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Isaiah

About this book
Chapter 65

1 “I made myself available to those who did not ask for me; I appeared to those who did not look for me.⁠ I said, ‘Here I am! Here I am!’ to a nation that did not invoke my name. 2 I spread out my hands all day long to my rebellious people, who lived in a way that is morally unacceptable and who did what they desired. 3 These people continually and blatantly offend me as they sacrifice in their sacred orchards and burn incense on brick altars.⁠ 4 They sit among the tombs and keep watch all night long. They eat pork and broth from unclean sacrificial meat is in their pans. 5 They say, ‘Keep to yourself! Don’t get near me, for I am holier than you!’⁠ These people are like smoke in my nostrils, like a fire that keeps burning all day long. 6 Look, I have decreed: I will not keep silent, but will pay them back; I will pay them back exactly what they deserve,⁠ 7 for your sins and your ancestors’ sins,” says the Lord. “Because they burned incense on the mountains and offended me on the hills, I will punish them in full measure.” 8 This is what the Lord says: “When juice is discovered in a cluster of grapes, someone says, ‘Don’t destroy it, for it contains juice.’ So I will do for the sake of my servants—I will not destroy everyone. 9 I will bring forth descendants from Jacob and from Judah people to take possession of my mountains. My chosen ones will take possession of the land; my servants will live there. 10 Sharon will become a pasture for sheep, and the Valley of Achor a place where cattle graze; they will belong to my people, who seek me. 11 But as for you who abandon the Lord and forget about worshiping at my holy mountain, who prepare a feast for the god called ‘Fortune,’ and fill up wine jugs for the god called ‘Destiny’—⁠ 12 I predestine you to die by the sword, all of you will kneel down at the slaughtering block, because I called to you, and you did not respond; I spoke and you did not listen. You did evil before me; you chose to do what displeases me.” 13 So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “Look, my servants will eat, but you will be hungry. Look, my servants will drink, but you will be thirsty. Look, my servants will rejoice, but you will be humiliated. 14 Look, my servants will shout for joy as happiness fills their hearts.⁠ But you will cry out as sorrow fills your hearts; you will wail because your spirits will be crushed. 15 Your names will live on in the curse formulas of my chosen ones. The Sovereign Lord will kill you, but he will give his servants another name.⁠ 16 Whoever pronounces a blessing in the earth will do so in the name of the faithful God; whoever makes an oath in the earth will do so in the name of the faithful God. For past problems will be forgotten; I will no longer think about them. 17 For look, I am ready to create new heavens and a new earth!⁠ The former ones will not be remembered; no one will think about them anymore.⁠ 18 But be happy and rejoice forever moreover what I am about to create! For look, I am ready to create Jerusalem to be a source of joy, and her people to be a source of happiness. 19 Jerusalem will bring me joy, and my people will bring me happiness. The sound of weeping or cries of sorrow will never be heard in her again.⁠ 20 Never again will one of her infants live just a few days or an old man die before his time. Indeed, no one will die before the age of one hundred; anyone who fails to reach the age of one hundred will be considered cursed.⁠ 21 They will build houses and live in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.⁠ 22 No longer will they build a house only to have another live in it, or plant a vineyard only to have another eat its fruit,⁠ for my people will live as long as trees, and my chosen ones will enjoy to the fullest what they have produced. 23 They will not work in vain or give birth to children that will experience disaster.⁠ For the Lord will bless their children and their descendants. 24 Before they even call out, I will respond; while they are still speaking, I will hear. 25 A wolf and a lamb will graze together; a lion, like an ox, will eat straw, and a snake’s food will be dirt.⁠ They will no longer injure or destroy on my entire royal mountain,” says the Lord.

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 65:5 and Testament of Moses 7:10

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Testaments

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Summary

In Isaiah 65, God condemns people who eat unclean food yet tell others to keep away because they are too holy to touch. The Testament of Moses gives the same claim to the corrupt leaders of its own time, whose hands touch unclean things.

Passages

Isaiah 65:5

Hebrew Bible
2 I spread out my hands all day long to my rebellious people, who lived in a way that is morally unacceptable and who did what they desired. 3 These people continually and blatantly offend me as they sacrifice in their sacred orchards and burn incense on brick altars. 4 They sit among the tombs and keep watch all night long. They eat pork and broth from unclean sacrificial meat is in their pans. 5 They say, ‘Keep to yourself! Don’t get near me, for I am holier than you!’ These people are like smoke in my nostrils, like a fire that keeps burning all day long.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

Testament of Moses 7:10

Pseudepigrapha, Testaments · Assumption of Moses
And, in the time of these, destructive and impious men shall rule, saying that they are just. And these shall stir up the poison of their minds, being treacherous men, self-pleasers, dissemblers in all their own affairs and lovers of banquets at every hour of the day, gluttons, gourmands . . . . Devourers of the goods of the (poor) saying that they do so on the ground of their justice, but in reality to destroy them, complainers, deceitful, concealing themselves lest they should be recognized, impious, filled with lawlessness and iniquity from sunrise to sunset: saying: 'We shall have feastings and luxury, eating and drinking, and we shall esteem ourselves as princes.' And though their hands and their minds touch unclean things, yet their mouth shall speak great things, and they shall say furthermore: 'Do not touch me lest you should pollute me in the place (where I stand')
20–50 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Testament of Moses

References

“... The accusations which conclude the legible part of the description of the author's opponents concern impurity and, again, hypocrisy: whereas they will fear to be blemished by contact with the ritually impure, their hands as well as their minds deal with unclean things. Moreover (super), their mouths speak enormities, cf. Dan. 7:8 (LXX and Θ), about one of the horns of the fourth beast: στόμα λαλοῦν μεγάλα, Vulgate: et os loquens ingentia. Grandiloquence is a sign of hubris, cf. μεγαληγορία in Ps.-Phocylides 122. In Isa. 65:1-4 the infidelity and impurity of Israel is exposed, the impurity of those who say (οἱ λέγοντες): Πόρρω ἀπ' ἐμοῦ. μὴ ἐγγίσῃς μου, ὅτι καθαρός εἰμι (Isa. 65:5). For a similar contrast between outward purity and inward impurity, see Ps. Sol. 4:2-3 (about the man who is quick to condemn others, and ready to perpetrate all conceivable sins himself); Matt 23:25; Mark 7:1-7. ...”
Johannes Tromp, The Assumption of Moses: A Critical Edition with Commentary (Leiden: Brill, 1993), 213.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Isaiah 65:5 and Testament of Moses 7:10

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