CHAPTER 65 Ju1. 9 
God Punishes the Nations
I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek Me. I said, ‘Here am I, here am I’ to a nation that was not called by My name. 2I have spread out My hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts; 3a people who provoke Me to My face continually, sacrificing in gardens and burning incense on bricks; 4who sit among the graves and lodge in the secret places; who eat pig’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels; 5who say, ‘Stand by yourself, don’t come near to me, for I am holier than you’. These are a smoke in My nose, a fire that burns all the day. 6Behold, it is written before Me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, yes, I will recompense into their bosom, 7your own iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, says Yahweh, who have burned incense on the mountains, and blasphemed Me on the hills; therefore will I first measure their work into their bosom. 8Thus says Yahweh, As the new wine is found in the cluster and one says, ‘Don’t destroy it, for a blessing is in it:’ so will I do for My servants’ sake, that I may not destroy them all. 9I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of My mountains; and My chosen shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell there. 10Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down in, for My people who have sought Me. 11But you who forsake Yahweh, who forget My holy mountain, who prepare a table for Fortune, and who fill up mixed wine to Destiny; 12I will destine you to the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter; because when I called, you didn’t answer; when I spoke, you didn’t listen; but you did that which was evil in My eyes, and chose that in which I didn’t delight. 13Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, My servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, My servants shall rejoice, but you shall be disappointed; 14behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall wail for anguish of spirit. 15You shall leave your name for a curse to My chosen; and the Lord Yahweh will kill you; and He will call His servants by another name: 16so that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from My eyes.

A New Creation
17For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. 18But be you glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. 19I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; and there shall be heard in her no more the voice of weeping and the voice of crying. 20There shall be no more there an infant of days, nor an old man who has not filled his days; for the child shall die one hundred years old, and the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed. 21They shall build houses and inhabit them themselves; and they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree shall be the days of My people, and My chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 23They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for calamity; for they are the seed of the blessed of Yahweh, and their offspring with them. 24It shall happen that, before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. 25The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, says Yahweh.

Commentary

65:1 God's experience with the Jews in exile was tragic. He set them up with the possibility to return to Judah, to establish there a Messianic-style Kingdom, giving them the commands in Ez. 40-47 for a glorious temple; but most of them preferred the soft life in Babylon, and those who did return proved small minded, selfish and disinterested in the vision of God's glory. In this context, Isaiah ends his restoration prophecies on a tragic note from God: "I was ready to be sought... I was ready to be found" by the unspiritual exiles in Babylon. But Israel would not. He pictures Himself standing there crying "Here am I, here am I!"- to be rejected by a people more interested in climbing the endless economic and social ladder in Babylon and Persia, and caught up in finding petty religious fault with their brethren (:5).
65:17 New heavens and a new earth- The close of Isaiah’s prophecy is related to how it opens in 1:2; and there, the heavens and earth are figurative for the system of things which was in Judah (see note there). This verse is quoted in 2 Pet. 3:13 as having had a fulfilment in the destruction of the Jewish system in AD70; yet then the literal Heaven and earth weren’t destroyed.
65:24 Before they call, I will answer- This is found in the context of a prophecy about the future Kingdom of God on earth. But Jesus applies this phrase to our experience in prayer now, when He says that God knows our needs before we ask Him in prayer (Mt. 6:8). Answered prayer is a foretaste of the Kingdom life. The essence of how we will eternally live in the Kingdom can be experienced in our spiritual life today. In this sense Jesus said that we “have eternal life”, in the sense that we can begin to live now the type of life we will eternally live.