Isaiah 66:4 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 66:4
I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
delusions
בְּתַעֲלֻלֵיהֶ֗םbe.ta.'a.lu.lei.Hem
H8586
caprice (as a fit coming on) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
bring
אָבִ֣יא'a.Vi'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common singular
fears
וּמְגֽוּרֹתָם֙u.me.gu.ro.Tam
H4035
a fright · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
called
קָרָ֙אתִי֙ka.Ra.ti
H7121
to call out to (i.e. properly · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
answer
עוֹנֶ֔הo.Neh
H6030
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
spake
דִּבַּ֖רְתִּיdi.Bar.ti
H1696
perhaps properly · verb, piel perfect, 1st person common singular
hear
שָׁמֵ֑עוּsha.Me.'u
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
did
וַיַּעֲשׂ֤וּvai.ya.'a.Su
H6213
to do or make · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
evil
הָרַע֙ha.Ra'
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · definite article + adjective, masculine singular absolute
eyes
בְּעֵינַ֔יbe.'ei.Nai
H5869
an eye (literally or figuratively) · preposition + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix
chose
בָּחָֽרוּba.Cha.ru
H977
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
delighted
חָפַ֖צְתִּיcha.Fatz.ti
H2654
properly · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
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 65:12 Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake…
2 Kings 21:2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children o…
2 Kings 21:6 And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrough…
Proverbs 1:24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
Proverbs 10:24 The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted.
Jeremiah 7:13 And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I c…
Psalms 81:12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
Proverbs 1:31-32 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 66:1-4
Here, I. The temple is slighted in comparison with a gracious soul, Isa 66:1, Isa 66:2. The Jews in the prophet's time, and afterwards in Christ's time, gloried much in the temple and promised themselves great things from it; to humble them therefore, and to shake their vain confidence, both the prophets and Christ foretold the ruin of the temple, that God would leave it and then it would soon be desolate. After it was destroyed by the Chaldeans it soon recovered itself and the ceremonial services were revived with it; but by the Romans it was made a perpetual desolation, and the ceremonial law was abolished with it. That the world might be prepared for this, they were often told, as here, o…
delusions-- (Th2 2:11), answering to "their own ways" (Isa 66:3; so Pro 1:31). However, the Hebrew means rather "vexations," "calamities," which also the parallelism to "fears" requires; "choose their calamities" means, "choose the calamities which they thought to escape by their own ways."
their fears--the things they feared, to avert which their idolatrous "abominations" (Isa 66:3) were practised.
I called . . . none . . . answer--(See on Isa 65:12; Isa 65:24; Jer 7:13).
did . . . chose--not only did the evil deed, but did it deliberately as a matter of choice (Rom 1:32). "They chose that in which I delighted not"; therefore, "I will choose" that in which they delight not, the "calam…
He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man "He that slayeth an ox killeth a man" - These are instances of wickedness joined with hypocrisy; of the most flagitious crimes committed by those who at the same time affected great strictness in the performance of all the external services of religion. God, by the Prophet Ezekiel, upbraids the Jews with the same practices: "When they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it," Eze 23:39. Of the same kind was the hypocrisy of the Pharisees in our Savior's time:" who devoured widows' houses, and for a pretense made long prayers," Mat 23:14.
The generality of interpreters, by departing from…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 4.) They have chosen all these things in their ways, and their soul delighted in their abominations. Therefore I will also choose their delusions, and I will bring upon them what they feared. Because when I called, there was none that answered; when I spoke, they did not hear. They did evil in my sight and chose what I did not desire. (Septuagint: And they chose their own ways, and their soul desired their abominations; and I will choose their delusions, and I will repay them for their sins.) Because I called them, and they did not obey: I spoke, and they did not hear. And they did evil in my sight, and chose what I did not want. They sacrificed a bull, slaughtered a ram, offered a sacrifice, burned incense, which God considers as murder, and the offering of a dog. They chose the blood of pigs and blasphemy. And it was their choice to worship such things, as it is stated by Ezekiel: I gave them bad rules and bad commands. (Ezek. XX, 11). And they walked in their own ways, not in the way of the Lord. And their souls desired their abominations, that they would rather be lovers of themselves than lovers of God. For this reason, those who choose their own ways and not Him who says: I am the way (John 14:6), and the Lord chooses illusions, or their deceivers, who are called Thalule in Hebrew, that is, mockers, to establish the most wicked leaders and bring about all their evils, including those they feared. And you write that the reasons why they were handed over to the deceiving scribes and Pharisees, about whom the first psalm according to the Hebrews sings: And He did not sit in the seat of the deceivers, whom they call the pestilential Seventy: such were the sons of Eli, sons of pestilence, for which it is written in Hebrew Belial (or Blial) , that is, of the devil. For, he says, I called, and there was no one to answer; I spoke, and they did not hear; they did evil in My sight; and what I did not want, they chose. He places these verses second in the present location, and above, where it is said: I will number you with the sword, and you will all fall in the slaughter: because I called, and you did not answer (Isaiah 65:12), and so on. The meaning and interpretation of this testimony is explained there.
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
Call Of God, The · Rejection of, leads to: Delusion — Rejection of, leads to: Delusion
God · By Israel — By Israel
Hypocrisy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Impenitence · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
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).
I also will choose their delusions,.... Suffer them to approve and make choice of such persons that should delude and deceive them; as the Scribes and Pharisees, who were wolves in sheep's clothing, and through their appearance of sanctity deceived many, and by their long prayers devoured widows' houses; and as these false prophets, so likewise false Christs, many of which arose after the true Messiah was come, and was rejected by them, whom they embraced, and, by whom they were deluded and ruined, Matthew 7:15.
and will bring their fears upon them; the things they feared; such as the sword, famine, and pestilence; and especially the Romans, who, they feared, would come and take away their…
I also will choose their delusions. [220] The Prophet means that the Jews gain nothing by holding out various and plausible pretences and by searching for excuses; because God does not care for the cunning or fine speeches of men. And indeed it is not proper to measure God by our own capacity, and we ought not to depend on human judgment; but it is our duty to judge of the works of God from his word. I will choose; that is, "I will scatter the clouds which they endeavor to spread over themselves, so that their delusions shall be manifest and visible to all; for now they appear to be hidden, but one day they shall be dragged forth to public view." The meaning may be thus summed up. "Because t…
Although the note on which this prophecy opens is a different one from any that has yet been struck, there are many points in which it coincides with the preceding prophecy. For not only is Isa 65:12 repeated here in Isa 66:4, but the sharp line of demarcation drawn in chapter 65, between the servants of Jehovah and the worldly majority of the nation with reference to the approaching return to the Holy Land, is continued here. As the idea of their return is associated immediately with that of the erection of a new temple, there is nothing at all to surprise us, after what we have read in Isa 65:8., in the fact that Jehovah expresses His abhorrence at the thought of having a temple built by t…
delighting in their detestable sins: Literally delighting in abominations, which refers to pagan worship practices. • sacrifice a bull . . . blessed an idol: Wicked people brought sacrifices as prescribed by the law, but their sin rendered those sacrifices equivalent to pagan offerings (see 1:11-17).
Rashi on Isaiah 66:4
their mockeries Heb. בְּתַעֲלוּלֵיהֶם, to mock them, an expression like (ibid. 22:29) “For you mocked (הִתְעַלַּלְתְּ) me.”
and their fears What they fear.
since I called Hearken and return to Me.
and no one answered saying, “I heard.”
