The Lord Will Distinguish Between Sinners and the Godly, 1-25
65:1 “I made myself available to those who did not ask for me;
I appeared to those who did not look for me.
I said, ‘Here I am! Here I am!’
to a nation that did not invoke my name.
65:2 I spread out my hands all day long
to my rebellious people,
who lived in a way that is morally unacceptable,
and who did what they desired.
65:3 These people continually and blatantly offend me
as they sacrifice in their sacred orchards
and burn incense on brick altars.
65:4 They sit among the tombs
and keep watch all night long.
They eat pork,
and broth from unclean sacrificial meat is in their pans.
65:5 They say, ‘Keep to yourself!
Don’t get near me, for I am holier than you!’
These people are like smoke in my nostrils,
like a fire that keeps burning all day long.
65:6 Look, I have decreed:
I will not keep silent, but will pay them back;
I will pay them back exactly what they deserve,
65:7 for your sins and your ancestors’ sins,” says the LORD.
“Because they burned incense on the mountains
and offended me on the hills,
I will punish them in full measure.”
65:8 This is what the LORD says:
“When juice is discovered in a cluster of grapes,
someone says, ‘Don’t destroy it, for it contains juice.’
So I will do for the sake of my servants—
I will not destroy everyone.
v8 AV – As the new wine is found in the cluster,
And one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it..
This verse (in the AV, but see also ESV, NASB, RSV, NRSV, and others) is thought by some to support the ‘two-wine’ theory, i.e. that ‘wine’ in the Bible is often unfermented. No-one, after all, supposes that anything other than unfermented juice is found in a cluster of grapes. The word translated ‘juice’ or ‘wine’ is tîrōš. The verse here may indeed be suggesting that tîrōš in this instance in unfermented wine; or it may, by a simple figure of speech, be referring to the fact that fermented ‘wine’ was potentially found in the grapes. It would quickly (in a few days) become so. In the words of Matthew Henry, this was juice ‘fit to make wine’.
65:9 I will bring forth descendants from Jacob,
and from Judah people to take possession of my mountains.
My chosen ones will take possession of the land;
my servants will live there.
65:10 Sharon will become a pasture for sheep,
and the Valley of Achor a place where cattle graze;
they will belong to my people, who seek me.
65:11 But as for you who abandon the LORD
and forget about worshiping at my holy mountain,
who prepare a feast for the god called ‘Fortune,’
and fill up wine jugs for the god called ‘Destiny’—
65:12 I predestine you to die by the sword,
all of you will kneel down at the slaughtering block,
because I called to you, and you did not respond,
I spoke and you did not listen.
You did evil before me;
you chose to do what displeases me.”
65:13 So this is what the sovereign LORD says:
“Look, my servants will eat, but you will be hungry!
Look, my servants will drink, but you will be thirsty!
Look, my servants will rejoice, but you will be humiliated!
v13 Observe ‘the dismal, deplorable condition of all you who are yet in a Christless state. You have seen a rich mine opened, but not a penny of this treasure comes to your share; a truth laden with incomparable comfort, but it is bound for another coast, it belongs to the saints, into whose bosom this truth unlades all her comfort. See God shutting the door upon you, when he sets his children to feast themselves with such dainties.’ (Gurnall)