Isaiah 65:3-11

65:3 These people continually and blatantly offend me ¹ 

as they sacrifice in their sacred orchards ² 

and burn incense on brick altars. ³ 

65:4 They sit among the tombs ⁴ 

and keep watch all night long. ⁵ 

They eat pork, ⁶ 

and broth ⁷  from unclean sacrificial meat is in their pans.

65:5 They say, ‘Keep to yourself!

Don’t get near me, for I am holier than you!’

These people are like smoke in my nostrils,

like a fire that keeps burning all day long.

65:6 Look, I have decreed: ⁸ 

I will not keep silent, but will pay them back;

I will pay them back exactly what they deserve, ⁹ 

65:7 for your sins and your ancestors’ sins,” ¹⁰  says the Lord.

“Because they burned incense on the mountains

and offended ¹¹  me on the hills,

I will punish them in full measure.” ¹² 

65:8 This is what the Lord says:

“When ¹³  juice is discovered in a cluster of grapes,

someone says, ‘Don’t destroy it, for it contains juice.’ ¹⁴ 

So I will do for the sake of my servants –

I will not destroy everyone. ¹⁵ 

65:9 I will bring forth descendants from Jacob,

and from Judah people to take possession of my mountains.

My chosen ones will take possession of the land; ¹⁶ 

my servants will live there.

65:10 Sharon ¹⁷  will become a pasture for sheep,

and the Valley of Achor ¹⁸  a place where cattle graze; ¹⁹ 

they will belong to my people, who seek me. ²⁰ 

65:11 But as for you who abandon the Lord

and forget about worshiping at ²¹  my holy mountain,

who prepare a feast for the god called ‘Fortune,’ ²² 

and fill up wine jugs for the god called ‘Destiny’ ²³  –

[65:3]  ¹ tn Heb “the people who provoke me to anger to my face continually.”

[65:3]  ² tn Or “gardens” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[65:3]  ³ tn Or perhaps, “on tiles.”

[65:4]  ⁴ sn Perhaps the worship of underworld deities or dead spirits is in view.

[65:4]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “and in the watches they spend the night.” Some understand נְּצוּרִים (nÿtsurim) as referring to “secret places” or “caves,” while others emend the text to וּבֵין צוּרִים (uven tsurim, “between the rocky cliffs”).

[65:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “the flesh of the pig”; KJV, NAB, NASB “swine’s flesh.”

[65:4]  ⁷ tc The marginal reading (Qere), supported by the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, reads מְרַק (mÿraq, “broth”), while the consonantal text (Kethib) has פְרַק (feraq, “fragment”).

[65:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “Look, it is written before me.”

[65:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “I will pay back into their lap.”

[65:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the iniquities of your fathers.”

[65:7]  ¹¹ tn Or perhaps, “taunted”; KJV “blasphemed”; NAB “disgraced”; NASB “scorned”; NIV “defied”; NRSV “reviled.”

[65:7]  ¹² tn Heb “I will measure out their pay [from the] beginning into their lap,” i.e., he will give them everything they have earned.

[65:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “just as.” In the Hebrew text the statement is one long sentence, “Just as…, so I will do….”

[65:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for a blessing is in it.”

[65:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “by not destroying everyone.”

[65:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “it.” The third feminine singular pronominal suffix probably refers to the land which contains the aforementioned mountains.

[65:10]  ¹⁹ sn Sharon was a plain located to the west, along the Mediterranean coast north of Joppa and south of Carmel.

[65:10]  ²⁰ sn The Valley of Achor (“Achor” means “trouble” in Hebrew) was the site of Achan’s execution. It was located to the east, near Jericho.

[65:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “a resting place for cattle”; NASB, NIV “for herds.”

[65:10]  ²² tn Heb “for my people who seek me.”

[65:11]  ²² tn The Hebrew text has simply, “forget.” The words “about worshiping at” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[65:11]  ²³ tn The Hebrew has לַגַּד (laggad, “for Gad”), the name of a pagan deity. See HALOT 176 s.v. II גַּד 2.

[65:11]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew has לַמְנִי (lamni, “for Meni”), the name of a pagan deity. See HALOT 602 s.v. מְגִי.