Context at a Glance
Author:Traditional Attribution
Topic:isaiah Chapter 66 Study
This chapter provides a foundational look at the theological themes of isaiah, analyzed across multiple historic translations for maximum scholarly depth.
Isaiah 66
New Revised Standard Version
1Thus says the LORD: Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is my resting place?
2All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine, says the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look, to the humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at my word.
3Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who kills a human being; whoever sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog's neck; whoever presents a grain offering, like one who offers swine's blood; whoever makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and in their abominations they take delight;
4I also will choose to mock them, and bring upon them what they fear; because, when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, they did not listen; but they did what was evil in my sight, and chose what did not please me.
5Hear the word of the LORD, you who tremble at his word: Your own people who hate you and reject you for my name's sake have said, "Let the LORD be glorified, so that we may see your joy"; but it is they who shall be put to shame.
6Listen, an uproar from the city! A voice from the temple! The voice of the LORD, dealing retribution to his enemies! The destiny of Jerusalem
7Before she was in labor she gave birth; before her pain came upon her she delivered a son.
8Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be delivered in one moment? Yet as soon as Zion was in labor she delivered her children.
9Shall I open the womb and not deliver? says the LORD; shall I, the one who delivers, shut the womb? says your God.
10Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her —
11that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious bosom.
12For thus says the LORD: I will extend prosperity to her like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse and be carried on her arm, and dandled on her knees.
13As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
14You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bodies shall flourish like the grass; and it shall be known that the hand of the LORD is with his servants, and his indignation is against his enemies. Homecoming, vindication, and final judgment
15For the LORD will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to pay back his anger in fury, and his rebuke in flames of fire.
16For by fire will the LORD execute judgment, and by his sword, on all flesh; and those slain by the LORD shall be many.
17Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following the one in the center, eating the flesh of pigs, vermin, and rodents, shall come to an end together, says the LORD.
18For I know their works and their thoughts, and I am coming to gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and shall see my glory,
19and I will set a sign among them. From them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Put, and Lud — which draw the bow — to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations.
20They shall bring all your kindred from all the nations as an offering to the LORD, on horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and on mules, and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, just as the Israelites bring a grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD.
21And I will also take some of them as priests and as Levites, says the LORD.
22For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the LORD; so shall your descendants and your name remain.
23From new moon to new moon, and from sabbath to sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the LORD.
24And they shall go out and look at the dead bodies of the people who have rebelled against me; for their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh. JEREMIAH
1486JEREMIAH Introduction Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah, a priest at Anathoth (1.1); he may have been a descendant of the priest Abiathar, who was banished by Solomon to Anathoth (1 Kings 2.26, 27). The chronology of Jeremiah's life suggested by the superscription (1.2-3) raised a number of problems. If Jeremiah's ministry began in
627BCE (1.2), he would have been active over four decades. Despite the efforts of some scholars to interpret chs 2-6 and perhaps portions of chs 30-31 as the prophet's early preaching during Josiah's reign, no material in the book can be unequivocally assigned to that time. Even more enigmatically, although the prose sermons and biographical narratives in the book bear strong linguistic resemblance to Deuteronomy and the so-called Deuteronomistic History (Joshua-2 Kings), Jeremiah is inexplicably regarding Josiah's religious reform inspired by the discovery of the Temple of the "book of the law" in
622BCE (2 Kings 22-23). These difficulties lead some scholars to regard
627BCE as the date of Jeremiah's birth (1.5) rather than as the beginning of his public career. He died sometime after 586, presumably in Egypt. No matter which date is chosen, the important events that form the backdrop of Jeremiah's preaching are clear. Jeremiah spoke in the context of the last years of the existence of Judah as an independent political entity: the final years of the seventh century BCE (approximately 610-600 BCE) and the first decades of the sixth century (until sometime after 586). These were the years during which the growing power of the Babylonian Empire became more and more threatening to Judah, culminating with the siege of Jerusalem in
598697(during which the king, Jehoiakim, died and his son Jehoiachin assumed the throne). Jehoiachin was deposed and replaced by his uncle, Zedekiah, and the deposed king and a portion of the ruling classes (including the priest-prophet Ezekiel; see the JEREMIAH
