Isaiah 65:9

And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob . . .—Jacob (i.e., Israel) and Judah are used to represent respectively the remnants of the two kingdoms that had been carried into captivity.

My mountains.—One of Isaiah’s characteristic phrases (comp. Isaiah 14:25; Isaiah 29:11; Ezekiel 6:2-3. Not Zion only, but every hill in Canaan was a sharer in a derived sanctity.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

65:8-10 In the bunch of unripe grapes, at present of no value, the new wine is contained. The Jews have been kept a distinct people, that all may witness the fulfilment of ancient prophecies and promises. God's chosen, the spiritual seed of praying Jacob, shall inherit his mountains of bliss and joy, and be carried safe to them through the vale of tears. All things are for the display of God's glory in the redemption of sinners.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And I will bring forth a seed - I will give descendants to Jacob, who shall share my favor and repossess the land.

An inheritor of my mountains - The mountains of Palestine - Jerusalem and the vicinity - called the mountains of God because he claimed that land as his special residence, and the place where his holy religion was established.

And mine elect - They who have been chosen by me to maintain my religion in the world.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9. seed—"the holy seed" (Isa 6:13), a posterity from Jacob, designed to repossess the Holy Land, forfeited by the sin of the former Jews.

my mountains—Jerusalem and the rest of Judea, peculiarly God's (compare Isa 2:2; 11:9; 14:32).

it—the Holy Land.

elect—(Isa 65:15, 22).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob; no seed beareth a proportion to the tree or plant that it produceth, but in comparison with that is very little; yet it is enough, through the virtue which the God of nature hath put into it, to preserve and uphold the species to which it doth relate. They are but a remnant (saith God) that shall be saved; see Romans 11:5; but a small number that shall come out of the captivity of Babylon: or, (which I rather choose) they will be but a few that shall believe in my Son. yet they shall be enough for my promise to live in: this Paul argueth, Ro 11. As the plant yet lives in the seed, when the root is plucked up, the leaves dropped off, and the stalk is burnt up; so the promise of God lives in a few, when the generality of the people for their sins are cast off and destroyed. The favour of God to men, and the promise of God to good men, lived in one family of Lot, when the five cities were burned, and in the one family of Noah, when the world was drowned; the favour and promise of God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and David lived in the few that returned out of Babylon, and in those few who under the gospel received Christ, and believed in him, though the generality of them rejected the counsel of God against themselves. God further promiseth to bring out of

Judah an inheritor of his mountains, which the most and best interpreters do interpret of the Jews’ return out of the captivity of Babylon to Jerusalem, and into their own country, and particularly to worship God in his temple upon Mount Zion. My mountains: the country of Judea was a mountainous country, Ezekiel 36:1,8. The mountains were round about Jerusalem, Psalm 125:2. See also Ezekiel 38:8. God calls these mountains his mountains, because he had chosen that country before all others, and was once truly worshipped there.

Mine elect signifieth here God’s chosen ones, as in Psalm 106:23 Isaiah 48:10. The term doth not always signify such as belong to the

election of grave, but such as are dignified with some special favour. The whole nation of the Jews are called a chosen people. But possibly this promise is to be interpreted with relation to the sincerer part of that people, after that the others should be wasted by the captivity.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob,.... Jerom says most understand this of Christ; and who indeed is called the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the seed of David, and sprang from Jacob or Israel, and came out of the tribe of Judah; and may be fitly signified by the cluster, in which new wine and a blessing were, which "seed" here is explanative of; since the clusters of all divine perfections, of all the blessings of grace, and of all the promises of it, are in him: and since he is that seed in whom all the nations of the earth are blessed, and with whom the covenant of grace was made, Galatians 3:16, but others, the above ancient writer observes, understood it of the apostles; and it seems to design the first that believed in Christ, who were of the Jewish nation, the apostles and others; for though the generality of that people rejected the Messiah, there were a few that believed on him, a remnant according to the election of grace, whom the apostle calls a seed, the Lord left among them, and reserved for himself, Romans 9:29, Romans 11:4 such who received the seed of the word into their hearts, and were born again of incorruptible seed, and which remained in them; these were distinguished by the grace of God from the rest of the people, and were called and brought forth from among them:

and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains; this also is true of Christ, who not only came out of the tribe of Judah, as was foretold he should, and as it is manifest he did; hence he is called the Lion of that tribe; but he is also an heir or inheritor of the mountains of God; he is indeed heir of all things, Hebrews 1:2, as he is the Son of God, he is heir by nature of all the Father has; and, as Mediator, he is heir by appointment of all persons and things; he has all persons for his inheritance, and in his possession, and at his dispose, angels and men; and he is possessed of all things, of all blessings of goodness, natural and temporal, spiritual and eternal; and his chosen people are joint heirs with him, and who may be here meant; such as are the seed of the Lord are sons and heirs; they are heirs of God, being the sons of God; heirs of his covenant, the blessings and promises of it, which is as a mountain, firm and immovable; they are heirs of the grace of life, and of the kingdom; heirs of righteousness, life, and salvation; of eternal glory, the heavenly Canaan, signified by the mountains of the Lord; alluding to the mountains on which the temple and Jerusalem stood, or to those about Jerusalem, or in the land of Judea in general:

and mine elect shall inherit it; Christ is God's first and chief elect, and his people are chosen in him through grace to glory; and these are the seed and heirs that do inherit grace, and shall inherit glory; for this is to be understood not literally of the land of Judea, which was not long inherited by any after the times of Christ and his apostles, to which this prophecy respects; unless it can be thought to belong to the latter day, when the Jews will be converted, and return to it; but figuratively of Mount Zion, or of the heavenly country:

and my servants shall dwell there; my righteous servants, as the Targum; these are the same with the seed, the inheritor, and the elect, who become the servants of God, through the power of his grace, and serve him cheerfully, willingly, and without selfish ends and views; to this they are chosen, and for this purpose become a spiritual seed; nor is this inconsistent with their being heirs; and who shall receive the inheritance in a way of grace, and possess it for ever; they shall dwell in the church below, and enjoy all the privileges of it, and shall dwell upon their estate for ever; for their inheritance is an eternal one, reserved in the heavens.

