The audio Reading of Isaiah 66 from the living bible
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Isa 66:1 This is what the LORD says: Heaven is my throne. The earth is my footstool. Where can you build a house or resting place for me?
Isa 66:2 I have made all these things. “That is why all these things have come into being,” declares the LORD. I will pay attention to those who are humble and sorry for their sins and who tremble at my word.
Isa 66:3 Whoever kills a bull is like someone who kills a person. Whoever sacrifices a lamb is like someone who breaks a dog’s neck. Whoever offers a grain sacrifice is like someone who offers pig’s blood. Whoever burns incense is like someone who worships an idol. People have certainly chosen their own ways, and their souls delight in detestable things.
Isa 66:4 So I will choose harsh treatment for them and bring on them what they fear. I called, but no one answered. I spoke, but they didn’t listen. They did what I consider evil. They chose what I don’t like.
Isa 66:5 Listen to the word of the LORD, all who tremble at his word. Your relatives, who hate you and exclude you for my name’s sake, say, “Let the LORD show his glory; then we will see your joy.” But they will be put to shame.
Isa 66:6 Listen to the uproar from the city. Listen to the sound from the temple. It is the sound of the LORD paying back his enemies as they deserve.
Isa 66:7 Before a woman goes into labor, she gives birth. Before she has labor pains, she delivers a child.
Isa 66:8 Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a country be born in one day? Can a nation be born in a moment? When Zion went into labor, she also gave birth to her children.
Isa 66:9 “Do I bring a mother to the moment of birth and not let her deliver?” asks the LORD. “Do I cause a mother to deliver and then make her unable to have children?” asks your God.
Isa 66:10 All who love Jerusalem, be happy and rejoice with her. All who mourn for her, be glad with her.
Isa 66:11 You will nurse and be satisfied from her comforting breasts. You will nurse to your heart’s delight at her full breasts.
Isa 66:12 This is what the LORD says: I will offer you peace like a river and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream. You will nurse and be carried in Jerusalem’s arms and cuddled on her knees.
Isa 66:13 As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you. You will be comforted in Jerusalem.
Isa 66:14 When you see it, your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like new grass. The power of the LORD will be made known to his servants, but he will condemn his enemies.
Isa 66:15 The LORD will come with fire and with his chariots like a thunderstorm. He will pay them back with his burning anger and punish them with flames of fire.
Isa 66:16 The LORD will judge with fire, and he will judge all people with his sword. Many people will be struck dead by the LORD.
Isa 66:17 People make themselves holy and prepare themselves for their garden rituals. They go into the garden and devour pork, disgusting things, and mice. “They will come to an end at the same time,” declares the LORD.
Isa 66:18 Because of their actions and their thoughts, I am coming to gather the nations of every language. They will come and see my glory.
Isa 66:19 I will set up a sign among them and send some of their survivors to the nations: to Tarshish, Put and Lud, Meshech, Rosh, Tubal, Javan, and to the distant coastlands who have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will tell about my glory among the nations.
Isa 66:20 They will bring all your relatives from every nation like a grain offering to the LORD. “They will come on horses, in chariots, in wagons, on mules and camels to my holy mountain, Jerusalem,” declares the LORD. They will come like the people of Israel who bring their grain offerings in clean dishes to the LORD’S temple.
Isa 66:21 “I will make some of them priests and Levites,” declares the LORD.
Isa 66:22 “The new heaven and earth that I am about to make will continue in my presence,” declares the LORD. “So your descendants and your name will also continue in my presence.
Isa 66:23 From one month to the next and from one week to the next all people will come to worship me,” declares the LORD.
Isa 66:24 Then they will go out and look at the corpses of those who have rebelled against me. The worms that eat them will not die. The fire that burns them will not go out. All humanity will be disgusted by them.
Isa 66:1 -
The heaven is my throne - (See the notes at Isa_57:15). Here he is represented as having his seat or throne there. He speaks as a king. heaven is the place where he holds his court; from where he dispenses his commands; and from where he surveys all his works (compare 2Ch_6:18; Mat_5:34). The idea here is, that as God dwelt in the vast and distant heavens, no house that could be built on earth could be magnificent enough to be his abode.
The earth is my footstool - A footstool is that which is placed under the feet when we sit. The idea here is, that God was so glorious that even the earth itself could be regarded only as his footstool. It is probable that the Saviour had this passage in his eye in his declaration in the sermon on the mount, Swear not at all; neither by heaven, for it is Gods throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool Mat_5:34-35.
