentiles and His failure with Israel: all these certainly throw weight into the scale. Nevertheless they are not decisive, if we look at the Hebrew alone, apart altogether from the lxx. For nidrashtı̄ does not mean “I have become manifest;” but, regarded as the so-called niphal tolerativum (according to Eze 14:3; Eze 20:3, Eze 20:31; Eze 36:37), “I permitted myself to be explored or found out;” and consequently נמצאתי, according to Isa 55:6, “I let myself be found.” And so explained, Isa 65:1 stands in a parallel relation to Isa 55:6 : Jehovah was searchable, was discoverable (cf., Zep 1:6) to those who asked no questions, and did not seek Him (ללוא = לא לאשׁר, Ges. §123, 3), i.e., He displayed to Israel the fulness of His nature and the possibility of His fellowship, although they did not bestir themselves or trouble themselves in the least about Him - a view which is confirmed by the fact that Isa 65:1 merely refers to offers made to them, and not to results of any kind. Israel, however, is called בשׁמי אל־קרא גוי, not as a nation that was not called by Jehovah’s name (which would be expressed by נקרא, Isa 43:7; cf., מקראי, κλητός μου, Isa 48:12), but as a nation where (supply 'ăsher) Jehovah’s name was not invoked (lxx “who called not upon my name”), and therefore as a thoroughly heathenish nation; for which reason we have gōi (lxx ἔθνος) here, and not ‛am(lxx λαός). Israel was estranged from Him, just like the heathen; but He still turned towards them with infinite patience, and (as is added in Isa 65:2) with ever open arms of love. He spread out His hands (as a man does to draw another towards him to embrace him) all the day (i.e., continually, cf., Isa 28:24) towards an obstinate people, who walked in the way that was not good (cf., Psa 36:5; Pro 16:29; here with the article, which could not be repeated with the adjective, because of the לא), behind their own thoughts. That which led them, and which they followed, was not the will of God, but selfish views and purposes, according to their won hearts’ lusts; and yet Jehovah did not let them alone, but they were the constant thought and object of His love, which was ever seeking, alluring, and longing for their salvation.

Isa 65:3-5

But through this obstinate and unyielding rejection of His love they have excited wrath, which, though long and patiently suppressed, now bursts forth with irresistible violence. “The people that continually provoketh me by defying me to my face, sacrificing in the gardens, and burning incense upon the tiles; who sit in the graves, and spend the night in closed places; to eat the flesh of swine, and broken pieces of abominations is in their dishes; who say, Stop! come not too near me; for I am holy to thee: they are a smoke in my nose, a fire blazing continually.” אלּה (these) in Isa 65:5 is retrospective, summing up the subject as described in Isa 65:3-5, and what follows in Isa 65:5 contains the predicate. The heathenish practices of the exiles are here depicted, and in Isa 65:7 they are expressly distinguished from those of their fathers. Hence there is something so peculiar in the description, that we look in vain for parallels among those connected with the idolatry of the Israelites before the time of the captivity. There is only one point of resemblance, viz., the allusion to gardens as places of worship, which only occurs in the book of Isaiah, and in which our passage, together with Isa 57:5 and Isa 66:17, strikingly coincides with Isa 1:29. “Upon my face” (‛al-pânai) is equivalent to “freely and openly, without being ashamed of me, or fearing me;” cf., Job 1:11; Job 6:28; Job 21:31. “Burning incense upon the bricks” carries us to Babylonia, the true home of the cocti lateres (laterculi). The thorah only mentions lebhēnı̄m in connection with Babylonian and Egyptian buildings. The only altars that it allows are altars of earth thrown up, or of unhewn stones and wooden beams with a brazen covering. “They who sit in the graves,” according to Vitringa, are they who sacrifice to the dead. He refers to the Greek and Roman inferiae and februationes, or expiations for the dead, as probably originating in the East. Sacrifices for the dead were offered, in fact, not only in India and Persia, but also in Hither Asia among the Ssabians, and therefore probably in ancient Mesopotamia and Babylonia. But were they offered in the graves themselves, as we must assume from בּקּברים (not על־קברים)? Nothing at all is known of this, and Böttcher (de inferis, §234) is correct in rendering it “among (inter) the graves,” and supposing the object to be to hold intercourse there with the dead and with demons. The next point, viz., passing the night in closed places (i.e., places not accessible to every one: netsūrı̄m, custodita = clausa, like ne‛ı̄mı̄m, amaena), may refer to the mysteries celebrated in natural caves and artificial crypts (on the mysteries of the Ssabians, see Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier u. der Ssabismus, ii. 332ff.). But the lxx and Syriac render it ἐν τοῖς σπηλαίοις κοιμῶνται δι  ̓ἐνύπνια, evidently understanding it to refer to the so-called incubare, ἐγκοιμᾶσθαι; and so Jerome explains it. “In the temples of idols,” he says, “where they were accustomed to lie upon the skins of the victims stretched upon the ground, to gather future events from their dreams.” The expression ubhannetsūrı̄m points not so much to open temples, as to inaccessible caves or subterraneous places. G. Rawlinson (Monarchies, ii. 269) mentions the discovery of “clay idols in holes below the pavement of palaces.” From the next charge, “who eat there the flesh of the swine,” we may infer that the Babylonians offered swine in sacrifice, if not as a common thing, yet like the Egyptians and other heathen, and ate their flesh (“the flesh taken from the sacrifice,” 2 Macc. 6:21); whereas among the later Ssabians (Harranians) the swine was not regarded as either edible or fit for sacrifice.

On the synecdochical character of the sentence כּליהם פּגּלים וּפרק, see at Isa 5:12, cf., Jer 24:2. Knobel’s explanation, “pieces” (but it is not וּפרקי) “of abominations are their vessels, i.e., those of their ἱεροσκοπία,” is a needless innovation. פּגּוּל signifies a stench, putrefaction (Eze 4:14, besar piggūl), then in a concrete sense anything corrupt or inedible, a thing to be abhorred according to the laws of food or the law generally (syn. פּסּוּל, פּצוּל); and when connected with פרק (chethib), which bears the same relation to מרק as crumbs or pieces (from פּרק, to crumble) to broth (from מתק, to rub off or scald off), it means a decoction, or broth made either of such kinds of flesh or such parts of the body as were forbidden by the law. The context also points to such heathen sacrifices and sacrificial meals as were altogether at variance with the Mosaic law. For the five following words proceed from the mouths of persons who fancy that they have derived a high degree of sanctity either from the mysteries, or from their participation in rites of peculiar sacredness, so that to every one who abstains from such rites, or does not enter so deeply into them as they do themselves, they call out their “odi profanum vulgus et arceo.” אליך קרב, keep near to thyself, i.e., stay where you are, like the Arabic idhab ileika, go away to thyself, for take thyself off. על־תּגּשׁ־בּי (according to some MSS with mercha tifchah), do not push against me (equivalent to גּשׁ־הלאה or גּשׁה־לך, get away, make room; Gen 19:9; Isa 49:20), for qedashtikhâ, I am holy to thee, i.e., unapproachable. The verbal suffix is used for the dative, as in Isa 44:21 (Ges. §121, 4), for it never occurred to any of the Jewish expositors (all of whom give sanctus prae te as a gloss) that the kal qâdash was used in a transitive sense, like châzaq in Jer 20:7, as Luther, Calvin, and even Hitzig suppose. Nor is the exclamation the well-meant warning against the communication of a burdensome qedusshâh, which had to be removed by washing before a man could proceed to the duties of every-day life (such, for example, as the qedusshâh of the man who had touched the flesh of a sin-offering, or bee sprinkled with the blood of a sin-offering; Lev 6:20, cf., Eze 44:19; Eze 46:20). It is rather a proud demand to respect the sacro-sanctus, and not to draw down the chastisement of the gods by the want of reverential awe. After this elaborate picture, the men who are so degenerate receive their fitting predicate. They are fuel for the wrath of God, which manifests itself, as it were, in smoking breath. This does not now need for the first time to seize upon them; but they are already in the midst of the fire of wrath, and are burning there in inextinguishable flame.

Isa 65:6-7

The justice of God will not rest till it has procured for itself the fullest satisfaction. “Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence without having recompensed, and I will recompense into their bosom. Your offences, and the offences of your fathers together, saith Jehovah, that they have burned incense upon the mountains, and insulted me upon the hills, and I measure their reward first of all into their bosom.” Vitringa has been misled by such passages as Isa 10:1; Job 13:26; Jer 22:30, in which kâthabh (kittēbh) is used to signify a written decree, and understands by khethūbhâh the sentence pronounced by God; but the reference really is to their idolatrous conduct and contemptuous defiance of the laws of God. This is ever before Him, written in indelible characters, waiting for the day of vengeance; for, according to the figurative language of Scripture, there are heavenly books, in which the good and evil works of men are entered. And this agrees with what follows: “I will not be silent, without having first repaid,” etc. The accentuation very properly places the tone upon the penultimate of the first shillamtı̄ as being a pure perfect, and upon the last syllable of the second as a perf. consec. אם כּי preceded by a future and followed by a perfect signifies, “but if (without having) first,” etc. (Isa 55:10; Gen 32:27; Lev 22:6; Rth 3:18; cf., Jdg 15:7). The original train of thought was, “I will not keep silence, for I shall first of all keep silence when,” etc. Instead of ‛al chēqâm, “Upon their bosom,” we might have 'el chēqâm, into their bosom, as in Jer 32:18; Psa 79:12. In Isa 65:7 the keri really has 'el instead of ‛al, whilst in Isa 65:9 the chethib is ‛al without any keri (for the figure itself, compare Luk 6:38, “into your bosom”). The thing to be repaid follows in Isa 65:7; it is not governed, however, by shillamtı̄, as the form of the address clearly shows, but by 'ăshallēm understood, which may easily be supplied. Whether 'ăsher is to be taken in the sense of qui or quod (that), it is hardly possible to decide; but the construction of the sentence favours the latter. Sacrificing “upon mountains and hills” (and, what is omitted, here, “under every green tree”) is the well-known standing phrase used to describe the idolatry of the times preceding the captivity (cf., Isa 57:7; Hos 4:13; Eze 6:13). וּמדּתי points back to veshillamtı̄ in Isa 65:6, after the object has been more precisely defined. Most of the modern expositors take ראשׁנה פעלּתם together, in the sense of “their former wages,” i.e., the recompense previously deserved by their fathers. But in this case the concluding clause would only affirm, by the side of Isa 65:7, that the sins of the fathers would be visited upon them. Moreover, this explanation has not only the accents against it, but also the parallel in Jer 16:18 (see Hitzig), which evidently stands in a reciprocal relation to the passage before us. Consequently ri'shōnâh must be an adverb, and the meaning evidently is, that the first thing which Jehovah had to do by virtue of His holiness was to punish the sins of the apostate Israelites; and He would so punish them that inasmuch as the sins of the children were merely the continuation of the fathers’ sins, the punishment would be measured out according to the desert of both together.