1487Introduction to Ezekiel) were exiled to Babylon. The ensuing decade saw increasingly desperate attempts on the part of Judah to free itself from the Babylonian overlordship, but a final revolt by Zedekiah (based partly on the promises of help from Egypt that were unfulfilled) brought about the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem and the destruction of the city and the Temple in
586BCE, at which point the rest of the rulers were exiled as well. Though Jeremiah wished to remain in Judah with Gedaliah, the governor appointed by the Babylonians, Gedaliah was assassinated, along with a contingent of Babylonian soldiers. Fearing indiscriminate reprisals by the Babylonians, many of the remaining Judean leaders fled to Egypt, taking the protesting Jeremiah with them (chs 40-44). HT TH Understanding the history behind the book of Jeremiah, and how the prophet's statements relate to that history, is made more difficult by the complexity of the organization of the book itself. Alongside the typical prophetic oracles, which are in poetical form, Jeremiah also contains a good deal of prose — often written in the third person, influenced by the language and theology of Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomistic History, and including the historical appendix (ch 52) borrowed from
2Kings 24.28-25.30. There are many doublets (7.1-15 || 26.4-6; 7.32 || 19.6; 16.14-15 || 23.7-8). The relationship between the standard Hebrew text and other ancient versions of the book is confusing. An apparently artificial system of superstitions and chronological notes may have been inserted to make the book conform to the Deuteronomistic History. All these qualities suggest that the book represents the product of a long period of editorial activity lasting well into the Hellenistic period (see 33.14-26). According to the structure imposed on the book by the prose superscriptions, it consists essentially of a collection of oracles against Judah and Jerusalem, which Jeremiah dictated to his aide Baruch (1.4-20.18, from the time of Josiah and Jehoiakim; 21.1-25.14, from the time of Zedekiah); narratives about Jeremiah's prophetic activity (chs 26-35; 36-45); and a group of oracles against the foreign nations (25.15-38; chs 45-51), together with an introduction (1.1-3) and the historical appendix (ch 52). JEREMIAH
1488Scholars offer various models to explain formation of the book. Some point to what they consider to be signs that the book was compiled over a period of time from smaller collections of oracles. One clue to such smaller collections may be the first two scrolls of judgment oracles that Jeremiah is said to have dictated to Baruch (ch 36). The second scroll (36.32) could have formed that nucleus for the material now found in 2.1-20.18. Another small collection may have been the scroll of consolation (30.1-3), which in its original form probably contained much of what is now in chs 30-31. Against this view, however, others point out that the narrative concerning Baruch's scrolls may not be reliable as a guide to the history of the formation of the book because it occurs in the prose narratives of chs 36-44, which are slanted in favor of Babylonian exiles. Also, the narrative clearly contrasts the behavior of the king (ch 36) with the account of Josiah's reaction to the discovery of the scroll of the law (2 Kings 22-23) and may therefore have been written with this aim in mind. If the book of Jeremiah cannot be traced to Baruch's two scrolls, it presumably grew by means of successive additions and redactions of some now unidentifiable core of Jeremiah's preaching. Perhaps the strongest evidence for this redactional model is that the present Hebrew text differs substantially from the Greek version (the Septuagint) in both content and order. Thus the Septuagint does not contain several passages (e.g., 33.14-26) and combines the oracles against the foreign nations into a single section following 25.14, though in a different order. In addition, there are many smaller differences from verse to verse. Remarkably, among the portions of the text of Jeremiah in Hebrew that were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls are not only those that reflect the standard Hebrew text but also those that reflect the text tradition represented by the Septuagint. It is likely, then, that these two text traditions represent the contrasting editorial work of the book of Jeremiah that took place in Egypt (the Septuagint tradition) and in Palestine or Babylon (the traditional Hebrew text). JEREMIAH
1489Much of Jeremiah's prophetic preaching is based on the theme of the covenant relationship between God and the people of Israel and Judah. Drawing on traditions at home in northern Israel, Jeremiah considered the covenant to be a conditional one, which could be broken by the people's persistent apostasy. Influenced by Hosea, Jeremiah used imagery of the people as an unfaithful wife and as rebellious children (chs 2-3). Such infidelity made judgment virtually inevitable. In his vivid poetic oracles Jeremiah dramatizes the grief experienced by God, prophet, and people (e.g., chs 4-6). Interspersed with the words of judgment and anguish, however, are a number of references to repentance and the renewal of the covenant relationship. Because of the complex ways in which the book has been edited, it is difficult to determine whether Jeremiah considered it possible that the people's repentance might forestall judgment or whether he considered repentance and a new beginning possible only after the judgment had fallen. In the prose narratives about Jeremiah during the siege and fall of Jerusalem, Jeremiah is represented as insisting that there would be a future for the people in the land of Judah even after the Babylonian conquest (chs 32, 42). The theme of restoration is strongest in chs 30-31, where a future is envisioned in which a new covenant will be made with Israel and Judah, one that will not be broken (31.33).