English · KJV

Isaiah 65:18

“The Promise of New Heavens and New Earth”Isaiah 65:17–25

King James Version
But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

KJV (with Strong's)
But be ye glad H7797 and rejoice H1523 for ever H5703 in that which I create H1254: for, behold, I create H1254 Jerusalem H3389 a rejoicing H1525, and her people H5971 a joy H4885.

Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain

Berean Standard Bible
But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for I will create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

World English Bible Messianic
But be you glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain

Geneva Bible (1599)
But be you glad and reioyce for euer in the things that I shall create: for beholde, I will create Ierusalem, as a reioycing and her people as a ioye,

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
But joy ye, and rejoice for ever, that I am Creator, For, lo, I am creating Jerusalem a rejoicing, And her people a joy.

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
17 Hebrew words
  1. כִּיkithatH3588PrtParticle Conditional
  2. אִם'imexceptH518PrtParticle Conditional
  3. שִׂישׂוּSi·surejoiceH7797V-Qal-Imp-2mpVerb Qal Imperative 2nd Plural Masculine
  4. וְגִילוּve·Gi·luand be gladH1523Conj-w ¦ V-Qal-Imp-2mpVerb Qal Imperative 2nd Plural Masculineוְandגִילוּbe glad
  5. עֲדֵי'a·deiuntilH5704PrepPreposition
  6. עַד'AdperpetuityH5703N-msNoun Singular Masculine Absolute
  7. אֲשֶׁר'a·Sher[that] whichH834RelParticle Relative
  8. אֲנִי'a·NiIH589Pro-1csPronoun Personal 1st Singular common gender
  9. בוֹרֵאvo·Re'[am] about to createH1254V-Qal-Prtcpl-msVerb Qal Participle Singular Masculine Absolute
  10. כִּיkiforH3588PrtParticle Conditional
  11. הִנְנִיhi·Nihere IH2005Prt ¦ 1csParticle InterjectionהִנְhereנִיI
  12. בוֹרֵאvo·Re'[am] about to createH1254V-Qal-Prtcpl-msVerb Qal Participle Singular Masculine Absolute
  13. אֶת'et[obj.]H853DirObjMParticle Object Indicator
  14. יְרוּשָׁלִַםye·ru·sha·LimJerusalemH3389N-properNoun Proper Location
  15. גִּילָהgi·LahgladnessH1525N-fsNoun Singular Feminine Absolute
  16. וְעַמָּהּve·'a·Mahand its peopleH5971Conj-w ¦ N-msc ¦ 3fsNoun Singular Masculine Construct with suffixוְandעַמָּpeopleהּits
  17. מָשׂוֹשׂma·SosrejoicingH4885N-msNoun Singular Masculine Absolute
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Hebrew, not the KJV's wording. Why?

This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Hebrew word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Hebrew word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “the LORD” where the gloss reads “Yahweh”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.

Words in [ ] are added by the English.

Translation
Details
In the KJVVerse 18,916 of 31,102 · 60.8%

Study this verse

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This verse

God calls his people to be glad for ever in what he creates, because he is making Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy.

“But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create:”

A command and an invitation together. Sûws and gîyl are both words of open gladness, and ʻad makes it everlasting. The ground of the joy is God’s creating.

“for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing,”

A second “behold” and the verb bârâʼ again. The city becomes gîylâh, a rejoicing, so that joy is what Jerusalem is.

“and her people a joy.”

The promise passes from the city to those who live in her. The ʻam, the people together, become mâsôws, a joy.

Passage studyIsaiah 65:17–25

The Promise of New Heavens and a New Earth

17For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. 18But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. 19And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. 20There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. 21And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. 22They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 23They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them. 24And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. 25The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.

Summary

After a chapter of judgment on those who forsook him, the LORD announces that he is creating new heavens and a new earth, so glorious that the troubles of the former world will fade from mind. He makes Jerusalem a joy, rejoices over his people himself, and silences the sound of weeping. Lives run their full length, people live in the houses they build and eat from the vineyards they plant, their children are blessed with them, prayer is answered before it is finished, and the wolf feeds beside the lamb. In nine verses God shows us where he is taking his creation, and he closes the promise with his own name: “saith the LORD.”

