|
"As A Child Shall One Die" A Note on Isa.65:20 "There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed."
Further confirmation of this view comes from a book which is thought to have been written about a hundred and twenty years before Christ, the "Book of Jubilees." Written by some pious Jew and based upon the Old Testament Scriptures, it contains one passage which is evidently taken from Isa.65:20, and since the writer probably had access to a more accurate copy of Isaiah’s prophecy than we possess today his interpretation is valuable. In describing the Millennial reign, he says: "And in those days the children shall begin to study the laws, and to seek the commandments, and return to the path of righteousness. And the days will begin to grow many and increase among the children of men till their days draw nigh to one thousand years...And there shall be no old man nor one who is not satisfied with his days, for all will be as children and youths. And all their days they shall complete and live in peace and in joy, and there shall be no Satan nor any evil destroyer; for all their days shall be days of blessing and healing." (Jub.23:26‑29) Again, there is the picture of youthful perfection for all, and everlasting life for the righteous. Whether the hundred years for the span of the wicked is intended literally or merely as the symbolic measure of a life that is governed by sin in contrast with the "thousand years" of the righteous is perhaps a debatable point. There may be some link with the words of Solomon "Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely know I that it shall be well with them that fear God." (Eccl.8:12) It may be that the meaning of this last clause is "the sinner; even though he live a hundred years; even though his life seem to be prolonged beyond the span that today is usual with man, yet he will eventually suffer sin’s penalty and be accursed (cut‑off)." God is not mocked: what a man soweth, that shall he reap, and if, under the enlightening influences of that blessed day, a man persists in the way of sin, he will certainly reap sin’s penalty. AOH |
The first two clauses are comparatively easy to understand; there will be no untoward deaths of infants at early ages—the meaning of the expression "an infant of days" being that of one whose life is quickly cut short—neither will there be old men who are, as it were, ready for death but death has not yet claimed them. The present indiscriminate coming of death to all sections of the community will no longer continue; in that day the only cause of death will be wilful and incorrigible sin. The next clause "for the child shall die an hundred years old" is more difficult. The word for "babe" is naar, which indicates a male of any age from infancy to youthful maturity. Thus, the child Moses in the water (Exod.2:6) is naar; so is Absalom in his prime (2 Sam.18:29), Joshua when he became Moses’ lieutenant at the Exodus (Exod.33:11), and the four hundred Amalekite warriors who fled from David on their camels. (1 Sam.30:17) The same word in its feminine form (naarah) is used for "young woman" as for Ruth in Ruth 4:12. Remembering that Job, speaking of the Millennial Day, said of the wasted and aged man "His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s: he shall return to the days of his youth" (Job 33:25) we might conclude that this third clause of the verse refers to those who are in the ideal state of human maturity, neither "infant" or "old man," a state which will be the normal physical condition of people in that day. This still does not explain why such should "die an hundred years old," i.e. in the full bloom of maturity, and this leads one to suspect a faulty translation due perhaps to some very early corruption in the Hebrew text. This suspicion is confirmed when one refers to the Septuagint rendering "Neither shall there be any more a child that dies untimely, or an old man who shall not complete his time: for the youth shall be a hundred years old, and the sinner who dies at a hundred years shall also be accursed." This seems to teach more clearly that there will be no untimely deaths in the Millennium, or as we would say, no "natural" deaths, and that an age of a hundred which today is accounted extreme old age and accompanied as a rule by infirmity and weakness, will then be considered as that of a youth. But there will be death to sinners, and the sinner who dies at a hundred years will be cut off for ever.