A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 69: Christians and Pagans
A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 69: Christians and Pagans
In our most recent commentary on Isaiah, discussing chapter 64, we saw A Prayer for Repentance which began with a plea for judgment, which had petitioned Yahweh God, in part, to “make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!” Then the children of Israel were portrayed as having confessed many of their sins, and as having surrendered themselves to the will of their God hoping to receive of His mercy. In that, there was also a subtle prophecy, as they confessed that Solomon’s temple had been destroyed, even if the temple would not be destroyed for at least another hundred years after the time when Isaiah could have written these words. Finally, they expressed complete exasperation with their circumstances in the world, where both the chapter and the prayer had concluded and they asked “12 Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O LORD? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?”
This prayer in Isaiah chapter 64 echoes attitudes in an earlier prayer which is found in Isaiah chapter 26. There the children of Israel were portrayed as having been oppressed by their enemies, but also as having been multiplied in spite of that oppression. Yet they showed a similar degree of exasperation where they are depicted as having said:
16 LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. 17 Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD. 18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
Following that Yahweh God is portrayed as having made a promise of judgment upon His enemies which continues into chapter 27. So the prayer found there is indeed parallel to this one, and we have pointed out several such instances in Isaiah, in this context and others.
These pleas for judgment upon the nations of their enemies, who are “the inhabitants of the world”, and at the same time, for mercy for the children of Israel in spite of their sins, reflect the overarching message of Scripture, that the purpose of Yahweh God is for the children of Israel from the beginning of Genesis and all the way through to the end of the Revelation. There are many New Testament passages which uphold this, and here the children of Israel are portrayed as having understood that to be His purpose.
So speaking of the Christ child in her womb, in Luke chapter 1 Mary is recorded as having exclaimed that “33 … he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” Then further on in that chapter, Zacharias the father of John the Baptist announces concerning the purpose of the Christ, in part:
71 That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; 72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; 73 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, 74 That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear…
Furthermore, the apostle James wrote to the “twelve tribes scattered abroad”, in James chapter 1, and the mission of Paul was for the “the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come”, in Acts chapter 26. In Romans chapter 15, Paul professed once again that Christ had come “to confirm the promises made unto the fathers.” In 1 Peter chapter 2 the apostle described his readers as a chosen race, a holy nation, and a peculiar people, where he then cited a prophecy in Hosea which pertained to the reconciliation between Yahweh God and the same children of Israel. These things we have repeated often, but any interpretation which adds to them terms which were not originally expressed in the words of the prophets or in the promises to the fathers, is absolutely contrary to the Will of God, and is in opposition to the professions of Christ himself.
Interpretations of any New Testament passages which seek to change the promises made to the fathers, or redefine words in order to corrupt or add to them, are not Christian, and are rather anti-Christian. We cannot imagine that Peter, Paul, James, and even Christ Himself had cited the words of the prophets with a context in mind that was contrary to the prophets themselves. Rather, when they cited the words of the prophets we must go back and read the passages which they cited for an understanding of why they were cited.
This leads us to the predicament which our White Christian Israelite race is in today. The churches, all of them, have corrupted the words of Christ, and the promises and purposes of Yahweh God, in their wayward judaized interpretations of Scripture, and this has been the case since the 4th century. They have dismissed at least most of the words of the prophets, as if they somehow no longer have efficacy. The churches have never taught Paul of Tarsus, and instead, they have taught the deceitful lies of so-called “Church Fathers” who themselves had been blinded by jews, all the way back to Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria.
So modern Israel remains blinded to the facts of their identity as Israel, while they wrongly imagine that the enemies of God are His people. At that same time, those enemies continue to oppress them to this very day, and have flooded them with the “inhabitants of the world” by which they are now greatly vexed. The recent and ongoing protests and riots in Britain and Ireland are a testimony of their exasperation, and also of their oppression and of the tyranny that rules over them. However there is no relief until they seek repentance for their sins, and the same churches are actually teaching that sins such as race-mixing and Sodomy are no longer sins, but are good and please God.