Where the promise stands in Isaiah

Isaiah prophesied in Judah during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, roughly 740 to 680 BC, when Assyria threatened the kingdom and the people’s faith had decayed. The later chapters of his book, 40 to 66, look ahead to a people who would pass through the Babylonian exile and come home to a ruined Jerusalem, to poverty, opposition and discouragement. These chapters carry both rebuke and comfort.

Chapter 65 begins with the LORD’s grief over a people who kept provoking him with idolatry. It pronounces judgment on those who forsake him and forget his holy mountain, and it promises a different future to his servants (Isaiah 65:1–16). Verse 17 then opens with “For, behold”, and the chapter turns from judgment to promise. From here to its end God describes what he has prepared for his servants, and each verse adds something concrete: joy, long life, secure homes, fruitful work, blessed children, answered prayer and peace among the animals.

For people who had known exile, this was a hope far greater than anything they could rebuild with their own hands. Paul speaks of the same hope when he sets the sufferings of this present time beside the glory that shall be revealed (Romans 8:18), and Nehemiah told the returned exiles that the joy of the LORD was their strength (Nehemiah 8:10).

God creates new heavens and a new earth

“I create” is the heart of verse 17. The verb is bârâʼ, the verb used when God created the heaven and the earth in the beginning (Genesis 1:1). Isaiah uses it here for God bringing into being something that was not there before, as he did all through Genesis 1. The God who made the first world is the one who promises the next. He says “I”, so the work is his from start to finish, and he says “behold” so that we stop and look.

The word for new, châdâsh, means new or fresh, and it describes what differs from what came before. It comes from the root châdash, to be new. Heavens and earth together take in the sky above and the ground beneath, so the promise covers the whole created order. In Hebrew thought the heavens and the earth displayed the Creator’s order and justice, and their disturbance spoke of his displeasure. A new heavens and a new earth therefore meant his favour given in full.

What does “new heavens and a new earth” mean?

It means the whole creation made new by God and freed from sin, decay and the curse. The New Testament takes up Isaiah’s phrase twice. Peter says that we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13), and John sees a new heaven and a new earth in his vision (Revelation 21:1). The promise speaks of creation purified and transformed, which agrees with Paul’s teaching that the creation itself groans and waits to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the children of God (Romans 8:19–22). God’s redemption reaches as far as the damage of the Fall reached, and so the brokenness of the present world is temporary.

Will we forget our earthly lives?

“The former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind” promises that old sorrows will lose all their power over God’s people. The verb zâkar means to remember, and the word behind “mind” is lêb, the heart. The joy of the new creation will be so full that the pain of the former world fades from the heart and stops troubling it. The promise is about healed hearts, and it leaves our memories in God’s care. John hears the same thing said of the new Jerusalem: “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

Jerusalem made a joy

Verse 18 turns the promise into a summons: “be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create.” The verb behind “be glad”, sûws, means to be bright or cheerful. “Rejoice” is gîyl, to rejoice or be glad, and Strong’s gives its root sense as spinning round under strong emotion, so this is joy that shows. “For ever” is ʻad, a noun meaning perpetuity. The joy rests on what God creates, and so it lasts as long as his work lasts.

God then says what he is creating: “Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.” The city becomes gîylâh, a rejoicing, and her people (ʻam, a people gathered as one) become mâsôws, a joy. Jerusalem had been conquered, burned and mourned over, and those who came back to her found rubble and opposition. God promises to make joy the city’s very character. David had already sung that in God’s presence there is fulness of joy (Psalm 16:11).

In verse 19 the joy is God’s own. “I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people” uses the same verb, gîyl, for the LORD that verse 18 used for his people. A nation that had felt his anger in the exile now hears that he delights in them. Zephaniah says the same, calling Zion to sing because the LORD is in her midst and rejoices over her with gladness (Zephaniah 3:14–17). God’s delight in his people is the spring from which their gladness flows.

Two sounds then fall silent. “Weeping” is bĕkîy, from the verb bâkâh, to weep, the sound of mourning and tears. “Crying” is zaʻaq, an outcry or shriek, the desperate call for help. In Israel these were the sounds of famine, war, death and oppression. Their silence means that the things which caused them are gone. Isaiah had already promised that the LORD will swallow up death and wipe away tears (Isaiah 25:8), and a psalm says that weeping lasts for a night and joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5).

Is this the earthly Jerusalem or a heavenly one?

