a people (as a congregated unit) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
anger
הַמַּכְעִיסִ֥יםha.makh.'i.Sim
H3707
to trouble · definite article + verb, hiphil active participle, masculine plural absolute
continually
תָּמִ֑ידta.Mid
H8548
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
face
פָּנַ֖יpa.Nai
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
sacrificeth
זֹֽבְחִים֙zoe.Chim
H2076
to slaughter an animal (usually in sacrifice) · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
gardens
בַּגַּנּ֔וֹתba.ga.Not
H1593
a garden · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine plural absolute
incense
וּֽמְקַטְּרִ֖יםu.me.ka.te.Rim
H6999
to smoke · conjunction + verb, piel active participle, masculine plural absolute
brick
הַלְּבֵנִֽיםha.le.ve.Nim
H3843
a brick (from the whiteness of the clay) · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 1:29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.
Deuteronomy 32:21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealo…
Isaiah 66:17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination,…
Deuteronomy 32:16-19 They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.
2 Kings 17:14-17 Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God…
Job 1:11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Isaiah 3:8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
Jeremiah 32:30-35 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have only done evil before me from their youth: for the children of Israel have only pr…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 65:1-7
The apostle Paul (an expositor we may depend upon) has given us the true sense of these verses, and told us what was the event they pointed at and were fulfilled in, namely, the calling in of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Jews, by the preaching of the gospel, Rom 10:20, Rom 10:21. And he observes that herein Esaias is very bold, not only in foretelling a thing so improbable ever to be brought about, but in foretelling it to the Jews, who would take it as a gross affront to their nation, and therein Moses's words would be made good (Deu 32:21), I will provoke you to jealousy by those that are no people.
I. It is here foretold that the Gentiles, who had been afar off, should be made ni…
continually--answering to "all the day" (Isa 65:2). God was continually inviting them, and they continually offending Him (Deu 32:21).
to my face--They made no attempt to hide their sin (Isa 3:9). Compare "before Me" (Exo 20:3).
in gardens--(See on Isa 1:29; Isa 66:17; Lev 17:5).
altars of brick--Hebrew, "bricks." God had commanded His altars to be of unhewn stone (Exo 20:25). This was in order to separate them, even in external respects, from idolaters; also, as all chiselling was forbidden, they could not inscribe superstitious symbols on them as the heathen did. Bricks were more easily so inscribed than stone; hence their use for the cuneiform inscriptions at Babylon, and also for i…
That sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick "Sacrificing in the gardens, and burning incense on the tiles" - These are instances of heathenish superstition, and idolatrous practices, to which the Jews were immoderately addicted before the Babylonish captivity. The heathen worshipped their idols in groves; whereas God, in opposition to this species of idolatry, commanded his people, when they should come into the promised land, to destroy all the places wherein the Canaanites had served their gods, and in particular to burn their groves with fire, Deu 12:2, Deu 12:3. These apostate Jews sacrificed upon altars built of bricks; in opposition to the command of God in re…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 3.) The people who provoke me to anger are always before my face: they sacrifice in the gardens, and offer incense upon bricks (Exodus XX, 4). LXX: This people who provoke me are always before my eyes, they always sacrifice in the gardens, and offer incense upon bricks to non-gods. ** The Lord says: You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath. And they provoked me with strange gods, and with abominations they provoked me to anger. They sacrificed to devils and not to God (Deut. 32:16, 17). They, by their eagerness to sin, as if they were provoking and challenging God, not only did what was not allowed, but continuously and always sinned in the sight of the Lord, whose eyes see everything, even in his temple, sacrificing victims to idols. So that nothing would indeed be lacking in sacrilege, they would sacrifice in gardens and burn incense on bricks, joining the luxury of idolatry with the pleasure of sacrifices, and instead of one altar