So here we are, stuck between a proverbial rock and a hard place. When young girls are raped by arab grooming gangs, or when helplessly disabled men are beheaded by niggers in the streets, we should recall the words of Christ in Luke chapter 13 where we read:
1 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? 3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
It may sound callous, but it is true, that we shall suffer unless we repent, and even the most pious of Christians may continue to suffer along with our people until they repent. For this reason, repentance has been tied to promises of deliverance in Isaiah chapter 64 as well as in Isaiah chapter 26, where the people were portrayed as having desired the judgment of God, because they had no relief with their own judgment.
Now as we commence here with Isaiah chapter 65, the dialog which has been ongoing throughout these chapters continues, and Yahweh God is portrayed as answering the prayer of the people. In this answer, which of course addresses the children of Israel exclusively, there are nevertheless two types of people who are being addressed, which are those who seek to serve God, and those who would continue in the abominations of paganism which they had learned from their enemies:
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;
In chapter 10 of his epistle to the Romans, Paul of Tarsus would cite this passage, but we shall provide some context in order to see how Paul had understood it, and that context will also help exhibit how tightly the teachings of Paul were integrated with the prophecies of Isaiah, where we read in the King James Version:
11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
There Paul cited Isaiah 28:16 from the Septuagint, where the context is in reference to the “drunkards of Ephraim” who had been going off into Assyrian captivity. Since the prophecy pertains exclusively to Israel, we cannot imagine that Paul would have applied it to anyone but Israel. So where he continues, his words are even more poorly understood:
12 For there is no difference between the Judaean and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
The judaized denominational churches read “no difference between the Jew and the Greek” and then somehow they imagine that all of the racial bounds of the covenants of God are thereby dissolved. However that is not what Paul himself had ever intended by those words. As he had described in Romans chapter 9, Judaea was made up of different races, represented by Jacob and Esau, and he stated that Yahweh had loved Jacob and hated Esau, citing Malachi chapter 1. So Judaean was not a racial distinction, as Judaea was a Roman province made up of diverse ethnicities. Therefore, rather than being a racial distinction, Judaean was merely a cultural distinction, describing the mode of life led by the people of Judah who had returned to Jerusalem over five hundred years earlier, but which was later also forced on the Edomites and other people in Judaea from the time of the Hasmonean high priests.
Furthermore, the word Ἕλλην which is commonly translated as Greek was never a racial distinction. In ancient times, there was never a Greek race, but in their own Greek literature, the historians and poets had described people of distinct races, Ionians, Dorians, Danaans and others, who shared a common language and culture. In the Hellenistic period, after the conquests of Alexander, this culture and language was also forced on many other peoples in the nations which he had conquered. So Paul is speaking of the culture of Israelites, as there were Israelites scattered among the nations which kept Greek culture and language, as well as Israelites in Judaea which kept the Judaean culture and language, even if at least many of them had also spoken Greek.
As for verse 13 of Romans chapter 10, it is a citation of Joel chapter 2, which once again references the children of Israel explicitly, so it cannot be applied to any other people, where we read:
32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
Contrary to the claims of judaized interpreters, all never means all. Rather, all always has a context. The same is true of words such as every, each or whosoever. The context of whosoever in that passage of Joel is clearly whosoever of Israel, which is also the remnant Yahweh promised to call. Returning to Romans chapter 10:
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
This last clause is a citation from Isaiah chapter 52, which is a prophecy of the Gospel which, once again, is made exclusively in reference to the children of Israel, and we read:
6 Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I. 7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! 8 Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion. 9 Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
This prophecy of the Gospel does not leave space for any people other than the children of Israel. If anyone hears the Gospel of Christ who is not of the children of Israel, believing it or not is immaterial, it was never meant for them, and if it was never meant for them, then they can never have any just expectation to ever have a part in it.
Now once again Returning to Romans chapter 10:
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Here Paul had cited Isaiah the opening verse of chapter 53, and the prophecy of The Suffering Servant, whose suffering is also explicitly stated to have been on behalf of the children of Israel.
Returning to Romans chapter 10 once again:
18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
Earlier in Romans, in chapter 1, Paul had told his readers that “8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.” So that verse, together with this one, reveals a belief in Paul that by the time this epistle to the Romans had been written, that the whole world had already heard the Gospel of Christ. So by “world”, the year being about 57 AD, Paul could only have meant to describe the Roman world, and in that manner his profession is demonstrably true to a great extent. Even if the whole world had not already accepted the Gospel by that time, the words of the apostles had already been carried to the ends of the earth which had encompassed that world.
