Isaiah’s New Heavens and New Earth (Part 8): Trying the Case – Isaiah’s Opening and Closing Arguments

By Robert E. Cruickshank Jr. with Daniel E. Harden

Daniel E. Harden (Editor)

Copyright © Robert E. Cruickshank, Jr. (June 9, 2025)

All Rights Reserved

^“For behold, the Lord will come in fire, and His chariots like the whirlwind,
To render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire.  For the Lord will execute judgment by fire and by His sword on humanity, and those put to death by the Lord will be many. ‘Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go to the gardens,
following one in the center, who eat pig’s flesh, detestable things, and mice,
will come to an end altogether,’ declares the Lord” (Isaiah 66:15-17).

In the previous installment of this series, we looked at the maternal imagery in Isaiah 66:7–14. This imagery telegraphs how God comforts His people, nurtures His people, and delivers His people from the hands of their enemies.

After the return from exile, God’s enemies showed up at every stage of the restoration effort. There was Rehum, who tried to shut down the rebuilding of the temple with armed force (Ezra 4:8, 23–24). Later, there was Tobiah, who did everything he could to stop Nehemiah from rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls, even plotting to do him harm (Neh. 6:1–6). And in between Rehum and Tobiah, Esther faced off against the greatest threat of all – Haman, who planned to do great harm to the entire Jewish race (Esth. 3:3). But in every case, these enemies failed, and God’s people prevailed – fulfilling what Isaiah spoke of in passages like Isaiah 66:6 and 66:14).

Trailing on the theme of God’s indignation toward His enemies in verse 14, Isaiah confronts a far more sobering reality in verses15-17 – God’s own people can become His enemies by forsaking Him for other gods. This sobering truth echoes the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exod. 20:3), and it stands at the heart of Isaiah’s polemical indictment. When the Israelites of Isaiah’s day became apostates, they became His enemies. As Isaiah said earlier,

“But they rebelled
And grieved His Holy Spirit;
Therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy,
He fought against them” (Isa. 63:10).

When God’s People Become His Enemies

The theme of God’s own people becoming His “enemies (o’yev) is introduced immediately in chapter 1 (Isa. 1:24) and tied specifically to the garden rituals (Isa. 1:29) which are highlighted here in Isaiah 66:17. Between these bookend references, this same cultic practice is spelled out in 57:5-8 and 65:3-11. Isaiah 66:17 does not stand alone.

As the footnote in the Good News Translation indicates, Isaiah 66:17  is “based on 65:3-4”  and 65:3-4 refers “back to 1:29, where such gardens were first mentioned.”^[1] In short, the entire book of Isaiah is a unified structure, and contains shared introductory and closing themes (Isaiah 1 and 66), which are the glue that holds the structure together.

Thus, the garden rituals condemned in Isaiah 66:17 are not an isolated offense but are part of a longstanding pattern of apostasy that bookends the entire prophecy. But these bookends serve more than mere stylistic symmetry – they frame the opening and closing arguments of a covenant lawsuit. The charge is that God’s own people in Isaiah’s day had switched loyalties through idolatry, and Isaiah’s prophecy is the body of evidence in a carefully structured presentation as the case unfolds.

Building the Case

In the opening verses of chapter 65, it is clear that the sacrifices “offered in gardens and orchards” were a common practice in the pagan nations surrounding ancient Israel.^[2]  The “gardens” were, as the ESV renders them, “sacred orchards”, not mere flower gardens, in which the Israelites were continually practicing idolatry.[3] They were gardens marked out for these practices – not vegetable or herb gardens, but groves, orchards, or parks abundantly filled with trees.^[4] In Isaiah 1:29-30, the garden rituals are practiced in the midst of “sacred oaks” of which they will be “ashamed.” In Isaiah 44:14-17, the trees are used in idol making. In Isaiah 57:5, illicit rituals and child sacrifice take place “under every green tree.” The Lord specifically forbade His people from engaging in these garden/tree rituals that were practiced by the surrounding nations. [5]

As “a covenant to the people,” God created Israel to be “a light” to those “nations” (Isa. 42:6). But the reverse happened. His own people had trusted in “idols” as their “gods” instead of the Lord (Isa. 42:17).  These pagan nations, long considered enemies of God, had now become the very ones whose ways Israel imitated, instead of the other way around (cf. Deut. 4:6-8).  Turning from the Lord and instead turning to the gardens of infidelity, they too had become His “enemies” (Isa. 42:13; 63:10) and would be “plundered” (Isa. 42:24). For Israel’s failure to remain faithful to her calling, a case would be assembled, witnesses summoned, and charges prepared.

