Isaiah 65:8 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 65:8
Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all.
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD
יְהוָ֗הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
wine
הַתִּירוֹשׁ֙ha.ti.ro.Vosh
H8492
must or fresh grape-juice (as just squeezed out) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
found
יִמָּצֵ֤אyi.ma.Tze'
H4672
properly · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
cluster
בָּֽאֶשְׁכּ֔וֹלba.'esh.Kol
H811
a bunch of grapes or other fruit · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
saith
וְאָמַר֙ve.'a.Mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Destroy
תַּשְׁחִיתֵ֔הוּtash.chi.Te.hu
H7843
to decay · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
blessing
בְרָכָ֖הve.ra.Khah
H1293
benediction · noun, common feminine singular absolute
do
אֶֽעֱשֶׂה֙'e.'e.Seh
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
servants’
עֲבָדַ֔י'a.va.Dai
H5650
a servant · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
destroy
הַֽשְׁחִ֥יתhash.Chit
H7843
to decay · verb, hiphil infinitive construct
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
Romans 9:27-29 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:
Amos 9:8-9 Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not u…
Isaiah 6:13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when the…
Jeremiah 30:11 For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make…
Mark 13:20 And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect’s sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortene…
Romans 11:5-6 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
Romans 11:24-26 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much mor…
Joel 2:14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 65:8-10
This is expounded by St. Paul, Rom 11:1-5, where, when, upon occasion of the rejection of the Jews, it is asked, Hath God then cast away his people? he answers, No; for at this time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. This prophecy has reference to that distinguished remnant. When that hypocritical nation is to be destroyed God will separate and secure to himself some from among them; some of the Jews shall be brought to embrace the Christian faith, shall be added to the church, and so be saved. And our Saviour has told us that for the sake of these elect the days of the destruction of the Jews should be shortened, and a stop put to the desolation, which otherwise would ha…
new wine--as if some grapes having good wine-producing juice in them, be found in a cluster which the vinedresser was about to throw away as bad, and one saith, &c.
blessing--that is, good wine-producing juice (compare Jdg 9:13; Joe 2:14).
so--God will spare the godly "remnant," while the ungodly mass of the nation shall be destroyed (Isa 1:9; Isa 6:13; Isa 10:21; Isa 11:11-16).
my servants--the godly remnant. But HORSLEY, "for the sake of my servant, Messiah."
Adam Clarke on Isaiah 65:8
A blessing is in it - The Hebrews call all things which serve for food ברכה berachah, "a blessing." On this verse Kimchi remarks: "As the cluster of grapes contains, besides the juice, the bark, and the kernels, so the Israelites have, besides the just, sinners among them. Now as the cluster must not be destroyed because there is a blessing, a nutritive part in it; so Israel shall not be destroyed, because there are righteous persons in it. But as the bark and kernels are thrown away, when the wine is pressed out, so shall the sinners be purged away from among the just, and on their return from exile, shall not be permitted to enter into the land of Israel;" Eze 20:38.
For my servant's sakes…
Once again the richness of the loving nature of God is shown clearly in this simile. For just as mature wine is found on the vine for whose sake the whole is saved, spared and is not cut off by anyone, so too [God says], "If I find anyone serving me, I will spare them all, just as I swore to Abraham. When I was threatening judgment of Sodom, I showed my compassion even to five people." He says this to establish his goodness.
If anyone finds one ripe grape in a bunch, he spares the whole bunch on its account, in order to present to God the firstfruits. In the same way, since I promised to Abraham to bless all the nations in his seed, I maintained the seed of all Israel when they sinned, and I did not overlook their slavery in Egypt. For this reason, I freed them from their Babylonian captivity.… The "valley of Achor" is an allusion to the contrition that is among the churches. For Achar or Achor, having stolen and broken the law of the ban, was thrown into a ravine, and through this tragic example they were filled with much contrition.
(V. 8) Thus says the Lord: Just as when a grain is found in the cluster, and it is said: do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it; so I will do for the sake of my servants, that I will not destroy them all. LXX: Thus says the Lord: Just as when a grape is found in the cluster, and it is said: do not touch it, for there is a blessing in it; so I will do for the sake of my servant, that I will not destroy them all. The Lord declared that Israel would perish and all their sins would be revealed before their eyes, and He would repay them according to the works of each individual in their bosom. After this, he presents a similitude and example of comparison, in order to teach that everyone perishes in their own sin, and even if there is a great multitude of sinners, one righteous person does not perish due to the fault of all. If someone, he says, takes a cluster of grapes that could not ripen, and brings fruits that have turned sour, or is corrupted by some fault of the air or earth, they find one intact seed which has the hope of becoming even greater and reaching its usual ripeness. Let them say to another person, do not touch it, but let it grow, because it is the blessing of the Lord that in such a multitude of grapes, only one would escape dryness. Likewise, he says, with the countless multitude of Jews who have offended God, if I find a few righteous ones, I will deliver them from the destruction of the many. And I will do this for the sake of my servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom the promise was made, or for the sake of those who serve me among many sinners. We read something similar in Genesis, when from fifty down to ten the righteous are gradually sought after, who could free the city from sin (Gen. XVIII), and only the righteous Lot is saved from Sodom with his daughters (Gen. XIX). This is written about in the Catholic Epistle (II Pet. II), that his soul was tormented by witnessing abominable acts, and that the judgment of his soul demonstrated the character of his body. Enoch also, among the very numerous multitude of sinners, was alone taken up to God (Genesis 5). And Noah, with his children, because he turned away from the servitude of the Lord, could not destroy the Flood (Genesis 7). But Abraham, preserved from the fire of the Chaldeans by the integrity of his faith (Genesis 11). In this sense, the words of Jeremiah, spoken…
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,…
Condescension Of God · Expostulates with backsliding Israel — Expostulates with backsliding Israel
Intercession · OF MAN WITH GOD — OF MAN WITH GOD
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).
on Isaiah 65:8
Thus saith the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster,.... Now, lest the truly godly and gracious among these people should be distressed at such denunciations of wrath and destruction, it is suggested that these few, this remnant according to the election of grace, should be saved from the general ruin; as when men are about to cut down a vine, or pluck it up, or prune the unfruitful branches of it, a single cluster of grapes is observed upon it, in which new wine is supposed to be:
and one saith, destroy it not, for a blessing is in it; one that stands by, perhaps the owner of the vine, seeing it, says to his servant, spare the vine, do not cut it down; or do not cut off the branch…
Thus saith Jehovah. Here the Prophet softens the preceding statement; for otherwise it would have been very hard to say that the iniquities of the fathers would be brought to remembrance in such a manner, that the Lord would destroy the fathers and the children along with them; and these things might strike believers with such horror as to lead them to think that their salvation was past all hope. We must therefore be carefully on our guard, and observe the reason why the Lord is angry with us; for he wishes to terrify us, so as to lead us to himself, and not so as to throw us into despair. For this reason he holds out hope to believers, that they may not lose courage; and, by exhibiting con…
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 (Isa 65:8), the first contains the necessary condition of the second. Hattı̄…
The Lord planned to spare and reward a remnant of righteous people.
Rashi on Isaiah 65:8
As when wine is found in the cluster Jonathan renders: As Noah was found innocent in the generation of the Flood.
the wine This is Noah, who was sweet.
in the cluster Heb. בָּאֶשְׁכּוֹל. In the bereft (הַמְשֻׁכָּל) generation. This may also be interpreted according to its apparent meaning.
for the sake of My servants For the sake of every righteous man found among them.