This was promised in diverse places and with varying language. The closest, however, is not a direct correlation with Paul’s context, where we read in the 19th Psalm:
1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. 2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. 3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. 4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
There is an indirect correlation with the Gospel of Christ here. If the stars of heaven exhibit the work of God, the children of Israel had also been likened to stars on many occasions, such as Genesis chapter 26 where Yahweh promised Abraham that He would “make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven”. Then later, in Deuteronomy chapter 1, we read:
10 The LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.
So as the stars declared the works of God, Asaph had written at the conclusion of the 73rd Psalm:
28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.
Declaring the works of God, Asaph was acting just as one of the stars of the firmament, exhibiting His handiwork.
As Christ had told His adversaries, in John chapter 8, “If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.” Then Christ Himself advised His disciples, in Matthew chapter 5:
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
So the children of Israel should act as stars on earth, declaring the works of God by their own good works.
But as for the Gospel having been heard at the ends of the world, there is a more immediate passage for Paul, since he has several citations from Isaiah chapters 52 and 53 here, and there is a similar promise found in Isaiah chapter 52:
10 The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
Immediately after that statement, the children of Israel are commanded to come out from among the unclean, and that Yahweh their God would be their rear guard as they depart.
Returning to Romans, we are not quite at the relevant passage, but all of these passages are relevant:
19 But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.
There is a lot to consider here. First, the citation of Moses is from Deuteronomy chapter 32:
21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
Then further on in that same chapter of Deuteronomy, there is another of several prophecies in the writings of Moses which had foreseen a future captivity of Israel:
25 The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs. 26 I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men: 27 Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this 28 For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them.
So this is a far-vision prophecy, at the time when Moses had written, of a future captivity and scattering of Israel. The Assyrians, the Babylonians, Edom and others who fulfilled this role at one time or another could each very well be “not a people” and “a foolish nation.” Later, both Assyrians and Babylonians had been rebuked by Yahweh for imagining that their own hand had empowered them to bring Israel into captivity, just as it says here. This is reflected in an oracle against the king of Assyria in Isaiah chapter 10 (10:12-14), and another against the king of Babylon in Isaiah chapter 13 (13:13-14). Both men thought that their conquests were of their own doing, and for that reason both men were punished.
However as Paul had written his epistle to the Romans, many non-Judaeans among the Greeks and Romans had accepted Christianity. They were also among the “not my people” of Hosea chapter 1, where we read in part:
10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.
As long as the children of Israel in captivity had been separated and alienated from Yahweh their God, they were considered by Him to be “not My people”. However the Gospel of Christ is the Gospel of reconciliation, as Paul had described it in his epistles, so upon acceptance of that gospel it was said to them “Ye are the sons of the living God.”
Therefore Paul is in keeping with a literal meaning of the verse as he also uses it here in Romans chapter 10 as a rhetorical device, and the taking of the gospel to the uncircumcised had provoked to jealousy the Judaeans who were his “kinsmen according to the flesh”, those for whom he had prayed in the opening verses of Romans chapter 9, but who had not yet accepted Christ for themselves. That jealousy was made manifest a short time later, as Paul addressed the people of Jerusalem in the Book of Acts in chapter 22, around 58 AD, and when they had heard that he was to bring the Gospel to far away nations, they wanted to kill him (Acts 22:21-24). Paul establishes this interpretation in Romans chapter 11 where he wrote:
11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the [Nations], for to provoke them to jealousy.
The fall of the Judaeans here was ostensibly their rejection of Christ, which enabled the Adversaries of Christ to have Him crucified, and in His Resurrection is the salvation of all of the nations of Israel. In Romans chapter 4, Paul had already explained that the nations to whom he had taken the Gospel were the nations first prophesied to have come from the seed of Abraham.
But perhaps there is also another, modern fulfillment of this verse since today the true Christian children of Israel in this age have been led to errantly believe that the jews are Israel, rather than Esau, and there are Christians who are therefore jealous of jews, even wishing that they themselves were jews. So they are provoked to jealousy by a people who are not even a proper nation.