The Covenant Lawsuit

As Susan Ackerman again reminds us, the Book of Isaiah is a covenant lawsuit in which the “entire nation” is on “trial” for “cultic abuse.”[6]  It is widely recognized that “Isaiah 1 stands squarely within the prophetic tradition of the covenant lawsuit.”^[7] The fact that Isaiah is clearly opening with courtroom scene is unmistakable, with the call to come to order (Isa. 1:2a), the overview of the charges (Isa. 1:2b-9), the aggrieved party (Isa. 1:10-17), a call for rehabilitation (18-20), and a call for justice (1:21-31) because of the crimes committed, which are clarified in verse 29. And it is clear, through it all, that it is God who is standing in as Judge.

Fittingly, Isaiah’s first chapter opens with a strong judicial setting. Two witnesses (heaven and earth) are called to “listen” as the charges are brought: “Sons I have reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me” (Isa. 1:2). Isaiah is letting the reader know that court is now in session.[8] As Herald Gandi puts it, “Thus, begins the lawsuit of the King against His people. They have sinned and the evidence is great against them.”^[9] In short, Israel is on trial for apostasy through idolatry, and Isaiah is the prosecuting attorney.

Just as any skilled attorney begins and ends a case by reiterating the central charges and evidence, Isaiah begins with Israel’s rebellion and idolatrous rituals (Isaiah 1), and he ends with a striking echo of those same offenses (Isaiah 66). The correspondence between the opening and closing chapters means that Isaiah has built a cohesive forensic argument. These bookends summarize the charges and establish the indictment. The book of Isaiah is a prophetic lawsuit in which Israel is being charged with spiritual treason, and the Lord will arise to “contend” with and “judge” His own people  (Isa. 3:13).

The Hebrew word translated as “contend” in this verse is רִיב (riv) and has a root meaning of “to strive physically or with words,” and often carries the nuance of  “to conduct a case or suit (legal), to sue, to make a complaint.”[10] The word translated “judge” is דִּין (din) and means to “act as judge,” “to execute judgment,”  “requite or vindicate.”[11] Both terms consequently carry strong legal overtones and speak to the overall judicial tone of Isaiah’s prophecy.[12]

Opening and Closing Statements

As Isaiah bookends his case, chapter 1 is the opening statement, the bulk of the book is the case in chief, and chapter 66 is his closing statement. As such, chapters 1 and 66 are mirror images of each other.  As John Watts says, “The Vision closes as it began, with a scene in the heavenly court of God.”^[13]  In this regard, there are no less than 20 striking parallels between Isaiah’s opening and closing statements.

Like any good prosecutor, Isaiah frames the case by reaffirming the key themes of his opening statement in his closing arguments. Like any good prosecutor, those arguments are airtight. And like any good prosecutor, Isaiah drives his point home by homing in on Israel’s most egregious offense – their garden rituals to a false god. Or, in this case, a false goddess. Simply put, the charge is idolatry.

In this regard, the garden rituals singled out in 66:17 are especially pertinent considering all that precedes them in verses 7–13. As noted above and in previous articles, these seven verses are packed with motherly imagery to depict the care and provision of the Lord. In stark contrast to this comforting and nurturing by Yahweh, the arboreal settings of 66:17 were associated with Asherah, the mother goddess in the religions of the surrounding cultures. The striking contrast between the maternal provision of the Lord in verses 7–13 and the cultic malpractice of verse 17 makes a poignant polemical point: the apostates were looking to Asherah for the sustenance and security that they should have sought from the Lord.

In the Ancient Near East, Asherah was known as “The Mother Goddess” and “The Queen of Heaven.”[16] With a very explicit reference to Asherah,[17] the unfaithful of Jeremiah’s day were unapologetic in letting it be known where their loyalties lay:

“Then all the men who were aware that their wives were burning sacrifices to other gods, along with all the women who were standing by, as a large assembly, including all the people who were living in Pathros in the land of Egypt, responded to Jeremiah, saying,  “As for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we are not going to listen to you! But we will certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths, by burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, just as we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings, and our leaders did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then we had plenty of food and were well off and saw no misfortune. But since we stopped burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything, and have met our end by the sword and by famine.” “And,” said the woman, “when we were burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes in her image, and poured out drink offerings to her?” (Jer. 44:15-19).

Tracking on the same theme two centuries earlier, Isaiah put it this way:

“For you have forgotten the God of your salvation
And have not remembered the rock of your refuge.
Therefore you plant delightful plants
And set them with vine shoots of a strange god” (Isa. 17:10).

