What does Isaias Chapter 65 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The Lord contrasts unresponsive people with seekers and servants. Food, names and amen blessings distinguish the announced outcomes. New creation and long life precede peace on the holy mountain.

Chapter breakdown

Isaias 65 begins with the Lord found by those who did not seek or call, addressing a nation not invoking his name. Outstretched hands meet an unbelieving people following their thoughts. Garden immolations, sacrifices upon bricks, sleeping in idol temples and sepulchres, swine and profane broth, and claims of another's uncleanness accompany smoke of anger. Written recompense concerns their and their fathers' mountain and hill worship.

A grain in a cluster bearing blessing illustrates preservation for servants. Jacob's seed and Juda's possessor of mountains inherit, while plains and Achor hold flocks for seekers. Those forsaking the Lord prepare fortune's table and libations, ignore calling and choose evil. Servants eat, drink, rejoice and praise while others hunger, thirst, blush, cry and howl. A name remains for execration, the Lord slays and gives servants another name. Blessing and swearing invoke God amen, with former distress forgotten and hidden from his eyes.

New heavens and earth and a joyful Jerusalem accompany no heard weeping. Lifespans are described through a child dying at a hundred and a hundred-year sinner accursed, not abolition of every death. Builders inhabit and planters eat; long tree-like days and fruitful work accompany offspring without trouble and blessed posterity. Before calling he hears, and while speaking he hears. Wolf and lamb feed together, lion eats straw like ox, serpent eats dust, and no hurt or killing occurs on the holy mountain. The edition's Christ-and-Church interpretation remains attributed; unnamed plains, fortune and the mountain are not replaced with imported geography, a second deity or a universal biological guarantee.

The story inside

Opening: The Lord contrasts unresponsive people with seekers and servants. Development: Food, names and amen blessings distinguish the announced outcomes. Conclusion: New creation and long life precede peace on the holy mountain.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The Lord contrasts unresponsive people with seekers and servants.
2
Food, names and amen blessings distinguish the announced outcomes.
3
New creation and long life precede peace on the holy mountain.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 83768–83777
65:1. They have sought me that before asked not for me, they have found me that sought me not. I said: Behold me, behold me, to a nation that did not call upon my name. 65:2. I have spread forth my hands all the day to an unbelieving people, who walk in a way that is not good after their own thoughts. 65:3. A people that continually provoke me to anger before my face, that immolate in gardens, and sacrifice upon bricks.
Lines 83792–83803
65:8. Thus saith the Lord: As if a grain be found in a cluster, and it be said: Destroy it not, because it is a blessing: so will I do for the sake of my servants, that I may not destroy the whole. 65:9. And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Juda a possessor of my mountains: and my elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there. 65:10. And the plains shall be turned to folds of flocks, and the valley of Achor into a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.
Lines 83828–83839
65:17. For behold I create new heavens, and a new earth: and the former things shall not be in remembrance, and they shall not come upon the heart. 65:18. But you shall be glad and rejoice for ever in these things, which I create: for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and the people thereof joy. 65:19. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.