Isaiah 65:23

23 They won't work and have nothing come of it, they won't have children snatched out from under them. For they themselves are plantings blessed by God, with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed.

Isaiah 65:23 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 65:23

They shall not labour in vain
As they do, who build houses, and enemies come and turn them out of them, and dwell in them themselves; or who plant vineyards, and sow their fields, and strangers come and devour them; or they are smitten with blasting and mildew: nor bring forth for trouble;
for death, as the Targum; or for a curse, as the Septuagint: the tense is, they shall not beget and bring forth children, that shall immediately die by some distemper or another, or be taken off by famine, sword, or pestilence, to the great grief and trouble of their parents; but these shall live, and outlive their parents, so that their death will never be a trouble to them: for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring
with them;
or, "they are a seed, the blessed of the Lord" ^F9; or, "they are the seed blessed of God", or "the Lord", as the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions; or, as the Targum,

``a seed whom the Lord hath blessed;''

a spiritual seed of the church, a seed raised up to serve the Lord, whom he blesses with temporal and spiritual blessings; and their offspring also, being made a spiritual seed by the grace of God, and succeeding them in the church, and treading in their steps.

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 (hmh hwhy ykwrb erz yk) "quia [sunt] semens, benedicti Domini ipsi"; which tension is most agreeable to the accents.

Isaiah 65:23 In-Context

21 They'll build houses and move in. They'll plant fields and eat what they grow.

22 No more building a house that some outsider takes over, No more planting fields that some enemy confiscates, For my people will be as long-lived as trees, my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work.

23 They won't work and have nothing come of it, they won't have children snatched out from under them. For they themselves are plantings blessed by God, with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed.

24 Before they call out, I'll answer. Before they've finished speaking, I'll have heard.

25 Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow, lion and ox eat straw from the same trough, but snakes - they'll get a diet of dirt! Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill anywhere on my Holy Mountain," says God.