Isaiah 65

65:1 I AM inquired of by them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought 2 me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name. I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that 3 is not good, after their own thoughts; a people that provoketh me to my face continually, 4 sacrificing in gardens, and burning incense upon bricks; which sit among the graves, and lodge in the secret places; which eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their 5 vessels; which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou: these 6 are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day. Behold, it is written before me: I 7 will not keep silence, but will recompense, yea, I will recompense into their bosom, your own iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I first measure their work into their bosom. 8 Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all. 9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: 10 and my chosen shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there. And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down in, for my people that 11 have sought me. But ye that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare 12 a table for Fortune, and that fill up mingled wine unto Destiny; I will destine you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but ye did that which was evil in mine eyes, and chose that wherein I delighted not. 13 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, 14 but ye shall be ashamed: behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for

15 sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit. And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen, and the Lord God shall slay thee; and he shall call his servants by

16 another name: so that he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former

17 troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes. For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into

18 mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jeru-

19 salem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

20. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old, and the sinner being an hundred years old shall

21 be accursed. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vine-

22 yards, and eat the fruit of them. They 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

23 chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for calamity; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with

24 them. And it shall come to pass that, before they call, I will answer; and while they are

25 yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.

Chap. 65. The great enigma of Israel’s simultaneous loss and gain is solved by a prediction of the calling of the Gentiles (verse 1). This is connected with the obstinate unfaithfulness of the chosen people (verse 2). They are represented under the two main aspects of their character at different periods, as gross idolaters and as pharisaical bigots (verses 3-5). Their casting off was not occasioned by the sins of one generation, but of many (verses 6, 7). But even in this rejected race there was a chosen remnant, in whom the promises shall be fulfilled (verses 8-10). He then reverts to the idolatrous Jews, and threatens them with condign punishment (verses 11, 12). The fate of the unbelieving carnal Israel is compared with that of the true spiritual Israel (verses 13-16). The Gospel economy is described as a new creation (verse 17). Its blessings are described under glowing figures borrowed from the old dispensation (verses 18, 19). Premature death shall be no longer known (verse 20). Possession and enjoyment shall no longer be precarious (verses 21-23). Their very desires shall be anticipated (verse 24). All animosities and noxious influences shall cease forever (verse 25). A.

1-7. The apostle Paul (an expositor we may depend upon) has given us the true sense of these verses, and told us what was the event they pointed at and were fulfilled in—viz., the calling in of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Jews by the preaching of the Gospel. And he observes, that herein “Esaias is very bold,” not only in foretelling a thing so improbable ever to be brought about, but in foretelling it to the Jews, who would take it as a gross affront to their nation, and therein Moses’ words would be made good (De. 32:21), “I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people.” II.

1. An obvious and natural application may be made to the Gentiles generally, whose vocation is repeatedly predicted in this book, and might be here used with powerful effect in proof that the rejection of the Jews was the result of their own obstinate perverseness, not of God’s unfaithfulness or want of power. This is precisely Paul’s interpretation of the passage in Rom. 10:20, 21, where he does not, as in many other cases, merely borrow the expressions of the prophet, but formally interprets them, applying this verse to the Gentiles and then adding, “but to Israel (or of Israel) he saith” what follows in the next verse. The same intention to expound the prophet’s language is clear from the apostle’s mention of Isaiah’s boldness in thus shocking the most cherished prepossessions of the Jews. A.

Paul quotes both this verse and the next (Rom. 10:20, 21) as predicting the conversion of the Gentiles and the long-suffering patience of God toward the unbelieving Jews. Since the reference of this verse to the Gentiles at the opening of the Christian age admits of no doubt, it becomes a landmark to guide in the interpretation of the whole chapter, and indeed of the previous context also. This fact precludes the theory which applies this portion of Isaiah to the exile at Babylon and the restoration from it; and also that theory which applies these chapters to some supposed restoration of the Jews yet future. H. C.

2. Spreading out the hands is the gesture of earnest expostulation, and “all the day” refers to the long series of prophetic warnings, crowned by the voice of the Lord and His apostles. Birks.—In the later prophets, and especially in Jeremiah, great stress is laid upon the reiterated and long-protracted efforts of the Lord to reclaim His sinning people. (See Jer. 7: 24-28; 25: 3-7; 26: 5; 29: 17-19 and 44: 4, 5.) Such persistent entreaty may well be expressed by stretching out the hand imploringly all the day. The “thoughts” which they walked after were their plans and devices, their chosen courses of sin.