The promise begins with the real city and reaches to the city God brings down from heaven. To the exiles who returned, it was hope for the Jerusalem they were rebuilding. Yet the words “new heavens and a new earth” and “for ever” are larger than any rebuilding in history could fill. Hebrews tells believers that they have already come to mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22–24), and John sees the new Jerusalem coming down from God (Revelation 21:2), the city described through the whole of Revelation 21. Jerusalem in this passage is God’s people living with him in a renewed world.

How can we rejoice for ever while we still grieve?

The command looks first to the new creation, where joy will be unmixed, and it gives our present joy its footing. Sorrow is still real for believers. Paul says that we glory even in tribulations, because they work patience, experience and a hope that does not shame us (Romans 5:3–5), and Jesus promised his disciples a joy that no man takes from them (John 16:22). The gladness we have now is a foretaste of the gladness to come.

A full length of days

In Israel a long life was a mark of God’s blessing, and a life cut short, above all a child’s, was among the heaviest of griefs. The law had warned that disobedience would bring wasting sickness and early ruin (Deuteronomy 28:20–22). In Isaiah’s day many infants died, and disease, famine and war shortened the lives of the rest.

Verse 20 answers all of this. The “infant of days” is the baby (ʻûwl, a suckling child) who lives only a few days. The old man (zâqên, an aged person or elder) “that hath not filled his days” is the one who dies before his years are complete. Both sorrows end. Life in God’s renewed world runs its full course, so that someone who died at a hundred would be thought of as a child, with a hundred years counted as youth.

The picture recalls the long lives of the fathers before the flood in Genesis 5, and it reverses the sentence of Genesis 3:19, where man is told that he will return to the dust. It also matches the promise of long life and salvation in Psalm 91:16.

The verse ends with a warning: “the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.” The word is châṭâʼ, which properly means to miss the mark, and so to sin. A hundred years of life leave the sinner still answerable to God, and Paul states the rule in one line: “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

Why are death and the sinner still mentioned?

Verse 20 sets God’s justice inside his blessing, so that we understand the new world as a holy one. Believers differ on when its details are fulfilled. Some hold that the verse describes the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth (Revelation 20:4–6), a time of peace and very long life in which death is rare and sin can still arise and be judged. On this reading the final state follows it, and there death is gone altogether. Others hold that Isaiah is describing the new creation itself in terms his first hearers knew, with long life and the end of early death as pictures of life at its fullest under God’s rule. On either reading the verse teaches the same two things: God will end the grief of early death, and every person remains answerable to him.

Homes lived in, vineyards enjoyed, work that lasts

Verse 21 is plain and warm: “they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.” To build is bânâh, a word used for raising a house and also for establishing a family. To inhabit is yâshab, to sit down, and so to dwell and remain. Fruit is pᵉrîy, which can also mean a reward. A vineyard takes years of patient care before it yields, so planting one is an act of confidence in the future, and it is possible only where there is peace.

Behind the promise stands an old curse. Moses had warned that if Israel broke the covenant, a man would build a house and another would live in it, and he would plant a vineyard and another would gather its grapes (Deuteronomy 28:30). This is one of the many curses of Deuteronomy 28, and Israel had lived through it when invaders destroyed their homes, took their land and ate their harvests. Conquered peoples in the ancient world were often made to build and farm for their conquerors. Verse 22 names that curse and cancels it: “They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat.” Micah pictures the same peace as every man sitting under his own vine and fig tree (Micah 4:4).

“As the days of a tree”

God measures his people’s life by a tree’s: “as the days of a tree are the days of my people.” The word yôwm means a day or a span of time, and the Hebrew phrase is k’y’mei ha’etz, “as the days of the tree”. The oaks, cedars and olive trees of Israel stood for centuries, deeply rooted and able to weather storms. The comparison promises a life that is long, settled and flourishing.

“Mine elect” is bâchîyr, God’s chosen ones. In Isaiah these are first the faithful remnant of Israel, who stayed true to the LORD when the nation turned away. The New Testament shows the full company of the chosen, all whom God chose in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), Jew and Gentile together.

They “shall long enjoy the work of their hands.” The verb is bâlâh, which means to wear out, and here it has the sense of using a thing right to the end and getting the full good of it. “Hands” is yâd, the hand, standing for a person’s effort and skill. Ecclesiastes laments toil that goes unrewarded (Ecclesiastes 2:26), and a psalm counts it a blessing to eat the labour of your own hands (Psalm 128:2). In the new creation that blessing is the settled rule.

