Isaiah 66:4 Meaning: God Chooses Their Delusions

Three Hebrew words carry the weight of this verse. The first is the verb bāchar, "I will choose." It is the same word used of the people in verse 3: "they chose that in which I did not delight." God takes their own action and mirrors it back. He does not invent something new; He gives them the full weight of the choice they already made. The second word, ta‘ălûlîm, is translated "delusions" or "calamities." Commentators note it is a strange word, more like "vexations" or "the capricious treatment of a child" (Barnes, Cambridge). It suggests not just punishment but the harsh, messy reality they brought on themselves by rejecting God’s ways. And third, megurotam, "their fears." This is not abstract dread but the specific things they were most anxious about. They had performed empty rituals to keep disaster away, and now the very thing they feared comes. Each word shows the same pattern: they chose evil, so God chooses the consequences. They feared ruin, so He lets ruin arrive. It is not arbitrary; it is the faithful outcome of a verdict they wrote themselves.

Christian readers across traditions have seen this verse as a warning about judgment that follows persistent sin. Protestant commentators like Jamieson-Fausset-Brown and Matthew Henry stress the reciprocal justice: the people deliberately chose evil, so God deliberately chooses their calamity. John Wesley notes that "they have chosen to mock and delude me, I will choose to suffer them to delude themselves." The Baptist writer John Gill takes it further, seeing in "delusions" the false prophets and false Christs that deceived Israel after they rejected Christ. The Anglican Cambridge Bible reads the Hebrew as "insults" or "freaks of fortune," emphasizing the capricious nature of the suffering they let in. Catholic tradition (the Douay version) renders it "their mockeries," keeping the idea that what they mocked comes back on them. All agree that God's action is a just response to the people's refusal to listen when He called.

A common misreading is that God arbitrarily chooses to torment people with groundless fears. In fact, the phrase "bring their fears upon them" means the things they already dreaded, the very disasters they tried to ward off with empty worship. The people had ignored God's call and chosen their own path. So when judgment comes, it is not a new threat but the predictable end of a road they insisted on walking. God lets the consequences arrive.

This verse asks us to examine what we are choosing when we ignore God's voice. Maybe it is a small prompt to forgive someone, a quiet conviction to change a habit, or a Scripture that keeps returning to mind. When we push it aside, we are not just avoiding God, we are making a choice. And that choice has a direction. The people in Isaiah were not obviously wicked; they were still offering sacrifices (v.3). But their hearts were elsewhere. This week, pay attention to where you feel a nudge from God. You can respond today. You can say, "I hear You." The door is open. The alternative is letting your worst fears arrive unchecked.