Isaiah 66

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

Heaven is My throne

¹ Thus says Yahweh: Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you would build for Me, and where is the place of My rest? ² All these things My hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares Yahweh. But to this one I will look: to him who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at My word. ³ He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog's neck; he who offers a grain offering, like one who offers swine's blood; he who burns frankincense as a memorial, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations; ⁴ so I also will choose harsh treatment for them, and bring their fears upon them; because I called, and no one answered; I spoke, and they did not listen; but they did what was evil in My eyes, and chose that in which I did not delight.

⁵ Hear the word of Yahweh, you who tremble at His word: Your brothers who hate you, who cast you out for My name's sake, have said, "Let Yahweh be glorified, that we may see your joy." But they shall be put to shame. ⁶ A sound of uproar from the city! A sound from the temple! The sound of Yahweh, rendering recompense to His enemies!

Zion gives birth

⁷ Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pain came upon her, she delivered a male child. ⁸ Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be brought forth in one day? Shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children. ⁹ Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth? says Yahweh. Shall I, who cause to bring forth, shut the womb? says your Elohim. ¹⁰ Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her, ¹¹ that you may nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breast, that you may drink deeply and delight yourselves in the abundance of her glory. ¹² For thus says Yahweh: See, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried on her hip and bounced upon her knees. ¹³ As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; and in Jerusalem you shall be comforted. ¹⁴ You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like the new grass; and the hand of Yahweh shall be known toward His servants, but He shall be indignant toward His enemies.

Judgment by fire

¹⁵ For see, Yahweh will come with fire, and His chariots like the whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. ¹⁶ For by fire and by His sword Yahweh will execute judgment on all flesh, and those slain by Yahweh shall be many. ¹⁷ Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one in the midst, eating swine's flesh and the abomination and the mouse, shall be consumed together, declares Yahweh.

All nations will see My glory

¹⁸ For I know their works and their thoughts. The time is coming to gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and see My glory. ¹⁹ And I will set a sign among them, and I will send survivors from them to the nations: to Tarshish, Pul and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away that have not heard My fame or seen My glory; and they shall declare My glory among the nations. ²⁰ And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to Yahweh, on horses and in chariots and in litters, on mules and on swift camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, says Yahweh, just as the children of Israel bring their offering in a clean vessel to the house of Yahweh. ²¹ And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says Yahweh. ²² For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before Me, declares Yahweh, so shall your seed and your name remain. ²³ And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Shabbat to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, says Yahweh. ²⁴ And they shall go out and look on the corpses of the men who have rebelled against Me; for their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.

Notes

• 66:1 Solomon had already confessed, "heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You; how much less this house that I have built!" (1 Kings 8:27). "My rest" is menuchah, the resting place the ark found in the temple (Psalm 132:8). Yahweh does not reject His house; He rejects the idea that a house can hold Him, and looks instead for the humble (verse 2). Stephen quotes verses 1-2 in Acts 7:49-50.
• 66:3 The Hebrew sets the pairs side by side with no "like": "he who slaughters an ox, he who kills a man." Most read it as the TRB does: when offered by people who have chosen their own ways, a lawful sacrifice is as hateful to Yahweh as murder or an unclean offering (compare 1:11-15). Some read it as people who do both, offering at the temple and also taking part in pagan rites.
• 66:5 "Those who tremble" is charedim (verses 2 and 5), the word Ezra uses for "everyone who trembled at the words of the Elohim of Israel" (Ezra 9:4). Here they are mocked and cast out by their own brothers, yet Yahweh takes their side.
• 66:13 Isaiah's book of comfort opened with "Comfort, comfort My people, says your Elohim" (40:1); it closes with Yahweh Himself comforting His people as a mother comforts her child. The verb is the same, nacham, three times in this verse.
• 66:17 These people make themselves "holy" and "pure" for rites in the gardens (65:3), behind one who leads in the middle, and eat what the Torah forbids: the pig, of which it says "it is unclean to you" (Leviticus 11:7); sheqets, "the abomination," the word of Leviticus 11:10 for creatures that are "detestable to you"; and "the mouse" (Leviticus 11:29). In the day Yahweh comes with fire, eating these things is still counted among the deeds He judges.
• 66:19 The survivors become messengers to the far nations of the table in Genesis 10: Tarshish, Tubal and Javan (Greece) among the sons of Japheth (Genesis 10:2, 4), and Lud (Genesis 10:22). Pul is unknown elsewhere as a people; the ancient Greek translation reads Put, a people of Africa (Genesis 10:6). Their task is the psalm's call, "Declare His glory among the nations" (Psalm 96:3).
• 66:20 "Offering" is minchah, the grain offering brought in a clean vessel: the nations will carry Israel's scattered brothers home to Jerusalem as a holy gift to Yahweh (compare 49:22). Paul describes his own work among the nations with the picture of an offering acceptable to Elohim (Romans 15:16).
• 66:23 "New moon" is chodesh, which means both "new moon" and "month" (so some Bibles, such as the Reina-Valera, say "from month to month"). In this picture of the new heavens and new earth (verse 22), the new moons and Shabbats still mark the times of worship, and now "all flesh" comes, not Israel alone. The book that opened with Yahweh refusing new moons and Shabbats kept with bloody hands (1:13-14) ends with all flesh coming to worship before Him new moon after new moon and Shabbat after Shabbat.
• 66:24 The book ends where it began, with rebels against Yahweh (1:2) and a fire that no one quenches (1:31). "Abhorrence" is deraon, found elsewhere only in Daniel 12:2, of those who awake to everlasting shame. Yeshua uses this verse for Gehenna, named after the valley outside Jerusalem where children had been burned to Molech (Mark 9:43-48; 2 Kings 23:10). In later Jewish custom, when the end of Isaiah is read in the synagogue, verse 23 is read again after verse 24 so that the reading ends with worship rather than judgment; the same is done at the end of Malachi, Lamentations and Ecclesiastes.

Isaiah 65 · Jeremiah 1

Open in the study app