Verse Isaiah 65:23. They shall not labour in vain - "My chosen shall not labour in vain"] I remove בחירי bechirai, my elect, from the end of the twenty-second to the beginning of the twenty-third verse, on the authority of the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, and a MS.; contrary to the division in the Masoretic text. - L. The Septuagint is beautiful: My chosen shall not labour in vain, neither shall they beget children for the curse; for the seed is blessed of the Lord, and their posterity with them."

Nor bring forth for trouble - "Neither shall they generate a short-lived race"] לבהלה labbehalah, in festinationem, "what shall soon hasten away." Εις καταραν for a curse, Sept. They seem to have read לאלה lealah. - Grotius. But Psalms 78:33 both justifies and explains the word here: -

ימיהם בהבל ויכל

yemeyhem bahebel vayechal

בבהלה ושנותם

babbehalah ushenotham

"And he consumed their days in vanity;

And their years in haste."


μετα σπουδης, say the Septuagint. Jerome on this place of Isaiah explains it to the same purpose: "εις ανυπαρξιαν, hoc est, ut esse desistant."

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