Isaiah 65:17--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 an 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.
John Calvin: By these metaphors [Betty Ray’s note, i.e. new heavens & new earth] he promises a remarkable change of affairs; as if God had said he has both the inclination and the power not only to restore his Church, but to restore it in such a manner that it shall appear to gain new life and to dwell in a new world. These are exaggerated modes of expression; but the greatness of such a blessing, which was to be manifested at the coming of Christ, could not be described in any other way. Nor does he mean only the first coming, but the whole reign which must be extended as far as to the last coming, as we have already said in expounding other passages.
Thus the world is (so to speak) renewed by Christ; and hence also the apostle (Heb. 2:5) calls it “a new age,” and undoubtedly alludes to this statement of the Prophet. Yet the Prophet speaks of the restoration of the Church after the return from Babylon. This is undoubtedly true; but that restoration is imperfect, if it be not extended as far as to Christ; and even now we are in the progress and accomplishment of it, and those things will not be fulfilled till the last resurrection, which has been prescribed to be our limit.
Matthew Henry: 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, 2Co_5:17. It was a mighty and happy change that was described Isa_65:16, 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, 1Co_3:22. 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, 2Pe_3:13. Behold, I make all things new, Rev_21:5.
Vs. 17
Matthew Poole: I create new heavens and a new earth, bringing a new face upon the world, sending my Son to raise up a new church, and to institute a new worship, #Joh 4:21,24, and giving out my Spirit in a more plentiful manner, #Ac 2:17, which new state shall abide until a new heaven and earth appear, in which shall dwell nothing but righteousness, #2Pe 3:13 Re 21:1. And that state of things shall be such, and so glorious, as the former state of my people shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. Whether this new heavens and new earth here promised signifies such a stale of the church wherein Christ shall personally reign upon earth over his saints, the wicked being destroyed, (as some have thought lie shall for a thousand years,) I very much doubt, and do not see how from this and the parallel texts any such thing can be concluded.
Geneva Bible Translation Notes: I will so altar and change the state of my church, that it will seem to dwell in a new world.
Schofield: Verse 17 (Isa_65:17) looks beyond the kingdom-age to the new heavens and the new earth (see refs. At "create"), but verses 18-25 (Isa_65:18-25) describe the kingdom-age itself. Longevity is restored, but death, the "last enemy" (1Co_15:26) is not destroyed till after Satan's rebellion at the end of the thousand years. (Rev_20:7-14).
Vs. 18
Matthew Poole: Ver. 18. 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 rejoicing 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 bring something out of nothing, or out of what hath no fittedness to such a production; and I will create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy: by Jerusalem 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 must be understood as fulfilled in the coming of Christ, #Lu 2:10; or else it referreth to a more full calling of the Jews than we have yet seen or heard of.
Matthew Henry: I. There shall be new joys. For, 1. All the church's friends, and all that belong to her, shall rejoice (Isa_65:18): 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 (Isa_65:13), 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 (Isa_65:19): 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, Zep_3:17. 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.
Vs. 19:
Matthew Poole: Ver. 19. 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 rejoicing are applied to him, #Isa 62:5, and in this text; so also #Jer 32:41 Zep 3:17. The voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying: such kind of promises are to be found #Isa 35:10 51:11 Jer 31:12 Re 21:4, which must be understood either comparatively, they shall endure 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 perfection of joy and happiness.
Vs. 20:
Matthew Poole: Ver. 20. Whereas God hath made many promises of long life to the Jews, they should all be fulfilled to God’s people among them, so as there should be rare abortions among them, #Ex 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; yet none of these things should be of any advantage to wicked men, but if, any of them should live to be.a hundred years old, yet they should die accursed. This seemeth to be the plain sense. If any desire to read more opinions of these words, he may find enough in the English Annotations.
Matthew Henry: II. There shall be new life, Isa_65:20. 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, Isa_65:19. When there shall be no more death there shall be no more sorrow, Rev_21:4. As death has reigned by sin, so life shall reign by righteousness, Rom_5:14, Rom_5:21. 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.
Geneva: Meaning, in this wonderful restoration of the Church there would be no weakness of youth, nor infirmities of age, but all would be fresh and flourishing: and this is accomplished in the heavenly Jerusalem, when all sins will cease, and the tears will be wiped away.
By which he shows that the infidels and unrepentant sinners have no part of this benediction.