Work and children under blessing

Verse 23 carries the promise into the two great labours of human life, work and the raising of children. “They shall not labour in vain” uses yâgaʻ, to gasp and be exhausted with toil, and rîyq, emptiness. Since the Fall the ground has been cursed and man has eaten bread in the sweat of his face (Genesis 3:17–19). Here toil comes to something.

“Nor bring forth for trouble” speaks of children. Sorrow in childbearing was part of the same judgment (Genesis 3:16), and in Isaiah’s world parents often lost children to war, famine and disease. In God’s new world children are born into safety, a joy to their parents.

The reason follows: “for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.” The verb bârak means to kneel, and so to bless, and the name is Yᵉhôvâh, the LORD who keeps covenant. His blessing runs through the generations, as he promised Abraham (Genesis 12:1–3). It takes up his first word to mankind, to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28), and it agrees with the psalm that calls children a heritage of the LORD (Psalm 127:3) and with the covenant blessing of plenty in children and harvest (Deuteronomy 28:11). Paul says that those who belong to Christ are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:29).

Are believers spared hardship now?

These verses describe the finished new creation, where the curse of Genesis 3 is fully undone. In the present age believers still meet hardship, sorrow and loss. What we hold already is Paul’s assurance that our labour in the Lord is “not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58), so that work done for him today already shares in the promise of verse 23.

Before they call, I will answer

“And it shall come to pass” marks what follows as certain. Then God promises a nearness that outruns speech: “before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” To call is qârâʼ, to call out to someone or address him by name, the ordinary word for crying to God in prayer. To answer is ʻânâh, to respond. To hear is shâmaʻ, to hear with attention and readiness to act.

A human helper has to hear the whole request before he can begin to respond. God knows the need before it is spoken. David says that the LORD knows every word before it is on the tongue (Psalm 139:4), and Jesus tells his disciples that their Father knows what they need before they ask him (Matthew 6:8). For exiles who had felt that heaven was silent, this was a promise that every barrier between God and his people would be taken away. It fulfils the longing of the psalm that says the LORD is near to all who call upon him (Psalm 145:18) and the invitation given through Jeremiah, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee” (Jeremiah 33:3).

Does God promise to answer every prayer at once?

The verse promises God’s full attention and his readiness to act, and it describes the unhindered fellowship of the new creation. In the present world his answers are always wise, and they often come later, or in another form, than we asked. We pray trusting that he works all things together for good to those who love him (Romans 8:28) and that he hears whatever we ask according to his will (1 John 5:14). When we are unsure what to pray, the Spirit helps our weakness and intercedes for us (Romans 8:26–27). Through Christ our high priest the invitation already stands: “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

The wolf and the lamb

The last verse carries God’s peace into the animal world. The wolf, zᵉʼêb, a name Strong’s traces to a root meaning to be yellow, is the fierce hunter of the flock, and Scripture uses wolves as a picture of cruel rulers (Ezekiel 22:27) and false prophets (Matthew 7:15). The lamb, ṭâleh, a young lamb, is the picture of innocence and sacrifice and the most helpless of animals. For farmers who lost livestock to wild beasts, the two feeding together was a startling sight: the weakest creature safe beside the one it had most reason to fear.

The lion eating straw like the bullock says the same thing from the other side. The great meat-eater feeds like an ox, as at the beginning, when God gave every green herb for food to the beasts of the earth (Genesis 1:30). Isaiah has painted this scene once before, in his prophecy of the Messiah’s peaceful kingdom (Isaiah 11:6–9), which closes with the same promise about the holy mountain.

One creature is left as it was. “Dust shall be the serpent’s meat” repeats the curse God laid on the serpent in Eden (Genesis 3:14). The word is nâchâsh, a snake or serpent, a name Strong’s derives from the idea of hissing. While every other creature is set free, the serpent that brought sin and ruin into the world stays under its sentence, humbled and powerless to do harm. Evil is defeated in the new creation, and the tempter has no share in its peace.

“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain” gathers the whole passage into a single promise. The holy mountain is Zion, the place where God dwells and from which his blessing goes out, and here it stands for his whole kingdom in a renewed creation. Violence, corruption and suffering all end there. “Saith the LORD” closes the passage with his own authority, so that the promise rests on his word.

Are the animals literal or a picture?

