who
sit among the graves, and spend nights in secret places; who eat pig’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;
Isaiah 65:4
Isaiah 64 [8.] But now, Yahweh, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you our potter. We all are the work of your hand. Don’t be furious, Yahweh, and don’t remember iniquity forever. Look and see, we beg you, we are all your people. Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, is burned with fire; and all our pleasant places are laid waste. Will you hold yourself back for these things, Yahweh? Will you keep silent, and punish us very severely?
Isaiah 65 [1.] “I am inquired of by those who didn’t ask. I am found by those who didn’t seek me. I said, ‘See me, see me,’ to a nation that was not called by my name. I have spread out my hands all day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts; a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens, and burning incense on bricks; who sit among the graves, and spend nights in secret places; who eat pig’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;
Isaiah 65 [5.] who say, ‘Stay by yourself, don’t come near to me, for I am holier than you.’ These are smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all day. “Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will repay, yes, I will repay into their bosom, your own iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together”, says Yahweh, “who have burned incense on the mountains, and blasphemed me on the hills. Therefore I will first measure their work into their bosom.”
Meaning:
Isaiah 65 is God’s reply to the long, heartfelt prayer that fills the end of the previous chapters, a prayer which ends with the question, “Will you keep silent?” God answers that he has not been silent or distant. He has “spread out [his] hands all day to a rebellious people” (Isaiah 65:1-2). Verse 4 continues the description of that rebellion with two vivid pictures: people who seek the dead among the graves, and people who eat what God had declared unclean. Together they show a nation that had turned from the living God to death and defilement.
- Sitting Among the Graves
To “sit among the graves, and spend nights in secret places” most likely describes necromancy: spending the night in tombs or hidden shrines to receive dreams or messages from the dead. Such practices were common among Israel’s neighbours, but the Law had forbidden them outright: “There shall not be found with you ... a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer” (Deuteronomy 18:10-11).
Isaiah had already asked the decisive question: “Shouldn’t a people consult with their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?” (Isaiah 8:19). Graves were also a source of ritual uncleanness, for “He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days” (Numbers 19:11). To make the tomb a place of worship was to turn God’s order upside down.
- Pig’s Flesh and Abominable Broth
The second picture concerns food. The pig was one of the animals Israel was told not to eat: “The pig, because he has a split hoof, and is cloven-footed, but doesn’t chew the cud, he is unclean to you” (Leviticus 11:7). In the ancient world pigs were often offered in pagan rites, so eating pig’s flesh and “broth of abominable things” probably meant sharing in idolatrous sacrificial meals, not merely ignoring a menu rule.
The food laws were a daily reminder that Israel belonged to a holy God, who said, “be holy; for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44). To eat what was forbidden in the setting of pagan worship was a public statement that the people no longer wished to be set apart for Yahweh.
- Defiled Yet Proud
The next verse adds a shocking twist. These same people say, “Stay by yourself, don’t come near to me, for I am holier than you.” They mixed occult practice with religious pride. God calls such people “smoke in my nose,” an irritation that never stops. Jesus later told a parable “to certain people who were convinced of their own righteousness, and who despised all others” (Luke 18:9), and warned that “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.”
- An Echo in the Gospel of Mark
Isaiah’s images of graves and pigs come vividly to life in Mark 5:1-8, where Jesus lands in Gentile country and meets a man possessed by an unclean spirit who lived among the tombs, near a great herd of pigs (Mark 5:13-14). Where Isaiah described people who went to the graves to seek darkness, Jesus went to the graves to bring light, cleansing and freedom. He is the One “found by those who didn’t seek me” (Isaiah 65:1), reaching even those far from God.
The Significance of Isaiah 65:4
- God’s Patient, Outstretched Hands
Before God lists Israel’s sins, he describes his own posture: hands spread out all day. Judgement is real, as the following verses make plain, yet it comes only after long patience. Peter writes that the Lord “is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Every warning in Isaiah 65 is also an invitation to return.
- Holiness Comes from God, Not from Ourselves
Today believers are not bound by the food laws; Jesus declared that defilement comes from the heart, “thus purifying all foods” (Mark 7:19). Yet the principle of Isaiah 65:4 remains: we must not seek guidance from occult sources, nor take part in anything that honours false gods, nor pride ourselves on a holiness we do not have. True cleansing comes through Christ, whose blood will “cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14).
Cross-References:
Deuteronomy 18:10-11: "There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices sorcery, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer." The Law forbade the very practice of seeking the dead that Isaiah condemns.
Isaiah 8:19: "When they tell you, “Consult with those who have familiar spirits and with the wizards, who chirp and who mutter:” shouldn’t a people consult with their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?" God’s people are to seek the living God, not the dead.
Leviticus 11:7: "The pig, because he has a split hoof, and is cloven-footed, but doesn’t chew the cud, he is unclean to you." The background to Isaiah’s charge about eating pig’s flesh.
Mark 5:2-3: "When he had come out of the boat, immediately a man with an unclean spirit met him out of the tombs. He lived in the tombs. Nobody could bind him any more, not even with chains," Jesus entered a place of tombs and pigs to set a captive free.
Conclusion: Isaiah 65:4 exposes what happens when people turn from the living God: they seek answers among the dead, embrace what God calls unclean, and still imagine themselves holier than others. Yet the chapter begins with God’s hands spread out in welcome. In Jesus, who walked into a graveyard to free a tormented man, those outstretched hands reach us too, offering cleansing, life and a new heart.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible