Isaiah 66:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He intends to convey that the Jewish people wronged Him and killed the Author of Life; however, upon His resurrection and ascension to the Father in heaven, His divine followers proclaimed His name, preaching to all—yes, even those who misused Him—inviting them to repentance, salvation through faith, and forgiveness of sins through holy baptism. Peter declared, "And now, brethren, I know that in ignorance ye have done these things, as did also your princes: repent ye therefore..." (Acts 3:17, 19), adding that each should be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, promising the gift of the Holy Spirit to them and their children (Acts 2:38-39). Upon hearing this, many believed, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles: "On that day there were added to them about three thousand souls" (Acts 2:41). The holy apostles continued to instruct the Israelites, drawing them towards faith. Yet, over time, the land of Judea and Jerusalem itself faced God's wrath, having already called forth His chosen. This remnant is conveyed in His teachings: "Before she bears, she will conceive; before labor pains arrive, she avoids and delivers male children." Before the trial and before Jerusalem endured severe labor pains from war's calamity, she brings forth male children—a sign of strength and vitality, for it is indeed more joyous to bear sons. Alternatively, this male child may symbolize the resilient spirit of Christ's people. The blessed Paul illustrates this, stating: "And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (Galatians 5:24). He marvels at the remarkable power of God to achieve even this: "Who has ever seen such a thing?" Indeed, the earth delivering multitudes in a single day or an entire nation being born all at once is extraordinary. Yet Zion, too, has given birth to her children, as the miraculous joining of three thousand souls into a new spiritual birth through faith and baptism signifies the very conception and delivery of a nation. “But I,” says the Lord, “give this promise, foretold by the mouths of holy prophets, and does your lack of remembrance of me not stir questions? Is it not I who has enabled her to give birth and made her childless? How did He, who holds power over all, allow her to remain barren? Had she been willing to accept faith in Him, she would have been fruitful and blessed; instead, through disobedience and hardness of heart, she has remained unfruitful, while the Gentiles have borne a people surpassing her in number. This reflects the divine prophet Isaiah’s message to the Gentile church, saying: "Rejoice, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth and cry, thou that didst not travail: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife" (Isaiah 54:1).

Yet I promised this hope, and you have forgotten Me, declares the Lord. Have I not created both the fruitful and the barren? declares your God. When Jerusalem and its temple cried out after its siege and destruction, and when Christ’s adversaries, unwilling to accept God as sovereign, received everlasting punishment for their iniquity, the Church assembled in the name of the Lord, as the psalm states, A man is born in her, and that lowly and exalted one, before she was in labor, gave birth before the pains came, and bore a son. This was not a lengthy process; unlike the Jewish people through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who developed over generations, the whole world immediately conceived upon the proclamation of the gospel, became weary with labor, and bore a Son, whom Pharaoh and Herod sought to destroy, yet who was preserved in Egypt alongside Moses and Christ. Moreover, Abraham and Isaac had offspring, and Jacob fathered many sons, including a daughter who brought him great distress. However, if the daughters of Zelophehad inherit their father’s estate according to God’s decree, we must consider that their father died due to his sin, having no son, and Moses, not daring to rule on their behalf, entrusted the matter to the Lord, who instructed them to join with their brothers. The book of Genesis indicates that after humanity began to multiply on the earth, which multiplication is invariably flawed, daughters were born. It was not the angels who took them, but rather human beings, from whom giants arose, or, as expressed in Hebrew, "epippipiputenses," meaning oppressors. In contrast, the scriptures say to the saint: Your wife will be fruitful like a vine in your home, and your sons will be like olive shoots around your table. Again it is written, You will see the children of your children. Thus, Zion gave birth—this signifies the remnant of Israel and the faith of the believing apostles who bore a son, the Lord Savior, who, along with that, was born throughout the world—a truth unheard of and unrecorded by any history or teaching—so that in a brief moment, all nations came to believe, forming one Christian community, of which Paul writes, “If any person is in Christ, they are a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” As it is also stated elsewhere, And all the nations of the earth will worship before Him. For the Lord is King, and He possesses all tongues. For all the nations You have created will come and worship before You, glorifying Your name. Of Him, James proclaims, He is the hope of the nations. And the Psalmist states, the hope of all the earth’s ends. This same Isaiah, whom we interpret, announces: there shall be a root of Jesse, and the rulers of the nations shall arise; in Him, the Gentiles will place their trust. This aligns with the fulfillment of the Apostles’ commission to teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so that a new nation may arise, of which the twenty-first psalm also sings: the heavens will declare His righteousness to His people, to those whom the Lord has made. Again, “The people of winter will praise the Lord.” This nation was formed in a single day, illuminated by the Sun of Righteousness, as Scripture states: the Lord will be an everlasting light for you. We may consider the words, there shall also arise a nation together. For Zion, in her labor, gave birth to her sons, which also refers to that moment when in a single day three thousand and then five thousand from Judah believed. The Book of Acts recounts that in Jerusalem, people from every nation under heaven heard those who spoke in different languages proclaiming the great works of God. The subsequent point, as stated in the Seventy, But I promised this hope, and you did not remember Me, says the Lord. Did I not create the begetter and the barren, says your God, is more clearly articulated in the Hebrew text, with which other translators concur: Shall I, who enables others to give birth, remain without offspring? declares the Lord. Shall I, who brings life to others, be without descendants, declares the Lord your God? Just as it is stated in another passage: You who plant the ear, can it not hear? Or you, who made the eye, will it not see? This implies that He who created all humanity from nothing can form a portion of all the nations into a church of believers. Furthermore, in Psalm twenty-eight, where we read: the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness, the Hebrew states: the voice of the Lord causes the forsaken to give birth, that the church, previously forsaken, might be established, and that fawns may be born in the high and wild fields. According to the Seventy, the following meaning emerges—that at one moment, a single nation will arise globally for the proclamation of the Gospels. I have often declared promises through many prophets, yet you have failed to recall My promise, O city filled with cries, O forsaken temple of the Lord, O people who have received their recompense. Did I not, He questions, create her who was once in labor to now give birth, who was barren before, and then labored to bear children? It is written of her in the Psalms, “Bringing the barren into the house, the mother of children rejoicing in her labor.” Alternatively, the sequence of events may be reversed: she who was once barren now bears many, as this is the will of the Lord.