Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Isaiah 65:1-25
The Church a Blessing in the World Isaiah 65:8 As a rule, the pious and good are of little value in the eyes of the world, and are despised often as foolish and 'narrow' men. The 'religious public' is spoken of contemptuously and scornfully. But God's judgment is a different one. It is the judgment that Abraham recognized when he pleaded for Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of even (at length) ten righteous persons. It is the judgment of the text. The vinedresser is about to hew down the... read more
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 65:20
(20) There shall be no more thence . . .—The prophet sees in the restored city not so much an eternal and a deathless life as the return of the traditional longevity of the prediluvian and patriarchal age (Genesis 5:11), Life will not be prematurely cut off, as it had been, by pestilence and war. (Comp. Zechariah 8:4.) He who dies at the age of a hundred will be thought of as dying young; even the sinner, dying before his time as the penalty of his guilt, shall live out the measure of a... read more