built according to God's law from unpolished stones, they would smear cooked bricks and strips of land with the blood of the victims. Let it be said in a literal sense: otherwise, according to spiritual understanding, every heretic provokes the Lord to anger and offers impure sacrifices in the falsehood of their teachings, which are by no means firm and lasting forever, but rather like gardens that quickly wither, providing for the delights of the flesh. To whom it is said: All flesh is grass, and all its glory is like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls: but the word of the Lord, which is preached in the churches, remains forever (Isaiah 40:6-7). Not wanting his vineyard to become gardens, Naboth refuses to them to the impious king Ahab and he sheds blood (1 Kings 21). For it was not fitting for the paternal inheritance to perish: and so that the vineyards, which bring forth the fruit that gladdens the heart of man, would not be replaced with vegetables of virtue, delights, and vices. It is said that the most wise sentiment among the Greeks, rightly celebrated and praised, calls all the pleasures of the world, the pomp of the world and the quickly passing luxury, the gardens of Adonis. The heretics also sacrifice over stones, when they try to strengthen their errors and exquisite lies by the art of dialectic, and…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Cattle — Abounded in the Holy Land. To the rearing and management of them the inhabitants chiefly devoted themselves (Deut. 8:13; 12:21; 1 Sam. 11:5; 12:3; Ps. 144:14; Jer. 3:24). They may be classified as,…
Face — Means simply presence, as when it is recorded that Adam and Eve hid themselves from the “face [R.V., ‘presence’] of the Lord God” (Gen. 3:8; comp. Ex. 33:14, 15, where the same Hebrew word is…
Altar · Used in idolatrous worship — Used in idolatrous worship
Altars · Of brick, hateful to God — Of brick, hateful to God
Brick · Altars — Altars
Burial · Places of: Often desecrated by idolatry — Places of: Often desecrated by idolatry
Condescension Of God · Expostulates with backsliding Israel — Expostulates with backsliding Israel
Gardens · Often used for: Idolatrous worship — Often used for: Idolatrous worship
Idolatry · .Incense burned on altars — .Incense burned on altars
Incense · The Jews: Offered, to idols on altars of brick — The Jews: Offered, to idols on altars of brick
Jews, The · Punished for: Idolatry — Punished for: Idolatry
Sacrifices · The Jews: Condemned for offering, to idols — The Jews: Condemned for offering, to idols
A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face,.... They committed their sins openly, without any fear of the divine Being, and in defiance of him, not at all awed by his omniscience and omnipresence; they committed them in the open streets, and even in the temple, the place of the divine residence; and these they did constantly, which provoked him to anger and wrath against them; particularly the following sins:
that sacrificeth in gardens; to idols, as the Targum, placed there, as they were under every green tree; or in groves, where idols were worshipped. Fortunatus Scacchus (h) thinks this refers to their having their sepulchres in their gardens, where they consulted the dea…
A people that provoketh me. Here he describes and illustrates more largely in what respects the Jews were rebellious against God. It was because they had forsaken the command of God, and had polluted themselves by various superstitions. He had said a little before, (Isaiah 63:17,) that the Jews had estranged themselves from God, because they wandered after their inventions; and now he points out the fruit of that licentiousness, that, by giving a loose rein to their thoughts, they overturned the pure worship of God. And undoubtedly this is the origin of all superstitions, that men are delighted with their own inventions, and choose to be wise in their own eyes rather than restrain their sens…
But through this obstinate and unyielding rejection of His love they have excited wrath, which, though long and patiently suppressed, now bursts forth with irresistible violence. "The people that continually provoketh me by defying me to my face, sacrificing in the gardens, and burning incense upon the tiles; who sit in the graves, and spend the night in closed places; to eat the flesh of swine, and broken pieces of abominations is in their dishes; who say, Stop! come not too near me; for I am holy to thee: they are a smoke in my nose, a fire blazing continually." אלּה (these) in Isa 65:5 is retrospective, summing up the subject as described in Isa 65:3-5, and what follows in Isa 65:5 contai…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