So now, with all of that background, we finally arrive at the verses of Romans chapter 14 which are most relevant to this opening passage of Isaiah chapter 65:
20 But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. 21 But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.
Here where Paul said “But to Israel he saith”, he was not making any particular assertion concerning Judaea alone. There were Israelites in Judaea, whom he began praying for in Romans chapter 9, and for whom he continues here. But there were also Israelites scattered abroad, which Paul acknowledged in many places in his epistles, and Isaiah wrote these words for Israel in captivity, which includes the then-coming captivity of the people in Jerusalem, which was still in his future. All of Israel had been disobedient to God, and all of Israel were being called to obedience and reconciliation in Christ.
With that we will repeat the first two verses of this 65th chapter of Isaiah, to speak about other aspects of their meaning:
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;
Only the children of Israel could be considered a rebellious people in relation to God, since they alone ever had His law and were expected to keep it. So as early as Deuteronomy chapter 9, after recounting some of the sins of the people which they had committed since receiving the law at Sinai, the Word of Yahweh had informed them that “24 Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.” Then later in Deuteronomy, after Moses had announced to all Israel the blessings of obedience and consequences of disobedience, in chapter 31 he tells them:
27 For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?
Later, in Ezekiel chapter 2, the prophet is sent to the children of Israel in captivity, and we read in part:
3 And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.
The opening verse here in Isaiah chapter 65 is a prophecy. While some of the children of Israel in captivity may have realized the error of the nation for having abandoned their God, Yahweh truly became sought by many more of them with the later spread of the Gospel of Christ. However they did not seek Him until they had first heard the Gospel, and during the time in which they were alienated from Him they did not bear His name. For this we shall read from Hosea chapter 3:
4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: 5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.
All of the items mentioned in verse 4 of that passage were symbols of the national identity of Israel, of which they had been stripped in the time of their captivity.
The fact that David in that verse serves as a prophetic type for Christ is also evident where the same type is used in Jeremiah chapter 30:
9 But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.
And again in Ezekiel chapter 34:
23 And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. 24 And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it.
Hosea was nearly three hundred years after David, and Jeremiah and Ezekiel closer to four hundred years, so Christ being King of Israel, David in those passages is a reference to Him. The passage in Hosea chapter 3 is parallel to these opening verses of Isaiah chapter 65, and points the way to Christ, where the children of Israel would once again seek Yahweh their God in Him.
In the division of the kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam I compelled the northern tribes to paganism, the worship of the golden calves of Baal, because he knew that if the people continued to go to Jerusalem to worship Yahweh then he would not be able to control them. Perhaps sixty or seventy years later, Elijah expressed exasperation that all Israel had turned to paganism, and Yahweh had assured him that there were still seven thousand men in Israel who had not bent the knee to Baal. That is found in 1 Kings chapter 19, and Paul of Tarsus had cited that passage in Romans chapter 11. However seven thousand men is not even one percent of the eight hundred thousand men which Jeroboam was able to raise for an army in 2 Chronicles chapter 13, so it truly was a remnant. If there were any such men left by the time of Tiglath-Pileser III and Sargon II, when Samaria was taken, they certainly would have gone off into Assyrian captivity with the rest of the nation.
So a few men, perhaps not even one percent so far as we can tell in the words uttered to Elijah, had remained true to the faith. Those we can justly consider Christians, as they were men who had waited upon Yahweh their God for His salvation, which is ultimately found in Christ alone. But most of Israel were pagans, they had accepted many of the abominations of the Canaanites, and here, as this chapter progresses, it shall describe both types, the Christians and the pagans, and also distinguish their fate.
A mistake which is almost always made by historians looking for Israel in captivity is to look for jews. But first, the ancient Israelites were never quite like modern or even Hellenistic jews, and secondly, the vast majority of the children of Israel in captivity were pagans, and had not lived after the manner of ancient Israel for several centuries at the time when they had gone into captivity.
