Isaiah 65:1

I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name. In Isaiah 64:9 their plea was, "We are all thy people." In answer, God declares that others (Gentiles) would be taken into covenant with Him, while His ancient people would be rejected. The Jews were slow to believe this; hence, Paul says (Romans 10:20) that Isaiah was "very bold" in advancing so unpopular a sentiment. 'But Isaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not, I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.' Isaiah implies what Paul states (Romans 2:28;...

1._I have manifested myself. _The Prophet now passes on to another doctrine; for he shews that God has good reason for rejecting and casting off the Jews. It is because they have profited nothing by either warnings or threatenings to be brought back from their errors into the right way. But that they might not think that the Lord’s covenant would on that account be made void, he adds that he will have another people which formerly was no people, and that where he was formerly unknown, his name Shall be well known and highly celebrated. The Jews looked on this as monstrous, and reckoned it to be altogether inconsistent with the covenant which the Lord made with Abraham, (Genesis 17:7,) if such a benefit were extended to any others than his posterity. But the Prophet intended to strip them of the foolish confidence of imagining that God was bound to the posterity of Abraham; for the Lor

1-7 The Gentiles came to seek God, and find him, because they were first sought and found of him. Often he meets some thoughtless trifler or profligate opposer, and says to him, Behold me; and a speedy change takes place. All the gospel day, Christ waited to be gracious. The Jews were bidden, but would not come. It is not without cause they are rejected of God. They would do what most pleased them. They grieved, they vexed the Holy Spirit. They forsook God's temple, and sacrificed in groves. They cared not for the distinction between clean and unclean meats, before it was taken away by the gospel. Perhaps this is put for all forbidden pleasures, and all that is thought to be gotten by sin, that abominable thing which the Lord hates. Christ denounced many woes against the pride and hypocrisy of the Jews. The proof against them is plain. And let us watch against pride and self-preference,...

CHAPTER LXV _We have here a vindication of God's dealings with the Jews_, 1, 2. _To this end the prophet points out their great hypocrisy, and_ _gives a particular enumeration of their dreadful abominations,_ _many of which were committed under the specious guise of_ _sanctity_, 3-5. _For their horrid impieties, (recorded in writing before_ _Jehovah,) the wrath of God shall certainly come upon them to_ _the uttermost; a prediction which was exactly fulfilled in_ _the first and second centuries in the reigns of the Roman_...

I AM SOUGHT OF THEM THAT ASKED NOT FOR ME - That is, by the Gentiles. So Paul applies it in Romans 10:20. Lowth translates the word which is rendered, ‘I am sought,’ by ‘I am made known.’ Noyes, ‘I have heard.’ The Septuagint renders it, Ἐμφανὴς ἐγενήθην _Emphanēs_ _egenēthēn_ - ‘I became manifest.’ Jerome, ‘They sought me who had not before inquired for me.’ The Chaldee, ‘I am sought in my word by those who had not asked me before my face.’ The Hebrew word דרשׁ _dârash_ means properly “to frequent a place, to search or seek”; and in the Niphal - the form used here - “to be sought unto, to grant access to anyone; hence, to hear and answer prayer” Ezekiel 14:3;...

SECTION XI.—GOD'S ANSWER TO THE EXILES' PRAYER (Isaiah 65:1.) EXPOSITION ISAIAH 65:1 ISRAEL'S SUFFERINGS THE JUST MEED OF THEIR SINS. God's mercy is such that it even overflows upon those who are outside the covenant (Isaiah 65:1). It has been offered to Israel, but Israel has rejected it. Their rebellion, their idolatries, and their pride have caused, and must continue to cause, their punishment ...

I AM SOUGHT OF THEM THAT ASKED NOT FOR ME,.... That this is a prophecy of the calling and conversion of the Gentiles is not to be doubted, since the Apostle Paul has quoted it, and applied it to that case, Romans 10:20 and is here mentioned as an aggravation of the sin of the Jews, in rejecting Christ, when the Gentiles received him; and was the reason of their being rejected of God, and the Gospel being taken away from them, and given to another people, and of the Lord's removing his presence from the one to the other. The Gentiles are described as those that "asked not for" Christ, or after him, as the apostle supplies it; they had not asked for him, nor after him, nor anything about him; nor of him "before" this time, as the Vulgate Latin version renders it; they were without Christ, the promises and prophecies concerning him; and so had no knowledge of him, nor made any inquiry about...

CHAPTER 65 Jehovah's Answer: The Rebellious and Their Judgment, the Faithful and Their Blessings 1. _The divine rebuke to the apostates (Isaiah 65:1) _ 2. _The elect seed (Isaiah 65:9) _ 3. _The judgment of the apostates (Isaiah 65:11) _ 4. _The blessings of Jehovah's servants and the contrast (Isaiah 65:13) _ 5. _The glories and blessings of the future (Isaiah 65:17) _ The first eight verses give a description of the iniquities practiced by apostate Israel. Judgment will overtake them in the day of veng

RETRIBUTION AWAITS THOSE WHO CLING TO THE OLD RITUAL PRACTICES AND REFUSE TO ADHERE TO THE REFORMED RELIGION. Yahweh declares His readiness to respond to this people, but they would not approach Him or call upon (_mg., cf._ VSS) His name. I made, He says, unceasing entreaty to them, unruly as they were, but they steadfastly adhered to their own evil ways, insulting Me in My own holy city by their grove-worship and incense-burning. They pass the night among the tombs and recesses (to obtain dream-oracles from the dead). They eat the flesh of, and drink - magical hell-broth-' made from, forbidden animals that they sacrifice. Having acquired in these mystic rites a - taboo-' holiness physically contagious they caution others to shrink away lest they too should be made - taboo-' (read in Isaiah 65:5, - lest I make thee holy-': - am holier than-' is an impossible translation). Such men are to...

I AM FOUND, &C. Quoted in Romans 10:20; Romans 10:21. BEHOLD ME. Figure of speech _Epizeuxis._ See note on Isaiah 24:16. A NATION THAT WAS NOT CALLED BY MY NAME. Reference to Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 32:21), and to the Dispensation of the Acts....