Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 65:22

"They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands." — Isaiah 65:22 (ASV)

They shall not build, and another inhabit - Every man shall enjoy the benefits of his labor.

For as the days of a tree are the days of my people - That is, in that future time, such shall be the length of the lives of the people .

The Septuagint renders this, ‘The days of the tree of life.’ The Syriac, ‘As the days of trees.’ The Chaldee renders it as the Septuagint.

The idea is that the lives of His people would be greatly prolonged (see the notes at Isaiah 65:20). A tree is among the most long-lived of material objects; the oak, the terebinth, the cypress, the cedar, and the banyan all attain to a great age.

Many trees also live for a much longer period than a thousand years. The Baobab tree of Senegal (Adansonia digitata) is supposed to attain an age of several thousand years. Adanson inferred that one he measured, which he found to be thirty feet in diameter, had attained the age of 5,150 years.

Having made an incision to a certain depth, he first counted three hundred rings of annual growth and observed what thickness the tree had gained in that period. The average rate of growth of younger trees of the same species was then ascertained, and the calculation was made according to a supposed mean rate of increase.

De Candolle considers it not improbable that the celebrated Taxodium of Chapultepec in Mexico, which is 117 feet in circumference, may be still more aged.

In Macartney’s Embassy to China, volume 1, page 131, an account is given of a tree of this description, which was found to be at the base no less than fifty-six feet in girth. On the longevity of trees, see Bibliotheca Universalis, May 1831, quoted in Lyell’s Geology, volume 2, page 261. The idea here is simply that His people would attain an age like that of the trees of the forest; that is, that the state of things under the Messiah would be as if human life were greatly prolonged (see the notes at Isaiah 65:20).

And mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands - Margin: ‘Make them continue long,’ or ‘wear out.’

The word used here (יבלוּ yeballû from בלה bâlâh) properly means to fall, to fall away, to fail; to wear out, to grow old (Deuteronomy 8:4; Deuteronomy 29:4; Isaiah 50:9; Isaiah 51:6); hence, in Piel, to consume.

The idea here is that they would live to consume, that is, to enjoy the products of their own labor. Their property should not be wrested from them by injurious taxation or by plunder, but they would be permitted long to possess it, until they should wear it out or until it should be consumed.

The Vulgate states, ‘The works of their hands shall be of long continuance (inveterabunt),’ or shall be kept a long time. The Septuagint says, ‘For the works of their labors (των πόνων tōn ponōn) shall become old, or of long continuance (παλαιώσου palaiōsousin)’ (see the notes at Isaiah 62:8-9).