Woe unto them that add house to house, that join field to field, until there is no more room, and that ye dwell yourselves alone in the midst of the land!
Isaiah has just sung a love song about a vineyard that God planted with every care and that gave Him only sour fruit. Now the picture drops away. The prophet names the real sin: men who buy up house after house and field after field until no one else has room to stand.
The vineyard song ends with a question God asks His own people: judge between Me and My vineyard. Once they have heard it, the verdict is inevitable.
So the nation, as a whole, is weighed in the divine balances and found wanting. The case is so plain and so serious that God challenges the men of Judah to judge between Him and His vineyard — though they themselves are the degenerate trees in question. There was no more doubt about the goodness shown to Israel than about their obligation to bear fruit for God. But obligation produces no fruit fit for Him. What followed from a ground like this? Nothing but woe after woe. Their doom would match their guilt.
Six times the prophet says "woe" in this chapter, and this verse is the first. What provoked God was not ritual failure but behaviour.
With the song finished, the prophet dropped picture language. He gave the hard, plain facts of Israel's sin. Six times over he utters a "woe" on them in verses 8-25. Again we notice that it was their moral evils that stirred the divine anger. The first woe is flung at the men of grasping covetousness. They aimed at monopolising houses and lands for themselves. Judgment in the form of desolation for both houses and lands would fall on them.
The phrase "till there is no more room" has a victim built into it. One writer pictures Isaiah looking out of six windows onto six kinds of people.
He looks out of one window and sees the monopolist, the greedy, grasping man, who joins house to house and field to field until he has elbowed out everyone else. He cries woe to him.
Israel's land laws were designed to stop exactly this. Property could be leased but never permanently taken from the family that first received it.
One thing is made very plain. The land was God's. So those to whom He gave it could only let it go on lease, selling it until the jubilee came. The value of the lease fell as the jubilee drew near. No inheritance was to pass for good out of the family that first held it. In this way no grasping man could build up an estate of land. More important still, Israel had a constant reminder that they held everything they had from the Lord, and that they depended on Him. Do we who are Christians need this reminder any less than they did? Do we not rather need it more?
Other prophets named the same crime, and they aimed it at the rulers.
The prophets condemned abuses like Ahab's (Isa. 5:8). Micah says, "Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand. They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance" (Micah 2:1-2)… The oppression of the ruling classes had grown worse since the days of Solomon… These passages show how deep and vile the corruption was — religious, moral and civic. It destroyed the life of both kingdoms until there was no remedy, and the unsparing stroke of judgment had to fall.
The next two verses spell out what God will do. The very land they hoarded turns against them.
There is a woe for those who joined house to house and field to field. They cared for nothing but their own advancement. The Lord will make the land desolate, so their coveted vineyards and lands will yield only a tenth of what they put into them.
The same drive is alive wherever people measure their lives by what they hold.
Love of the world. Talk to some people about adding faith to faith, one degree of grace to another. You will find they have more appetite for joining house to house and laying field to field. Their souls are thirsty, but not for Christ or heaven. It is earth, earth. They never think they have enough, until death comes and stops their mouth with a shovelful of soil dug out of their own grave.
Covetousness hides best from the person who has it.
It is one thing to see it in others, and quite another to judge it in ourselves. Only one thing can enable us to detect the hateful sin of covetousness. It is the light of the Word of God shining into the soul, reaching every room of our moral being. The pursuit of gain, the wish to have more, the spirit of business, the ability to make money, the desire to get on — all this is so "highly esteemed among men." Very few are ready to see that it is "an abomination in the sight of God."
- Gift — The land was God's. Israel held it on lease until the jubilee, so no one could build a permanent estate. Every field reminded them that they owned nothing outright.
- Grasp — The first of six woes falls on greed. Men bought up houses and lands, and cared for nothing but their own advancement.
- Crowd — "No more room" means the greedy man had elbowed out his neighbours. Other prophets name the same crime: men who covet fields and seize them.
- Collapse — The punishment fits the crime. The hoarded houses stand empty, and the coveted fields yield a tenth of what went into them.
- Cure — This appetite is "earth, earth", never satisfied until the grave. Only the light of God's Word shining into the soul shows it up as an abomination, not ambition.
In mine ears Jehovah of hosts [hath said], Many houses shall assuredly become a desolation, great and excellent ones, without inhabitant.
The song of the vineyard is over, and the plain charges begin with greed for houses and land. Verse 9 is God's sworn reply, and it matches the sin: the fine houses they collected will stand empty.
What stirs God's anger here is not a failure in worship. It is how these people treated their neighbours.
When the song of Isaiah ended, the prophet dropped picture language for the hard, plain facts of Israel's sin. Six times he speaks a "Woe" over them in verses 8-25, and again we notice that it was their moral evils that stirred God's anger. The first woe is aimed at grasping, greedy men who wanted all the houses and lands for themselves. Judgment would fall on them: desolation for both houses and lands.