Isa 65:8-9

As the word ri'shōnâh (first of all) has clearly intimated that the work of the future will not all consist in the execution of penal justice, there is no abruptness in the transition from threatening to promises. “Thus saith Jehovah, As when the must is found in the cluster, men say, Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing within it, so will I do for the sake of my servants, that I may not destroy the whole. And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and an heir of my mountains out of Judah, and my chosen ones shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.” Of the two co-ordinate clauses of the protasis (Isa 65:8), the first contains the necessary condition of the second. Hattı̄rōsh (must, or the juice of the grapes, from yârash, possibly primarily nothing more than receipt, or the produce of labour) and bâ'eshkōl have both of them the article generally found in comparisons (Ges. §109, Anm. 1); ואמר signifies, as in Isa 45:24, “men say,” with the most general and indefinite subject. As men to not destroy a juicy cluster of grapes, because they would thereby destroy the blessing of God which it contains; so will Jehovah for His servants’ sake not utterly destroy Israel, but preserve those who are the clusters in the vineyard (Isa 3:14; Isa 5:1-7) or upon the vine (Psa 80:9.) of Israel. He will not destroy hakkōl, the whole without exception; that is to say, keeping to the figure, not “the juice with the skin and stalk,” as Knobel and Hahn explain it, but “the particular clusters in which juice is contained, along with the degenerate neglected vineyard or vine, which bears for the most part only sour grapes (Isa 5:4) or tendrils without fruit (cf., Isa 18:5). The servants of Jehovah, who resemble these clusters, remain preserved. Jehovah brings out, causes to go forth, calls to the light of day (הוצי) as in Isa 54:16; here, however, it is by means of sifting: Eze 20:34.), out of Jacob and Judah, i.e., the people of the two captivities (see Isa 56:3), a seed, a family, that takes possession of His mountains, i.e., His holy mountain-land (Isa 14:25, cf., Psa 121:1, and har qodshı̄, which is used in the same sense in Isa 11:9; Isa 65:25). As “my mountain” is equivalent in sense to the “land of Israel,” for which Ezekiel is fond of saying “the mountains of Israel” (e.g., Isa 6:2-3), the promise proceeds still further to say, “and my chosen ones will take possession thereof” (viz., of the land, Isa 60:21, cf., Isa 8:21).

Isa 65:10

From west to east, i.e., in its whole extent, the land then presents the aspect of prosperous peace. “And the plain of Sharon becomes a meadow for flocks, and the valley of Achor a resting-place for oxen, for my people that asketh for me.” Hasshârōn (Sharon) is the plain of rich pasture-land which stretches along the coast of the Mediterranean from Yafo to the neighbourhood of Carmel. ‛Emeq ‛Akhōr is a valley which became renowned through the stoning of Achan, in a range of hills running through the plain of Jericho (see Keil on Jos 7:24.). From the one to the other will the wealth in flocks extend, and in the one as well as in the other will that peace prevail which is now enjoyed by the people of Jehovah, who inquired for Him in the time of suffering, and therefore bear this name in truth. The idyllic picture of peace is thoroughly characteristic of Isaiah: see, for example, Isa 32:20; and for rēbhets with nâveh, compare Isa 35:7.

Isa 65:11-12

The prophecy now turns again to those already indicated and threatened in Isa 65:1-7. “And ye, who are enemies to Jehovah, O ye that are unmindful of my holy mountain, who prepare a table for Gad, and fill up mixed drink for the goddess of destiny - I have destined you to the sword, and ye will all bow down to the slaughter, because I have called and ye have not replied, I have spoken and ye have not heard; and ye did evil in mine eyes, and ye chose that which I did not like.” It may be taken for granted as a thing generally admitted, that Isa 65:11 refers to two deities, and to the lectisternia (meals of the gods, cf., Jer 7:18; Jer 51:44) held in their honour. שׁלחן ערך is the other side of the lectum sternere, i.e., the spreading of the cushions upon which the images of the gods were placed during such meals of the gods as these. In the passage before us, at any rate, the lectus answering to the shulchân (like the sella used in the case of the goddesses) is to be taken as a couch for eating, not for sleeping on. In the second clause, therefore, ממסך למני והממלאים (which is falsely accentuated in our editions with tifchah mercha silluk, instead of mercha tifchah silluk), ממסך מלּא signifies to fill with mixed drink, i.e., with wine mixed with spices, probably oil of spikenard. מלּא may be connected not only with the accusative of the vessel filled, but also with that of the thing with which it is filled (e.g., Exo 28:17). Both names have the article, like הבּעל. הגּד is perfectly clear; if used as an appellative, it would mean “good fortune.” The word has this meaning in all the three leading Semitic dialects, and it also occurs in this sense in Gen 30:11, where the chethib is to be read בּגד (lxx ἐν τύχῃ). The Aramaean definitive is גּדּא (not גּדא), as the Arabic 'gadd evidently shows. The primary word is גּדד (Arab. 'gadda), to cut off, to apportion; so that Arab. jaddun, like the synonymous ḥaḍḍun, signifies that which is appointed, more especially the good fortune appointed. There can be no doubt, therefore, that Gad, the god of good fortune, more especially if the name of the place Baal-Gad is to be explained in the same way as Baal-hammân, is Baal (Bel) as the god of good fortune. Gecatilia (Mose ha-Cohen) observes, that this is the deified planet Jupiter. This star is called by the Arabs “the greater luck” as being the star of good fortune; and in all probability it is also the rabb-el-bacht (lord of good fortune) worshipped by the Ssabians (Chwolsohn, ii. 30, 32). It is true that it is only from the passage before us that we learn that it was worshipped by the Babylonians; for although H. Rawlinson once thought that he had found the names Gad and Menni in certain Babylonian inscriptions (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, xii. p. 478), the Babylonian Pantheon in G. Rawlinson’s Monarchies contains neither of these names. With this want of corroborative testimony, the fact is worthy of notice, that a Rabbi named 'Ulla, who sprang from Babylon, explains the דרגשׁ of the Mishna by דגדא ערסא (a sofa dedicated to the god of prosperity, and often left unused) (b. Nedarim 56 a; cf., Sanhedrin 20 a).The foreign formula of incantation given in b. Sabbath 67 a, ובושכי עושדי ל וסינוק ידג דג (according to the glosses, “O Fortune, give good fortune, and be not tardy day and night”), also belongs here; whereas the name of a place not far from Siloah, called Gad-yavan (Gad of Greece), contains some allusion to the mythology of Greece, which we are unable to trace. In the later usage of the language Gad appears to have acquired the general meaning of numen (e.g., b. Chullin 40 a; דהר גד, the mountain-spirit); and this helps to explain the fact that in Pehlewi גדמן signifies majesty in a royal, titular sense (see Vuller’s Lex.; and Spiegel in the Indische Studien, 3, 412).

But if Gad is Jupiter, nothing is more probable than that Meni is Venus; for the planet Venus is also regarded as a star of prosperity, and is called by the Arabs “the lesser luck.” The name Meni in itself, indeed, does not necessarily point to a female deity; for meni from mânâh, if taken as a passive participial noun (like גּרי בּריה, a creature), signifies “that which is apportioned;” or if taken as a modification of the primary form many, like גּדי, טלי, צבי, and many others, allotment, destination, fate. We have synonyms in the Arabic mana - n and meniye, and the Persian bacht (adopted into the Arabic), which signify the general fate, and from which bago - bacht is distinguished as signifying that which is exceptionally allotted by the gods. The existence of a deity of this name meni is also probably confirmed by the occurrence of the personal name עבדמני on certain Aramaeo-Persian coins of the Achaemenides,See Rödiger in the concluding part of the thes. p. 97. with which Fürst associates the personal name Achiman (see his Lex.), combining מן with Μήν, and מני with Μήνη, as Movers (Phönizier, i. 650) and Knobel have also done. מן and מני would then be Semitic forms of these Indo-Germanic names of deities; for Μήν is Deus Lunus, the worship of which in Carrae (Charran) is mentioned by Spartian in chapter vi. of the Life of Caracalla, whilst Strabo (xii. 3, 31, 32) speaks of it as being worshipped in Pontus, Phrygia, and other places; and Μήνη is Dea Luna (cf., Γενείτη Μάνη in Plut. quaest. rom. 52, Genita Mana in Plin. h. n. 29, 4, and Dea Mena in Augustine, Civ. 4, 11), which was worshipped, according to Diodorus (iii. 56) and Nonnus (Dionys. v. 70 ss.), in Phoenicia and Africa. The rendering of the lxx may be quoted in favour of the identity of the latter with מני (ἑτοιμάζοντες τῷ δαιμονίῳ (another reading δαίμονι τράπεζαν καὶ πληροῦντες τῇ τύχῃ κέρασμα), especially if we compare with this what Macrobius says in Saturn. i. 19, viz., that “according to the Egyptians there are four of the gods which preside over the birth of men, Δαίμων Τύχη ̓́Ερωσ ̓Ανάγκη. Of these Daimōn is the sun, the author of spirit, of warmth, and of light. Tychē is the moon, as the goddess through whom all bodies below the moon grow and disappear, and whose ever changing course accompanies the multiform changes of this mortal life.”See Ge. Zoega’s Abhandlungen, edited by Welcker (1817), pp. 39, 40.

In perfect harmony with this is the following passage of Vettius Valens, the astrologer of Antioch, which has been brought to light by Selden in his Syntagma de Diis Syris: Κλῆροι τῆς τύχης καὶ τοῦ δαίμονος σημαίνουσιν (viz., by the signs of nativity) ἣλιον τε καὶ σελήνην. Rosenmüller very properly traces back the Sept. rendering to this Egyptian view, according to which Gad is the sun-god, and Meni the lunar goddess as the power of fate. Now it is quite true that the passage before us refers to Babylonian deities, and not to Egyptian; at the same time there might be some relation between the two views, just as in other instances ancient Babylonia and Egypt coincide.