Where is the house that ye build unto me? - What house can you build that will be an appropriate dwelling for him who fills heaven and earth? The same idea, substantially, was expressed by Solomon when he dedicated the temple: But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven, and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded! 1Ki_8:27. Substantially the same thought is found in the address of Paul at Athens: God, that made the world, and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands Act_17:24.
And where is the place of my rest? - It has already been intimated (in the analysis) that this refers probably to the time subsequent to the captivity. Lowth supposes that it refers to the time of the rebuilding of the temple by Herod. So also Vitringa understands it, and supposes that it refers to the pride and self-confidence of those who then imagined that they were rearing a structure that was worthy of being a dwelling-place of Yahweh. Grotius supposes that it refers to the time of the Maccabees, and that it was designed to give consolation to the pious of those times when they were about to witness the profanation of the temple by Antiochus, and the cessation of the sacrifices for three years and a half. God therefore shows, says he, that there was no reason why they should be offended in this thing. The most acceptable temple to him was a pious mind; and from that the value of all sacrifices was to be estimated. Abarbanel supposes that it refers to the times of redemption.
His words are these: I greatly wonder at the words of the learned interpreting this prophecy, when they say that the prophet in this accuses the people of his own time on account of sacrifices offered with impure hands, for lo! all these prophecies which the prophet utters in the end of his book have respect to future redemption. See Vitringa. That it refers to some future time when the temple should be rebuilt seems to me to be evident. But what precise period it refers to - whether to times not far succeeding the captivity, or to the times of the Maccabees, or to the time of the rebuilding of the temple by Herod, it is difficult to find any data by which we can determine. From the whole strain of the prophecy, and particularly from Isa_66:3-5, it seems probable that it refers to the time when the temple which Herod had reared was finishing; when the nation was full of pride, self-righteousness, and hypocrisy; and when all sacrifices were about to be superseded by the one great sacrifice which the Messiah was to make for the sins of the world. At that time, God says that the spirit which would be evinced by the nation would be abominable in his sight; and to offer sacrifice then, and with the spirit which they would manifest, would be as offensive as murder or the sacrifice of a dog (see the notes at Isa_66:3).
Isa 66:2 -
For all those things hath mine hand made - That is the heaven and the earth, and all that is in them. The sense is, I have founded for myself a far more magnificent and appropriate temple than you can make; I have formed the heavens as my dwelling-place, and I need not a dwelling reared by the hand of man.
And all those things have been - That is, have been made by me, or for me. The Septuagint renders it, All those things are mine? Jerome renders it, All those things were made; implying that God claimed to be the Creator of them all, and that, therefore, they all belonged to him.
But to this man will I look - That is, I prefer a humble heart and a contrite spirit to the most magnificent earthly temple (see the notes at Isa_57:15).
That is poor - Or rather humble. The word rendered poor (òðé ), denotes not one who has no property, but one who is down-trodden, crushed, afflicted, oppressed; often, as here, with the accessory idea of pious feeling Exo_24:12; Psa_10:2, Psa_10:9. The Septuagint renders it, Ôáðåéíïí Tapeinon - Humble; not ðôù÷ïí pto (poor). The idea is, not that God looks with favor on a poor man merely because he is poor - which is not true, for his favors are not bestowed in view of external conditions in life - but that he regards with favor the man that is humble and subdued in spirit.
And of a contrite spirit - A spirit that is broken, crushed, or deeply affected by sin. It stands opposed to a spirit that is proud, haughty, self-confident, and self-righteous.
And that trembleth at my word - That fears me, or that reveres my commands.
Isa 66:3 -
He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man - Lowth and Noyes render this, He that slayeth an ox, killeth a man. This is a literal translation of the Hebrew. Jerome renders it, He who sacrifices an ox is as if (quasi) he slew a man. The Septuagint, in a very free translation - such as is common in their version of Isaiah - render it, The wicked man who sacrifices a calf, is as he who kills a dog; and he who offers to me fine flour, it is as the blood of swine. Lowth supposes the sense to be, that the most flagitious crimes were united with hypocrisy, and that they who were guilty of the most extreme acts of wickedness at the same time affected great strictness in the performance of all the external duties of religion. An instance of this, he says, is referred to by Ezekiel, where he says, When they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it Eze_23:39.
There can be no doubt that such offences were often committed by those who were very strict and zealous in their religious services (compare Isa_1:11-14, with Isa_66:21-23. But the generality of interpreters have supposed that a different sense was to be affixed to this passage. According to their views, the particles as if are to be supplied; and the sense is, not that the mere killing of an ox is as sinful in the sight of God as deliberate murder, but that he who did it in the circumstances, and with the spirit referred to, evinced a spirit as odious in his sight as though he had slain a man. So the Septuagint, Vulgate, Chaldee, Symmachus, and Theodotion, Junius, and Tremellius, Grotius, and Rosenmuller, understand it. There is probably an allusion to the fact that human victims were offered by the pagan; and the sense is, that the sacrifices here referred to were no more acceptable in the sight of God than they were.