Israel's law deliberately blocked the building of large estates, which is what makes the accumulation in verse 8 an offence against God's own arrangement of the land.
Property always stayed in the family. No one could buy up and build a large estate (Leviticus 25:13-36; 1 Kings 21:3). The law also enforced care for the poor (Deuteronomy 24:19-21; 15:7-11), consideration for others (Leviticus 19:13-14, 32-36), and love for your neighbour (Leviticus 19:18).
This was not one prophet's private complaint. Israel's rulers were taking what belonged to others, and other prophets named the same sin.
Those who ruled in Israel took for themselves what belonged to others, as in the case of Naboth's vineyard (1 Kings 21). The prophets spoke out against abuses like Ahab's (Isaiah 5:8). Micah says, "Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand. They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance" (Micah 2:1-2). … The oppression of the ruling classes had grown in evil from the days of Solomon.
God gives His own title here: "the LORD of hosts." That name first appears when His people had sunk low, and it names the armies and forces He commands.
We do not meet this name until 1 Samuel 1:3. It came in with prophetic testimony, when faith took hold of the LORD's glory at a time when Israel had corrupted themselves and were weak and low. Scripture shows that there is a mighty heavenly army, and rulers and powers in the unseen world. God is the God of them all. He is also God of all the forces of nature, which He has often used to punish His enemies.
Verse 9 empties the houses. Verse 10 shrinks the harvest. Both strokes hit what the greedy had wanted most.
There is a woe for those who joined house to house and field to field, caring for nothing but their own gain. The LORD will make their land desolate, so the vineyards and fields they coveted will yield only a tenth of what they put in (verses 8-10).
The measures in the next verse are not decoration. Read as real quantities, they show what a hostile harvest looks like.
Isaiah 5:10 shows that there is a curse resting upon the fields of a covetous man.
Behind the land-grabbing lies a thirst that never says "enough."
Love of the world. Talk to some people about adding faith to faith, one degree of grace to another, and you will find they would rather join house to house and lay field to field. Their souls are thirsty, but not for Christ or heaven. It is earth, earth — they never think they have enough of it, until death comes and stops their mouth with a shovelful of soil dug out of their own grave!
- Grasping. The first of six woes in this chapter hits greed. People wanted all the houses and lands for themselves. Moral evil, not ritual failure, stirred God's anger.
- Stealing. Israel's law kept property in the family, so no one could build a large estate. Joining house to house broke a system that protected the poor and the neighbour.
- Sworn. "The LORD of hosts" speaks the sentence in the prophet's ear. That name appears when His people are at their lowest, and it carries the armies of heaven and the forces of nature behind it.
- Emptied. The judgment mirrors the crime. The grand houses stand without a soul in them, and the fields return a fraction of what was sown.
- Buried. The thirst behind the sin never says "enough." It says "earth, earth," until death closes the mouth with a shovelful of grave dirt.
Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield an ephah.
This verse sentences the men described just before it — those who buy up house after house and field after field until no one else has room. God does not take their land away; He leaves it in their hands and drains it of fruit.
The "acre" here is not a fixed area of ground. It is a day's work. One writer traces the word behind it.
In Isaiah 5:10 the word is tsemed, "a pair, or yoke." The "acre" was as much land as a yoke of oxen would plough in a day… We have no way of finding out how large the Jewish acre was. It is not listed with the usual weights and measures as a set measure of land. The passage in Isaiah 5:10, "ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath," clearly refers to a time of great scarcity which Jehovah would send upon Israel in judgment.
The second half of the verse switches from wine to grain. One writer sorts out which measures are liquid and which are dry.
Isaiah 5:10 makes clear that Ezekiel mentions both liquid and dry measure: the bath is the liquid one and the ephah the dry one. The homer is the standard for both, a measure roughly estimated at 11 bushels, or 90 gallons.
An ephah is a tenth of a homer. Sow a sack, reap a tenth of it back. Drink and food fail together.
One writer draws a lesson from figures like these.
Though all these calculations are only rough, they help to throw light on many passages of scripture. So Isaiah 5:10 shows that there is a curse resting on the fields of a covetous man.
The men had gathered these fields at everyone else's expense. God's reply matches what they were after.
There is a woe to those who joined house to house and field to field, careless of everything but their own gain. Jehovah will lay it waste, so that their coveted vineyards and lands will yield only a tenth of what they put in.
The song of the vineyard has ended. This verse falls inside the first of a series of woes.
When the song of Isaiah ended, the prophet dropped picture language for the hard, plain facts of Israel's sin. Six times over he utters a "Woe" upon them in verses 8-25. Again we notice that it was their moral evils that stirred the anger of God. The first woe is flung at the men of grasping greed, who aimed at owning all the houses and lands themselves. Judgment would fall on them: desolation for both houses and lands.