But there are many objections that may be offered to the combination of מני (Meni) and Μήνη: (1.) The Babylonian moon-deity was either called Sı̄n, as among the ancient Shemites generally, or else by other names connected with ירח (ירח) and châmar. (2.) The moon is called mâs is Sanscrit, Zendic mâo, Neo-Pers. mâh (mah); but in the Arian languages we meet with no such names as could be traced to a root mân as the expansion of mâ (to measure), like μήν μήνη), Goth. mena; for the ancient proper names which Movers cites, viz., ̓Αριαμένησ ̓Αρταμένης, etc., are traceable rather to the Arian manas = μένος, mens, with which Minerva (Menerva, endowed with mind) is connected. (3.) If meni were the Semitic form of the name for the moon, we should expect a closer reciprocal relation in the meanings of the words. We therefore subscribe to the view propounded by Gesenius, who adopts the pairing of Jupiter and Venus common among the Arabs, as the two heavenly bodies that preside over the fortunes of men; and understands by Meni Venus, and by Gad Jupiter. There is nothing at variance with this in the fact that 'Ashtoreth (Ishtar, with 'Ashērâh) is the name of Venus (the morning star), as we have shown at Isa 14:12. Meni is her special name as the bestower of good fortune and the distributor of fate generally; probably identical with Manât, one of the three leading deities of the prae-Islamitish Arabs.See Krehl, Religion der vorislamischen Araber, p. 78. Sprenger in his Life of Mohammad, 1862, compares the Arabic Manât with מני.

The address proceeds with umânı̄thı̄ (and I have measured), which forms an apodosis and contains a play upon the name of Meni, Isa 65:11 being as it were a protasis indicating the principal reason of their approaching fate. Because they sued for the favour of the two gods of fortune (the Arabs call them es - sa'dâni, “the two fortunes”) and put Jehovah into the shade, Jehovah would assign them to the sword, and they would all have to bow down (כּרע as in Isa 10:4). Another reason is now assigned for this, the address thus completing the circle, viz., because when I called ye did not reply, when I spake ye did not hear (this is expressed in the same paratactic manner as in Isa 5:4; Isa 12:1; Isa 50:2), and ye have done, etc.: an explanatory clause, consisting of four members, which is repeated almost word for word in Isa 66:4 (cf., Isa 56:4).

Isa 65:13-16

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

Isa 65:17-19

The fact that they have thus passed away is now still further explained; the prophet heaping up one kı̄ (for) upon another, as in Isa 9:3-5. “For behold I create a new heaven and a new earth; and men will not remember the first, nor do they come to any one’s mind. No, be ye joyful and exult for ever at that which I create: for behold I turn Jerusalem into exulting, and her people into joy. And I shall exult over Jerusalem, and be joyous over my people, and the voice of weeping and screaming will be heard in her no more.” The promise here reaches its culminating point, which had already been seen from afar in Isa 51:16. Jehovah creates a new heaven and a new earth, which bind so fast with their glory, and which so thoroughly satisfy all desires, that there is no thought of the former ones, and no one wishes them back again. Most of the commentators, from Jerome to Hahn, suppose the ri'shōnōth in Isa 65:16 to refer to the former sorrowful times. Calvin says, “The statement of the prophet, that there will be no remembrance of former things, is supposed by some to refer to the heaven and the earth, as if he meant, that henceforth neither the fame nor even the name of either would any more be heard; but I prefer to refer them to the former times.” But the correctness of the former explanation is shown by the parallel in Jer 3:16, which stands in by no means an accidental relation to this passage, and where it is stated that in the future there will be no ark of the covenant, “neither shall it come to mind, neither shall they remember it,” inasmuch as all Jerusalem will be the throne of Jehovah, and not merely the capporeth with its symbolical cherubim. This promise is also a glorious one; but Jeremiah and all the other prophets fall short of the eagle-flight of Isaiah, of whom the same may be said as of John, “volat avis sine meta.” Luther (like Zwingli and Stier) adopts the correct rendering, “that men shall no more remember the former ones (i.e., the old heaven and old earth), nor take it to heart.” But ‛âlâh ‛al-lēbh signifies to come into the mind, not “to take to heart,” and is applied to a thing, the thought of which “ascends” within us, and with which we are inwardly occupied. There is no necessity to take the futures in Isa 65:17 as commands (Hitzig); for אם־שׂישׂוּ כּי (כי with muach, as in Ven. 1521, after the Masora to Num 35:33) fits on quite naturally, even if we take them as simple predictions. Instead of such a possible, though not actual, calling back and wishing back, those who survive the new times are called upon rather to rejoice for ever in that which Jehovah is actually creating, and will have created then. אשׁר, if not regarded as the accusative-object, is certainly regarded as the object of causality, “in consideration of that which” (cf., Isa 31:6; Gen 3:17; Jdg 8:15), equivalent to, “on account of that which” (see at Isa 64:4; Isa 35:1). The imperatives sı̄sū vegı̄lū are not words of admonition so much as words of command, and kı̄ gives the reason in this sense: Jehovah makes Jerusalem gı̄lâh and her people mâsōs (accusative of the predicate, or according to the terminology adopted in Becker’s syntax, the “factitive object,” Ges. §139, 2), by making joy its perpetual state, its appointed condition of life both inwardly and outwardly. Nor is it joy on the part of the church only, but on the part of its God as well (see the primary passages in Deu 30:9). When the church thus rejoices in God, and God in the church, so that the light of the two commingle, and each is reflected in the other; then will no sobbing of weeping ones, no sound of lamentation, be heard any more in Jerusalem (see the opposite side as expressed in Isa 51:3).

Isa 65:20

There will be a different measure then, and a much greater one, for measuring the period of life and grace. “And there shall no more come thence a suckling of a few days, and an old man who has not lived out all his days; for the youth in it will die as one a hundred years old, and the sinner be smitten with the curse as one a hundred years old.” Our editions of the text commence Isa 65:20 with לא־יהיה, but according to the Masora (see Mas. finalis, p. 23, col. 7), which reckons five ולא־יהיה at the commencement of verses, and includes our v. among them, it must read ולא־יהיה, as it is also rendered by the lxx and Targum. The meaning and connection are not affected by this various reading. Henceforth there will not spring from Jerusalem (or, what hâyâh really means, “come into existence;” “thence,” misshâm, not “from that time,” but locally, as in Hos 2:17 and elsewhere, cf., Isa 58:12) a suckling (see p. 90) of days, i.e., one who has only reached the age of a few days (yâmı̄m as in Gen 24:55, etc.), nor an old man who has not filled his days, i.e., has not attained to what is regarded as a rule as the full measure of human life. He who dies as a youth, or is regarded as having died young, will not die before the hundredth year of his life; and the sinner (והחוטא with seghol, as in Ecc 8:12; Ecc 9:18; Ges. §75, Anm. 21) upon whom the curse of God falls, and who is overwhelmed by the punishment, will not be swept away before the hundredth year of his life. We cannot maintain with Hofmann (Schriftbeweis, ii. 2, 567), that it is only in appearance that less is here affirmed than in Isa 25:8. The reference there is to the ultimate destruction of the power of death; here it is merely to the limitation of its power.

Isa 65:21-23

In the place of the threatened curses of the law in Lev 26:16 (cf., Deu 28:30), the very opposite will now receive their fullest realization. “And they will build houses and inhabit them, and plant vineyards and enjoy the fruit thereof. They will not build and another inhabit, nor plant and another enjoy; for like the days of trees are the days of my people, ad my chosen ones will consume the work of their hands. They will not weary themselves in vain, nor bring forth for sudden disaster; for they are a family of the blessed of Jehovah, and their offspring are left to them.” They themselves will enjoy what they have worked for, without some one else stepping in, whether a countryman by violence or inheritance, or a foreigner by plunder or conquest (Isa 62:8), to take possession of that which they have built and planted (read יטעוּ without dagesh); for the duration of their life will be as great as that of trees (i.e., of oaks, terebinths, and cedars, which live for centuries), and thus they will be able thoroughly to enjoy in their own person what their hands have made. Billâh does not mean merely to use and enjoy, but to use up and consume. Work and generation will be blessed then, and there will be no more disappointed hopes. They will not weary themselves (יגעוּ with a preformative י without that of the root) for failure, not get children labbehâlâh, i.e., for some calamity to fall suddenly upon them and carry them away (Lev 26:16, cf., Psa 78:33). The primary idea of bâhal is either acting, permitting, or bearing, with the characteristic of being let loose, of suddenness, of overthrow, or of throwing into confusion. The lxx renders it εἰς κατάραν, probably according to the Egypto-Jewish usage, in which behâlâh may have signified cursing, like bahle, buhle in the Arabic (see the Appendices). The two clauses of the explanation which follows stand in a reciprocal relation to the two clauses of the previous promise. They are a family of the blessed of God, upon whose labour the blessing of God rests, and their offspring are with them, without being lost to them by premature death. This is the true meaning, as in Job 21:8, and not “their offspring with them,” i.e., in like manner, as Hitzig supposes.

Isa 65:24

All prayer will be heard then. “And it will come to pass: before they call, I will answer; they are still speaking, and I already hear.” The will of the church of the new Jerusalem will be so perfectly the will of Jehovah also, that He will hear the slightest emotion of prayer in the heart, the half-uttered prayer, and will at once fulfill it (cf., Isa 30:19).