New Geneva Study Bible footnote: Premature death of infants or persons in mid-career can provoke the thought that life is meaningless. Such early death, as also the transfer of one person’s reward to another person who did not earn it (vs. 22)is part of God’s judgment on sin. God promises to remove this curse from His people [Amos 5:11-- So, because of your trampling on the poor, and you take tribute of grain from him; you have built houses of carved stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted desirable vineyards, but you shall not drink wine from them. NGSB note: The curse of futility (failing to enjoy the fruit of one’s labor had fallen on the Canaanites as Israel dispossessed them from their cities (Deut. 6:10-11). Now Israel will suffer the same fate, according to the words of Deut. 28:30 (cf. Is. 65:21-23; 1 Cor. 15:58-- So that, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not without fruit in the Lord.)]
Vs. 21:
Matthew Poole: The quite contrary to what is said of the slothful man, #Pr 12:27: see #Job 27:13-17.
Geneva: He proposes to the faithful the blessings which are contained in the law, and so under temporal things comprehends the spiritual promises.
John Calvin Commentary: In these verses he mentions what is written in the Law; for these are the blessings of the Law, that they who have obeyed God shall dwell in the houses which they have built, and shall gather fruit from the trees which they have planted (Lev. 26:10). On the other hand, the disobedient shall be expelled from the houses which they have built, and shall give place to foreigners, and shall be deprived of the fruit of the trees which t, they have planted. “The Lord,” saith Isaiah, “shall protect you from that curse, so as to enjoy your property.” Now the prophets hold out those things which relate to the present life, and borrow metaphors from them; but it is in order that they may teach us to rise higher and to embrace eternal and blessed life. We must fix our whole attention on these transitory blessings, but must make use of them as ladders, that, being raised to heaven, we may enjoy eternal and immortal blessings. To the church, which has been renewed, and which rests on nothing but God’s good pleasure and undeserved favour is justly promised the enjoyment of those blessings which unbelievers had deprived themselves.
Vs. 22
Matthew Poole: Duration and perpetuity are promised to them in their happy estate.
Matthew Henry: 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, Isa_65:21, Isa_65:22. 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 (Ecc_3:13); 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 (Isa_6:13), 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 Septuagint. 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.
Vs. 23
Matthew Poole: And not only a blessing to them, but also to their offspring. But what is here promised which wicked men do not ofttimes enjoy, and God’s people ofttimes want?
Answ. 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.
Matthew Henry: IV. There shall be a new generation rising up in their stead to inherit and enjoy these blessings (Isa_65:23): 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, Ecc_2:18, Ecc_2:19. 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 (Psa_22:30), the seed of the blessed of the Lord.
Vs. 24
Matthew Poole: God promised, #Isa 58:9, to answer them when they called; here he promiseth to be so ready to answer, as to answer the words as soon as they should be formed in their hearts, before they should get them out of their lips, #Ps 32:5 Da 10:12; yea, while they were speaking, #Da 9:20,23 Ac 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.
Matthew Henry: V. There shall be a good correspondence between them and their God (Isa_65:24): 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, Psa_32:5. 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.
Vs. 25
Matthew Poole: Ver. 25. This verse containeth a promise much like that #Isa 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 people’s enemies, so that they shall live quietly and peaceably together. Wicked men are compared to serpents, #Mic 7:17, compared with #Ps 72:9; God promiseth a time of tranquillity to his church under the metaphor of serpents eating the dust, their proper meat, #Ge 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 #Isa 11:9, what is there 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 may learn that it is God’s work to restrain the wolves and serpents of the world, who would else be always doing what they are sometimes doing; and 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.
Matthew Henry: VI. There shall be a good correspondence between them and their neighbours (Isa_65:25): 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_49:27) 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, Joh_10:16. 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, Isa_11:9. 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_3:14. 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
Geneva: note on Isaiah 11:6-- Men because of their wicked affections are named by the names of beasts, in which the same affections reign: but Christ by his Spirit will reform them, and work in them such mutual charity, that they will be like lambs, favouring and loving one another and cast off all their cruel affections, (Isa_65:25).
Wesley: 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.
Keil (1807-1888) & Delitzsch (1813-1890) Commentary on the Old Testament (These men were German Lutherans who opposed efforts by Deists, Naturalists, and Rationalists to undermine truth of OT): 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.
