Those Who Follow False Religion Will Come To An End Together (Isaiah 66:17-18 a).
“Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves,
To go to the gardens behind one in the midst,
Eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse,
They will come to an end together,” says Yahweh.
“For I know their works and their thoughts.”
This judgment will come on all who follow false religion. They set themselves apart and purify themselves (by methods which we do not know) in readiness for their worship, and then they go to the sacred gardens. ‘Behind one in the midst' clearly refers to some aspect of their rites, compare Ezekiel 8:11. Possibly this was someone selected out to perform some special ceremony whom they take in triumph to their blasphemous rites. And there they eat swine's flesh, and the abomination (insects and creeping things? Such constantly came in contact with what was unclean, especially dead bodies. Compare Ezekiel 8:10) and rodents. But they will all come to an end together at the last judgment. For while they meet in secret, thinking that Yahweh does not see them (see Isaiah 29:15; Isaiah 30:1; Ezekiel 8:12), Yahweh knows their works and their thoughts.