Isaiah 65:18

Isa 65:18 But be ye glad and rejoice for ever [in that] which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

Ver. 18. But be glad and rejoice for ever.] What can ye be less than everlastingly merry when you consider your gospel privileges, which are such as may well swallow up all discontents, and make you "more than conquerors," and that is triumphers?

For, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing.] Creo talem Ierusalem ut sit ei nomen tripudium, et populus eius vocetur gaudium. {a} Hence it appeareth that these things are not to be taken according to the letter, but of "Jerusalem which is above, that mother of us all."

{a} Oecolamp.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

65:18-19 Jerusalem here symbolizes God’s eternal kingdom (Rev 21:1-4).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

rejoice for ever . . . Jerusalem-- (Isa 51:11). "Everlasting joy . . . Zion." Spiritually (Th1 5:16).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 18. Rejoice for ever in that which I create - "Exult in the age to come which I create"] So in Isa 9:6 אבי עד abi ad, πατηρ του μελλοντος αιωνος, "the father of the age to come," Sept. See Bishop Chandler, Defence of Christianity, p. 136.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(18) I create Jerusalem . . .—From the prophet’s stand-point, as elsewhere, both in 1 and 2 Isaiah, the earthly city, transformed and transfigured, occupies the central place in the new creation. In the New Testament we note the transfer of the promise to the unseen eternal city, the Jerusalem which is above (Gal_4:26; Rev_21:10).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. I create Jerusalem a rejoicing &c.] i.e. either an object in which one may rejoice (Isa_65:19, ch. Isa_60:15) or an abode of joy (ch. Isa_51:3, Isa_61:7).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But be you glad, and rejoice for ever in that which I create,.... This may refer either to persons converted, both at the beginning of the Gospel, and in the latter day, whether Jews or Gentiles; who are the Lord's creation, or new creatures, being made new men; having new hearts and spirits given them, or created within them; new principles of life, light, grace, and holiness, wrought in them, which are the produce of almighty and creating power; and all such instances are matter of joy, as to the angels in heaven, so to the saints on earth, and especially to the ministers of the Gospel; because of the grace bestowed on men, the glory brought to God, and their own ministry blessed and succeeded, and so their hands and hearts strengthened: or else this refers to the state of things under the Gospel dispensation, in every age of it, and especially in some periods of it, particularly the first and last; and the whole indeed is a new world or state of God's creating, and is matter of joy to all the people of God. The Targum renders it,

"rejoice in the world of worlds, which I create:''

agreeably to which is the version of Bishop Chandler (g),

"rejoice for the age to come, that I create;''

the world to come, Heb 2:5, which Christ is said to be the father of, in the Septuagint version of Isa 9:6, the Gospel dispensation, the Messiah's future world, as opposed to the legal dispensation.

For, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy; that is, do that for them, through the mighty power of his grace, as will justly occasion joy to them, and to all others well affected to them; the conversion of the Jews will be matter of joy to the Gentiles; and that, and the bringing in of the fulness of the Gentiles, as well as the destruction of antichrist, which will occasion a new face of things in the world, will be matter of joy to the whole church; see Rev 18:20.

(g) Defence of Christianity, c. 2. sect. 2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

But be ye glad and rejoice - (See the notes at Isa 51:11).

Forever - It is not to be momentary happiness - like a bright morning that is soon overcast with clouds. The joy of God’s people is to endure for ever, 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 - That is, in themselves joyful, and 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 would have occasion of perpetual joy. The Saviour did not come to minister gloom, nor is the true effect of religion to make his people melancholy. Religion produces seriousness; but seriousness is not inconsistent with permanent happiness. Religion produces deep thought and soberness of deportment and conversation; but this is not inconsistent with a heart at ease, or with a good conscience, or with permanent joy. Religion fills the mind with hope of eternal life; and the highest happiness which the soul can know must be in connection with the prospect of unchanging blessedness beyond the grave.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

You that are my people, though you cannot rejoice with that degree of joy that attendeth a present fruition of good; yet be glad, and rejoice with the

rejoicing of hope, for the thing is certain what I am already doing. Nor let your present state, or the discouragements you have from seeming improbabilities, spoil your joy; for it is not a work to be produced in an ordinary course, or by an ordinary power, but by the power of me, who bring something out of nothing, or out of what hath no fittedness to such a production; and I will create

Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy: by Jerusalem here must be meant the church, as well under the gospel as under the law (because the gospel church is grafted into that olive); or else this prophecy must be understood as fulfilled in the coming of Christ, Luk 2:10; or else it referreth to a more full calling of the Jews than we have yet seen or heard of.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

I create Jerusalem. (comp. Rev_21:2, "I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband The description which follows in vers. 11, 12 is quite unlike that of the old Jerusalem. A rejoicing. The "new Jerusalem" was to be from the first all joy and rejoicing a scene of perpetual gladness. Her people also was to be "a joy" or "a delight," since God would delight in them (ver. 19).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

You - The church, as well under the gospel, as under the law.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

“But rejoice and be glad into eternity (in) that which I (am) creating, for lo I (am) creating Jerusalem a joy, and her people a rejoicing,” (i.e., a subject or occasion of it). It would be highly arbitrary to explain ‘what I create’ in this place, as different from the creation in the verse preceding. It is there said that a creation shall take place. It is here enjoined upon God’s people to rejoice in it. But here the creation is declared to be the making of Jerusalem a joy and Israel a rejoicing. Now the whole analogy of the foregoing prophecies leads to the conclusion that this means the exaltation of the church or chosen people; and the same analogy admits of that exaltation being represented as a revolution in the frame of nature. On the other hand, a literal prediction of new heavens and new earth would scarcely have been followed by a reference merely to the church; and if Jerusalem and Zion be explained to mean the literal Jerusalem and the restored Jews, the only alternative is then to conclude that as soon as they return to Palestine, it and the whole earth are to be renewed, or else that what relates to Jerusalem and Israel is literal, and what relates to the heavens and the earth metaphorical, although, as we have just seen, the connection of the verses renders it necessary to regard the two events as one. From all these incongruities we are relieved by understanding the whole passage as a poetical description of a complete and glorious change.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

עדי עד Long years. For at last man dies (comp. vers. 20). הנני בורא את ירושלים Behold, I make Jerusalem. From this passage it can be proved that the word ברא does not mean to create (to produce from non-existence into existence) but to form, to renew.

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.