Apparently after the exile some of the people provoked God by slipping back into idolatry, practicing witchcraft and sorcery and fortunetelling. Others sought to do his will and were persecuted for it. The LORD swears vengeance upon those who "offer incense on the mountains" to other gods (65:7), but he promises that his "servants shall eat" while the wicked are hungry, his "servants shall drink" while the wicked at thirsty. Those who worship other gods shall perish, and God will leave their "name to my chosen to use as a curse" (65:15). And when they are finally annihilated, then whoever among the remnant who blesses will "bless by the God of faithfulness" and the "the former troubles [will be] forgotten" (65:16).
Then the LORD will "create new heavens and a new earth" (65:17). A new Jerusalem will appear in which "no more shall the sound of weeping be heard"; life will be both rich and long--the "one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth" (65:2) and "like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be" (65:22). Hostile nature shall be reconciled and no longer dangerous—"The wolf and lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox . . . They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD" (65:25).
Now the text turns back to present somber reality. The temple has been rebuilt and sacrifices are being offered there again. But the people are not living sacrificial lives of obedience. The religion is being practiced only as a form. The focus of this last chapter of Isaiah returns to an earlier theme—God cares less for the sacrifices than for "a humble and contrite spirit" (66:2). The people offer sacrifices but they do not listen. They do what is evil in God's sight, and choose what does not please him" (66:4).
Things seem as hopeless as ever, but then something remarkable happens. There is "an uproar from the city" (66:6). A child is delivered without the pains of labor. It is an answer to the question people are asking—"Shall a nation be delivered in one moment?" (66:8) The rebirth of Jerusalem will happen like that—suddenly and totally unexpectedly. And when it does it will reverse the ancient curse that accompanied the fall of mankind in the garden (Genesis 3:16)—there will be no pain in childbirth. God will cause this miraculous birth to happen, and the people will be comforted by a nursing and caring God "as a mother comforts her child" (66:13).
He is the same God who like a warrior will 'pay back his anger in fury" (66:15). But when that tribulation is over, he will "gather all nations and tongues" to Jerusalem, and they shall come bringing back the scattered children of Israel "as an offering to the LORD" (66:20). In that day people will go out to look "at the dead bodies of those who have rebelled against" the LORD, but in a new Jerusalem "from new moon to new moon, and from sabbath to sabbath , all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord"
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