Isa 65:25

And all around will peace and harmony prevail, even in the animal world itself. “Wolf and lamb then feed together, and the lion eats chopped straw like the ox, and the serpent-dust is its bread. They will neither do harm not destroy in all my holy mountain, saith Jehovah.” We have frequently observed within chapters 40-66 (last of all at Isa 65:12, cf., Isa 66:4), how the prophet repeats entire passages from the earlier portion of his prophecies almost word for word. Here he repeats Isa 11:6-9 with a compendious abridgment. Isa 65:25 refers to the animals just as it does there. But whilst this custom of self-repetition favours the unity of authorship, כּאחד for יחדּו = unâ, which only occurs elsewhere in Ezra and Ecclesiastes (answering to the Chaldee כּחדה), might be adduced as evidence of the opposite. The only thing that is new in the picture as here reproduced, is what is said of the serpent. This will no longer watch for human life, but will content itself with the food assigned it in Gen 3:14. It still continues to wriggle in the dust, but without doing injury to man. The words affirm nothing more than this, although Stier’s method of exposition gets more out, or rather puts more in. The assertion of those who regard the prophet speaking here as one later than Isaiah, viz., that Isa 65:25 is only attached quite loosely to what precedes, is unjust and untrue. The description of the new age closes here, as in chapter 11, with the peace of the world of nature, which stands throughout chapters 40-66 in the closest reciprocal relation to man, just as it did in chapters 1-39. If we follow Hahn, and change the animals into men by simply allegorizing, we just throw our exposition back to a standpoint that has been long passed by. But to what part of the history of salvation are we to look for a place for the fulfilment of such prophecies as these of the state of peace prevailing in nature around the church, except in the millennium? A prophet was certainly no fanatic, so that we could say, these are beautiful dreams. And if, what is certainly true, his prophecies are not intended to be interpreted according to the letter, but according to the spirit of the letter; the letter is the sheath of the spirit, as Luther calls it, and we must not give out as the spirit of the letter what is nothing more than a quid-pro-quo of the letter. The prophet here promises a new age, in which the patriarchal measure of human life will return, in which death will no more break off the life that is just beginning to bloom, and in which the war of man with the animal world will be exchanged for peace without danger. And when is all this to occur? Certainly not in the blessed life beyond the grave, to which it would be both absurd and impossible to refer these promises, since they presuppose a continued mixture of sinners with the righteous, and merely a limitation of the power of death, not its utter destruction. But when then? This question ought to be answered by the anti-millenarians. They throw back the interpretation of prophecy to a stage, in which commentators were in the habit of lowering the concrete substance of the prophecies into mere doctrinal loci communes. They take refuge behind the enigmatical character of the Apocalypse, without acknowledging that what the Apocalypse predicts under the definite form of the millennium is the substance of all prophecy, and that no interpretation of prophecy on sound principles is any longer possible from the standpoint of an orthodox antichiliasm, inasmuch as the antichiliasts twist the word in the mouths of the prophets, and through their perversion of Scripture shake the foundation of all doctrines, every one of which rests upon the simple interpretation of the words of revelation. But one objection may be made to the supposition, that the prophet is here depicting the state of things in the millennium; viz., that this description is preceded by an account of the creation of a new heaven and a new earth. The prophet appears, therefore, to refer to that Jerusalem, which is represented in the Apocalypse as coming down from heaven to earth after the transformation of the globe. But to this it may be replied, that the Old Testament prophet was not yet able to distinguish from one another the things which the author of the Apocalypse separates into distinct periods. From the Old Testament point of view generally, nothing was known of a state of blessedness beyond the grave. Hades lay beyond this present life; and nothing was known of a heaven in which men were blessed. Around the throne of God in heaven there were angels and not men. And, indeed, until the risen Saviour ascended to heaven, heaven itself was not open to men, and therefore there was no heavenly Jerusalem whose descent to earth could be anticipated then. Consequently in the prophecies of the Old Testament the eschatological idea of the new Cosmos does unquestionably coincide with the millennium. It is only in the New Testament that the new creation intervenes as a party-wall between this life and the life beyond; whereas the Old Testament prophecy brings down the new creation itself into the present life, and knows nothing of any Jerusalem of the blessed life to come, as distinct from the new Jerusalem of the millennium. We shall meet with a still further illustration in chapter 66 of this Old Testament custom of reducing the things of the life to come within the limits of this present world.

The Conversion of the Gentiles; The Wickedness of the Jews; The Rejection of the Jews. (b. c.  706.)

1 I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name. 2 I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts; 3 A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick; 4 Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels; 5 Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day. 6 Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom, 7 Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the Lord , which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.

The apostle Paul (an expositor we may depend upon) has given us the true sense of these verses, and told us what was the event they pointed at and were fulfilled in, namely, the calling in of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Jews, by the preaching of the gospel, Rom. x. 20, 21. And he observes that herein Esaias is very bold, not only in foretelling a thing so improbable ever to be brought about, but in foretelling it to the Jews, who would take it as a gross affront to their nation, and therein Moses's words would be made good (Deut. xxxii. 21), I will provoke you to jealousy by those that are no people.

I. It is here foretold that the Gentiles, who had been afar off, should be made nigh, v. 1. Paul reads it thus: I was found of those that sought me not; I was made manifest to those that asked not for me. Observe what a wonderful and blessed change was made with them and how they were surprised into it. 1. Those who had long been without God in the world shall now be set a seeking him; those who had not said, Where is God my maker? shall now begin to enquire after him. Neither they nor their fathers had called upon his name, but either lived without prayer or prayed to stocks and stones, the work of men's hands. But now they shall be baptized and call on the name of the Lord, Acts ii. 21. With what pleasure does the great God here speak of his being sought unto, and how does he glory in it, especially by those who in time past had not asked for him! For there is joy in heaven over great sinners who repent. 2. God shall anticipate their prayers with his blessings: I am found of those that sought me not. This happy acquaintance and correspondence between God and the Gentile world began on his side; they came to know God because they were known of him (Gal. iv. 9), to seek God and find him because they were first sought and found of him. Though in after-communion God is found of those that seek him (Prov. viii. 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. The design of the bounty of common providence to them was that they might seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him and find him, Acts xvii. 27. But they sought him not; still he was to them an unknown God, and yet God was found of them. 3. God gave the advantages of a divine revelation to those who had never made a profession of religion: I said, Behold me, behold me (gave them a sight of me and invited them to take the comfort and benefit of it) to those who were not called by my name, as the Jews for many ages had been. When the apostles went about from place to place, preaching the gospel, this was the substance of what they preached: "Behold God, behold him, turn towards him, fix the eyes of your minds upon him, acquaint yourselves with him, admire him, adore him; look off from your idols that you have made, and look upon the living God who made you." Christ in them said, Behold me, behold me with an eye of faith; look unto me, and be you saved. And this was said to those that had long been lo-ammi, and lo-ruhamah (Hos. i. 8, 9), not a people, and that had not obtained mercy, Rom. ix. 25, 26.

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 v. 2. The apostle applies this to the Jews in his time, as a seed of evil-doers. Rom. x. 21, But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. Here observe,

1. How the Jews were courted to the divine grace. God himself, by his prophets, by his Son, by his apostles, stretched forth his hands to them, as Wisdom did, Prov. i. 24. God spread out his hands to them, as one reasoning and expostulating with them, not only beckoned to them with the finger, but spread out his hands, as being ready to embrace and entertain them, reaching forth the tokens of his favour to them, and importuning them to accept them. When Christ was crucified his hands were spread out and stretched forth, as if he were preparing to receive returning sinners into his bosom; and this all the day, all the gospel-day. He waited to be gracious, and was not weary of waiting; even those that came in at the eleventh hour of the day were not rejected.

2. How they contemned the invitation; it was given to a rebellious and gainsaying people; they were invited to the wedding-supper, and would not come, but rejected the counsel of God against themselves. Now here we have,

(1.) The bad character of this people. The world shall see that it was not for nothing that they were rejected of God; no, it was for their whoredoms that they were put away.

[1.] Their character in general was such as one would not expect of those who had been so much the favourites of Heaven. First, They were very wilful. Right or wrong they would do as they had a mind. "They generally walk on in a way that is not good, not the right way, not a safe way, for they walk after their own thought, their own devices and desires." 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. God had told them his thoughts, what his mind and will were, but they would walk after their own thoughts, would do what they thought best. Secondly, They were very provoking. This was God's complaint of them all along—they grieved him, they vexed his Holy Spirit, as if they would contrive how to make him their enemy: They provoke me to anger continually to my face. They cared not what affront they gave to God, though it were in his sight and presence, in a downright contempt of his authority and defiance of his justice; and this continually; it had been their way and manner ever since they were a people, witness the day of temptation in the wilderness.

[2.] The prophet speaks more particularly of their iniquities and the iniquities of their fathers, as the ground of God's casting them off, v. 7. Now he gives instances of both.

First, The most provoking iniquity of their fathers was idolatry; this, the prophet tells them, was provoking God to his face; and it is an iniquity which, as appears by the second commandment, God often visits upon the children. This was the sin that brought them into captivity, and, though the captivity pretty well cured them of it, yet, when the final ruin of that nation came, that was again brought into the account against them; for in the day when God visits he will visit that, Exod. xxxii. 34. Perhaps there were many, long after the captivity, who, though they did not worship other gods, were yet guilty of the disorders here mentioned; for they married strange wives. 1. They forsook God's temple, and sacrificed in gardens or groves, that they might have the satisfaction of doing it in their own way, for they liked not God's institutions. 2. They forsook God's altar, and burnt incense upon bricks, altars of their own contriving (they burnt incense according to their own inventions, which were of no more value, in comparison with God's institution, than an altar of bricks in comparison with the golden altar which God appointed them to burn incense on), or upon tiles (so some read it), such as they covered their flat-roofed houses with, and on them sometimes they burnt incense to their idols, as appears, 2 Kings xxiii. 12, where we read of altars on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, and Jer. xix. 13, of their burning incense to the host of heaven upon the roofs of their houses. 3. "They used necromancy, or consulting with the dead, and, in order to that, they remained among the graves, and lodged in the monuments," to seek for the living to the dead (ch. viii. 19), as the witch of Endor. Or they used to consult the evil spirits that haunted the sepulchres. 4. They violated the laws of God about their meat, and broke through the distinction between clean and unclean before it was taken away by the gospel. They ate swine's flesh. Some indeed chose rather to die than to eat swine's flesh, as Eleazar and the seven brethren in the story of the Maccabees; but it is probable that many ate of it, especially when it came to be a condition of life. In our Saviour's time we read of a vast herd of swine among them, which gives us cause to suspect that there were many then who made so little conscience of the law as to eat swine's flesh, for which they were justly punished in the destruction of the swine. And the broth, or pieces, of other forbidden meats, called here abominable things, was in their vessels, and was made use of for food. The forbidden meat is called an abomination, and those that meddle with it are said to make themselves abominable, Lev. xi. 42, 43. Those that durst not eat the meat yet made bold with the broth, because they would come as near as might be to that which was forbidden, to show how they coveted the forbidden fruit. Perhaps this is here put figuratively for all forbidden pleasures and profits which are obtained by sin, that abominable thing which the Lord hates; they loved to be dallying with it, to be tasting of its broth. But those who thus take a pride in venturing upon the borders of sin, and the brink of it, are in danger of falling into the depths of it. But,

Secondly, The most provoking iniquity of the Jews in our Saviour's time was their pride and hypocrisy, that sin of the scribes and Pharisees against which Christ denounced so many woes, v. 5. They say, "Stand by thyself, keep off" (get thee to thine, so the original is); "keep to thy own companions, but come not near to me, lest thou pollute me; touch me not; I will not allow thee any familiarity with me, for I am holier than thou, and therefore thou art not good enough to converse with me; I am not as other men are, nor even as this publican." This they were ready to say to every one they met with, so that, in saying, I am holier than thou, they thought themselves holier than any, not only very good, as good as they should be, as good as they needed to be, but better than any of their neighbours. These are a smoke in my nose (says God), such a smoke as comes not from a quick fire, which soon becomes glowing and pleasant, but from a fire of wet wood, which burns all the day, and is nothing but smoke. Note, Nothing in men is more odious and offensive to God than a proud conceit of themselves and contempt of others; for commonly those are most unholy of all that think themselves holier than any.

