Isaiah 65 · a question people ask
How does "the child will die one hundred years old" (65:20) fit with "I create new heavens and a new earth" (65:17)?
First, what the chapter says. "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth" (65:17) comes first, then "for, behold, I create Jerusalem to be a delight" (65:18), and "the voice of weeping and the voice of crying will be heard in her no more" (65:19). Then: "No more will there be an infant who only lives a few days, nor an old man who has not filled his days; for the child will die one hundred years old, and the sinner being one hundred years old will be accursed" (65:20). And "the days of my people will be like the days of a tree" (65:22). So the chapter speaks of new heavens and a new earth, and in the same passage of a death at a hundred years and of a sinner. Christians read how these fit together in two main ways, each resting on its verses, and these notes don't choose between them. Both agree that 65:17's promise is kept in the new heavens and the new earth: "But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells" (2 Peter 3:13), and "I saw a new heaven and a new earth" (Revelation 21:1). The notes on Isaiah 2 (2:2-4), Isaiah 11 (11:6-9) and Isaiah 66 (66:22-23) point here.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
A time before the last things
Those who read it this way note that 65:20 still speaks of death and of sin: "the child will die one hundred years old, and the sinner being one hundred years old will be accursed" (65:20). They read 65:18-25 as a time before the last things, when lives are long and people still die. They set it beside the thousand years of Revelation 20: "They lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years" (Revelation 20:4), and "Over these, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with him one thousand years" (Revelation 20:6). On this reading, 65:17's new heavens and new earth are the new heaven and new earth of Revelation 21:1, and 65:18-25 tells of the time before them.
Isaiah 65:18-25 · Isaiah 65:20 · Revelation 20:4-6 · Revelation 21:1
The new creation, in the words of this life
Those who read it this way take 65:17 as the heading of all that follows: "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth" (65:17), and then "for, behold, I create Jerusalem to be a delight" (65:18). They read the houses, the vineyards and the long days (65:20-22) as the new heavens and new earth pictured in the words of this life, and 65:20's hundred years as a picture of lives no longer cut short. They set 65:19's "the voice of weeping and the voice of crying will be heard in her no more" (65:19) beside what follows "I saw a new heaven and a new earth" (Revelation 21:1) in Revelation: "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more" (Revelation 21:4). And they read it with "we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells" (2 Peter 3:13).
Isaiah 65:17-22 · Revelation 21:1-4 · 2 Peter 3:13
The verses
“But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”
“I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more.”
“The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze. Their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.”
““For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me,” says the LORD, “so your offspring and your name shall remain. It shall happen that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before me,” says the LORD.”