Bible Strands
Isaiah 65:20
No longer will a nursing infant live but a few days, or an old man fail to live out his years. For the youth will die at a hundred years, and he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks to His people concerning the restored condition of Jerusalem, declaring the end of premature death and mourning in the coming age.
The words — עוּל ('ul) means a nursing infant, and זָקֵן (za.Ken) means an old person, framing the verse’s claim around the full human lifespan.
The thread — The text states that death will no longer claim the young or the old before their time, directly contrasting the curse of early mortality. This aligns with Job 5:26’s promise of dying in full vigor and fulfills the Deuteronomy 4:40 principle that obedience yields long life, while standing in tension with the prolonged life of the unrepentant noted in Ecclesiastes 8:12.
Why it lands — The passage asserts that premature death is abolished and longevity becomes the norm, demanding recognition of God’s complete reversal of the curse. It calls readers to expect and live within a restored order where life is no longer cut short.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Job 5:26 You will come to the grave in full vigor, like a sheaf of grain gathered in season.
- Ecclesiastes 8:12 Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and still lives long, yet I also know that it will go well with those who fear God, who are reverent in His presence.
- Deuteronomy 4:40 Keep His statutes and commandments, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.
- Psalms 34:12 Who is the man who delights in life, who desires to see good days?
- Isaiah 3:11 Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.
- Romans 2:5 But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.