(2.) The controversy God had with them for this. The proof against them is plain: Behold, it is written before me, v. 6. It is written, to be remembered against them in time to come; for they may not perhaps be immediately reckoned with. The sins of sinners, and particularly the vainglorious boasts and scorns of hypocrites, are laid up in store with God, Deut. xxxii. 34. And what is written shall be read and proceeded upon: "I will not keep silence always, though I may keep silence long." They shall not think him altogether such a one as themselves, as sometimes they have done; but he will recompense, even recompense into their bosom. Those basely abuse religion, that honourable and sacred thing, who make their profession of it the matter of their pride, and the jealous God will reckon with them for it; the profession they boast of shall but serve to aggravate their condemnation. [1.] The iniquity of their fathers shall come against them; not but that their own sin deserved whatever judgments God brought upon them, and much heavier; and this they owned, Ezra ix. 13. But God would not have wrought so great a desolation upon them if he had not therein had an eye to the sins of their fathers. Therefore in the last destruction of Jerusalem God is said to bring upon them the blood of the Old-Testament martyrs, even that of Abel, Matt. xxiii. 35. God will reckon with them, not only for their fathers' idols, but for their high places, their burning incense upon the mountains and the hills, though perhaps it was to the true God only. This was blaspheming or reproaching God; it was a reflection upon the choice he had made of the place where he would record his name, and the promise he had made that there he would meet them and bless them. [2.] Their own with that shall bring ruin upon them: Your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together, the one aggravating the other, constitute the former work, which, though it may seem to be overlooked and forgotten, shall be measured into their bosom. God will render into the bosom, not only of his open enemies (Ps. lxxix. 12), but of his false and treacherous friends, the reproach wherewith they have reproached him.

Promises of Mercy. (b. c. 706.)

8 Thus saith the Lord , As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all. 9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there. 10 And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.

This is expounded by St. Paul, Rom. xi. 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. When that hypocritical nation is to be destroyed God will separate and secure to himself some from among them; some of the Jews shall be brought to embrace the Christian faith, shall be added to the church, and so be saved. And 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 such a degree that no flesh should be saved, Matt. xxiv. 22. Now,

I. This is illustrated here by a comparison, v. 8. When a vine is so blasted and withered that there seems to be no sap nor life in it, and therefore the dresser of the vineyard is inclined to pluck it up or cut it down, yet, if ever so little of the juice of the grape, fit to make new wine, be found, though but in one cluster, a stander-by interposes, and says, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it; there is life in the root, and hope that yet it may become good for something. Good men are blessings to the places where they live; and sometimes God spares whole cities and nations for the sake of a few such in them. How ambitious should we be of this honor, not only to be distinguished from others, but serviceable to others!

II. Here is a description of those that shall make up this saved saving remnant. 1. They are such as serve God. It is for my servants' sake (v. 8), and they are my servants that shall dwell there, v. 9. God's faithful servants, however they are looked upon, are the best friends their country has; and those who serve him do therein serve their generation. 2. They are such as seek God, make it the end of their lives to glorify God and the business of their lives to call upon him. It is for my people that have sought me. Those that seek God shall find him, and shall find him their bountiful rewarder.

III. Here is an account of the mercy God has in store for them. The remnant that shall return out of captivity shall have a happy settlement again in their own land, and that by an hereditary right, as a seed out of Jacob, in whom the family is kept up and the entail preserved, and from whom, as from the seed sown, shall spring a numerous increase; and these typify the remnant of Jacob that shall be incorporated into the gospel church by faith. 1. They shall have a good portion for themselves. They shall inherit my mountains, the holy mountains on which Jerusalem and the temple were built, or the mountains of Canaan, the land of promise, typifying the covenant of grace, which all God's servants, his elect, both inhabit and inherit; they make it their refuge, their rest and residence, so they dwell in it, are at home in it; and they have taken it to be their heritage for ever, and it shall be to them an inheritance incorruptible. God's chosen, the spiritual seed of praying Jacob, shall be the inheritors of his mountains of bliss and joy, and shall be carried safely to them through the vale of tears. 2. They shall have a green pasture for their flocks, v. 10. Sharon and the valley of Achor shall again be as well replenished as ever they were with cattle. Sharon lay westward, near Joppa; Achor lay eastward, near Jordan. It is therefore intimated that they shall recover the possession of the whole land, that they shall have wherewith to stock it all, and that they shall peaceably enjoy it and there shall be none to disturb them nor make them afraid. Gospel-ordinances are the fields and valleys where the sheep of Christ shall go in and out and find pasture (John x. 9), and where they are made to lie down (Ps. xxiii. 2), as Israel's herds in the valley of Achor, Hos. ii. 15.

Predictions of Punishment. (b. c. 706.)

11 But ye are they that forsake the Lord , that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number. 12 Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not. 13 Therefore thus saith the Lord God , Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed: 14 Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit. 15 And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the Lord God shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name: 16 That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.

Here the different states of the godly and wicked, of the Jews that believed and of those that still persisted in unbelief, are set the one over—against the other, as life and death, good and evil, the blessing and the curse.

I. Here is the fearful doom of those that persisted in their idolatry after the deliverance out of Babylon, and in infidelity after the preaching of the gospel of Christ. Observe,

1. What the doom is that is here threatened: "I will number you to the sword as sheep for the slaughter, and there shall be no escaping, no standing out; you shall all bow down to it," v. 12. God's judgments come, (1.) Regularly, and are executed according to the commission. Those fall by the sword that are numbered or counted out to it, and none besides. Though the sword seems to devour promiscuously one as well as another, yet it is made to know its number and shall not exceed. (2.) Irresistibly. The strongest and most stout-hearted sinners shall be forced to bow before them; for none ever hardened their hearts against God and prospered.

2. What the sins are that number them to the sword. (1.) Idolatry was the ancient sin (v. 11): "You are those who, instead of seeking me and serving me as my people, forsake the Lord, disown him, and cast him off to embrace other gods, who forget my holy mountain (the privileges it confers and the obligations it lays you under) to burn incense upon the mountains of your idols (v. 7), and have deserted the one only living and true God." They prepared a table for that troop of deities which the heathen worship and poured out drink-offerings to that numberless number of them; for those that thought one God too little never thought scores and hundreds sufficient, but were still adding to the number of them, till they had as many gods as cities and their altars were as thick as heaps in the furrows of the field, Hos. xii. 11. Some take Gad and Meni, which we translate a troop and a number, to be the proper names of two of their idols, answering to Jupiter and Mercury. Whatever they were, their worshippers spared no cost to do them honour; they prepared a table for them, and filled out mixed wine for drink-offerings to them; they would pinch their families rather than stint their devotions, which should shame the worshippers of the true God out of their niggardliness. (2.) Infidelity was the sin of the later Jews (v. 12): When I called, you did not answer, which refers to the same that v. 2 did (I have stretched out my hands to a rebellious people), and that is applied to those who rejected the gospel. Our Lord Jesus himself called (he stood and cried, John vii. 37), but they did not hear, they would not answer; they were not convinced by his reasonings nor moved by his expostulations; both the fair warnings he gave them of death and ruin and the fair offers he made them of life and happiness were slighted and made no impression upon them. Yet this was not all: You did evil before my eyes, not by surprise, or through inadvertency, but with deliberation: You did choose that wherein I delighted not; he means that which he utterly detested and abhorred. It is not strange that those who will not be persuaded to choose that which is good persist in their choice and pursuit of that which is evil. See the malignity of sin; it is evil in God's eyes, highly offensive to him, and yet it is committed before his eyes, in his sight and presence, and in contempt of him; it is likewise a contradiction to the will of God; it is doing that, of choice, which we know will displease him.

II. The aggravation of this doom, from the consideration of the happy state of those that were brought to repentance and faith.

1. The blessedness of those that serve God, and the woeful 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, v. 13-16. (1.) God's servants may well think themselves happy, and for ever indebted to that free grace which made them so, when they see how miserable some of their neighbours are for want of that grace, who are hardened, and likely to perish for ever in unbelief, and what a narrow escape they had of being among them. See ch. lxvi. 24. (2.) It will add to the grief of those that perish to see the happiness of God's servants (whom they had hated, and vilified, and looked upon with the utmost disdain), and especially to think that they might have shared in their bliss if it had not been their own fault. It made the torment of the rich man in hell the more grievous that he saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom, Luke xvi. 23. See Luke xiii. 28. Sometimes the providence of God makes such a difference as this between good and bad in this world, and the prosperity of the righteous becomes a grievous eye-sore and vexation of heart to the wicked (Ps. cxii. 10), and it will certainly be so in the great day. We fools counted his life madness and his end without honour; but now how is he numbered with the saints and his lot is among the chosen. Now,

2. The difference of their states lies in two things:—

(1.) In point of comfort and satisfaction. [1.] God's servants shall eat and drink; they shall have the bread of life to feed, to feast upon, continually, shall be abundantly replenished with the goodness of his house, and shall want nothing that is good for them. Heaven's happiness will be to them an everlasting feast; they shall be filled with that which now they hunger and thirst after. But those who set their hearts upon the world, and place their happiness in that, shall be hungry and thirsty, always empty, always craving; for it is not bread; it surfeits, but it satisfies not. In communion with God, and dependence upon him, there is full satisfaction; but in sinful pursuits there is nothing but disappointment. [2.] 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; and, as far as faith is in act and exercise, they have a heart to rejoice, and their joy is their strength. They shall rejoice in their hope, because it shall not make them ashamed. Heaven will be a world of everlasting joy to all that are now sowing in tears. But, on the other hand, those 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, perhaps in this world, when their laughter shall be turned into mourning and their joy into heaviness, and certainly in that world where the torment will be endless, easeless, and remediless—nothing but weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, to eternity. Let these two be compared, Now he is comforted and thou art tormented, and which of the two will we choose to take our lot with?