As noted above, when God’s people are faithful, He nurtures them, comforts them, and delivers them from their enemies (Isa. 66:7-14). On the other hand, when God’s people are unfaithful, like the apostate generation of Isaiah’s day, they themselves become God’s enemies (Isa. 63:10). Rather than staying centered on the Lord, pre-exilic Israel strayed into ritual misconduct that summoned the sword (Isa. 66:16).

Staying Centered or Straying off Target?

Isaiah speaks of “following one in the center” who eats “swine’s flesh, detestable things, and mice” (Isa. 66:17b).  As Blenkinsopp notes, Isaiah “is not concerned to provide information about these rituals” because it “was normal practice just about everywhere.”[18] But what was “normal practice” for them is unfamiliar to us. This is why it’s so important to familiarize ourselves with the time and context in which Isaiah is writing. Isaiah did not need to “provide information about these rituals” because his readers were the ones practicing those rituals. They knew exactly what they were doing, and Isaiah knew exactly what he was doing in terms of rhetorical strategy.

Again, the entire book is a tribunal proceeding, and Isaiah is the prosecuting attorney. As such, he saved the hammer for the close after laying the groundwork for the crescendo. As we’ve seen, the motherly imagery in verses 7-14 contrasts with the garden worship of the Mother Goddess, Asherah, in 15-17. In this regard, God’s mother-like provision for His people took on a very real historical embodiment when He used a woman, Esther, to comfort and protect His people. In like manner, Asherah worship took on a very real ritual expression – the “one in the center” is a phrase that refers to the female hierophant, or priestess,^[19] who led the procession of her worshipers into sacred space.

As Blenkinsopp observes, “We know that all significant cult acts required a preliminary sacralization of place, time and officiants.”^[20] Those who follow Asherah’s priestess into the center of the gardens “sanctify (qa’dash) and purify themselves” by “eating swine’s flesh, detestable things, and mice” (Isa. 66:17).  Here, Isaiah echoes what he said in the previous chapter concerning the apostates of his day:

“A people who continually provoke Me to My face,
Offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on bricks;
⁴ Who sit among graves and spend the night in secret places;
Who eat pig’s flesh,
And the broth of unclean meat is in their pots.
Who say, ‘Keep to yourself, do not come near me,
For I am too holy (qa’dash) for you!’
These are smoke in My nostrils,
A fire that burns all the day.
⁶ Behold, it is written before Me:
I will not keep silent, but I will repay;
I will even repay into their laps” (Isa. 65:3-6).

 

In the rituals of Asherah worship, swine’s flesh and mouse meat were believed to have made the worshiper sanctified, holy, and set apart. So much so that they considered themselves holier than Yahweh in their devotion to this false mother-figure goddess. But God considered their consumption of these unclean meats to be anything but sanctification (qa’dash). Isaiah calls the choice of their ritual cuisine “detestable” (Isa. 66:17).  The remedy for the situation would be the restoration, once the exile had purged the Israelites of these practices.

Getting Israel Back on Target

Ezekiel notes these same types of practices. Among the “wicked abominations” which the sons of Israel were committing (Ezek. 8:9), he speaks of “creeping things and beasts and detestable things” among the “idols of the house of Israel” and even “carved on the wall all around” the Lord’s House (Ezek. 8:10).  Like Isaiah, Ezekiel also speaks of one standing in the “midst” or “center” (ta’vekh) of the circle of worshipers (Ezek. 8:11). In this case, the hierophant is a male, “Jazaniah the son of Shaphan,” but the connotation is the same, i.e., a central figure leading the devotees in the worship of false gods. Feminine imagery is picked up in verse 14 where “women were weeping for Tammuz” outside the north gate of the Lord’s House (Ezek. 8:14). These cultic practices were rampant in the pre-exilic days, leading directly to their punishment and captivity. Ezekiel, like Isaiah, makes it abundantly clear that the sin for which they were being punished and sent into captivity was idolatry. Speaking to Ezekiel, who was in exile, God said:

“Son of man, when the house of Israel was living on their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds; their way before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity. Therefore I poured out My wrath on them for the blood which they had shed on the land, because they had defiled it with their idols. I also scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the lands. According to their ways and their deeds I judged them.”  (Ezek. 36:17-19).

 

And the purpose for this exile was to purge them of idol worship:

“They will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their offenses; but I will rescue them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God” (Ezek. 37:23).

Targeting Isaiah’s Context

How does all of this help us pinpoint the intent and timeframe of chapters 65-66? Quite simply, the captivity was the latest in a line of punishments meted out by God on His people in an attempt to get them to be faithful. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel state time and again that the prime reason for God’s wrath and punishment was spiritual unfaithfulness through idolatrous practices.