The promise under the picture will be kept in full: all violence and harm will end in God’s new creation, and its peace will reach the animals as well as mankind. The wolf, lamb, lion and serpent are also rich in meaning, taking in the whole range of creation from the fiercest to the most helpless, and Scripture often describes the world to come in pictures because it lies outside our present experience. The passage as a whole points back to Eden and promises its harmony restored and made perfect.

Christ and the new creation

The new creation Isaiah saw comes through Jesus Christ. All things in heaven and earth were created by him (Colossians 1:16), and through him God reconciles all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross (Colossians 1:20). He is the Prince of Peace Isaiah foretold (Isaiah 9:6), so the peace of the holy mountain is the peace of his reign.

Each promise of the passage is secured by what he has done. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and sin is the root of all weeping. Death entered the world by one man’s sin (Romans 5:12), and Christ’s resurrection guarantees the day when death is swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54–57). The sinner’s curse in verse 20 fell on him, for he was made a curse for us (Galatians 3:13). He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10), and he is himself the resurrection and the life (John 11:25–26), so the full days of verse 20 are a foretaste of eternal life in him.

The new creation has already begun in those who belong to him. Anyone who is in Christ is a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17), created in Christ Jesus for good works (Ephesians 2:10). The secure home of verse 21 answers to an inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled and that fades not away (1 Peter 1:4). We build on the one foundation, which is Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11). The fruit of verse 21 answers to the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) and to the fruit borne by those who abide in Christ, the vine (John 15:5).

The fullness waits for his return. Then the new heaven and new earth appear, the holy city comes down, and God dwells with his people and wipes away their tears (Revelation 21:1–4). He who sits on the throne says that he makes all things new (Revelation 21:5), and he is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end (Revelation 22:13).

What the promise gives us now

This passage tells us that the suffering and injustice of the present world are temporary, and that God’s last word over his creation is joy. The God it shows us is one who delights in his people, who wants their work to come to something and their children to be safe, and who is listening before they finish speaking. He intends to heal the whole of what sin has damaged, from the human heart to the wolf and the lion.

That hope gives weight to ordinary faithfulness. Work done in the Lord, a home kept in peace and a child brought up to know him are small beginnings of the world verses 21 to 23 describe. Our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20), and so we hold the things of this age loosely and pursue now the justice, compassion and peace that belong to the kingdom that is coming.

It also gives grief a horizon. If you have wept over a death that came too early, verses 19 and 20 are God’s own promise that such weeping will end, and that he himself will rejoice over his people in the place where it used to be heard.

Last revised

Public-domain commentary

Matthew Henry

From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Isaiah 65:17–25. He set out his notes in a two-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.

1662–1714 · 9 verses
Passage under commentIsaiah 65:17–25
I. II. Main points1. 2. Sub-points

If these promises were in part fulfilled when the Jews, after their return out of captivity, were settled in peace in their own land and brought as it were into a new world, yet they were to have their full accomplishment in the gospel church, militant first and at length triumphant. The Jerusalem that is from above is free and is the mother of us all. In the graces and comforts which believers have in and from Christ we are to look for this new heaven and new earth. It is in the gospel that old things have passed away and all things have become new, and by it that those who are in Christ are new creatures, 2 Corinthians 5:17. It was a mighty and happy change that was described Isaiah 65:16, that the former troubles were forgotten; but here it rises much higher: even the former world shall be forgotten and shall no more come into mind. Those that were converted to the Christian faith were so transported with the comforts of it that all the comforts they were before acquainted with became as nothing to them; not only their foregoing griefs, but their foregoing joys, were lost and swallowed up in this. The glorified saints will therefore have forgotten this world, because they will be entirely taken up with the other: For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. See how inexhaustible the divine power is; the same God that created one heaven and earth can create another. See how entire the happiness of the saints is; it shall be all of a piece; with the new heavens God will create them (if they have occasion for it to make them happy) a new earth too. The world is yours if you be Christ's, 1 Corinthians 3:22. When God is reconciled to us, which gives us a new heaven, the creatures too are reconciled to us, which gives us a new earth. The future glory of the saints will be so entirely different from what they ever knew before that it may well be called new heavens and a new earth, 2 Peter 3:13. Behold, I make all things new, Revelation 21:5.