3. Provoking God to His face seems to mean, with daring and reckless impiety, insulting Him in His very presence. It is remarkable that precisely the same Hebrew words appear in the first of the Ten Commandments, “Thou shalt have no other gods before My face;” in My presence; brought up before Me to insult Me to My very face. The people here spoken of were flagrantly violating this first command. H. C.

5. The great end which the prophet had in view was to describe the unbelieving Jews as abominable in the sight of God. His manner of expressing this idea is poetical, by means of figures drawn from various periods of their history, without intending to exhibit either of these periods exclusively. To a Hebrew writer what could be more natural than to express the idea of religious corruption by describing its subjects as idolaters, diviners, eaters of swine’s flesh, worshippers of outward forms and self-righteous hypocrites. Of such the text declares God’s abhorrence. Smoke and fire may be taken as natural concomitants and parallel figures, as if He had said, against whom My wrath smokes and burns continually. A.

6,7. The language here indicates that the national guilt of several successive generations was at length visited upon one. “I will recompense into their bosom” (i.e., the last and the doomed one of the series) “your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together”—the latter phrase, “your fathers,” probably including more than one generation. This accords precisely with the view given of this very case by our Divine Lord (Matt. 23: 32, 35, 36), “Fill ye up the measure of your fathers” (i.e., the measure of their guilt), “that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias whom ye slew between the Temple and the altar; verily, I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation.” Thus the “former works” of that guilty nation were measured back into the bosom of the one most guilty generation, last in the series. H. C.

8-10. This is expounded by Paul (Rom. 11: 1-5), where when, upon occasion of the rejection of the Jews, it is asked, “Hath God then cast away His people?” He answers, No; for “at this time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” This prophecy has reference to that distinguished remnant. When that hypocritical nation is to be destroyed, God will separate and secure to Himself some from among them; some of the Jews shall be brought to embrace the Christian faith, shall be added to the Church, and so be saved. And our Saviour has told us, that “for the sake of these elect” the days of the destruction of the Jews should be shortened, and a stop put to the desolation, which otherwise would have proceeded to that degree that “no flesh should be saved” (Matt. 24: 22).

8. When a vine is so blasted and withered that there seems to be no sap or life in it, and therefore the dresser of the vineyard is inclined to pluck it up or cut it down, yet if ever so little of the juice of the grape, fit to make new wine, be found, though but in one cluster, a stander-by interposes and says, “Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it;” there is life in the root and hope that yet it may become good for something. Good men are blessings to the places where they live; and sometimes God spares whole cities and nations for the sake of a few such in them. H.

As when one cluster, well ripened, juicy and good for wine, appears among many bad, and one says, Do not destroy that, for a blessing is in it; so God will spare the little remnant of faithful ones, and not make an utter destruction of the Jewish nation. In precise fulfilment of this prediction, the little band of Jewish disciples, warned by their Divine Master (Matt. 24: 15, 16), escaped to the mountains beyond the Jordan, and fell not with the fated city. In general it may be said, all the Jews who turned to God were saved; the rest perished in vast numbers.

9,10. This passage most clearly refers to the great events that clustered about the change from the Mosaic to the Christian dispensation, the extreme guilt of the Jewish nation as a whole and their destruction, coupled with the salvation of the penitent and believing portion

—the last point being the subject of remark here. Then furthermore, it is entirely legitimate and fully sustained by prophetic usage to explain these verses as the common Jewish costume by which the prophets speak in figures drawn from their own people and times. H. C.

10. A repetition of the promise in the foregoing verse, rendered more specific by the mention of one kind of prosperity—viz., that connected with the raising of cattle, and of certain places where it should be specially enjoyed—viz., the valley of Achor and the plain of Sharon. Two reasons have been given for the mention of these places, one derived from their position, the other from their quality. As the valley of Achor was near Jericho and Jordan, and the plain of Sharon on the Mediterranean, between Joppa and Cesarea, some suppose that they are here combined to signify the whole breadth of the land, from east to west. And as Sharon was proverbial for its verdure and fertility (see above, chaps. 33 : 9 ; 35 : 2), it is inferred by some that Achor was so likewise, which they think is the more probable because Hosea says that the valley of Achor shall be a door of hope (Hos. 2 : 17). For these or other reasons Sharon and Achor are here mentioned, in Isaiah’s characteristic manner, as samples of the whole land, or its pastures, just as flocks and herds are used as images of industry and wealth, derived from the habits of the patriarchal age. A.

11-16. Here the different states of the godly and wicked, of the Jews that believed, and of those that still persisted in unbelief, are set the one over against the other, as life and death, good and evil, the blessing and the curse. H.

