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66. Judgment and Hope

¹ This is what the LORD says:

   “Heaven is my throne,
   and the earth is my footstool.
Where is the house you will build for me?
   Where will my resting place be?
² Has not my hand made all these things,
   and so they came into being?” declares the LORD.

   “These are the ones I look on with favor:
   those who are humble and contrite in spirit,
   and who tremble at my word.
³ But whoever sacrifices a bull
   is like one who kills a person,
and whoever offers a lamb
   is like one who breaks a dog’s neck;
whoever makes a grain offering
   is like one who presents pig’s blood,
and whoever burns memorial incense
   is like one who worships an idol.
They have chosen their own ways,
   and they delight in their abominations;
⁴ so I also will choose harsh treatment for them
   and will bring on them what they dread.
For when I called, no one answered,
   when I spoke, no one listened.
They did evil in my sight
   and chose what displeases me.”

    ⁵ Hear the word of the LORD,
   you who tremble at his word:
“Your own people who hate you,
   and exclude you because of my name, have said,
‘Let the LORD be glorified,
   that we may see your joy!’
   Yet they will be put to shame.
⁶ Hear that uproar from the city,
   hear that noise from the temple!
It is the sound of the LORD
   repaying his enemies all they deserve.

    ⁷ “Before she goes into labor,
   she gives birth;
before the pains come upon her,
   she delivers a son.
⁸ Who has ever heard of such things?
   Who has ever seen things like this?
Can a country be born in a day
   or a nation be brought forth in a moment?
Yet no sooner is Zion in labor
   than she gives birth to her children.
⁹ Do I bring to the moment of birth
   and not give delivery?” says the LORD.
“Do I close up the womb
   when I bring to delivery?” says your God.
¹⁰ “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her,
   all you who love her;
rejoice greatly with her,
   all you who mourn over her.
¹¹ For you will nurse and be satisfied
   at her comforting breasts;
you will drink deeply
   and delight in her overflowing abundance.”

¹² For this is what the LORD says:

   “I will extend peace to her like a river,
   and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream;
you will nurse and be carried on her arm
   and dandled on her knees.
¹³ As a mother comforts her child,
   so will I comfort you;
   and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”

    ¹⁴ When you see this, your heart will rejoice
   and you will flourish like grass;
the hand of the LORD will be made known to his servants,
   but his fury will be shown to his foes.
¹⁵ See, the LORD is coming with fire,
   and his chariots are like a whirlwind;
he will bring down his anger with fury,
   and his rebuke with flames of fire.
¹⁶ For with fire and with his sword
   the LORD will execute judgment on all people,
   and many will be those slain by the LORD.

¹⁷ “Those who consecrate and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one who is among those who eat the flesh of pigs, rats and other unclean things—they will meet their end together with the one they follow,” declares the LORD.

¹⁸ “And I, because of what they have planned and done, am about to come The meaning of the Hebrew for this clause is uncertain. and gather the people of all nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory.

¹⁹ “I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations—to Tarshish, to the Libyans Some Septuagint manuscripts Put (Libyans); Hebrew Pul and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations. ²⁰ And they will bring all your people, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the LORD—on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,” says the LORD. “They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the LORD in ceremonially clean vessels. ²¹ And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,” says the LORD.

²² “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the LORD, “so will your name and descendants endure. ²³ From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the LORD. ²⁴ “And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”

4. I also will choose their delusions. ²²⁰²²⁰ “‘That I may mock them.’ Here the word תעלוליהם (tagnalulehem) means להתעולל בם, (lehithgnolel bam,), that I may mock them,’ in the same sense as the words used in another passage, כי התעללת בי, (ki hith-gnallalt bi) ‘because thou hast mocked me.’ (Numbers 22:29.)” — Jarchi. The Prophet means that the Jews gain nothing by holding out various and plausible pretences and by searching for excuses; because God does not care for the cunning or fine speeches of men. And indeed it is not proper to measure God by our own capacity, and we ought not to depend on human judgment; but it is our duty to judge of the works of God from his word. I will choose; that is, “I will scatter the clouds which they endeavor to spread over themselves, so that their delusions shall be manifest and visible to all; for now they appear to be hidden, but one day they shall be dragged forth to public view.” The meaning may be thus summed up. “Because the Jews have indulged so freely in sinning that everything which they chose was preferred by them to the command ments of God, so also, in his turn, God will lay open their delusions at his pleasure.”

And will bring upon them their terror. ²²¹²²¹ “Et leur feray venir les choses qu’ils craignoyent.” “And will bring (or cause to come) upon them the things which they dreaded.” Under the word “terror” he repeats the same thing, according to the custom of Hebrew writers. “I will cause them to know that they have fallen into a mistake, and that the terrors which they indulged shall fall on their own heads. ²²²²²² “Je feray qu ils cognoistront avoir failli, tellement que ce qu ils craignoyent leur tombera dessus la teste.” “I will cause them to know that they have been mistaken, and that what they dreaded has fallen on their own head.” Thus their excuses or hypocritical pretences will be of no avail for confounding truth and falsehood and veiling superstitions; because the Lord will clearly distinguish between them.

Because I called. The Prophet again condemns the Jews for obstinacy, in not having suffered the Lord to correct them. This is the only remedy that remains for correcting our vices, that we hear the Lord speaking, when he endeavors to bring us back into the right way; but when we sear and harden our hearts, it is the worst of all evils. Whenever therefore men prefer their own inventions to the ordinances and commandments of God, they openly despise God, to whose will they ought to have yielded. This is especially the case when there is added such obstinate hardness of heart as shuts the door against holy warnings, and it is vain for them to allege that they cannot displease God by doing that which they undertake for the purpose of worshipping him; for all that men, by neglecting the word, choose and follow, the Lord rejects and abhors.

Before mine eyes. He repeats what he had formerly said, that the Jews sinned in the sight of God, as if they had resolved to provoke him to anger. At length he adds their manner of doing so, that, with perverse desire, they sought what God had forbidden; nor is it without good reason that he so frequently censures the wicked insolence of men, in defrauding God of his right, by treating contemptuously what he approves.