I.There shall be new joys. For,

1.All the church's friends, and all that belong to her, shall rejoice (Isaiah 65:18): You shall be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create. The new things which God creates in and by his gospel are and shall be matter of everlasting joy to all believers. My servants shall rejoice (Isaiah 65:13), at last they shall, though now they mourn. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.

2.The church shall be the matter of their joy, so pleasant, so prosperous, shall her condition be: I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy. The church shall not only rejoice but be rejoiced in. Those that have sorrowed with the church shall rejoice with her.

3.The prosperity of the church shall be a rejoicing to God himself, who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servants (Isaiah 65:19): I will rejoice in Jerusalem's joy, and will joy in my people; for in all their affliction he was afflicted. God will not only rejoice in the church's well-doing, but will himself rejoice to do her good and rest in his love to her, Zephaniah 3:17. What God rejoices in it becomes us to rejoice in.

4.There shall be no allay of this joy, nor any alteration of this happy condition of the church: The voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her. If this relate to any state of the church in this life, it means no more than that the former occasions of grief shall not return, but God's people shall long enjoy an uninterrupted tranquillity. But in heaven it shall have a full accomplishment, in respect both of the perfection and the perpetuity of the promised joy; there all tears shall be wiped away.

II.There shall be new life, Isaiah 65:20.

Untimely deaths by the sword or sickness shall be no more known as they have been, and by this means there shall be no more the voice of crying, Isaiah 65:19. When there shall be no more death there shall be no more sorrow, Revelation 21:4. As death has reigned by sin, so life shall reign by righteousness, Romans 5:14, Romans 5:21.

1.Believers through Christ shall be satisfied with life, though it be ever so short on earth. If an infant end its days quickly, yet it shall not be reckoned to die untimely; for the shorter its life is the longer will its rest be. Though death reign over those that have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, yet they, dying in the arms of Christ, the second Adam, and belonging to his kingdom, are not to be called infants of days, but even the child shall be reckoned to die a hundred years old, for he shall rise again at full age, shall rise to eternal life. Some understand it of children who in their childhood are so eminent for wisdom and grace, and by death nipped in the blossom, that they may be said to die a hundred years old. And, as for old men, it is promised that they shall fill their days with the fruits of righteousness, which they shall still bring forth in old age, to show that the Lord is upright, and then it is a good old age. An old man who is wise, and good, and useful, may truly be said to have filled his days. Old men who have their hearts upon the world have never filled their days, never have enough of this world, but would still continue longer in it. But that man dies old, and satur dierum - full of days, who, with Simeon, having seen God's salvation, desires now to depart in peace.

2.Unbelievers shall be unsatisfied and unhappy in life, though it be ever so long. The sinner, though he live to a hundred years old, shall be accursed. His living so long shall be no token to him of the divine favour and blessing, nor shall it be any shelter to him from the divine wrath and curse. The sentence he lies under will certainly be executed, and his long life is but a long reprieve; nay, it is itself a curse to him, for the longer he lives the more wrath he treasures up against the day of wrath and the more sins he will have to answer for. So that the matter is not great whether our lives on earth be long or short, but whether we live the lives of saints or the lives of sinners.

III.There shall be a new enjoyment of the comforts of life.

Whereas before it was very uncertain and precarious, their enemies inhabited the houses which they built and ate the fruit of the trees which they planted, now it shall be otherwise; they shall build houses and inhabit them, shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them, Isaiah 65:21, Isaiah 65:22. Their intimates that the labour of their hands shall be blessed and be made to prosper; they shall gain what they aimed at, and what they have gained shall be preserved and secured to them; they shall enjoy it comfortably, and nothing shall embitter it to them, and they shall live to enjoy it long. Strangers shall not break in upon them, to expel them, and plant themselves in their room, as sometimes they have done: My elect shall wear out, or long enjoy, the work of their hands; it is honestly got, and it will wear well; it is the work of their hands, which they themselves have laboured for, and it is most comfortable to enjoy that, and not to eat the bread of idleness, or bread of deceit. If we have a heart to enjoy it, that is the gift of God's grace (Ecclesiastes 3:13); and, if we live to enjoy it long, it is the gift of God's providence, for that is here promised: As the days of a tree are the days of my people; as the days of an oak (Isaiah 6:13), whose substance is in it, though it cast its leaves; though it be stripped every winter, it recovers itself again, and lasts many ages; as the days of the tree of life; so the Septuagint. Christ is to them the tree of life, and in him believers enjoy all those spiritual comforts which are typified by the abundance of temporal blessings here promised; and it shall not be in the power of their enemies to deprive them of these blessings or disturb them in the enjoyment of them.

