Isaiah 65:20

20 No more will babies live only a few days, or the old fail to live out their days. The one who dies at a hundred will be like a young person, and the one falling short of a hundred will seem cursed.

Isaiah 65:20 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 65:20

There shall be no more thence an infant of days
That is, there shall no more be carried out from thence, from Jerusalem, or any other place where the church of God is, to the grave, in order to be interred, an infant that has lived but a few days, a very common thing now; but, in the latter day, such instances will be rare, or rather there will be none at all; every child born will live to the age of man, and not be cut off by any premature death, either by any natural disease, or by famine, or sword, or any other calamity, which will now have no place: nor an old man that hath not filled his days;
who, though he may in some sense, or in comparison of others, be said to be old, yet has not arrived to the full term of man's life, threescore years and ten, or more; for it seems, by what follows, as if the term of human life will be lengthened in the latter day, and reach in common to a hundred years; so that as long life is always reckoned a temporal happiness, among the rest that shall be enjoyed, this will be one in the latter day; and which is to be understood not of the Millennium state, in which there will be no death, ( Revelation 21:4 ) , which yet will be in this, as the following words show; but of the state preceding that, even the spiritual reign of Christ: for the child shall die an hundred years old;
not that that shall be reckoned a child that shall die at a hundred years of age F8, the life of man being now, in these days of the Messiah, as long as they were before the flood, as the Jewish interpreters imagine; but the child that is now born, or he that is now a child, shall live to the age of a hundred years, and not die before: but lest this outward happiness should be trusted to, and a man should imagine that therefore he is in a happy state for eternity, being blessed with such a long life, it follows, "but" or though the sinner, being an hundred years old; shall be accursed;
for though this shall be common in this state to good men and bad men, to live a hundred years, yet their death will not be alike; the good man will be blessed, and enter into a happy state of joy and peace; but the wicked man, though he lives as long as the other in this world, shall be accursed at death, and to all eternity; see ( Ecclesiastes 8:12 Ecclesiastes 8:13 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F8 Vid. Gloss. in T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 91. 2.

Isaiah 65:20 In-Context

18 Be glad and rejoice forever in what I'm creating, because I'm creating Jerusalem as a joy and her people as a source of gladness.
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad about my people. No one will ever hear the sound of weeping or crying in it again.
20 No more will babies live only a few days, or the old fail to live out their days. The one who dies at a hundred will be like a young person, and the one falling short of a hundred will seem cursed.
21 They will build houses and live in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 They won't build for others to live in, nor plant for others to eat. Like the days of a tree will be the days of my people; my chosen will make full use of their handiwork.
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