Isaiah 65:11-12

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Isaiah 65:11-16

Here the different states of the godly and wicked, of the Jews that believed and of those that still persisted in unbelief, are set the one over?against the other, as life and death, good and evil, the blessing and the curse. I. Here is the fearful doom of those that persisted in their idolatry after the deliverance out of Babylon, and in infidelity after the preaching of the gospel of Christ. Observe, 1. What the doom is that is here threatened: ?I will number you to the sword as sheep for... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 65:11

But ye are they that forsake the Lord ,.... Here the Lord returns to the body of the people again, the unbelievers and rejecters of the Messiah, who turned away from him, would not hear his doctrine, nor submit to his ordinances; they forsook the worship of the Lord, as the Targum; yea, some that professed to be his disciples, and followed him for a while, left him, and walked no more with him, John 6:60 , that forget my holy mountain ; Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 65:12

Therefore will I number you to the sword ,.... There is an elegancy in the expression, alluding to Meni, that number, they furnished a drink offering for, or trusted in; and since they did, God would number them, or appoint a number of them to the sword; or suffer them to be slain in great numbers, even from one end of their land to another, Jeremiah 12:12 , they should be numbered and told out, or care taken that none of them should escape the sword of the Romans, or not be taken by them:... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 65:11

That prepare a table for that troop "Who set in order a table for Gad" - The disquisitions and conjectures of the learned concerning Gad and Meni are infinite and uncertain: perhaps the most probable may be, that Gad means good fortune, and Meni the moon. "But why should we be solicitous about it?" says Schmidius. "It appears sufficiently, from the circumstances, that they were false gods; either stars, or some natural objects; or a mere fiction. The Holy Scriptures did not deign to explain... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 65:12

Therefore will I number you - Referring to Meni, which signifies number "Rabbi Eliezar said to his disciples, Turn to God one day before you die. His disciples said, How call a man know the day of his death? He answered, Therefore it is necessary that you should turn to God to-day, for possibly ye may die to-morrow." read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 65:11

But ye are they that forsake the Lord ; rather, but as for you who forsake the Lord. And forget my holy mountain ; i.e. either, literally, forget Zion. being absent from it so long ( Psalms 137:5 ), or, possibly, neglect Zion, though you might worship there if you pleased. That prepare a table for that troop ; rather, that prepare a table for Gad. There is ground for believing that "Gad" was a Phoenician deity, perhaps "the god of good fortune" (Cheyne), though this is not... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 65:11-16

A MIXTURE OF THREATS WITH PROMISES . The prophet returns, in the main, to his former attitude, and resumes his denunciations ( Isaiah 65:11 , Isaiah 65:12 ); but, with Isaiah 65:13 , he begins to intermingle promises of favour to God's servants with threats against the rebellious, and finally (in Isaiah 65:16 ) turns wholly towards the side of grace and favour, announcing the coming of a time when "the former troubles" will be altogether "forgotten," and the kingdom of truth... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 65:11-16

The doom of the idolaters. I. THE SINS . On the one hand it is the forsaking of Jehovah, the forgetting of his holy mountain. It is the keeping aloof from the true worship celebrated on Mount Moriah. But the heart of man knows no deeper need than that of worship; and the setting of the tables before the images of heathen deities ( lectisternia ) witnesses, even as an aberration and a caricature, to that yearning for communion with the Divine which true religion and revelation... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 65:12

Therefore will I number you ; or, apportion you ( maaithi ) — a play upon the name of M'ni . The sword … slaughter . Not, perhaps, intended literally. Wicked men are God's sword ( Psalms 17:13 ), and deliverance into their hand would be deliverance to the sword and slaughter. The exiles suffered grievously at the hands of their Babylonian masters ( Isaiah 47:6 ; Isaiah 49:17 , etc.). The character of their sufferings is given in the ensuing verses ( Isaiah 65:13 , Isaiah... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Isaiah 65:11

But ye are they that forsake the Lord - Or rather, ‘Ye who forsake Yahweh, and who forget my holy mountain, I will number to the sword.’ The design of this verse is to remind them of their idolatries, and to assure them that they should not escape unpunished.That forget my holy mountain - Mount Moriah, the sacred mountain on which the temple was built.That prepare a table - It was usual to set food and drink before idols - with the belief that the gods consumed what was thus placed before them... read more

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