Isaiah 65:7

Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) Which have burned incense upon the mountains . . .—The old inveterate sin of the worship of high places (comp. Isaiah 57:7; Hosea 4:13; Ezekiel 6:13; 2Kings 15:4; 2Kings 15:35). The worship paid there to other gods, or nominally to Jehovah in a way which He had forbidden, was practically a “blasphemy” or “reproach” against Him.

Their former work.—Better, I will measure their work first into their bosoms. That was, as it were, the primary duty of the Supreme Ruler.

Benson Commentary

Isaiah 65:7. Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together — Yea, and when I reckon with them, I will punish them, not only for their personal sins, but for the sins of their parents, which they have made their own, by imitation. Which have burned incense upon the mountains — There performing to idols that homage which I commanded them to pay unto me; or, if any of them pretend it was to me they performed that service, though before an image, yet it was in a way and place in which I expressly forbid them to worship me, having appointed the place where, and the manner how, I would be worshipped. And blasphemed me upon the hills — Dishonoured instead of glorifying me, by worshipping me in a way which I had not appointed, and which they learned only from idolaters. Therefore will I measure their former work, &c. — I will not only punish the late sins that they have committed, but the former sins of this kind, which those that went before did practise, and they have continued in.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

65:1-7 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, remembering that every sin, and the most secret thoughts of man's heart, are known and will be judged by God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Your iniquities - Their idolatry and their forsaking God, and their arts of necromancy.

And the iniquities of your fathers together - The consequences of your own sins, and of the long defection of the nation from virtue and pure religion, shall come rushing upon you like accumulated floods. This is in accordance with the Scripture doctrine everywhere, that the consequences of the sins of ancestors pass over and visit their posterity (see Exodus 20:5; Exodus 34:7; Numbers 14:18; Job 21:19; Luke 11:50-51; the notes at Romans 5:19). The case here was, that the nation had been characteristically prone to wander from God, and to fall into idolatry. Crime had thus been accumulating, like pent-up waters, for ages, and now it swept away every barrier. So crime often accumulates in a nation. Age after age rolls on, and it is unpunished, until it breaks over every obstacle, and all that is valuable and happy is swept suddenly away.

Which have burnt incense upon the mountains - (See the notes at Isaiah 65:3).

And blasphemed me upon the hills - That is, they have dishonored me by worshipping idols, and by denying me in that public manner. Idols were usually worshipped on high places.

Will I measure their former work - I will recompense them; I will pour the reward of their work or of their doings into their bosom.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. Their sin had been accumulating from age to age until God at last repaid it in full.

mountains—(Isa 57:7; Eze 18:6; 20:27, 28; Ho 4:13).

their—"Your" had preceded. From speaking to, He speaks of them; this implies growing alienation from them and greater distance.

work—the full recompense of their work (so Isa 49:4).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Yea, and when I reckon with them, I will punish them, not only for their personal sins, but for the sins of their parents, which they have testified their approbation of by continuing in them, and so made them their own, by an apish, sinful imitation.

Which have burnt incense upon the mountains: their fathers burnt incense upon the mountains, there performing to idols that homage which I obliged them to pay unto me; or if any of them pretend it was to me, though before an image, yet it was in a way which I directed them not, who had appointed them the place where I would be worshipped.

And blasphemed me upon the hills; so as that, instead of blessing, they indeed blasphemed me upon the hills; instead of speaking well, they spake ill of my name, worshipping me in a way which I had not appointed, and for which they only took their copy from idolaters.

Therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom; therefore I will punish them, and that justly, as he that rendereth another his due by

measure, giving measure for measure, and weight for weight; only they must expect that I should not only punish the late sins that have committed of this nature, but the former sins of this kind which those in this nation, that went before this present generation, did commit, and the present age hath continued in the guilt of.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together (saith the Lord),.... That is, the punishment both of the one and of the other; these being alike, and continued from father to son, and approved of, and committed by one generation after another, till the measure was filled up; and then the recompence of reward is given for all of them together at once: which have burnt incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills; where they offered incense and other sacrifices to idols, which was interpreted by the Lord as a blaspheming and reproaching of him; see Isaiah 57:7,

therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom; punish them for their former sins as well as their latter ones, and both together.

Geneva Study Bible

Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers {l} together, saith the LORD, who have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.

