92 A. Gardner 2) only those who obey God will be allowed to enter/stay in the land (1,35; 6,18.23-24; 8,1; 30,20) which God promised (swore) to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob 3) the land which God promised (swore) to the fathers will be fruitful (so will cattle and people) if God’s judgements are kept (7,13; 28,11) Interpreted through the references to Deuteronomy, those “who swear by the earth” in Isa 65,16 are God’s people who understand the connection between possession of the land, its fertility and keeping God’s command- ments. The nature of the new heavens I found to be amplified by two earlier Isaianic passages: Isa 45,8 and Isa 34,4. In Isa 45,8 the heavens drop down and mingle with the earth, producing salvation and righteousness together. This links with the picture of the earth in 65,16. Isa 34,4 reads, All the host of heaven will be dissolved and the heavens will be rolled together as a scroll; and all their host will fade away as the leaf fades from the vine and as a fading leaf from the fig tree. This is to happen in the context of God’s wrath against the nations and their host whom “he has put under the ban and given over to slaughter” (34,2). Verse 3 details the death of the human wrongdoers whose blood will be so prolific that it will melt mountains. Verse 4 gives the punishment of the host of heaven who must surely be seen in terms of the gods of the nations who have just been slain. The imagery is that the heavens are so compressed by being rolled up that their host are denied life-giving sustenance and thus die in the same way as leaves on a tree will wither and fall if their capillaries are unable to suck moisture from the branch. It should be noted that the heavens themselves are not destroyed. They are rolled up as a scroll and so, like a scroll, they can be unrolled again. When they are, they will be without the heavenly bodies that had been falsely worshipped in the past. Such an interpretation fits well with Isa 60,1-2.19-20 where the only light is Yahweh. Without it, darkness would cover the earth. 60,3 goes on to say that nations and kings would be attracted to the light. 60,19 specifies that the sun would no longer be the light by day or the moon by night. Instead God will be an “everlasting light”. By the time of the inception of the new heavens and new earth in Isa 65,17 those who have no regard for God or his will are dead, for God will have slain them (Isa 65,15). Only those who are servants of God will live. It is all the more surprising then that sinners are encountered in Isa 65,20. However, the new heavens and new earth say nothing about a changed nature for humans. Rather they concern the disappearance of heavenly bodies which had been worshipped instead of God in the past as well as the heavens mingling with the earth in such a way as to produce salvation and righteousness. The benefits of the latter will flow on to righteous individuals who are God’s servants. No longer will they be held accountable for the sins of the unrighteous. No longer will the earth suffer devastation because of sinners. In other words, the new heavens and new earth will allow righteous