However, once the punishment was complete, those former practices would be forgotten. The punishment will have been served. God would remember His people and bring back the captives. The matter would be settled and the grievances forgotten (Isa. 65:17). There would be no bringing their idolatrous crimes back up, thus resulting in “double jeopardy”. The relationship between God and His people will be renewed and refreshed.

That does not mean that the nation would never falter again. It only means that the situation that had resulted in their punishment and exile would now be a closed case. The slate would be wiped clean, once the punishment had been served and completed. The captives would be set free. And they would have a renewed spirit. The days of going off into the gardens for worshipping other gods was over. As Michael Hieser puts it:

“…idolatry was wiped out of the Israelite experience after the Exile. They were cured of their idolatry, because the idolatry was why they went into exile and so it’s a very well-known historical fact that once the Jews return from Babylon (after the Exile in Babylon) they’re not doing idolatry anymore. In fact, they’re just going like crazy in the other direction. The Torah actually becomes sort of an object of worship at this point. ‘Because the law is the thing that protects us, following the law and having fence laws and just really being tenacious about the Torah—that’s going to keep us from idolatry. Because idolatry’s the last thing in the world we’re interested in doing because we all know what happened. We experienced what happened, and our ancestors did because of it.’”[21]

Indeed, by the time we get to the New Testament, we find that the Jews of the Second Temple Period loathed idols (Rom. 2:22). They still had their problems, but those were different problems than idolatry. As Heiser said, they had elevated Torah to the point that the Law’s true purpose (a standard to live by) had been replaced by a system of merit (a means of salvation). The first-century Jews then went on to try and impose their misunderstanding of the Law upon Gentile converts to Christ, and the book of Romans is very much a polemic against this misunderstanding. The idolatry problem, however, was cured – the exile took care of that. It was no longer an issue after the exiles returned, nor was it a problem for the Jews in the first century. But it was a huge problem in Isaiah’s day. And it was that exact problem that forms the backdrop and context of Isaiah 65-66.

Recap

Isaiah’s final chapter is very much the culmination of a courtroom drama, with Isaiah as the prosecutor and Yahweh as the judge. Framed as a covenant lawsuit, chapter 1 opens with charges of idolatry and chapter 66 closes the case by reiterating those charges. In his closing argument, Isaiah highlights Israel’s most egregious offense – worship in pagan gardens associated with false deities, especially Asherah, the Canaanite mother goddess.

This particular the cultic ritual, described in Isaiah 66:17, directly contrasts with the maternal care Yahweh offers in verses 7–14. Instead of looking to the Lord for comfort, nurture and provision, the apostates of Isaiah’s day had turned to a counterfeit mother deity for their sustenance and security.

These parallel images – Yahweh’s true maternal care versus the false sanctification of pagan ritual – reinforce the central charge: Israel had become God’s enemy by trading His provision for idolatrous practices.

The charges were made and the sentence was issued. The exile becomes both punishment and purification. After the exile, Israel had been cured of her idolatry. The restoration after the return from exile was a new beginning were there “former things” were forgotten and no longer a problem (Isa. 65:17).

The problem faced in New Testament times is not the same as the problem faced in Isaiah’s time. The Jews of Jesus’s day had overcorrected by turning Torah into a rigid system of merit, and the New Testament goes on to address this later development.

All of this anchors Isaiah 65- 66 to the context of its own time, with principles that are nevertheless applicable in all times.

Takeaways for Today

Believing loyalty is as important for believers today as it was in Isaiah’s day, and we need to examine where our own loyalties truly lie. While the garden rituals of Isaiah’s day may be outdated paganism, there is nothing outdated about keeping our hearts and minds in check – and keeping our focus on the Lord.

Today’s “gardens” would be anything that replaces our dependence upon the Lord. God still desires faithfulness, not compromise. Believers today need to stay on target, so that we don’t find ourselves in the center of a lifestyle that is displeasing to Him. When we fail to stay on target, we may find ourselves feeling isolated and exiled from the blessing of His fellowship in our life.

When those times come, we need to remember that Israel’s exile wasn’t just punitive, i.e., punishment without a purpose. It was redemptive. God used it to purge idolatry from His people. When we encounter hardships that feel like exile, we must remove the things in our lives that are displeasing to Him, so that we can renew our relationship with Him.  The words of James are apropos here: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8).

