(7) Which have burned incense upon the mountains . . .--The old inveterate sin of the worship of high places (comp. Isaiah 57:7; Hosea 4:13; Ezekiel 6:13; 2 Kings 15:4; 2 Kings 15:35). The worship paid there to other gods, or nominally to Jehovah in a way which He had forbidden, was practically a "blasphemy" or "reproach" against Him.
Their former work.--Better, I will measure their work first into their bosoms. That was, as it were, the primary duty of the Supreme Ruler.
Verse 7. - Your iniquities. This is a new sentence, not a continuation of ver. 6, which should be closed by a full stop. It is an incomplete sentence, needing for its completion the repetition of the verb shillamti, "I will recompense." Which have burned incense upon the mountains (see 2 Kings 17:11; Hosea 4:13; Ezekiel 6:13; and comp. Isaiah 57:7). And blasphemed me; rather, reproached me (see Isaiah 37:4, 17, 23, 24). Therefore will I measure their former work; rather, therefore will r, first of all, measure their work into their bosom. The expression, "first of all," prepares the way for the encouraging promises of vers. 8-10.
65:1-7 The Gentiles came to seek God, and find him, because they were first sought and found of him. Often he meets some thoughtless trifler or profligate opposer, and says to him, Behold me; and a speedy change takes place. All the gospel day, Christ waited to be gracious. The Jews were bidden, but would not come. It is not without cause they are rejected of God. They would do what most pleased them. They grieved, they vexed the Holy Spirit. They forsook God's temple, and sacrificed in groves. They cared not for the distinction between clean and unclean meats, before it was taken away by the gospel. Perhaps this is put for all forbidden pleasures, and all that is thought to be gotten by sin, that abominable thing which the Lord hates. Christ denounced many woes against the pride and hypocrisy of the Jews. The proof against them is plain. And let us watch against pride and self-preference, remembering that every sin, and the most secret thoughts of man's heart, are known and will be judged by God.
Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together (saith the Lord),.... That is, the punishment both of the one and of the other; these being alike, and continued from father to son, and approved of, and committed by one generation after another, till the measure was filled up; and then the recompence of reward is given for all of them together at once: which have burnt incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills; where they offered incense and other sacrifices to idols, which was interpreted by the Lord as a blaspheming and reproaching of him; see Isaiah 57:7,
therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom; punish them for their former sins as well as their latter ones, and both together.
Their former work.--Better, I will measure their work first into their bosoms. That was, as it were, the primary duty of the Supreme Ruler.
therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom; punish them for their former sins as well as their latter ones, and both together.