The prophet here refers, probably, first, to the spirit with which this was done. Their sacrifices were offered with a temper of mind as offensive to God as if a man had been slain, and they had been guilty of murder. They were proud, vain, and hypocritical. They had forgotten the true nature and design of sacrifice, and such worship could not but be an abhorrence in the sight of God. Secondly, It may also be implied here, that the period was coming when all sacrifices would be unacceptable to God. When the Messiah should have come; when he should have made by one offering a sufficent atonement for the sins of the whole world; then all bloody sacrifices would be needless, and would be offensive in the sight of God. The sacrifice of an ox would be no more acceptable than the sacrifice of a man; and all offerings with a view to propitiate the divine favor, or that implied that there was a deficiency in the merit of the one great atoning sacrifice, would be odious to God.
He that sacrificeth a lamb - Margin, Kid The Hebrew word (ùÒTM s’eh) may refer to one of a flock, either of sheep or goats Gen_22:7-8; Gen_30:32. Where the species is to be distinguished, it is usually specified, as, e. g., Deu_14:4, ëùÒáéí ùÒTM òæéí åùÒTM ves’e s’e ki (one of the sheep and one of the goats). Both were used in sacrifice.
As if he cut off a dogs neck - That is, as if he had cut off a dogs neck for sacrifice. To offer a dog in sacrifice would have been abominable in the view of a Jew. Even the price for which he was sold was not permitted to be brought into the house of God for a vow (Deu_23:18; compare 1Sa_17:43; 1Sa_24:14). The dog was held in veneration by many of the pagan, and was even offered in sacrifice; and it was, doubtless, partly in view of this fact, and especially of the fact that such veneration was shown for it in Egypt, that it was an object of such detestation among the Jews. Thus Juvenal, Sat. xiv. says:
Oppida tota canem venerantur, nemo Dianam.
Every city worships the dog; none worship Diana. Diodorus (B. i.) says, Certain animals the Egyptians greatly venerate (óåâïíôáé sebontai), not only when alive, but when they are dead, as cats, ichneumons, mice, and dogs. Herodotus says also of the Egyptians, In some cities, when a cat dies all the inhabitants cut off their eyebrows; when a dog dies, they shave the whole body and the head. In Samothracia there was a cave in which dogs were sacrificed to Hecate. Plutarch says, that all the Greeks sacrificed the dog. The fact that dogs were offered in sacrifice by the pagan is abundantly proved by Bochart (Hieroz. i. 2. 56). No kind of sacrifice could have been regarded with higher detestation by a pious Jew. But God here says, that the spirit with which they sacrificed a goat or a lamb was as hateful in his sight as would be the sacrifice of a dog: or that the time would come when, the great sacrifice for sin having been made, and the necessity for all other sacrifice having ceased, the offering of a lamb or a goat for the expiation of sin would be as offensive to him as would be the sacrifice of a dog.
He that offereth an oblation - On the word rendered here oblation (îðçTM mincha). See the notes at Isa_1:13.
As if he offered swines blood - The sacrifice of a hog was an abomination in the sight of the Hebrews (see the notes at Isa_65:4). Yet here it is said that the offering of the îðçTM mincha, in the spirit in which they would do it, was as offensive to God as would be the pouring out of the blood of the swine on the altar, Nothing could more emphatically express the detestation of God for the spirit with which they would make their offerings, or the fact that the time would come when all such modes of worship would be offensive in his sight.
He that burneth incense - See the word incense explained in the notes at Isa_1:13. The margin here is, Maketh a memorial of. Such is the usual meaning of the word used here (æëø za), meaning to remember, and in Hiphil to cause to remember, or to make a memorial. Such is its meaning here. incense was burned as a memorial or a remembrance-offering; that is, to keep up the remembrance of God on the earth by public worship (see the notes at Isa_62:6).
As if he blessed an idol - The spirit with which incense would be offered would be as offensive as idolatry. The sentiment in all this is, that the most regular and formal acts of worship where the heart is lacking, may be as offensive to God as the worst forms of crime, or the most gross and debasing idolatry. Such a spirit often characterized the Jewish people, and eminently prevailed at the time when the temple of Herod was nearly completed, and when the Saviour was about to appear.
