Isaiah 65 - Introduction

Threats and Promises, addressed to Two distinct Parties

The chapter may be divided into two nearly equal portions:

i. Isa 65:1-12. A contrast is drawn between the servants of Jehovah and a party who have apostatised from the true religion.

(1) Isaiah 65:1. The divine speaker complains that His gracious invitations have been scorned by an "obdurate people" (Isaiah 65:1), who have provoked Him continually by scandalous and abominable superstitions (Isaiah 65:3), and against whom He now pronounces a final sentence of rejection (Isaiah 65:6).

(2) Isaiah 65:8. The method of Jehovah's dealings with Israel illustrated by a figure from the vintage. As the grape cluster is spared for the sake of the new wine that is in it, so for the sake of the spiritual principle embodied in Israel, Jehovah will "not destroy the whole" (Isaiah 65:8). On the contrary a seed shall be brought forth from Jacob to inherit the Holy Land from the west to the east (Isaiah 65:9).

(3) Isaiah 65:11. The schismatics, here directly addressed as they that "forsake the Lord" and repudiate the Temple worship in their service of strange gods, are threatened with extinction. The first section ends, as it began, by reminding the apostates of the overtures of Divine love and condescension which they had so wantonly spurned.

ii. Isa 65:13-25. The final separation of the two classes.

(1) Isaiah 65:13. The future of the idolaters is more explicitly contrasted with that of the "servants" of Jehovah (Isaiah 65:13 f.). The former shall be annihilated, leaving behind them nothing but a name for a formula of imprecation (Isaiah 65:15); while Jehovah's true servants remain in the land to "bless themselves in the God of truth" (Isaiah 65:16).

(2) Isaiah 65:17. The blessings reserved for the people of God in the Messianic age: an entire transformation of the conditions of human existence, compared to the creation of "new heavens and a new earth" (Isaiah 65:17); Jehovah's delight in His handiwork dissipating the sorrows of earth (18, 19); patriarchal longevity (20); undisturbed possession of the land (21 23); immediate answer to prayer (24); and harmony in the animal world (25) are the features of this captivating picture of the latter days.

In the view of most expositors ch. 65 is Jehovah's answer to the preceding intercession (Isaiah 63:7 to Isaiah 64:12). But this connexion, as Cheyne has long insisted, is far from obvious and probably does violence to the natural interpretation of Isaiah 65:1. The persons there referred to are sharply and explicitly distinguished from those in whose name the prayer is uttered. The community which in Isaiah 64:9 says, "We are allthy people" cannot surely have included amongst its members the openly pagan party described in Isaiah 65:3 ff., Isaiah 65:8 ff. And to suppose the meaning to be that Jehovah has always been ready to answer prayer, but must first effect a separation between the two classes, is very like an attempt to force a connexion where none exists. The theory becomes still more untenable when we take into account the extremely close resemblance between ch. 65 and 66. It is safer to regard these two Chapter s as one continuous discourse, complete in itself, and having no special reference to what immediately precedes.

The situation presupposed by this chapter and the next presents many features of great interest and importance. On the whole the impression is confirmed that in this part of the book we have to do with prophecies delivered in Palestine, at a time subsequent to the Restoration. The notes will supply some indications of this; and there appears to be nothing which really countenances the idea that the author lived among the exiles in Babylon. The most important fact is the sharp division of parties, already referred to, which runs through the prophecy. This fact may be explained in two ways: (1) It may be merely the distinction, which always existed in Israel, between the godly kernel of the nation and the great mass who were addicted to heathen practices. The antithesis in this case would be largely ideal, being obvious from the point of view of the prophet and those who shared his faith, but not recognised by their opponents. But this conception hardly corresponds to the state of things revealed by the allusions of the prophecy. The separation is open and acknowledged on both sides; each party excommunicates the other (Isaiah 66:5); and the apostates maintain an attitude of opposition to the Temple at Jerusalem (Isaiah 65:11). (2) The second theory may better enable us to comprehend this situation. It is the same as was already suggested by ch. Isaiah 57:3 ff., viz., that the schismatics referred to are the half-caste Samaritans and their adherents amongst the "people of the land," while the servants of Jehovah are the religious and strictly legal party which is known to have existed in the time of Malachi, and had been reinforced by the arrival of Ezra and his company from Babylon (Ezra 9:1-4). Some points in favour of this view are (a) the Hebrew extraction of the party denounced (Isaiah 66:5; see on Isaiah 57:3); (b) their separation from the Temple service (Isaiah 65:11); (c) the peculiar and revolting heathen rites to which they were addicted (Isaiah 65:3-5; Isaiah 65:11; Isaiah 66:3; Isaiah 66:17) implying a degree of religious degeneracy not easy to conceive in a properly Jewish society; (d) their perpetuation of the illegal worship of the "high places" (Isaiah 65:7); and (e) the manner in which they are addressed as a distinct and well-known body (Isaiah 65:5; Isaiah 65:11; Isaiah 66:5). These circumstances do not of course amount to a demonstration of the hypothesis, although in conjunction with the presumption of post-exilic authorship they invest it with a certain degree of probability.