Isaiah 66


Isaiah 66 is the sixty-sixth and final chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Isaiah, and is one of the Nevi'im. Chapters 56–66 are often referred to as Trito-Isaiah. This chapter contains an oracle delivered after the Second Temple had been built following the Babylonian captivity, and warns against "an unduly materialistic" approach to the worship of God.

Text

The original text was written in Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 24 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets, Aleppo Codex, Codex Leningradensis.
Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls :
  • 1QIsaa: complete
  • 1QIsab: extant verses 1‑24
  • 4QIsab : extant verse 24
  • 4QIsac : extant verses 20‑24
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Marchalianus.

Parashot

The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex. Isaiah 66 is a part of the Consolations . : closed parashah.

Worshippers, welcome and unwelcome (66:1–5)

This part contains the rebuke to "ecclesiasticism" – 'the spirit that would build human walls around God' and 'intolerance'. It is not a protest against the rebuilding of the temple, because it was the command of God.

The last intervention (66:6–17)

The focus of this section is the end time, where the nation... brought forth in a moment with a final divine intervention.

Verse 12

The Jerusalem Bible describes this verse as "a fragment condemning pagan mysteries" linked with verses 3 and 4.

The nations gathered in (66:18–24)

God states his purpose for the world to gather the nations with his means to carry it out into Jerusalem, to witness the final glory and perdition. In Christian apocalyptic view, this can be connected to the first and second comings of Jesus Christ.

Verse 19

The names listed here represent the distant outposts of the world as it was known to Israel at the time. All five locations, Tarshish, Pul, Lud, Tubal, and Javan, are also mentioned in Ezekiel 27.

Verse 24

This is virtually the only passage to speak of lasting judgment, and comparable to "hell", which is described by Jesus as the place "where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched" in.
  • "Quench": Illusion of a fire which cannot be 'quenched', from the Hebrew root: k-b-h, links this verse to the last verse of the beginning chapter of the whole book. Moreover, it is also used in three other places: of the servant in Isaiah 42:3, that "a dimly burning wick he will not quench"; that 'the fire devouring Edom "will not be quenched"', and 'those who oppose the 's path are "quenched like a wick"'.

    Jewish

  • Christian

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