(2.) In point of honour and reputation, v. 15, 16. The memory of the just is, and shall be, blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot. [1.] The name of the idolaters and unbelievers shall be left for a curse, shall be loaded with ignominy and made for ever infamous. It shall be used in giving bad characters—Thou art as cruel as a Jew; and in imprecation—God make thee as miserable as a Jew. It shall be for a curse to God's chosen, that is, for a warning to them; they shall be afraid of falling under the curse upon the Jewish nation, of perishing after the same example of unbelief. The curse of those whom God rejects should make his chosen stand in awe. The Lord God shall slay thee; he shall quite extirpate the Jews and cut them off from being a people; they shall no longer live as a nation, nor ever be incorporated again. [2.] The name of God's chosen shall become a blessing: He shall call his servants by another name. The children of the covenant shall no longer be called Jews, but Christians; and to them, under that name, all the promises and privileges of the new covenant shall be secured. This other name shall be an honourable name; it shall not be confined to one nation, but with it men shall bless themselves in the earth, all the world over. God shall have servants out of all nations who shall all be dignified with this new name. They shall bless themselves in the God of truth. First, They shall give honour to God both in their prayers and in their solemn oaths, in their addresses for his favour as their felicity and their appeals to his justice as their Judge. This is a part of the homage we owe to God; we must bless ourselves in him, that is, we must reckon that we have enough to make us happy, that we need no more, and can desire no more, if we have him for our God. It is of great consequence what we bless ourselves in, what we most please ourselves with and value ourselves by our interest in. Worldly people bless themselves in the abundance they have of this world's goods (Ps. xlix. 18; Luke xii. 19); but God's servants bless themselves in him, as a God all-sufficient for them. He is their crown of glory and diadem of beauty, their strength and portion. By him also they shall swear, and not by any creature or any false god. To his judgment they shall refer their cause, from whom every man's judgment doth proceed. Secondly, They shall give honour to him as the God of truth, the God of the Amen (so the word is); some understand it of Christ who is himself the Amen, the faithful witness (Rev. iii. 14), and in whom all the promises are yea and amen, 2 Cor. i. 20. In him we must bless ourselves, and by him we must swear unto the Lord and covenant with him. He that is blessed in the earth (so some read it) shall be blessed in the true God, for Christ is the true God and eternal life, 1 John v. 20. And it was promised of old that in him all the families of the earth should be blessed, Gen. xii. 3. Some read it, He shall bless himself in the God of the faithful people, in God as the God of all believers, desiring no more than to share in the blessings wherewith they are blessed, to be dealt with as he deals with them. Thirdly, They shall give him honour as the author of this blessed change which they have the experience of; they shall think themselves happy in having him for their God who has made them to forget their former troubles, the remembrance of them being swallowed up in their present comforts: Because they are hidden from God's eyes, that is, they are quite taken away; for, if there were any remainder of their troubles, God would be sure to have his eye upon it, in compassion to them and concern for them. They shall no longer feel them; for God will no longer see them. He is pleased to speak as if he would make himself easy by making them easy; and therefore they shall with a great deal of satisfaction bless themselves in him.

Predictions of Happiness. (b. c. 706.)

17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. 18 But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. 19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. 20 There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. 21 And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. 22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 23 They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord , and their offspring with them. 24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. 25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord .

If these promises were in part fulfilled when the Jews, after their return out of captivity, were settled in peace in their own land and brought as it were into a new world, yet they were to have their full accomplishment in the gospel church, militant first and at length triumphant. The Jerusalem that is from above is free and is the mother of us all. In the graces and comforts which believers have in and from Christ we are to look for this new heaven and new earth. It is in the gospel that old things have passed away and all things have become new, and by it that those who are in Christ are new creatures, 2 Cor. v. 17. It was a mighty and happy change that was described v. 16, that the former troubles were forgotten; but here it rises much higher: even the former world shall be forgotten and shall no more come into mind. Those that were converted to the Christian faith were so transported with the comforts of it that all the comforts they were before acquainted with became as nothing to them; not only their foregoing griefs, but their foregoing joys, were lost and swallowed up in this. The glorified saints will therefore have forgotten this world, because they will be entirely taken up with the other: For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. See how inexhaustible the divine power is; the same God that created one heaven and earth can create another. See how entire the happiness of the saints is; it shall be all of a piece; with the new heavens God will create them (if they have occasion for it to make them happy) a new earth too. The world is yours if you be Christ's, 1 Cor. iii. 22. When God is reconciled to us, which gives us a new heaven, the creatures too are reconciled to us, which gives us a new earth. The future glory of the saints will be so entirely different from what they ever knew before that it may well be called new heavens and a new earth, 2 Pet. iii. 13. Behold, I make all things new, Rev. xxi. 5.

I. There shall be new joys. For, 1. All the church's friends, and all that belong to her, shall rejoice (v. 18): You shall be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create. The new things which God creates in and by his gospel are and shall be matter of everlasting joy to all believers. My servants shall rejoice (v. 13), at last they shall, though now they mourn. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. 2. The church shall be the matter of their joy, so pleasant, so prosperous, shall her condition be: I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy. The church shall not only rejoice but be rejoiced in. Those that have sorrowed with the church shall rejoice with her. 3. The prosperity of the church shall be a rejoicing to God himself, who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servants (v. 19): I will rejoice in Jerusalem's joy, and will joy in my people; for in all their affliction he was afflicted. God will not only rejoice in the church's well-doing, but will himself rejoice to do her good and rest in his love to her, Zeph. iii. 17. What God rejoices in it becomes us to rejoice in. 4. There shall be no allay of this joy, nor any alteration of this happy condition of the church: The voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her. If this relate to any state of the church in this life, it means no more than that the former occasions of grief shall not return, but God's people shall long enjoy an uninterrupted tranquillity. But in heaven it shall have a full accomplishment, in respect both of the perfection and the perpetuity of the promised joy; there all tears shall be wiped away.

II. There shall be new life, v. 20. Untimely deaths by the sword or sickness shall be no more known as they have been, and by this means there shall be no more the voice of crying, v. 19. When there shall be no more death there shall be no more sorrow, Rev. xxi. 4. As death has reigned by sin, so life shall reign by righteousness, Rom. v. 14, 21. 1. Believers through Christ shall be satisfied with life, though it be ever so short on earth. If an infant end its days quickly, yet it shall not be reckoned to die untimely; for the shorter its life is the longer will its rest be. Though death reign over those that have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, yet they, dying in the arms of Christ, the second Adam, and belonging to his kingdom, are not to be called infants of days, but even the child shall be reckoned to die a hundred years old, for he shall rise again at full age, shall rise to eternal life. Some understand it of children who in their childhood are so eminent for wisdom and grace, and by death nipped in the blossom, that they may be said to die a hundred years old. And, as for old men, it is promised that they shall fill their days with the fruits of righteousness, which they shall still bring forth in old age, to show that the Lord is upright, and then it is a good old age. An old man who is wise, and good, and useful, may truly be said to have filled his days. Old men who have their hearts upon the world have never filled their days, never have enough of this world, but would still continue longer in it. But that man dies old, and satur dierum—full of days, who, with Simeon, having seen God's salvation, desires now to depart in peace. 2. Unbelievers shall be unsatisfied and unhappy in life, though it be ever so long. The sinner, though he live to a hundred years old, shall be accursed. His living so long shall be no token to him of the divine favour and blessing, nor shall it be any shelter to him from the divine wrath and curse. The sentence he lies under will certainly be executed, and his long life is but a long reprieve; nay, it is itself a curse to him, for the longer he lives the more wrath he treasures up against the day of wrath and the more sins he will have to answer for. So that the matter is not great whether our lives on earth be long or short, but whether we live the lives of saints or the lives of sinners.

III. There shall be a new enjoyment of the comforts of life. Whereas before it was very uncertain and precarious, their enemies inhabited the houses which they built and ate the fruit of the trees which they planted, now it shall be otherwise; they shall build houses and inhabit them, shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them, v. 21, 22. Their intimates that the labour of their hands shall be blessed and be made to prosper; they shall gain what they aimed at, and what they have gained shall be preserved and secured to them; they shall enjoy it comfortably, and nothing shall embitter it to them, and they shall live to enjoy it long. Strangers shall not break in upon them, to expel them, and plant themselves in their room, as sometimes they have done: My elect shall wear out, or long enjoy, the work of their hands; it is honestly got, and it will wear well; it is the work of their hands, which they themselves have laboured for, and it is most comfortable to enjoy that, and not to eat the bread of idleness, or bread of deceit. If we have a heart to enjoy it, that is the gift of God's grace (Eccl. iii. 13); and, if we live to enjoy it long, it is the gift of God's providence, for that is here promised: As the days of a tree are the days of my people; as the days of an oak (ch. vi. 13), whose substance is in it, though it cast its leaves; though it be stripped every winter, it recovers itself again, and lasts many ages; as the days of the tree of life; so the LXX. Christ is to them the tree of life, and in him believers enjoy all those spiritual comforts which are typified by the abundance of temporal blessings here promised; and it shall not be in the power of their enemies to deprive them of these blessings or disturb them in the enjoyment of them.

IV. There shall be a new generation rising up in their stead to inherit and enjoy these blessings (v. 23): They shall not labour in vain, for they shall not only enjoy the work of their hands themselves, but they shall leave it with satisfaction to those that shall come after them, and not with such a melancholy prospect as Solomon did, Eccl. ii. 18, 19. They shall not beget and bring forth children for trouble; for they are themselves the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and there is a blessing entailed upon them by descent from their ancestors which their offspring with them shall partake of, and shall be, as well as they, the seed of the blessed of the Lord. They shall not bring forth for trouble; for, 1. God will make their children that rise up comforts to them; they shall have the joy of seeing them walk in the truth. 2. He will make the times that come after comfortable to their children. As they shall be good, so it shall be well with them; they shall not be brought forth to days of trouble; nor shall it ever be said, Blessed is the womb that bore not. In the gospel church Christ's name shall be borne up by a succession. A seed shall serve him (Ps. xxii. 30), the seed of the blessed of the Lord.