So where we proceed with verse 3 of Isaiah chapter 65, it continues to describe some of the acts of their pagan rebellion:
3 A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick;
Rather than “burneth incense”, which is also the reading found in the Septuagint, the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible has “waving their hands”, following the scroll identified as 1QIsaiaha. The Septuagint, as Brenton had translated it, has “and burn incense on bricks to devils”. But the fragments of the Hexapla of Origen have no records for this verse.
Here the word for garden is גנת or ganah (# 1593), which is literally a garden. In Isaiah chapter 1 the children of Israel had been criticized for the same thing described in this passage, even before they had gone into captivity, where we read:
29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.
Unfortunately, throughout Scripture in the King James Version, the Hebrew word אשׁרה or asherah (# 842) is translated as grove. But the asherah were actually poles of wood, or sometimes living trees, deemed sacred by pagans to Baal. The poles of wood represented phalluses, as Baal worship was a fertility religion, and the poles or trees were often situated in gardens. The maypoles or midsummer poles found across Europe may indeed be a vestige of the asherah poles.
However in ancient times, acts of sexual intercourse were conducted at the altars which had been set up near these asherah poles. For this we shall read from Tertullian’s Apology, chapter 15:
Then if I add – and the conscience of every man of you will recognize it as readily – if I add that in the temples adulteries are arranged, that between the altars the pander’s trade is plied, that, quite commonly, in the very vestries of temple-keeper and priest, under those same holy fillets, crowns and purple garments, while the incense burns, lust is gratified – well, I do not know whether your gods may not have more complaints to make of you than of the Christians. [1]
The children of Israel were married quietly in their homes or tents, but these pagan temples and gardens are where people were first married at altars. Whether they actually stayed married after the event or not is immaterial as Tertullian properly described the acts as adultery. Of course, a hundred years after Tertullian, the pagan priests wore these same garments in the same temples that became Christian churches. As we proceed with Isaiah, the pagan practices of Israel in captivity are elucidated further:
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;
The King James translation of verse 4 is obscure. The Septuagint has the verse to read: “They lie down to sleep in the tombs and in the caves for the sake of dreams, even they that eat swine's flesh, and the broth of their sacrifices: all their vessels are defiled.” The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible has: “who sit inside tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat swine’s flesh, with the broth of detestable things in their pots”.
Throughout the Near East as well as the later Greek and Roman worlds, there was a practice called incubation, where a seer or some other individual would sleep in a tomb, and hope to receive some information from the dead in a dream. Often the attempt to receive information in this manner was on behalf of another, especially a king or ruler [2]. So apparently the children of Israel were practicing necromancy in this manner, which was the manner of the ancient pagans, where such things are forbidden in the law, as we read in Deuteronomy chapter 18:
10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, 11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
Of course, swine’s flesh was also forbidden for the children of Israel to eat, which is stated explicitly in Deuteronomy chapter 14:
7 Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you. 8 And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase.
We can only imagine what the “broth of abominable things” in their vessels had been, but in Isaiah chapter 66 some of these sins are recounted, and we read:
17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.
Regardless of the law, the people for their practices must have thought for themselves to have been holy, even though they had recently been taken into captivity:
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.
Even today it is apparent, that judaized Christians in the denominational churches which they attend frequently imagine themselves to be holy, but their practices are also pagan in many aspects, and they also discard the laws of Yahweh. Not only do they teach that it is permissible to eat swine’s flesh, but they even feature it at church banquets. So it seems that such people are a constant vexation to God, where He said that they are a smoke in His nose and a fire that burns all day.
Therefore Yahweh not only punishes the impious, but the falsely pious, as such pagans who neglect His law and His righteousness cannot truly be pious:
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.
On the surface, this may seem to conflict with the Word of Yahweh which had come to Ezekiel about a hundred years later, where we read in Ezekiel chapter 18:
20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
However in Ezekiel, Yahweh is promising that a righteous father will not be punished for a wicked son, or a righteous son will not be punished for a wicked father. Here in Isaiah, because the sons are wicked, they shall also suffer for the wickedness of their fathers. So there is no real conflict in these messages. They are actually consistent, as we read a little further on in Ezekiel:
21 But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 22 All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live.
So repentance brings mercy even for past sins. Therefore pagan sons will also suffer on account of the errors of their pagan fathers, but now the Word of Yahweh here in Isaiah turns to His servants, who we consider to have been pre-incarnation Christians, men with an expectation of the salvation of God even before the coming of the Christ:
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.
