The Lord will come with fire "Jehovah shall come as a fire" - For באש baesh , in fire, the Septuagint had in their copy קאש kaesh , as a fire; ὡς πυρ . To render his anger with fury "To breathe forth his anger in a burning heat" - Instead of להשב lehashib , as pointed by the Masoretes, to render, I understand it as להשב lehashshib , to breathe, from נשב nashab . read more
Behind one tree "After the rites of Achad" - The Syrians worshipped a god called Adad, Plin. Nat. Hist. 37:11; Macrob. Sat. 1:23. They held him to be the highest and greatest of the gods, and to be the same with Jupiter and the sun; and the name Adad, says Macrobius, signifies one; as likewise does the word Achad in Isaiah. Many learned men therefore have supposed, and with some probability, that the prophet means the same pretended deity. אחד achad , in the Syrian and Chaldean dialects,... read more
For I know their works - A word is here lost out of the present text, leaving the text quite imperfect. The word is יודע yodea , knowing, supplied from the Syriac. The Chaldee had the same word in the copy before him, which he paraphrases by גלן קדמי kedemi gelon , their deeds are manifest before me; and the Aldine and Complutensian editions of the Septuagint acknowledge the same word επισταμαι , which is verified by MS. Pachom. and the Arabic version. I think there can be little... read more
That draw the bow - I much suspect that the words קשת משכי moshechey kesheth , who draw the bow, are a corruption of the word משך meshek , Moschi, the name of a nation situated between the Euxine and Caspian seas; and properly joined with תבל tubal , the Tibareni. See Bochart, Phaleg. Isaiah 3:12 . The Septuagint have μοσοχ , without any thing of the drawers of the bow: the word being once taken for a participle, the bow was added to make sense of it קשת kesheth , the... read more
And in chariots "And in counes" - There is a sort of vehicle much used in the east, consisting of a pair of hampers or cradles, thrown across a camel's back, one on each side; in each of which a person is carried. They have a covering to defend them from the rain and the sun. Thevenot calls them counes , 1 p. 356. Maillet describes them as covered cages hanging on both sides of a camel. "At Aleppo," says Dr. Russell, "women of inferior condition in longer journeys are commonly stowed, one... read more
And for Levites - For ללוים laleviyim , fifty-nine MSS., (eight ancient), have וללוים velaleviyim , adding the conjunction ו vau , which the sense seems necessarily to require: and so read all the ancient versions. See Joshua 3:3 , and the various readings on that place in Kennicott's Bible. read more
For their worm shall not die - These words of the prophet are applied by our blessed Savior, Mark 9:44 , to express the everlasting punishment of the wicked in Gehenna, or in hell. Gehenna, or the valley of Hinnom, was very near to Jerusalem to the south-east: it was the place where the idolatrous Jews celebrated that horrible rite of making their children pass through the fire, that is, of burning them in sacrifice to Moloch. To put a stop to this abominable practice, Josiah defiled, or... read more
Behold, the Lord will come with fire. "Fire" is a usual accompaniment of a "theophany." God descended on Sinai "in fire" ( Exodus 19:18 ), and led the Israelites through the wilderness by the pillar of the cloud and of fire ( Exodus 13:21 , Exodus 13:22 ), and filled the tabernacle with a glory as of fire ( Exodus 40:34 ), and "answered David from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering'' ( 1 Chronicles 21:26 ), and in the same way answered Solomon ( 2 Chronicles 7:1 )... read more
The purging of the earth by the destruction of the wicked. The kingdom of Christ cannot be fully set up in all its blessedness until the earth is prepared for its reception; and the main preparation required is the elimination from it of those wicked persons who, while they remain, must always constitute a disturbing element, inimical to the earth's peace and a hindrance to the Church's happiness. The teaching of Scripture is that, before the Church is finally established in the blissful... read more
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John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 66:24
And they shall go forth ,.... That is, those constant and spiritual worshippers shall go forth from the holy mountain Jerusalem, the church of God, whither they are brought as an offering to the Lord, and where they worship him; for this is not to be understood of going out of Jerusalem literally, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi; or of their going out of their graves after the resurrection, as others; but either out of the Christian assemblies, or out of the houses of the saints, and the beloved... read more