Go to Related Reading
About this book

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 65:6 and Jonathan Isaiah 65:6

Hebrew Bible · Targum

Share:

Summary

In Isaiah 65, the Hebrew text warns of divine punishment. The Aramaic translation in Targum Jonathan intensifies this warning by adding the idea of the “second death,” a later tradition about final judgment that is not found in the original Hebrew.

Passages

Isaiah 65:6

Hebrew Bible
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.”
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

Jonathan Isaiah 65:6

Targum
3 a people that provokes my Memra to anger continually to my face, that sacrifices in gardens to idols, and offers aromatic spices upon bricks; 4 who dwell in houses built of the dust of graves, and lodge with the dead bodies of the sons of men, who eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels; 5 who say, “Stand by yourself, do not come near to me, for I am purer than you.” These provocations of theirs are like smoke before me; their recompense will be in hell, where the fire burns all the day. 6 Behold, it is written before me: I will not give them prolongation in this life, but I will recompense to them the wages for their sins, and deliver their bodies to the second death. 7 Your sins and the sins of your fathers together are revealed before me, says the LORD, who have offered incense upon the mountains and blasphemed me upon the hills; therefore I will repay their former works into their bosom.
200–300 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jonathan Isaiah

References

"... There are six occurrences of the expression Second Death within the official Targums Onqelos and Jonathan, namely Deuteronomy 33:6, Isaiah 22:14, 65:6, 15, and Jeremiah 51:39.57. Moreover, it occurs in some of the Palestinian Targums to Deuteronomy 33:6, and in a variant reading to Targum Psalms 49:11 ... The meturgeman disconnected the positively coloured word ‘wise’ from the negative concept of dying, by taking the wise as the subject of the sentence and adding ‘the wicked’ as direct object. This interpretation reminds of Isaiah 33:17 and 66:24 ..."
Alberdina Houtman and Magda Misset-van de Weg, “The Fate of the Wicked: Second Death in Early Jewish and Christian Texts,” in Empsychoi Logoi: Religious Innovations in Antiquity (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 405–424.

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

Tags

Your feedback

Isaiah 65:6 and Jonathan Isaiah 65:6

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library