11. This is only a description of the object of address; the address itself is contained in the next verse. There is perfect unanimity upon the only point of exegetical importance—viz., that the passage is descriptive of idolatrous worship; for even those who apply it directly to convivial indulgences connect the latter with religious institutions. This being settled, the details still doubtful can be interesting only to the philologist and antiquarian. A.

12. The great sin, represented under the conception of idolatry, seems to be brought out in literal phrase in the last clause of verse 12, “When I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear.” No calls from God availed toward reclaiming them to Himself. Their depravity baffled every moral endeavor to save them. H. C.

13,14. These verses merely carry out the general threatening of the one preceding, in a series of poetical antitheses, where hunger, thirst, disgrace and anguish take the place of sword and slaughter, and determine these to be emblematic terms. The passage is a solemn prediction of happiness to the believing and of misery to the unbelieving Jews. The latter are directly addressed, the former designated as My servants. A.—Still addressing the ungodly portion of the Jews and speaking of the pious portion as His servants and His chosen, the Lord draws the contrast between them. Most remarkably was this fulfilled when the day of retribution came upon the guilty nation, and the Roman arms, coupled with their own mad infatuation, made Jerusalem a city of horrors. Never were greater calamities poured forth on any doomed city. But precisely then there was great joy in those communities where the Gospel was shedding forth its blessings and men were turning to the Lord. H. C.

God’s servants shall want nothing that is good for them. Heaven’s happiness will be to them an everlasting feast; they shall be filled with that which now they hunger and thirst after. But those who set their hearts upon the world, and place their happiness in that, shall be hungry and thirsty, always empty, always craving; for it is not bread, it surfeits but it satisfies not. In communion with God, and dependence upon Him, there is full satisfaction, but in sinful pursuits there is nothing but disappointment. God’s servants shall rejoice and sing for joy of heart; they have constant cause for joy, and there is nothing that may be an occasion of grief to them but they have an allay sufficient for it. As far as faith is in act and exercise they have a heart to rejoice, and their joy is their strength. They shall rejoice in their hope, because it shall not make them ashamed. Heaven will be a world of everlasting joy to all that are now sowing in tears. H.

13. How many Beholds are here! Every Behold is not only a call to the careless to consider, but also a declaration from heaven that thus it shall be at last with all impenitent sinners. That is, when others sing in heaven, they shall sorrow and howl in hell! Wherefore let me advise that you be not afraid of, but rather covet a broken heart and contrite spirit. I say, covet it now, now the white flag is hung out, now the golden sceptre of grace is held forth to you. And take this notice, that this is not the first time that I have given you this advice. Bunyan.

15. According to the usage of the prophecies, the promise of another name imports a different character and state, and in this sense the promise has been fully verified. But in addition to this general fulfilment, which no one calls in question, it is matter of history that the Jewish commonwealth or nation is destroyed; that the name of Jew has been for centuries a by-word and a formula of execration, and that they who have succeeded to the spiritual honors of this once favored race, although they claim historical identity therewith, have never borne its name, but another, which from its very nature could have no existence until Christ had come, and which in the common parlance of the Christian world is treated as the opposite of Jew. Now all this must be set aside as mere fortuitous coincidence, or it must be accounted for precisely in the same way that we all account for similar coincidences between the history of Christ and the Old Testament in minor points, where all admit that the direct sense of the prophecy is more extensive. A.—The children of the covenant shall no longer be called Jews, but Christians; and to them, under that name, all the promises and privileges of the new covenant shall be secured. This other name shall be an honorable name; it shall not be confined to one nation, but with it men shall “bless themselves in the earth,” all the world over. God shall have servants out of all nations, that shall all be dignified with this new name. H.

16. This verse is doubly important because of its close logical relation to the verse that follows and to its peculiarly interesting statements. The reader will therefore take special note that verses 15, 16 bring us into the very centre and heart of the Christian system, Christ giving His name to His people to wear (“Christian”), and then His own name also to offer prayer in and to bless themselves by; and further, this name is said to be identical, at least in significance, with that of the “God of truth.” Then the special point in which Christ proves Himself true is the certainty of pardon to the penitent. He is surely a God of truth because He has fully put away all the former sins of His people, and has hidden them forever from His eye. Now comparing this Gospel system with the distinctive features of the Mosaic, and much more still, with the historic life of the Jewish nation (viewed morally), the contrast is very great. It opens to view a new spiritual world. This is precisely what the Lord through His prophet proceeds to say.

