Isaiah 65:17

Hebrew Bible

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.

Revelation 21:1

New Testament

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more. 2 And I saw the holy city—the new Jerusalem—descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.”

 Notes and References

"... This allusion to Isaiah 65:17 has some affinities with the Masoretic text, “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth” and some with the LXX, “For there will be the new heaven and the new earth”. The wording is probably the author’s paraphrase. Also see Isaiah 66:22: “the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make.” The word “new” emphasizes the difference from what has gone before, as in “the new song” previously. It can also encompass some continuity, like the same person being given a new name. In the Hebrew text of Isaiah 65:17 the newness comes from God creating. This could mean that the new heaven and earth will be as different from the old as the current heaven and earth are from the prior chaos. Alternatively, one might think of God’s creative action transforming the existing world from sorrow into blessedness. In Jewish writings, expectations for a new creation took a variety of forms: The earth would be purged of evil and continue, and heaven would pass away before a new heaven appeared; the earth would be transformed (Jubilees 1:29; 4:26; 1 Enoch 45:4-5); the world would cease and another earth and heaven would begin; or what was corruptible would disappear and all else would be renewed ..."

Koester, Craig R. Revelation: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (pp. 793-794) Yale University Press, 2014

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