IV.There shall be a new generation rising up in their stead to inherit and enjoy these blessings (Isaiah 65:23):

They shall not labour in vain, for they shall not only enjoy the work of their hands themselves, but they shall leave it with satisfaction to those that shall come after them, and not with such a melancholy prospect as Solomon did, Ecclesiastes 2:18, Ecclesiastes 2:19. They shall not beget and bring forth children for trouble; for they are themselves the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and there is a blessing entailed upon them by descent from their ancestors which their offspring with them shall partake of, and shall be, as well as they, the seed of the blessed of the Lord. They shall not bring forth for trouble; for,

1.God will make their children that rise up comforts to them; they shall have the joy of seeing them walk in the truth.

2.He will make the times that come after comfortable to their children. As they shall be good, so it shall be well with them; they shall not be brought forth to days of trouble; nor shall it ever be said, Blessed is the womb that bore not. In the gospel church Christ's name shall be borne up by a succession. A seed shall serve him (Psalm 22:30), the seed of the blessed of the Lord.

V.There shall be a good correspondence between them and their God (Isaiah 65:24):

Even before they call, I will answer. God will anticipate their prayers with the blessings of his goodness. David did but say, I will confess, and God forgave, Psalm 32:5. The father of the prodigal met him in his return. While they are yet speaking, before they have finished their prayer, I will give them the thing they pray for, or the assurances and earnests of it. These are high expressions of God's readiness to hear prayer; and this appears much more in the grace of the gospel than it did under the law; we owe the comfort of it to the mediation of Christ as our advocate with the Father and are obliged in gratitude to give a ready ear to God's calls.

VI.There shall be a good correspondence between them and their neighbours (Isaiah 65:25):

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, as they did in Noah's ark. God's people, though they are as sheep in the midst of wolves, shall be safe and unhurt; for God will not so much break the power and tie the hands of their enemies as formerly, but he will turn their hearts, will alter their dispositions by his grace. When Paul, who had been a persecutor of the disciples (and who, being of the tribe of Benjamin, ravened as a wolf, Genesis 49:27) joined himself to them and became one of them, then the wolf and the lamb fed together. So also when the enmity between Jews and Gentiles was slain, all hostilities ceased, and they fed together as one sheepfold under Christ the great Shepherd, John 10:16. The enemies of the church ceased to do the mischief they had done, and its members ceased to be so quarrelsome with and injurious to one another as they had been, so that there was none either from without or from within to hurt or destroy, none to disturb it, much less to ruin it, in all the holy mountain; as was promised, Isaiah 11:9. For,

1.Men shall be changed: The lion shall no more be a beast of prey, as perhaps he never would have been if sin had not entered, but shall eat straw like the bullock, shall know his owner, and his master's crib, as the ox does. When those that lived by spoil and rapine, and coveted to enrich themselves, right or wrong, are brought by the grace of God to accommodate themselves to their condition, to live by honest labour, and to be content with such things as they have - when those that stole steal no more, but work with their hands the thing that is good - then this is fulfilled, that the lion shall eat straw like the bullock.

2.Satan shall be chained, the dragon bound; for dust shall be the serpent's meat again. That great enemy, when he has been let loose, has glutted and regaled himself with the precious blood of saints, who by his instigation have been persecuted, and with the precious souls of sinners, who by his instigation have become persecutors and have ruined themselves for ever; but now he shall be confined to dust, according to the sentence, On thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat, Genesis 3:14. All the enemies of God's church, that are subtle and venomous as serpents, shall be conquered and subdued, and be made to lick the dust, Christ shall reign as Zion's King till all the enemies of his kingdom be made his footstool, and theirs too. In the holy mountain above, and there only, shall this promise have its full accomplishment, that there shall be none to hurt nor destroy.

Historical interpretation

Historical reception

3 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.