Geneva Study Bible

And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. When a separation is effected the true Israelites shall possess the land (ch. Isaiah 57:13, Isaiah 60:21).

a seed] Cf. ch. Isaiah 6:13, Isaiah 53:10.

my mountains] the mountain land of Palestine, an Isaianic phrase (ch. Isaiah 14:25).  shall inherit it] i.e. the land.

shall dwell there] Dillmann infers from the adv. “there” that neither the prophet nor his hearers lived in Palestine; but the argument cannot be sustained. “There” may be said of a place just mentioned, irrespective of the speaker’s relation to it. Thus in ch. Isaiah 37:33 Isaiah says that the king of Assyria “shall not shoot an arrow there,” referring to Jerusalem (“this city”) where he was living.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - A seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah. Scarcely, "the people of the two captivities" (Delitzsch), though no doubt many Israelites of the ten tribes did return with Zerubbabel (1 Chronicles 9:3; Ezra 2:2, 70; Ezra 3:1; Ezra 6:17; Ezra 8:35, etc.). Rather, a mere pleonasm, as in Isaiah 9:8; Isaiah 10:21, 22; Isaiah 27:6; Isaiah 29:23; Isaiah 40:27; Isaiah 41:8, etc. (see the comment on Isaiah 40:27). An inheritor of my mountains. The whole of Palestine is little more than a cluster of mountains. The cluster may be divided into three groups:

(1) The mountains of Galilee, extending from Hermon to Tabor, separated from the next group by the plain of Esdraelon;

(2) the mountains of Samaria and Judaea, extending from Carmel and Gilbea to the plateau of Mature above Hebron, which is 3600 feet above the sea;

(3) the mountains of the trans-Jordanic region, including those of Bashan, Gilead, Moab, and Edom, separated from the two other groups by the Jordan valley. The highest elevation attained is that of Hermon (9400 feet); other minor heights are Jebel Jurmuk, in Galilee, 4000 feet; Safed, also in Galilee, 2775 feet; Ebal and Gerizim, in Samaria, 2700 feet; Sinjil, 2685; Neby Samwill, 2650; and the Mount of Olives, 2724 feet. The plateau of Mature reaches a height of 3600 feet. The only Palestinian plains are those of Esdraelon, Sharon, and the Ghor, or Jordan valley. Thus the land may well be spoken of as "my mountains." Mine elect (comp. ch. 43:20; 45:4). The same expression is used of Israel in 1 Chronicles 16:13; Psalm 89:3; Psalm 105:6, 43; Psalm 106:5. God "chose" Israel out of all the nations of the earth to be his "peculiar people." Isaiah 65:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

As the word ri'shōnâh (first of all) has clearly intimated that the work of the future will not all consist in the execution of penal justice, there is no abruptness in the transition from threatening to promises. "Thus saith Jehovah, As when the must is found in the cluster, men say, Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing within it, so will I do for the sake of my servants, that I may not destroy the whole. And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and an heir of my mountains out of Judah, and my chosen ones shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there." Of the two co-ordinate clauses of the protasis (Isaiah 65:8), the first contains the necessary condition of the second. Hattı̄rōsh (must, or the juice of the grapes, from yârash, possibly primarily nothing more than receipt, or the produce of labour) and bâ'eshkōl have both of them the article generally found in comparisons (Ges. 109, Anm. 1); ואמר signifies, as in Isaiah 45:24, "men say," with the most general and indefinite subject. As men to not destroy a juicy cluster of grapes, because they would thereby destroy the blessing of God which it contains; so will Jehovah for His servants' sake not utterly destroy Israel, but preserve those who are the clusters in the vineyard (Isaiah 3:14; Isaiah 5:1-7) or upon the vine (Psalm 80:9.) of Israel. He will not destroy hakkōl, the whole without exception; that is to say, keeping to the figure, not "the juice with the skin and stalk," as Knobel and Hahn explain it, but "the particular clusters in which juice is contained, along with the degenerate neglected vineyard or vine, which bears for the most part only sour grapes (Isaiah 5:4) or tendrils without fruit (cf., Isaiah 18:5). The servants of Jehovah, who resemble these clusters, remain preserved. Jehovah brings out, causes to go forth, calls to the light of day (הוצי) as in Isaiah 54:16; here, however, it is by means of sifting: Ezekiel 20:34.), out of Jacob and Judah, i.e., the people of the two captivities (see Isaiah 56:3), a seed, a family, that takes possession of His mountains, i.e., His holy mountain-land (Isaiah 14:25, cf., Psalm 121:1, and har qodshı̄, which is used in the same sense in Isaiah 11:9; Isaiah 65:25). As "my mountain" is equivalent in sense to the "land of Israel," for which Ezekiel is fond of saying "the mountains of Israel" (e.g., Isaiah 6:2-3), the promise proceeds still further to say, "and my chosen ones will take possession thereof" (viz., of the land, Isaiah 60:21, cf., Isaiah 8:21).