Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 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 a hundred years old, and the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed." — Isaiah 65:20 (ASV)

There shall be no more thence - The Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Vulgate read this, ‘There shall not be there.’ The change requires the omission of a single letter in the present Hebrew text, and the sense seems to demand it. The prophet's design here is to describe the times of happiness and prosperity that would succeed the calamities under which the nation had been suffering. He does this by a great variety of images, all denoting substantially the same thing.

In Isaiah 65:17, the change is represented to be as great as if a new heaven and a new earth should be created. In this verse, the image is that the inhabitants would reach a great age and that the comparatively happy times of the patriarchs would be restored. In Isaiah 65:21, the image is taken from the perfect security in their plans of labor and the fact that they would enjoy the fruit of their toil. In Isaiah 65:25, the image employed is taken from the change in the nature of the animal creation. All these are poetic images designed as illustrations of the general truth, and, like other poetic images, are not to be taken literally.

An infant of days - A child; a nursing child. So the Hebrew word, עול, ‛ûl, denotes. The Septuagint renders it, ‘Nor shall there be there anymore an untimely birth (ἄωρος aōros) and an old man who has not filled up his time.’ The idea is not that there should be no infant in those future times—which would be an idea so absurd that a prophet would not use it even in poetic fiction—but that there will not be an infant who does not live out his days, or who will be short-lived. All shall live long, and be blessed with health, and continual vigor and youth.

Nor an old man that has not filled his days - They shall enjoy the blessings of great longevity, and not a longevity that will be broken and feeble, but one that will be vigorous and happy. In further illustration of this sentiment, we may remark:

1. There is no reason to suppose that it will be literally fulfilled even in the millennium. If it is to be regarded as literally fulfilled, then for the same reason we are to suppose that in that time the nature of the lion will be literally changed, and that he will eat straw like the ox, and that the nature of the wolf and the lamb will be so far changed that they shall lie down together (Isaiah 65:25). But there is no reason to suppose this; nor is there any good reason to suppose that literally no infant or child will die in those times, or that no old man will be infirm, or that all will live to the same great age.
2. The promise of long life is regarded in the Bible as a blessing, and is an image, everywhere, of prosperity and happiness. Thus the patriarchs were regarded as having been highly-favored people because God lengthened their days; and throughout the Scriptures it is represented as a proof of God's favor that a man is permitted to live long, and to see a numerous posterity (Psalms 21:4; Psalms 23:6; Psalms 128:6 (Hebrew); Psalms 91:16; Proverbs 3:2–14; Proverbs 17:6).
3. No one can doubt that the prevalence of the gospel everywhere would greatly lengthen human life. Let anyone reflect on the great number who are now cut off in childhood in pagan lands by their parents, all of whom would have been spared had their parents been Christians; on the numbers of children who are destroyed in early life by the effects of their parents' intemperance, most of whom would have survived if their parents had been virtuous; on the numbers of young men now cut down by vice, who would have continued to live if they had been under the influence of the gospel; on the immense hosts cut off, most of them in middle life, by war, who would have lived to a good old age if the gospel had prevailed and put an end to wars; on the millions who are annually cut down by intemperance and lust, and other raging passions, by murder and piracy, or who are punished by death for crime; on the millions destroyed by pestilential disease sent by offended heaven on guilty nations. Let him reflect that these sources of death will be dried up by the prevalence of pure virtue and religion, and he will see that a great change may yet take place literally in human life.
4. A similar image is used by classical writers to denote a golden age, or an age of great prosperity and happiness. Thus the Sibyl, in the Sibylline Oracles, Book 7, speaking of the future age, says, Στήσει δὲ τὸ γένος, ὡς πάρος ἦν σοι Stēsei de to genos, hōs paros ēn soi — ‘A race shall be restored as it was in ancient times.’ So Hesiod, describing the silver age, introduces a boy as having reached the age of a hundred years, and yet was still a child:

Ἀλλ ̓ ἑκατόν μὲν παῖς ἔτεα παρὰ μητέρι κεδνρ,
Ἐτρέφετ ἀτάλλων υέγα νήπιος ὦ ἔνι οἴκῳ.

All' hekaton men tais etea para mēteri kednr,
Etrephet atallōn mega nēpios ō eni oikō.

For the child shall die a hundred years old - That is, he who is a hundred years old when he dies will still be a child or a youth. This is nearly the same sentiment that is expressed by Hesiod, as quoted above.

The prophet evidently has in view the longevity of the patriarchs, when an individual a hundred years of age was comparatively young—the proportion between that and the usual period of life then being about the same as that between the age of ten and the usual period of life now.

We are not, I understand, to suppose that this is to be taken literally, but it is figurative language designed to describe the comparatively happy state to which the prophet referred, as if human life should be lengthened to the age of the patriarchs, and as if he who is now regarded as an old man would then be regarded as in the vigor of his days. At the same time, it is true that the influence of temperance, industry, and soberness of life, such as would exist if the rules of the gospel were obeyed, would carry forward the vigor of youth far into advancing years, and mitigate most of the evils now incident to the decline of life.

The few imperfect experiments that have been made on the effect of entire temperance and elevated virtue, of subduing the passions by the influence of the gospel, and of prudent means for prolonging health and life (such as the gospel will prompt a man to use who has any just view of the value of life), show what might yet be done in happier times.

It is an obvious reflection here that if such effects are to be anticipated from the prevalence of true religion and temperance, then he is the best friend of humankind who most diligently endeavors to bring others under the influence of the gospel and to extend the principles of temperance and virtue.

The gospel of Christ would do more to prolong human life than all other causes combined. And when that prevails everywhere, putting an end, as it must, to infanticide, war, intemperance, murder, piracy, suicide, dueling, and raging and consuming passions, then it is impossible for the most vivid imagination to conceive the effect that will be produced on the health and long life, as well as on the happiness of humankind.

But the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed - The sense of this appears to be, ‘Not all who reach a great age will be judged to be the friends and favorites of God. Though a sinner reaches that advanced period of life, he will still be cursed by God and will be cut down in his sins. He will be held to be a sinner and will die, and will be regarded as accursed.’ Other interpretations of this expression can be seen in Poole and Vitringa. The exposition above seems to me to be the true one.