17. “For, behold,” I make a wondrous change. I contemplate nothing less, I do nothing less than what might be called, building a new world. The words, “for, behold,” resume and restate the main facts of the previous verse in a more broad and general form, and call special attention. The next verse is God’s own explanation of what He means by creating new heavens and earth. The last clause in verse 17 affirms that the new will so entirely eclipse and supersede the old as to expel it from thought and memory. H. C.—The verse is a promise or prediction of entire change in the existing state of things, the precise nature of the change and of the means by which it shall be brought about forming no part of the revelation here. That the words are not inapplicable to a revolution of a moral and spiritual nature, we may learn from Paul’s analogous description of the change wrought in conversion (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15), and from Peter’s application of this very passage. Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness (2 Pet. 3:13). That the words have such a meaning even here is rendered probable by the last clause, the oblivion of the former state of things being much more naturally connected with moral and spiritual changes than with one of a material nature. A.

The establishment of the Christian Church and religion is what is more obviously and primarily pointed at in the expression, “new heavens and new earth;” and it is only to their more hidden and fullest meaning that Peter (referring to this and other passages of Isaiah) applies them as above. This creation of new heavens and earth began at the time when the Gospel of Christ began its progress; is to be completed at that other time, when it shall please God (the Creator) to render it perfect, in the consummation of all things. The beginning and end are here blended together. Vitrings.

18,19. The spiritual sense of the new heavens and earth is supported not only by verses 15, 16, but by the scope of the whole chapter, which unquestionably treats of the great moral and spiritual changes attendant upon the first advent of the Messiah—viz., the calling of the Gentiles; the conversion to Christ of a remnant of the Jews and the utter apostasy and ruin of the remaining masses, coupled with the glories of the new Zion as a world of spiritual life, light and joy. We may go back yet farther and maintain that the one great central theme throughout these later prophecies of Isaiah (chaps. 40-66) is essentially the same; those great events and truths which cluster round the transition from the Mosaic to the Christian economy, involving a prophetic outlook onward upon the grand comprehensive results of the latter period. Hence in harmony with this great purpose and drift of these later prophecies, these declarations, “I am creating new heavens and a new earth,” should certainly be construed to refer to this same stupendous spiritual and moral change and not to any supposed material change to take place after the close of the Gospel age and of the present earthly state. Still further, precisely this figure of new heavens and earth to represent the new features of the Christian age has occurred already in this portion of Isaiah (chap. 51 : 16). Giving to His people new revelations of His truth and new demonstrations of His spiritual protection are legitimate preliminary agencies for introducing the Christian dispensation, but can have no possible relevance as preliminary agencies for building a new material universe. Giving His people truth to preach, and bidding them go out into all the world and preach it, saying to them, “Lo, I am with you alway to the end of the world,” were in fact precisely the Christian agencies with which Jesus Christ inaugurated His Gospel kingdom. Hence we must identify the new heavens and new earth with the Gospel dispensation. With this view accords the language of Paul (2 Cor. 5 : 17), “If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation (Greek); old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” Here essentially the same figure, a new creation, is applied to the spiritual change wrought in every individual conversion which Isaiah applies to the new forms of spiritual power in which the Gospel age pre-eminently surpasses the Mosaic. H. C.

18. But be ye glad and rejoice forever. It is not to be momentary happiness, like a bright morning soon overcast with clouds. It is to be perpetual, everlasting. The joy of God’s people is to endure forever; and they shall have ceaseless cause of praise and thanksgiving. I create Jerusalem a rejoicing. A source of rejoicing, or a place of rejoicing. And her people a joy. In themselves joyful, a source of joy to all others. The idea is, that the Church would be a place of the highest happiness; and that they who were redeemed should have occasion of perpetual joy. Religion is not gloom; and they who are redeemed are not redeemed to be sad. Barnes.

19. There is an implication of Divine authority in the promise that weeping shall no more be heard in her. There is something very beautiful in the association of ideas here expressed. God shall rejoice in His people, and they shall rejoice with Him. They shall no longer know what grief is, because He shall cease to grieve over them; their former distresses shall be forgotten by them and forever hidden from His eyes.

20. The most natural meaning is the one preferred by most modern writers. Premature death, and even death in a moderate old age, shall be unknown; he who dies a hundred years old shall be considered either as dying in childhood or as cut off by a special malediction. The whole is a highly poetical description of longevity, to be explained precisely like the promise of new heavens and a new earth in verse 17.

21,22. This is a promise of security and permanent enjoyment, clothed in expressions drawn from the promises and threatenings of the Mosaic law. By the age of a tree is generally understood the great age which some species are said to attain, such as the oak, the banyan, etc. The essential idea is that of permanent continuance, and the figures here used to express it make it still more probable that in the whole foregoing context the predictions are to be figuratively understood. A.