God’ mercies are new every morning (Lam. 3:22-23), and we are being renewed every day (2 Cor. 4:16). If you’re feeling “exile” in your own life, perhaps it’s because God wants you to reach out to Him and let go of what’s holding you back from fully experiencing His presence? Every day is a new day, and it’s never a bad day to come out of exile. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind (Deut. 6:5; Matt 22:37).

[Article Image: Isaiah 1:2 – Heaven and Earth as Witnesses]

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[1] Translation commentary on Isaiah 66:17 – TIPs https://bit.ly/4dLT6J9

[2] Robert E. Cruickshank, Jr. with Daniel E. Harden, Isaiah’s New Heavens and New Earth (Part 1): Former Things and New Things – The Burros of Berea https://bit.ly/3XZP9tQ

[3] The Benson Commentary quotes Bishop Lowth: “Sacred groves,” the reader will observe, “were a very ancient and favourite appendage of idolatry. They were furnished with the temple of the god to whom they were dedicated; with altars, images, and every thing necessary for performing the various rites of worship offered there; and were the scenes of many impure ceremonies, and of much abominable superstition. They made a principal part of the religion of the old inhabitants of Canaan; and the Israelites were commanded to destroy their groves, among other monuments of their false worship. The Israelites themselves, however, became afterward very much addicted to this species of idolatry:” see Ezekiel 20:28; Hosea 4:13. Bishop Lowth.

[4] Joseph Blenkinsopp, “The One in the Middle,” 65.

[5] Deut. 16:21; 1 Kgs. 14:23; 2 Kgs. 17:10; Isa. 57:5; Jer. 3:9; Jer. 10:3–4; Jer. 17:2; Ezek. 20:28; Hos. 4:13.

[6] Susan Ackerman, Under Every Green Tree: Popular Religion in Sixth-Century Judah (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2001): 168-169.

[7] David G. Garber, Jr., Commentary on Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary https://bit.ly/3SxdPXw

[8] According to the NET Bible, Full Notes Edition, on the use of heavens and earth in Isa.1:2: “The personified heavens and earth are summoned to God’s courtroom as witnesses against God’s courtroom as witnesses against God’s covenant people. Long before this Moses warned the people that the heavens and earth would be watching their actions (see Deut 4:26; 30:19; 31:28; 32:1).”

[9] Herald Gandi, The Lawsuit of the King: Isaiah 1-5 — For the Gospel https://bit.ly/4kQ2gGW

[10] Entry for רִיב (riv), STEP Bible (Tyndale House).

[11] Entry for דִּין (din), STEP Bible (Tyndale House).

[12] Special thanks to Brett Prieto for these observations and pointing out the legal/judicial connection of the word riv in Isaiah.

[13] John D.W. Watts, Word Biblical Commentary: Isaiah 34-66 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005): 938.

[14] The Hebrew word a’ven is usually translated as “wickedness”  in 1:13 but translated as “an idol” in 66:3. This particular parallel,  between the two chapters, consequently, is not easy to spot in the English translations. A literal rendering of 66:3d would be: “The one who burns incense praises wickedness.” There is nothing wrong with the English translations, per se, since pagan idols are wicked, and God’s people were worshipping these wicked idols. The NET Bible adds a marginal gloss explaining that a’ven “has a wide variety of attested nuances” and “here refers to an idol.”  But this just underscores the necessity of looking under the surface of the English translations if one truly wants to grasp literary devices such as contextual parallels.

[15] o’yev is translated as “foes” in 1:24 in the NASB and ESV while the NET renders it as “enemies.”

[16] The Goddess Asherah: Queen of Heaven, Mother of Creation | by Deanna Riddick | Medium https://bit.ly/43XK8oM

[17] Joseph Blenkinsopp, “The One in the Middle,” in J. Cheryl Exum and H.G.M. Williamson, ed., Reading from Right to Left: Essays on the Hebrew Bible in Honour of David J.A. Clines – Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 373 (Sheffield Academic Press/T&T Clark International, 2003): 68.

[18] Joseph Blenkinsopp, “The One in the Middle,” 64 -65.

[19] In this case, the hierophant is female, as Young points out (Edward J. Young, The Book of Isaiah [Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1972]: 530-531). See also Blenkinsopp, who observes that “qere ‘ahat, feminine, is supported by more than 30 Hebrew MSS in addition to both Qumran Isaiah scrolls and, almost certainly, the Vulgate” (Joseph Blenkinsopp, “The One in the Middle,” 64).

[20] Joseph Blenkinsopp, “The One in the Middle,” 65.

[21] Michael Heiser, Naked Bible 217: Authorship and Date of the Book of Isaiah https://bit.ly/3FKZvrA (Time mark: 32:50 – 33:45, Transcript: 11).