V. There shall be a good correspondence between them and their God (v. 24): Even before they call, I will answer. God will anticipate their prayers with the blessings of his goodness. David did but say, I will confess, and God forgave, Ps. xxxii. 5. The father of the prodigal met him in his return. While they are yet speaking, before they have finished their prayer, I will give them the thing they pray for, or the assurances and earnests of it. These are high expressions of God's readiness to hear prayer; and this appears much more in the grace of the gospel than it did under the law; we owe the comfort of it to the mediation of Christ as our advocate with the Father and are obliged in gratitude to give a ready ear to God's calls.

VI. There shall be a good correspondence between them and their neighbours (v. 25): The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, as they did in Noah's ark. God's people, though they are as sheep in the midst of wolves, shall be safe and unhurt; for God will not so much break the power and tie the hands of their enemies as formerly, but he will turn their hearts, will alter their dispositions by his grace. When Paul, who had been a persecutor of the disciples (and who, being of the tribe of Benjamin, ravened as a wolf, Gen. xlix. 27) joined himself to them and became one of them, then the wolf and the lamb fed together. So also when the enmity between Jews and Gentiles was slain, all hostilities ceased, and they fed together as one sheepfold under Christ the great Shepherd, John x. 16. The enemies of the church ceased to do the mischief they had done, and its members ceased to be so quarrelsome with and injurious to one another as they had been, so that there was none either from without or from within to hurt or destroy, none to disturb it, much less to ruin it, in all the holy mountain; as was promised, ch. xi. 9. For, 1. Men shall be changed: The lion shall no more be a beast of prey, as perhaps he never would have been if sin had not entered, but shall eat straw like the bullock, shall know his owner, and his master's crib, as the ox does. When those that lived by spoil and rapine, and coveted to enrich themselves, right or wrong, are brought by the grace of God to accommodate themselves to their condition, to live by honest labour, and to be content with such things as they have—when those that stole steal no more, but work with their hands the thing that is good—then this is fulfilled, that the lion shall eat straw like the bullock. 2. Satan shall be chained, the dragon bound; for dust shall be the serpent's meat again. That great enemy, when he has been let loose, has glutted and regaled himself with the precious blood of saints, who by his instigation have been persecuted, and with the precious souls of sinners, who by his instigation have become persecutors and have ruined themselves for ever; but now he shall be confined to dust, according to the sentence, On thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat, Gen. iii. 14. All the enemies of God's church, that are subtle and venomous as serpents, shall be conquered and subdued, and be made to lick the dust, Christ shall reign as Zion's King till all the enemies of his kingdom be made his footstool, and theirs too. In the holy mountain above, and there only, shall this promise have its full accomplishment, that there shall be none to hurt nor destroy.

CHAP. LXV.

Piſcat.Ver. 1. I Am ſought of them that asked not for me] I am ſought, that is, I am found, as Eccleſ. 3.6. Or, I am ſought to by thoſe that asked not of me, viz. by the Gentiles who knew me not, enquired not of me. See Rom. 10.20, 21. where the Apoſtle (then whom we cannot have a better Interpreter) expoundeth this verſe of the calling of the Gentiles; and the next verſe, of the rejection of the Jews: and herein Eſaias was very bold, ſaith St. Paul: ſo bold, ſay Origen and others, that for this cauſe, among others, he was ſawn aſunder by his unworthy Countrey-men. See on chap. 1.10.

I am found of them that ſought me not] The firſt act of our Coverſion then (the infuſion of the ſap) is of God: our will prevents it not, but followes it. See 2 Cor. 3.5. Rom. 8.7. Joh. 6.44. 1 Cor. 12.3. Deut. 29.3, 4. Pſal. 36.10. Note this againſt the Patrons of Nature, Free-will men, Papiſts eſpecially, who not only aſcribe the beginning of ſalvation to themſelves in coworking with God in their firſt converſion, but alſo the end and the accompliſhment of it, by works of condignity, meritorious of eternal life.

I ſaid, Behold me, behold me] We are not eaſily arrouſed out of that dead Lethargy into which ſin and Satan hath caſt us: hence this Lo I, Lo I. And here we have both Gods anſwer to the Churches prayer, chap. 64. and the ſcope of the whole book (as Oecolampadius obſerveth) ſet down in the percloſe: viz. the coming in of the Gentiles, and the caſting off of the Jews, for their many and mighty ſins, Amos 5.12.

Prov. 1.24. Act. 26.1.Ver. 2. I have ſpred out my hands] A Preachers uſe to do, or as thoſe that invite and becken others to themſelves with the hand: See Mat. 11.28.

Ʋnto a rebellious people] Whoſe deſtruction therefore is of themſelves, ſith they will not be ruled, reclaimed.

After their own thoughts] Which were evil, only evil, continually ſo. A Toad may as eaſily ſpet a cordial, as a natural man think a good thought.

Ver. 3. A people that provoketh me — to my face] As it were for the nouce, in deſpite and defiance of me. Siquis me in faciem depalmaret, vix indignius eſſem laturus: I could almoſt as well bear a blow on the face.

And burneth incenſe upon altars of brick] Erected on the houſe-tops,Lateres per Meioſin cum contemptu. 2 King. 33.12. Zeph. 1.5. they ſhould have offered on the golden altar only, Exod. 30.

Ver. 4. Which remain among the graves] Which uſe Necromancy and conſult with devils, (as Saul did and dyed for it) contrary to Deut. 18.11. See chap. 8.19. Mark. 5.5. with the Notes. This they had learned of the Heathens, with whom it was common, as Tertullian teacheth.

And lodge in the monuments] As beleeving that there they ſhould dream dreams divinatory, or have revelations in the night. By ſuch ill arts as theſe, Timotheus Herulus made himſelf Biſhop of Alexandria, Anno 467. and Boniface 8. gulled Celeſtine 5. of the Popedome, Anno 1295. Some render it,Jun. Piſcat. that lodge with the kept ones, i. e. with their Idols, which they were fain to keep, for fear they ſhould be ſtollen.

That eat ſwines-fleſh] Which was flatly forbidden, Lev. 11.7. and which thoſe Martyrs in the Maccabees would rather dye than do. But theſe belly-gods, who like ſwine, had their ſouls only to keep their bodies from putrifying? ſecurely violated this plain law: gratifying their luſts, and making their gut their God.

And broth of abominable things is in their veſſels] They had animos in patinis, Porcus quaſi ſpureus. Rupert. catinis, calicibus, &c. Therein they kept the broth of their ſwines-fleſh which they offered, and in offering eat of. But what ſaith one from this text? men muſt not only abhorre the Devils beef, but his broth too; all occaſions, appearances.

Ver. 5. Which ſay, Stand by thy ſelf, come not near to me] Theſe Jews were all manner of naughts (and therefore worthily rejected by God) Necromancers, Idolaters, Epicures, groſs hypocrites, as here their words (full of pride and contempt of others) ſhew them to be. Such were the Phariſees with their Sanctior ſum quam tu: Luk. 7.39. the Monkes and Maſſe-Prieſts among the Papiſts, and the Browniſts with their broad leaves of formal profeſſion amongſt us. Abbots his trial of Church forſakers, pag. 148. From Mat. 18.19. becauſe Chriſt promiſeth not doing for them that ask, except they agree on earth, Browniſts peremptorily conclude, that they ought not to pray with them that do not conſent with them in their opinions: nor will they pray with their own wives and children, though never ſo pious, if they do not meet in the ſame center of conceits.

Theſe are a ſmoke in my noſe, a fire that burneth all the day] i. e. A continual offence to me, as ſmoke is to the noſe and eyes, Prov. 10.20. and ſhall be perpetually tormented by me in the hotteſt fire of hell; whereof hypocrites are the free-holders, and other ſinners are but tenants as it were to them; whiles they are ſaid to have their portion with the Devil and hypocrites. Some think he hinteth at their ſmoking and ſacrificing in their gardens and groves, ver. 3.

Ver. 6. Behold it is written before me] Heb. before my face, as your ſins were committed to my face, ver. 3. which therefore I ſhall ſurely remember and puniſh.

But will recompenſe, even recompenſe] Certo, cito, penitus, ſurely, ſeverely, ſuddainly: you may write upon't.

Ver. 7. Your iniquities and the iniquities of your Fathers together] Your vain converſation received by tradition from your Fathers, 1 Pet. 1.18. whom you have ſtriven to out-ſin. See Gen. 15.16. Mat. 23.32, 35, 36. and 27.25. 1 Theſ. 2.15, 16.

And blaſphemed me upon the hills] Or, reproached or diſhonoured me: diſpleaſing ſervice is double diſhonour; becauſe men diſhonour God in that wherein they pretend (or preſume at leaſt) to pleaſe him. Such are all Popiſh will worſhippers: neither will it help them to plead the example of their fore-Fathers: for here that of the Prophet Ezekiel, chap. 20. ſhould take place, Walk ye not in the wayes of your Fathers.

Therefore will I meaſure — into their boſom] Or Lap, very largely. See Pſal. 79.12. Luk. 6.38. I will pay them home, for the new and the old together.

Ver. 8. Thus ſaith the Lord] This he ſaith in effect, I will not deſtroy the righteous with the wicked, but ſtill reſerve a ſeed, a remnant: and this he ſetteth forth by a fine and fit compariſon; even as the husbandman, if he find any wine in the cluſter, that is, any life or ſap in the vine, cutteth it not down utterly.

So will I do for my ſervants ſake] Few though they be, even as one cluſter of grapes upon a vine, yet becauſe they are botri muſtei, cluſters full of new and ſweet wine, full of the juyce of piety, they ſhall be preſerved.

Ver. 9. And I will bring forth a ſeed out of Jacob] The good husband keeps ſome of his corn for ſeed: which though it be not much, yet it will come to much.

And mine elect ſhall inherit it] i. e. Reinhabit the land; a type of the laſt converſion of the Jews to Chriſt, Rom. 11.25, 26.

