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Isaiah 66 · a question people ask

Who are the brothers "who hate you" (66:5)?

In the text

The words are for "you who tremble at his word" (66:5) (tap tremble), and they speak of "Your brothers who hate you, who cast you out for my name’s sake" (66:5). The brothers say, "Let the LORD be glorified, that we may see your joy" (66:5), and the verse ends, "but it is those who shall be disappointed" (66:5). The chapter doesn't name the brothers or those who tremble, or say when this happened, and these notes name no one and apply the verse to no one today. Brothers comes again in 66:20: "They shall bring all your brothers out of all the nations" (66:20). The chapter doesn't say whether they are the same people, and these notes don't either.

The verses

“Hear the LORD’s word, you who tremble at his word: “Your brothers who hate you, who cast you out for my name’s sake, have said, ‘Let the LORD be glorified, that we may see your joy;’ but it is those who shall be disappointed.”
Isaiah 66:5 · World English Bible
“They shall bring all your brothers out of all the nations for an offering to the LORD, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules, and on camels, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, as the children of Israel bring their offering in a clean vessel into the LORD’s house.”
Isaiah 66:20 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Isaiah 66

Isaiah 66: Heaven is my throne

In Isaiah 66 the one whose throne is heaven says whom he looks to: "he who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word" (66:2), where contrite is a Hebrew word used elsewhere only of a man "lame in his feet" (2 Samuel 9:3). And the book's last comfort is the LORD's own: "As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you" (66:13).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions