Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Isaiah 65:20 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 20. 20There 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.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
The universalizing poetic vision states or reports “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled…” at Isaiah 65:20 as a specific part of “New Heavens and Earth Center Joyful, Nonviolent Life.”
Read It With
- Isaiah 65:17–25
Read Isaiah 65:20 with 65:17–25. By itself, “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled…” can be detached from the speaker, addressee, historical horizon, poetic movement, or outcome that gives it force. The complete unit establishes: New creation makes Jerusalem joy, removes weeping, imagines long life, secure homes and crops, answered prayer, reconciled animals, and no hurt on the holy mountain.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Within the same chapter, this unit advances from “A Preserved Cluster Distinguishes Servants from Forsakers” into “New Heavens and Earth Center Joyful, Nonviolent Life.” Its non-interchangeable movement is: New creation makes Jerusalem joy, removes weeping, imagines long life, secure homes and crops, answered prayer, reconciled animals, and no hurt on the holy mountain. This verse's placement is specific: The universalizing poetic vision states or reports “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled…” at Isaiah 65:20 as a specific part of “New Heavens and Earth Center Joyful, Nonviolent Life.”
Follow the Context
- The unit opens at 65:17 with the address, scene, poem, sign, question, or action named in its title.
- New creation makes Jerusalem joy, removes weeping, imagines long life, secure homes and crops, answered prayer, reconciled animals, and no hurt on the holy mountain.
- By 65:25 the movement reaches its warning, promise, answer, response, or transition before the next unit begins.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Long-life imagery still names death and does not by itself define the final state or blame families who lose children.
What Remains True
Comprehensive hope holds ecological, bodily, social, economic, and worshipful life together while refusing to hide violence. In Isaiah 65:20, that bounded truth is carried through this verse's role: The universalizing poetic vision states or reports “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled…” at Isaiah 65:20 as a specific part of “New Heavens and Earth Center Joyful, Nonviolent Life.”
How It Can Shape Life
- Work for life, housing, food, peace, ecological care, and honest remembrance without promising a timetable or blaming those who still suffer. This response follows Isaiah 65:17–25's specific concern, “New Heavens and Earth Center Joyful, Nonviolent Life.” This verse directs that response through its exact role: The universalizing poetic vision states or reports “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled…” at Isaiah 65:20 as a specific part of “New Heavens and Earth Center Joyful, Nonviolent Life.”
Teach It Back
Explain Isaiah 65:20's precise role in Isaiah 65:17–25. Include “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled…,” state the unit's historical or literary limit, give one proportionate truth and action, and explicitly reject one harmful use.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Isaiah 65:17–25 — New Heavens and Earth Center Joyful, Nonviolent LifeSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
Responsible readings differ over date, composition, speaker, historical reconstruction, rhetoric, textual details, and later reception. The preferred reading follows the complete unit and its received-book placement while preserving this limit: The vision does not promise that present grief, infant death, disease, housing loss, or violence results from deficient faith, and its imagery must not be flattened into a date chart.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Isaiah 65:17–25, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Isaiah
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology at the exact unit, without treating morphology as apparatus, lexicon, composition history, or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Isa.xml, OSIS 65:17–25 with Hebrew/KJV versification difference checked
Open the fixed Hebrew Isaiah file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Isaiah
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2016; current official PDF
Supports: Verse-level controls for Hebrew, syntax, poetry, older KJV language, chronology, names, textual issues, and material translation alternatives.
Exact location: Official NET Isaiah PDF, translator, study, and textual notes attached to Isaiah 65:17–25 in the complete 205-page book PDF
Open the official NET Isaiah PDF ↗modern scholarly book course
Isaiah course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, themes, and reception
Fred Gaiser; revised by Michael Chan
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, revised August 2024
Supports: Whole-book historical, literary, theological, ethical, and reception synthesis across Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and postexilic horizons.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Isaiah course, Outline Book 3C, themes, and reception of new creation; applied to Isaiah 65:17–25
Open the Enter the Bible Isaiah course ↗