who say, “Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.” These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.
The apostle Paul (an expositor we may depend upon) has given us the true sense of these verses, and told us what was the event they pointed at and were fulfilled in, namely, the calling in of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Jews, by the preaching of the gospel, Rom 10:20, Rom 10:21.
Commenting on Isaiah 65:1-7
Which say, stand by thyself, &c. According to Aben Ezra, Jarchi, and Kimchi, these are the unclean persons that did the above things; who say to the righteous, "draw near to thyself" (p); so the words are, go to thine own place, or to thine own company: and come not near to me; keep off at a distance, as unworthy of such company: for I...
(Mat 9:11; Luk 5:30; Luk 18:11; Jde 1:19). Applicable to the hypocritical self-justifiers of our Lord's time. smoke--alluding to the smoke of their self-righteous sacrifices; the fire of God's wrath was kindled at the sight, and exhibited itself in the smoke that breathed forth from His nostrils; in Hebrew the nose is the seat of anger; and the nostrils distended in wrath, as it were...