If we accept the reading as it is in the King James Version, the reference to “an inheritor of my mountains” from out of Judah would certainly be a reference to Yahshua Christ, who is Yahweh God incarnate and the King of Israel, God as His prophesied Son sitting on the throne of David. For that, David himself had written in the 2nd Psalm:
6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. 7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
And then a little further on:
12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
The “inheritor of my mountains” is not the heir to the promises of Abraham, but rather, the mountains are an allegory for the children of Israel, Yahweh’s inheritance, and the incarnate Christ has inherited Israel from God, which is an enigma in itself. That is how He is the Bridegroom where Yahweh God had promised to betroth Israel to Himself in Hosea chapter 2, and that is how Paul had written in Romans chapter 7:
2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. 4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
Where we read “mine elect shall inherit it”, the reference is to the seed of Jacob. As Paul had taught in that passage of Romans, the death of Yahshua Christ on the cross represented the death of Yahweh the Husband in order to free the wife from the law and the consequences of her transgressions. Since God cannot really die, now the children of Israel shall be married to the risen Christ, at the coming Wedding Supper of the Lamb prophesied in Revelation chapter 19.
However in the Septuagint verse 9 reads, according to Brenton:
9 And I will lead forth the seed that came of Jacob and of Juda, and they shall inherit my holy mountain: and mine elect and my servants shall inherit it, and shall dwell there.
Then, as it is in the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible:
9 I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah they will inherit my mountains; my chosen people will inherit it, and my servants will settle there.
But I have issues with these versions. First, there is a footnote in the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible that the manuscript which they are following, 1QIsaiaha, has “literally he will inherit”, so their translation seems to be an innovation. Furthermore, there are differences in the other Greek versions of the Hexapla which do not directly support the Septuagint Greek [4]. Yahweh had already stated that the children of Israel would move to A Place of Their Own, and this is also prophesied in Isaiah chapter 49. So the mountains of Palestine cannot be a subject of this prophecy. Rather, as we have said, the mountains here are Israel themselves, and in the context of Jacob, Judah need not be distinguished without a particular reason.
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.
There were two places named Sharon in ancient Israel, a town in Gilead east of the Jordan, mentioned in 1 Chronicles chapter 5, and the Plain of Sharon along the Mediterranean coast north of Joppa and south of Carmel, in the land of Manasseh. It seems to be the Plain of Sharon of which we read in Isaiah chapter 33, in reference to the destruction of Israel by the Assyrians:
9 The earth mourneth and languisheth: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.
The Valley of Achor was given its name in Joshua chapter 7, as Achor means trouble or disturbance and it was the place where Achan the son of Zerah along with his entire family and all of his belongings had been destroyed by Joshua, because he kept silver and gold and a “Babylonish garment” from the conquest of Jericho, and brought shame and a curse upon all of Israel.
So now, after a message of comfort for Christians, the Word of Yahweh turns its attention back to the pagans:
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.
The Septuagint has the end of the verse to read “… and prepare a table for the devil, and fill up the drink-offering to Fortune.” The Hexapla notes that some copies of the Septuagint have demons rather than Fortune. [5] When the children of Israel forget Yahweh’s holy mountain, the mountain itself being an allegory for His people, it means that they have forsaken their own people for others who are not His people, for other tribes or races. This in turn is a transgression of the commandment that Israel be a separate and peculiar people. This was one of the first things spoken by Yahweh to the children of Israel at Sinai, as He was beginning to give to them the law, in Exodus chapter 19:
5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
The word holy in the phrase “holy nation” is the Hebrew word קדושׁ or qadowsh (# 6918) which is primarily to separate or set apart. The Brown, Driver, Briggs lexicon defines it as “ of God, as separate, apart, and so sacred, holy” [3].
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.