23. “They are themselves the seed of the blessed of the Lord,” and there is a blessing entailed upon them by descent from their ancestors, which their offspring with them shall partake of, and shall be, as well as they, “the seed of the blessed of the Lord.” God will make their children that rise up comforts to them; they shall have the joy of “seeing them walk in the truth.” He will make the times that come after comfortable to their children; as they shall be good, so it shall be well with them. H.—Their offspring with them. The children of believing parents stand, by virtue of that fact, in a special relation to God. God is the God of families, as well as of individuals. He clothes parents with their authority; He requires families to worship Him; He has made special promises to families which believe and obey Him, and “pours out His fury upon the families which call not on His name.” These promises, coupled with these conditions, are of the nature of a covenant, so that we can properly say that Christian families, as such, are in covenant with God. T. P. Stevenson.

After an experience of more than forty years in contact with saints and sinners of almost all conceivable grades and classes, and with the home life of cultured and illiterate alike, we have come to the settled conviction that there is no sustained and fervent piety to be found prevailing in homes destitute of family worship; and that parents who fail to provide for their young the legacy of holy influence and pungent memory generated at the family altar rob their children of blessing and send them out into the world impoverished beyond all power of recompense, even though in all other respects the parental example and influence be of the loftiest and purest type. The family altar is an ordinance of God, essential to Christian thrift, and neglect of it invariably works irreparable and deplorable mischief. W. W. Faris.

Let every father so deport himself toward his children, winning their respect, their reverence and their loving obedience, that as they grow to an appreciation of the Divine Being, the sweetest of His names to them, the one conveying to them the fullest meaning of all that is pure and good and true shall be—Father. Interior.

24. A more precise translation of this verse is, “And it shall be that they shall not yet have called, and I will answer; they shall be yet speaking, and I will hear.” The passage is designed to put in strong form God’s infinite readiness to hear prayer, and the peculiarly intimate and endearing relations existing between Himself and His praying people. They have only to make their wants known; while they are yet speaking He hears and the thing is done. H. C.—A strong expression of God’s readiness to hear and answer prayer, not a mere promise that it shall be heard (like that in Jer. 29:12; Zech. 13:9), but an assurance that it shall be granted before it is heard. The nearest parallel is Matt. 6:8, where our Lord Himself says, Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him. (Cf. chaps. 30:19; 58:9; Ps. 145:18, 19.) A.—When His people shall come to live very near to Him and to walk softly before Him, on terms of true Christian intimacy and in the warmth of sanctified affection, prayer will be with them as their breath, and God’s answer will be the quick response of a loving Father’s heart. H. C.

Before they call I will answer. Their desires shall be anticipated. God will see their wants, and will impart to them the blessings which they need. He will not wait to be applied to for the blessing. How many such blessings do all His people receive at the hand of God! How ready is He to anticipate our wants! How watchful is He of our necessities; and how rich His benevolence in providing for us! Even the most faithful and prayerful of His people receive numerous favors and comforts at His hand for which they have not directly asked Him. The prayer for the supply of our daily food, “Give us this day our daily bread,” God had anticipated, and had prepared the means of answering it long before in the abundant harvest. Had He waited until the prayer was offered, it could not have been answered without a miracle. Ever watchful, He anticipates our necessities, and in His providence and grace lays the foundation for granting favors long before we ask Him. Barnes.

Why ask, if God has promised? Asking shows faith. Asking is the acceptance on our part of what God offers. Ask and ye shall receive; ask not and ye shall not receive. Find a promise for what you want, and then bring it boldly to God. If you have no plain promise, ask humbly, submissively and modestly, leaving altogether to His wise love the things about which you are uncertain. J. R. M.

Let none of you hold His prayer cheap; He to whom we pray holdeth it not cheap. Ere it is gone forth out of our mouth, He has it written in His book. One of two things we may without doubt hope, that He will either give us what we ask, or what He knoweth to be more useful to us. For we know not what to ask for as we ought, but He hath pity on our ignorance. He graciously receiveth prayer, but He giveth not either what is not altogether good for us, or what need not be given us yet. But the prayer will not be without fruit. Bernard.

The abounding promise is true absolutely in the spiritual realm, where fuller knowledge of God, a more Christ-like character and more blessed communion with Him, wait for all who desire them and seek them in God’s way. The keys of that treasure-house are put into our hands, and we may take as much as we will; and the wider we open our desires, the larger will be the gifts which He pours into our laps. “Ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss,” not joining effort and perseverance with prayer. A. M.

25. The promise of a happy change is wound up in the most appropriate manner by repeating the earlier prophecy in chap. 11:6-9, that all hurtful influences shall forever cease in the holy hill or Church of God. A.—Thus the whole book is knit together by many secret links, and reveals, from first to last, the unity of design which marks the whole. Birks.