(l) Will be both punished together: and this declares how the children are punished for their fathers faults, that is, when the same faults or like are found in them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. Your iniquities … your fathers] The change from 3rd to 2nd pers. is extremely awkward, unless the verse could be detached from the preceding and regarded (down to “hills”) as an exclamation. This is far from natural; the better construction is that of the E.V. which makes “iniquities” the obj. to “recompense.” It is probably necessary (with the LXX.) to read “their” in both cases. The iniquities of the fathers are indicated in the following words.

which have burnt incense (have sacrificed,—see on Isaiah 1:13) upon the mountains] The reference is obviously to the illegal worship of the “high places” or local sanctuaries, which is denounced in similar terms in Hosea 4:13; Ezekiel 6:13; cf. Ezekiel 18:6 (if the text be right,—see Davidson on the passage in Camb. Bible for Schools). That this form of idolatry was also practised by those here spoken of is in every way probable (see ch. Isaiah 57:7); on the other hand their ancestors, the pre-exilic Israelites, could not be charged with the more heinous offences described in Isaiah 65:3-5. These last, however, were the outcome of the same idolatrous tendency which formerly shewed itself in the worship at the high places, and the judgement now about to descend on the children is called forth both by their own guilt and by that of their fathers.

therefore will I measure their former work] Rather: and I will first measure their reward. The word for “former” (rí’shônâh) if an adj., ought to have the art., and moreover the thought expressed by this translation would be unsuitable, since it passes by in silence the recompense due to the sins of the children themselves. It must therefore be rendered as an adverb, as in Jeremiah 16:18 (“and first I will recompense their iniquity” &c.). So R.V.

into their bosom] as Isaiah 65:6.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - Your iniquities. This is a new sentence, not a continuation of ver. 6, which should be closed by a full stop. It is an incomplete sentence, needing for its completion the repetition of the verb shillamti, "I will recompense." Which have burned incense upon the mountains (see 2 Kings 17:11; Hosea 4:13; Ezekiel 6:13; and comp. Isaiah 57:7). And blasphemed me; rather, reproached me (see Isaiah 37:4, 17, 23, 24). Therefore will I measure their former work; rather, therefore will r, first of all, measure their work into their bosom. The expression, "first of all," prepares the way for the encouraging promises of vers. 8-10. Isaiah 65:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The justice of God will not rest till it has procured for itself the fullest satisfaction. "Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence without having recompensed, and I will recompense into their bosom. Your offences, and the offences of your fathers together, saith Jehovah, that they have burned incense upon the mountains, and insulted me upon the hills, and I measure their reward first of all into their bosom." Vitringa has been misled by such passages as Isaiah 10:1; Job 13:26; Jeremiah 22:30, in which kâthabh (kittēbh) is used to signify a written decree, and understands by khethūbhâh the sentence pronounced by God; but the reference really is to their idolatrous conduct and contemptuous defiance of the laws of God. This is ever before Him, written in indelible characters, waiting for the day of vengeance; for, according to the figurative language of Scripture, there are heavenly books, in which the good and evil works of men are entered. And this agrees with what follows: "I will not be silent, without having first repaid," etc. The accentuation very properly places the tone upon the penultimate of the first shillamtı̄ as being a pure perfect, and upon the last syllable of the second as a perf. consec. אם כּי preceded by a future and followed by a perfect signifies, "but if (without having) first," etc. (Isaiah 55:10; Genesis 32:27; Leviticus 22:6; Ruth 3:18; cf., Judges 15:7). The original train of thought was, "I will not keep silence, for I shall first of all keep silence when," etc. Instead of ‛al chēqâm, "Upon their bosom," we might have 'el chēqâm, into their bosom, as in Jeremiah 32:18; Psalm 79:12. In Isaiah 65:7 the keri really has 'el instead of ‛al, whilst in Isaiah 65:9 the chethib is ‛al without any keri (for the figure itself, compare Luke 6:38, "into your bosom"). The thing to be repaid follows in Isaiah 65:7; it is not governed, however, by shillamtı̄, as the form of the address clearly shows, but by 'ăshallēm understood, which may easily be supplied. Whether 'ăsher is to be taken in the sense of qui or quod (that), it is hardly possible to decide; but the construction of the sentence favours the latter. Sacrificing "upon mountains and hills" (and, what is omitted, here, "under every green tree") is the well-known standing phrase used to describe the idolatry of the times preceding the captivity (cf., Isaiah 57:7; Hosea 4:13; Ezekiel 6:13). וּמדּתי points back to veshillamtı̄ in Isaiah 65:6, after the object has been more precisely defined. Most of the modern expositors take ראשׁנה פעלּתם together, in the sense of "their former wages," i.e., the recompense previously deserved by their fathers. But in this case the concluding clause would only affirm, by the side of Isaiah 65:7, that the sins of the fathers would be visited upon them. Moreover, this explanation has not only the accents against it, but also the parallel in Jeremiah 16:18 (see Hitzig), which evidently stands in a reciprocal relation to the passage before us. Consequently ri'shōnâh must be an adverb, and the meaning evidently is, that the first thing which Jehovah had to do by virtue of His holiness was to punish the sins of the apostate Israelites; and He would so punish them that inasmuch as the sins of the children were merely the continuation of the fathers' sins, the punishment would be measured out according to the desert of both together.