Perhaps many of the children of Israel had already committed this transgression before the Assyrian deportations, and what is described here is the same sifting process Yahweh had prophesied in Amos chapter 9 where we read:
9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
While not the least grain falls upon the earth, apparently that does not prevent the punishment of those who refuse to repent of their transgression. The Wisdom of Solomon describes men who turn their backs on their own people in this same manner, and while it spans several chapters, here we shall read from chapter 3, in part:
10 But the impious shall have punishment just as they imagined, they who have no care for the just and departing from Yahweh. 11 For he who is despising wisdom and discipline is miserable, and their hope is empty and labors unprofitable, and their works useless. 12 Their wives are senseless and their children wicked, cursed is their origin. 13 Because blessed is the barren woman who is undefiled: whoever has not known a marriage bed in transgression shall have fruit in the visitation of souls, 14 and the eunuch who with a hand has not practiced lawlessness nor even considered evil against Yahweh. For a select favor shall be given to him of the faith, and a more delightful portion in the temple of Yahweh.
15 For glorious is the fruit of good labors, and infallible is the root of understanding. 16 But the children of adulterers shall be for no purpose, and the seed of an unlawful marriage bed shall be destroyed. 17 For even if they become long-lived they shall be accounted for nothing and without honor at the ends of their old age. 18 Then if they die quickly, they shall have no hope, nor consolation in the day of decision. 19 For grievous are the ends of an unrighteous race.
Men who turn their backs on their own people have forsaken Yahweh’s holy mountain, and end up in adulterous relationships. The wives are not senseless, but their choice of wives is senseless, so their children are the children of adulterers, because the marriage bed itself is unlawful, and therefore their children are bastards. Such is the lot of the pagan who has turned away from his own people.
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.
Perhaps eating and drinking here may be understood metaphorically, that the pagans would have no access to the Bread of Life or the Living Waters found in Yahshua Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. But perhaps the words may be understood to be true both metaphorically and literally, since when a man turns from Yahweh, in turn Yahweh abandons him to his own devices, and man cannot prosper without his God.
Of this, we read in chapter 4 of the Wisdom of Solomon:
3 But the many-breeding multitude of the impious shall not be useful, and from bastard seedlings it shall not give a deep root, nor shall it establish a firm foundation. 4 For even if it sprouts up in branches for a time, standing unsafely it is shaken by the wind and by the force of the winds it is uprooted. 5 The imperfected branches shall be broken off and their fruit useless, unseasonable for food and suitable for nothing. 6 For children begotten from of lawless slumber are witnesses of wickedness against their parents at their examination.
Continuing to address the pagans:
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:
We have already seen a prophecy in Isaiah chapter 62 that the children of Israel would be Called by a New Name, and evidently that prophesy was also only for the obedient among then, where we read in the opening verses of that chapter that:
1 For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. 2 And the [Nations] shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.
As we had demonstrated from Scripture in our discussion of that chapter, the new name would be the name of Christ which is expressed in the word Christian. Now the attention of the Word of Yahweh turns away from the pagans, and back to the Christians:
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.
The former troubles are all the sins of Israel in Palestine. Blessing and swearing by the God of truth is blessing and swearing by the Name of Christ, even if Christ Himself admonishes His disciples not to swear at all, for example, in Matthew chapter 5:
34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: 35 Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. 36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. 37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
There we see that Christians should not swear because they cannot control their own futures, but if the world compels one to swear, for example as a witness at trial, then swearing on the God of truth a Christian certainly must speak the truth. That sort of swearing is compelled in the law, in Leviticus chapter 5:
1 And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity.
So when one must testify, he certainly better speak truth, having sworn on the Name of Christ, who is the God of Truth.
Here we are compelled to pause our commentary for Isaiah chapter 65.
Footnotes
1 Tertullian, Apology 15.7, Apologeticus, De Spectaculis, Minucius Felix, Octavius, translated by T. R. Glover and Gerald H. Rendall, Loeb Classical Library, Jeffrey Henderson, ed., Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1931, pp. 79-81.
2 Harrisson, J. The Classical Greek Practice of Incubation and some Near Eastern Predecessors, 2009. https://www.academia.edu/277934/The_Classical_Greek_Practice_of_Incubation_and_some_Near_Eastern_Predecessors, accessed June 12th, 2026.
3 The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, Hendrickson Publishers, p. 872.
4 Origenis Hexaplorum, Fridericus Field, AA. M., Volume II, Clarendon Press, 1875, p. 561.
5 ibid.
