Isaiah 65:1-7

The Lord Will Distinguish Between Sinners and the Godly

65:1 “I made myself available to those who did not ask for me; ¹ 

I appeared to those who did not look for me. ² 

I said, ‘Here I am! Here I am!’

to a nation that did not invoke ³  my name.

65:2 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. ⁴ 

65:3 These people continually and blatantly offend me ⁵ 

as they sacrifice in their sacred orchards ⁶ 

and burn incense on brick altars. ⁷ 

65:4 They sit among the tombs ⁸ 

and keep watch all night long. ⁹ 

They eat pork, ¹⁰ 

and broth ¹¹  from unclean sacrificial meat is in their pans.

65:5 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.

65:6 Look, I have decreed: ¹² 

I will not keep silent, but will pay them back;

I will pay them back exactly what they deserve, ¹³ 

65:7 for your sins and your ancestors’ sins,” ¹⁴  says the Lord.

“Because they burned incense on the mountains

and offended ¹⁵  me on the hills,

I will punish them in full measure.” ¹⁶ 

[65:1]  ¹ tn Heb “I allowed myself to be sought by those who did not ask.”

[65:1]  ² tn Heb “I allowed myself to be found by those who did not seek.”

[65:1]  ³ tn Heb “call out in”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “call on.”

[65:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “who walked [in] the way that is not good, after their thoughts.”

[65:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “the people who provoke me to anger to my face continually.”

[65:3]  ⁸ tn Or “gardens” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[65:3]  ⁹ tn Or perhaps, “on tiles.”

[65:4]  ¹⁰ sn Perhaps the worship of underworld deities or dead spirits is in view.

[65:4]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “and in the watches they spend the night.” Some understand נְּצוּרִים (nÿtsurim) as referring to “secret places” or “caves,” while others emend the text to וּבֵין צוּרִים (uven tsurim, “between the rocky cliffs”).

[65:4]  ¹² tn Heb “the flesh of the pig”; KJV, NAB, NASB “swine’s flesh.”

[65:4]  ¹³ tc The marginal reading (Qere), supported by the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, reads מְרַק (mÿraq, “broth”), while the consonantal text (Kethib) has פְרַק (feraq, “fragment”).

[65:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “Look, it is written before me.”

[65:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I will pay back into their lap.”

[65:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the iniquities of your fathers.”

[65:7]  ¹⁷ tn Or perhaps, “taunted”; KJV “blasphemed”; NAB “disgraced”; NASB “scorned”; NIV “defied”; NRSV “reviled.”

[65:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I will measure out their pay [from the] beginning into their lap,” i.e., he will give them everything they have earned.