Ver. 10. And Sharon ſhall be a fold of flocks] The fieldlings ſhall be folds; and I will feed them dayly and daintily, Pſal. 23.1. with my graces and bleſſings. Sharon is a very ſweet and fruitful quarter reaching from Caeſarea of Paleſtine to Joppa: Achor is alſo a very rich vale near Jericho Northward, Joſh. 3.16. their firſt footing in the promiſed land. By both theſe they are aſſured, that they ſhall want for nothing, and leaſt of all for the Word of God, the food of their ſouls.

Ver. 11. But ye are they that forſake the Lord] Or, As for you, that have forſaken the Lord, to obſerve lying vanities, and ſo are miſerable by your own election, Jo[illegible: 1 letter]. 2.8. you ſhall be yet more miſerable at the great day of Judgment eſpecially, of which ſome take this following part of the Chapter to be meant and intended. Then theſe improbi & reprobi ſhall be ſure to ſmoke for it: then they ſhall return and diſcern betwixt the righteous and the wicked: yea the Judge himſelf ſhall ſhew them a manifeſt difference, as ver. 13, 14, 15, &c.

That forget my holy mountain] i. e. My Temple and pure worſhip, which ye ſlight and neglect, q. d. there is no new wine in your cluſter, but rather gall and deadly poiſon: therefore it ſhall be otherwiſe with you.

That prepare a table for that troop] As the Iſraelites feaſted before the Lord, Deut. 16.14, 15. ſo in an apiſh imitation did the heathens before their Idols, Judg. 9.27. Ezek. 18.6, 7. 1 Cor. 8.10. and of them theſe ſuperſtitious Jews had learned to do the like, in the dayes of Ahaz and Manaſſeh, who degenerated into his Grand-Father Ahaz, as if there had been no intervention of an Hezekiah.

For that troop] So the Prophet ſpeaketh, as pointing to their Idols, whereof they had great ſtore. Gad (here uſed) and Menni (rendered Number here likewiſe) ſome interpret Fortune and Fate; others, Jupiter and Mercury. The Septuagint for to that Number, hath to the Devil. Oecolampadius thinks the Prophet alludeth to the Pythagorean numbers: [non-Latin text not transcribed]. and eſpecially to the number of four, which they ſuperſtitiouſly obſerved. Others ſay, the Jews ſymbolized with the Heathens in drinking to their Idols by number: to ſuch an Idol they would drink ſo many cups, and that was called a Drink-offering to that Number. Hence Antiphanes in Athenaeus ſaith, Lib. 10.Aduſque tria pocula venerandos eſſe deos.

Ver. 12. Therefore I will number you to the ſword] Eſt elegans Paronomaſia: I will give you up to the ſword by number and tale; to the end that none of you may eſcape. God uſually retaliateth, and proportioneth number to number: ſo, choice to choice, chap. 66.3, 4. jealouſy to jealouſy, provocation to provocation, Deut. 32.21. device to device, Mic. 2.1, 3. frowardneſs to frowadrneſs, Pſal. 18.26.

And ye ſhall all bow down to the ſlaughter] As you uſed to bow down to your Idols.

Becauſe when I called ye did not anſwer] See on Prov. 1.24.

But did evil before mine eyes] Did evil things as you could, Jer. 3.5. with both hands earneſtly, Mic. 7.3.

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

But ye ſhall be aſhamed] Your hopes and hearts failing you together, ye ſhall pine away in your iniquities, Ezek. 24.23.

Ver. 14. Behold my ſervants ſhall ſing] In the tranſgreſſion of an evil man there is a ſnare, or a cord to ſtrangle his joys with: but the righteous doth ſing and rejoyce, Prov. 29.6. See the Note there.

And ſhall howl] When ye come to Hell eſpecially, where is wailing, and yelling, and gnaſhing of teeth.

Ver. 15. And ye ſhall leave your name for a curſe] So that when mine Elect ſhal denounce my curſe againſt any one, they ſhall ſay, God make thee ſuch another as was ſuch a curſed caytiff. See Jer. 24.9. & 29.22. & 34.9. See Zach. 8.13. with the Note. Judaeus ſim ſi fallo, ſay the Turks at this day: As hard-hearted and unhappy as a Jew, ſay we.

And call his ſervants by another name] Jews inwardly, Iſraelites indeed, Chriſtians, a choſen Generation, a royal Prieſt-hood, an holy Nation, a peculiar People, 1 Pet. 2.9. The wicked, when they dye, go out in a ſnuff, leave a ſtench behind them, as they ſay the Devil doth, when he goeth out of a room: but when the Saints depart, they leave a ſweet ſmell behind them, as thoſe lamps do that are fed with aromatical oyle. Yea it is more then probable, that in the next world, we ſhall look upon Bradford, and ſuch, with thoughts of extraordinary love and ſweetneſs, through all eternity; as Bonner and ſuch, with execration and everlaſting deteſtation.

Ver. 16. That he who bleſſeth himſelf in the earth, &c.] Or, that bleſſeth, either himſelf or any other.

Shall bleſs himſelf in the God of truth] Heb. ſhall bleſs in the God of Amen, that is, ſay ſome, in Chriſt who is Amen the faithful and true witneſs, Rev. 3.14. in whom all the Promiſes are Yea and Amen, 2 Cor. 1.20. and who was wont often to ſay Amen, Amen. Others render it thus, Benedicat ſibi per Deum firmi, ſhall bleſs himſelf by the God of the firm or faithful people, founded and rooted in God, ſo as that the gates of Hell ſhall not prevail againſt them.

Shall ſwear by the God of truth] Or, by the God of the firm and faithful people, as before.

Becauſe the former troubles are forgotten] Rememberd no otherwiſe then as waters that are paſt. See Zach. 10.6. with the Note.

Ver. 17. For behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth] I am making of a new world, that is, Goſpel-times, called a new Creation, 2 Cor. 5.17. and the world to come, Heb. 2.5. Heaven aforehand, Matth. 3.2. The conſummation hereof we are to expect at the laſt day, 2 Pet. 3.13. Rev. 21.1, 5. when the former ſhall not be remembred, nor come into mind, becauſe the Lord, who made Heaven and Earth, ſhall bleſs his people out of Zion, Pſal. 134.3.

Ver. 18. But be glad and rejoyce for ever] what can ye be leſs then everlaſtingly merry when you conſider your Goſpel-priviledges? which are ſuch as may well ſwallow up all diſcontents, and make you more then Conquerours, and that is, Triumphers.

For behold I create Jeruſalem a rejoycing] Creo talem Jeruſalem ut ſit ei nomen Tripudium, & populus ejus vocetur Gaudium. Oecol. Hence it appeareth that theſe things are not to be taken according to the letter: but of Jeruſalem which is above, that mother of us all.

Ver. 19. And I will rejoyce in Jeruſalem] Well may Jeruſalem then rejoyce in in God: who as in all her afflictions he is afflicted, ſo he taketh pleaſure in the proſperity of his people.

And the voice of weeping] See chap. 35.11. & 51.12. Rev. 21.4.

Ver. 20. There ſhall be no more thence an infant of dayes] This verſe (as ſome others) had been eaſie, had not Commentatours made it ſo knotty. There ſhall be no more thence, that is, from Jeruſalem, ver. 19. an infant of dayes or a childe for dayes, viz. that ſhall ſo dye by an untimely death: for longevity is the bleſſing here promiſed.

Nor an old man that hath not filled his daies] That hath not lived his utmoſt, ſatur dierum, as Abraham.

For the child ſhall dye an hundred years old] i. e. He that is now a childe, ſhall live till he be ſo many year old. Note this againſt thoſe that otherwiſe underſtand the words, and have therehence fiſhed out many frivolous crotchets, too long here to be related.Hinc proverb. Puer centum annorum.

But the ſinner being an hundred year old ſhall be accurſed] And the more accurſed, becauſe ſo long-lived, and yet dyeth in his ſin; going down to the grave with his bones full of the ſins of his youth. See Eccleſ. 8.12, 13. with the Notes.

Ver. 21. And they ſhall build houſes and inhabit them] The contrary whereunto is threatned againſt the wicked, Deut. 28.30, &c. Gods people are freed from the curſe of the Law; from the hurt, if not from the ſmart of afflictions.

Ver. 22. They ſhall not build, and another inhabit] They ſhall not provide for poſterity alone, but live a long while to take benefit of their own labours.

For as the dayes of a tree, are the dayes of my people] i. e. Robuſti atque diuturni, they ſhall be hearty, healthy, and long-laſting, as Pſal. 52.10. & 92.13. even as if they had eaten of that tree of life in Paradiſe.

Ver. 23. They ſhall not labour in vain] As wicked men ſhall, Levit. 26. Deut. 28. Hag. 1.6. See the Note there.

Nor bring forth for trouble] Bring forth children to the murtherer, Hoſ. 9.13. to the great grief and trouble of their poor parents.

Ver. 24. And it ſhall come to paſs, that before they call I will anſwer] Mirabilis certè promiſſio, a wonderful promiſe verily, ſaith Scultetus. The prayers of the Saints do ſooner peirce from their hearts to heaven, then they can find way from their hearts to their mouths. So David found it, Pſal. 32.5. and Daniel, chap. 10.12. and that Prodigal, Luke. 15.18, 20. Our Saviour, who came out of the boſom of the Father, gives two reaſons: 1. The Father himſef loveth you, Joh. 16.27. and love is liberal. 2. The Father knoweth before ye ask, that ye have need of all theſe things, Mat. 6.32.

And while they are yet ſpeaking, I will hear] Thus he heard thoſe praying Iſraelites at the meet at Mizpeh, 1 Sam. 7. David, Pſal. 6.8, 9. Daniel, chap 9.21. Cornelius, Acts 10.3. and his company, ver. 44. Luther when he came leaping out out of his ſtudy (where he had been praying) with Vicimus, Vicimus, in his mouth; the day is ours, we ſhall carry the cauſe.

Antipathiam in ympathiam convertent. Lap. Ver. 25. The wolf and the Lamb ſhall feed together] Heb. as one: See chap. 11.6. There ſhall be an holy harmony of hearts, and all good agreement among Chriſts Subjects; when they come to heaven eſpecially.

And duſt ſhall be the ſerpents meat] He ſhall be held in to his firſt condemnation, Gen. 3.14. The Devil alſo that old ſerpent, ſhall be limited to the heel of the Saints; the head he ſhall not touch: he ſhall be tyed up to his own meat, viz. that unquenchable fire prepared for him and his angels from the beginning.

They ſhall not hurt, &c.] See on chap. 11.9.