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Biblion Bible Commentary

Read the introduction to Isaiah · About this commentary

I Am Found by Those Who Didn't Seek Me

Isaiah 65:1-16

1 “I am inquired of by those who didn’t ask. I am found by those who didn’t seek me. I said, ‘See me, see me,’ to a nation that was not called by my name. · WEB


God answers the prayer about his silence by saying he has had his hands out all day, and a cluster is spared for what is in it.

I am inquired of by those who didn't ask. I am found by those who didn't seek me. I said, "See me, see me," to a nation that was not called by my name Isaiah 65:1.

The answer to the prayer that ended the previous chapter, and it is not the answer that was asked for. The complaint was that God had been silent; the reply is that he has been speaking to people who were not listening for him. Paul quotes the verse of the Gentiles Romans 10:20.

I have spread out my hands all day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts Isaiah 65:2.

The gesture is the open-armed posture of invitation, held out all day. The stretched-out hand of the earlier refrain Isaiah 9:12 turns out to have been this.

Who say, "Stay by yourself, don't come near to me, for I am holier than you" Isaiah 65:5.

The sentence is quoted from men who have just been described sitting among graves and eating forbidden meat. Ritual superiority claimed by people doing the opposite of what the ritual required — and the response is the driest in the book: these are smoke in my nose.

As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, "Don't destroy it, for a blessing is in it:" so I will do for my servants' sake, that I may not destroy them all Isaiah 65:8.

The remnant explained by a vineyard worker's judgment. A bunch of grapes that looks past saving is not thrown out if there is juice in it, and the reason for sparing the whole is what is in part of it.

You who forsake Yahweh... who prepare a table for Fortune, and who fill up mixed wine to Destiny Isaiah 65:11.

Two deities of luck, with meals laid for them. The gods people actually serve are named as Fortune and Destiny, which is as true now as it was then.

Behold, my servants will eat, but you will be hungry; behold, my servants will drink, but you will be thirsty Isaiah 65:13.

Five contrasts in two verses, and each is a pair of people in the same room getting opposite outcomes.

Because when I called, you didn't answer. When I spoke, you didn't listen Isaiah 65:12.

The reason given, and it answers verse one exactly. He was found by those who did not seek and not answered by those who were called.

He will call his servants by another name Isaiah 65:15.

Because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from my eyes Isaiah 65:16.

The title used twice here is the God of truth — literally the God of Amen, which is the name the risen Christ takes in the last letter to the churches Revelation 3:14.

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