Final Blessedness (Chs. 65-66). 

        Though in its original use ch. 65 will have had no connection with the prayer that precedes it, it here stands as God’s answer. The idolaters referred to are, once again, probably pre-exilic. 66:3 is probably not a condemnation of sacrifice, either abso­lute or qualified. The end of the verse suggests that we have to do with those who combined idolatrous worship with their worship of Jehovah, and so their sacrifices became an abom­ination.

        Note that the book ends, not with the new heavens and the new earth (66:22), but with the carcases of the rebels. Isaiah is not only the prophet of the divine Redeemer, but also of human sin, which has made redemption through the Suffering Servant necessary. In the Synagogue, when this chapter is read publicly, ver. 23 is repeated after ver. 24 (cf. pp. 136, 154).

        Note, too, how 65:25 links with 11:1-10, and implies the reigning of the king described in the earlier chapter.