Isaiah 66:17

They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD. THEY THAT SANCTIFY THEMSELVES ... IN THE GARDENS - THE HEBREW ( _ 'el (_ H413) haganowt ( H1593 )) and the Septuagint [eis tous keepous] require, 'for (entering into) gardens;' namely, to sacrifice there (Maurer). The Vulgate, Chaldaic Arabic, and Syriac support the English version. Behind one (tree) in the midst - rather, 'following one:' 'achar (H310) (the same as 'achªreey) 'achat (H259); i:e., some idol or other, which, from contempt, he does not name (Maurer). Vitringa, etc. think the Hebrew for "one," Achad, to

17._They who sanctify themselves. _He now describes those enemies of whom he said, that God’s anger would be kindled against them; for it might have been doubtful whether he spoke of foreign and avowed enemies, or directed his discourse to the despisers of God, although they had been mixed with those who were elect and holy; and therefore he plainly addresses the false and degenerate Jews. Nor have I any doubt that, in the first place, he rebukes hypocrites, and, in the second place, when he says, “Who eat swine’s flesh,” he describes men of immoral lives, that is, those who were openly wicked and grossly licentious. Hypocrites sanctified themselves, that is, assumed false disguises of holiness, and deceived many under this pretense. They _purified themselves in the gardens; _that is, they polluted themselves with various superstitions, although they imagined that, by means of those supe...

15-24 A prophetic declaration is given of the Lord's vengeance on all enemies of his church, especially that of all antichristian opposers of the gospel in the latter days. Ver...

Verse Isaiah 66:17. _BEHIND ONE_ TREE - "After the rites of Achad"] The Syrians worshipped a god called Adad, _Plin_. Nat. Hist. xxxvii. 11; Macrob. Sat. i. 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, is חד _chad_; and perhaps by reduplication of the last letter to express perfect unity, it may have become חדד _chadad_, not improperly expressed by Macrobius _Adad_, without the aspirate. It was also pronounced by the Syrians themselves, with a weaker aspirate, הדד _hadad_, as in Benhadad, Hadadezer, name...

THEY THAT SANCTIFY THEMSELVES - That is, who attempt to purify themselves by idolatrous rites, by ablutions, and lustrations. The design here is, to describe those who will be exposed to the wrath of God when he shall come to execute vengeance. AND PURIFY THEMSELVES IN THE GARDENS - (See the notes at Isaiah 65:3). BEHIND ONE TREE IN THE MIDST - This passage has not a little exercised the ingenuity of commentators. It is quite evident that our translators were not able to satisfy themselves with regard to its meaning. In the margin they have rendered it, ‘one after another,’ supposing that it may mean that the idolaters engaged in their sacrifices in a solemn procession, walking one after another around their groves, their shrines, or their altars. In the translation in the text,

SECTION XII.—FINAL THREATENINGS AND PROMISES (Isaiah 66:1.). EXPOSITION ISAIAH 66:1 THE UNGODLY EXILES REBUKED. Israel, being about to return from the Captivity, had the design of rebuilding the temple and re-establishing the temple worship. God rebukes this design in persons devoid of any spirit of holiness, and warns them that mere formal outward worship is an abomination to him (Isaiah 66:1). In Isaiah 66:4 he threatens them wi

THEY THAT SANCTIFY THEMSELVES,.... This is a description of the enemies of the Lord, and of his people, who shall be slain at this time; not who are sanctified by the Spirit and grace of God, but who sanctify themselves, pretend to make themselves holy, and give out that they are holier than others; professing great outward sanctity, as the Papists do, but destitute of real inward holiness: or, "that prepare themselves", as the Targum; to go and worship such an idol, on such a day, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra interpret it, and as the above followers of the man of sin do, Revelation 9:20 THAT PURIFY THEMSELVES IN THE GARDENS; in pools or ponds of water in gardens. This Kimchi understands of the Persians, by whom he means the Mahometans, who bathe and purify themselves daily, but yet are unclean in their lives and actions; and it is true also of the Papists, who pretend to

CHAPTER 66 The Finale: The Two Classes and the Prophecy of Isaiah in a Retrospect 1. _The apostates and their wicked worship (Isaiah 66:1) _ 2. _The remnant suffering and encouraged (Isaiah 66:5) _ 3. _The sudden manifestation of the Lord (Isaiah 66:6) _ 4. _The nation's rebirth (Isaiah 66:7) _ 5. _Jerusalem's supremacy and glory (Isaiah 66:10) _ 6. _The warning of judgment (Isaiah 66:15) _ 7. The regathering after judgment ...

ISAIAH 66. Here divisions are hard to define. The theme the coming punishment of the apostates and the coming glory of the pious is pursued now on one side, now on the other. ISAIAH 66:1. AN ATTACK ON THE PROJECTORS OF A RIVAL TEMPLE. Those Jews who refused to accept the reformed religion apparently proposed to set up a rival temple. Yahweh scornfully demands of them in what manner of building they would house Him, whose habitation is the universe. These things a temple and a resting-place He has already made for Himself, on Zion; for despite His loftiness He ever considers the humble and obedient worshipper. As for these rebels who combine forbidden with legitimate rites, such as human sacrifice, the sacrifice of a dog without effusion of blood, the sacrificial use of swine's blood, and honouring of images, just as they choose their own perverse ways so will He choose to make t

GARDENS. Compare Isaiah 1:29, and Isaiah 65:3. TREE: i.e. the _Asherah_. TREE, &C. See notes on next page. ABOMINATION. Hebrew. _shakaz._ Reference to Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 7:2). Occurs in Isaiah only here; Leviticus thirteen times (Isaiah 7:2; Isaiah 11:9; Isaiah 11:11; Isaiah 11:11;...