3 quotes · AD 420–444
Post-Nicene
400

Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.

d. AD 420JeromePost-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 13:15
Neither would it be congruous that in the city of Jerusalem and among the people of God, who will receive an eternal creation of exaltation and joy, there be heard any longer the voice of weeping and wailing, now that pain, sorrow and moaning have departed, for incompatible realities are surely unable to exist together.… In such a city, there is no difference in ages, as between the infant and the elderly, the young and the “old man who does not fulfill his days.” Instead, like children of the resurrection, all “attain to the perfect person, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” such that none will either lack or exceed the life span, nor will it be the case that some persons retain their strength while others fail with age and cease to be what they were. Everyone, moreover, will reach one hundred years of age, as did Abraham, who received the promise that he would have his son Isaac at one hundred. It is not necessary to recount the many praises of this particular number, lest our argument run too long. This alone will we say, that ten decades are squared and square forms possess strength.
d. AD 420JeromePost-NiceneSourceCommentary on Isaiah
(Verse 17, 18.) Because the former troubles have been forgotten and hidden from my eyes. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. LXX: For they shall forget the affliction of the past, and it shall not come to mind. But there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, and they shall not remember the former things, nor shall they come to mind. But they shall find joy and exultation in it. The cause of joy and confession of the true God is that the eternal oblivion will follow the previous sorrows, so that they will not remember the idols and the former errors, but will pass from darkness to light, so that they may enjoy eternal blessedness. For they will forget the past evils, not by the forgetfulness of memory, but by the succession of good things, according to what is written: 'In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one side by side with the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.' (Eccles. 7:14). And elsewhere it is said: 'Affliction makes joy forgotten in an hour' (Eccles. 11:29): because while they are in distress, they will not enjoy the former pleasures, according to the mistaken mind of Epicurus. Although it can also be said, that in the new heaven and the new earth, all memory of previous conversations is erased, so that this very thing does not become a part of the evils, to recall the narrowness of the past. But those who believe that everything we see will perish interpret it according to the testimony of the Gospel: Heaven and earth will pass away (Matthew 24:35). And according to the testimony of the Apostle Paul: For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18). Moreover, those who embrace change, improvement, and do not consider the destruction of elements to be a demise, use this example: In the beginning, you established the earth, O Lord, and the works of your hands are the heavens. They will perish, but you remain, and all of them will wear out like a garment, and you will change them like clothing, and they will be changed (Psalm 102:26-27). This clearly demonstrates a transformation for the better, not an annihilation into nothingness, but a change. For the scripture that is written in another place, 'The moon shall shine as the sun, and the sun shall receive sevenfold light' (Isaiah 30:26), does not indicate the destruction of the former things, but their transformation for the better. In order to understand this, let us consider examples from our own condition: when an infant grows into a child, and a child into a youth, and a youth into a man, and a man into an old man, each age does not perish completely. It is still the same person as before, but gradually changes and is said to have perished from its former state. What the intelligent and Apostle Paul said: For the figure of this world passeth away (1 Cor. VII, 31). Let us consider what he said: The figure passeth away, not the substance. Peter also signifies the same: For this they are willfully ignorant of: that the heavens were before, and the earth out of water, and through water, consisting by the word of God: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire (2 Pet. III, 5 seqq.): in what sense this is to be understood, he teaches afterwards: But we look for new heavens and a new earth, according to his promise (Ibid., 13): he did not say, we shall see other heavens and another earth, but the old and ancient ones changed for the better. We can say this also, that those who have turned away from idolatry and forsaken their former error, see new heavens and a new earth, not considering the elements as gods or as those things that are born from the earth. Now we confess that the heavens and the earth are the work of God's hands. But during that time, we worshipped as servants and creatures with reverence for God, which David also acknowledges in the psalm: 'I will see the heavens, the work of your fingers' (Psalm 8:4). Not that David did not see the heavens at that time when he said these things; but by each increase of virtues and knowledge of future things, he sees new heavens that he did not see before. But what is said at the end of this testimony: 'Which I create,' is omitted by the Septuagint.
d. AD 444Cyril of AlexandriaPost-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 5:6.65:18
Instead of the former affliction, the prophet says, “they shall find in her joy and exultation.” To what does “in her” refer? Without a doubt it can be said that it refers to the church of Christ. It must be noted that some commentators refer this passage not to the period of our earthly life but to the one that is to come after this present age. For the prophet says that the just will find joy and gladness and will enjoy endless delight, that is, spiritual delight, when this creation had been transformed and renewed. For one of the holy apostles said: “The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up. But according to his promise we wait for new heaven and a new earth.” Choose, therefore, whichever of these interpretations appeals to you, the former or the latter. For one should not reject what brings benefit to us.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.

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