The chapter opens with a song about God's own vineyard. It names all the care He put into it, and the fruit He got back.
There was no failure on God's part. He had put Israel in the best possible position. He set them apart for Himself, removed every obstacle, and crowned them with favours. He gave them not only protection but every means of blessing… Yet it was all in vain. The result was only bad fruit… Human responsibility ends in total ruin.
God had received a poor return from His vineyard; now their vineyards give them a poor return.
Under the grasping lies a thirst. One writer names what it is set on.
Love of the world. Tell some people about adding faith to faith, one degree of grace to another. You will find they have more mind to join house to house, and lay field to field. Their souls are thirsty, but not for Christ or heaven. It is earth, earth — they never think they have enough of it, till death comes and stops their mouth with a shovelful dug out of their own grave.
- Grasp — The verse sentences the men just described. They join house to house and field to field, careless of all but their own gain.
- Sentence — What he seized is what God empties. Desolation falls on both the houses and the lands he collected.
- Measure — Ten acres, ten days' ploughing, yield one bath; a homer of seed returns an ephah, a tenth. The numbers are the judgment.
- Mirror — God gave His vineyard every care and got bad fruit. Now their own fields pay them back in kind.
- Heart — Behind the shrinking harvest lies a thirst for earth, not for Christ. It never says "enough" until the grave stops the mouth.
Woe unto them that, rising early in the morning, run after strong drink; that linger till twilight, [till] wine inflameth them!
This second "woe" in Isaiah's list falls on people who build the whole day around drink, from dawn to nightfall. Why does God answer such a life with a woe and not a mild warning?
Isaiah has stopped singing about the vineyard and turned to plain facts. One commentator counts the woes that follow:
The song of Isaiah ended, the prophet dropped figurative language for the hard, plain facts of Israel's sin. Six times over he pronounces a "Woe" upon them in verses 8-25. Again we notice that it was their moral evils that stirred the Divine anger. The first woe is flung at the men of grasping covetousness. They aimed at monopolising houses and lands for themselves.
Counts differ. One writer finds six woes in this chapter; another traces a sevenfold denunciation that runs past it. And the prophet who pronounced these woes later had one to pronounce over himself:
It was a wonderful interlude of grace to the prophet. He had been pronouncing woe upon every phase of wickedness in Israel (Isaiah 5:8, 11, 18, 20-22), and had still to complete the solemn sevenfold denunciation of it in Isaiah 10:1. Now he has to pronounce it upon himself: "Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips... for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."
No normal hour and no normal measure satisfies this appetite — the wine itself keeps inflaming it. One commentator, writing on a similar passage in Proverbs, explains why the drinker keeps reaching for more:
Of all the lusts of the flesh, none from first to last exposes a person so much to shame and grief as drunkenness. Others may be fatally ruinous to oneself or to our partners. But this one is more stupefying, more senseless, and more inclined to both folly and violence... For intemperance always seeks more and stronger stimulants, until the thirst for them becomes overpowering.
The people under this woe are not casual drinkers. They hunt pleasure the way others pursue a trade — and Isaiah puts them in the same list as land-grabbers and bribe-takers:
There is a woe to those who joined house to house and field to field, careless of everything but their own gain: Jehovah will make it desolate so that their coveted vineyards and lands yield only a tenth of what they put in (vv. 8-10). There is a woe to the luxurious hunters of social pleasure: captivity will drain them, and Hades itself will swallow up the low and the mighty — multitudes beyond measure (vv. 11-17).
Another writer sets the woes side by side to show that each sin has its own matching end:
God enters into details to show the righteousness of His judgments. It is not only covetousness ending in desolation, and corrupt luxury ending in death and hell. There are also excuses for wrongdoing that grow into contempt for divine judgment. We see this in the profane indifference of Christendom, when men have God's warnings and think God will never carry them out.
One writer runs the list of Isaiah 5 straight into his own day:
History is repeating itself. The state of humanity could not be more truly described today. The profiteer was busy (Isa. 5:8). Men and women piped and danced, eagerly following their pagan pleasure without a thought of God, or fear of His just judgments (Isa. 5:11-12).
And the outcome is not confined to Israel:
The second woe is against the drunkard and pleasure-seeker. He describes the judgment awaiting them down to verse 17. We may observe that a similar catastrophe always follows a people given over to pleasure and debauchery. The great Roman Empire did it in her later years, and then crashed. If Britain and other nations of today do it — what then?
- Woe — This is the second woe in Isaiah's list, and it falls on moral evil. The prophet who pronounced it later had to say "Woe is me" when he saw the King.
- Appetite — The early start and the late night mark the drunkard. Intemperance keeps asking for more and stronger drink until the thirst takes over.
- Career — These are not casual drinkers. They are "luxurious hunters of social pleasure," and the hunt is their way of life.
- End — Each sin gets its matching judgment. Covetousness ends in desolation, corrupt luxury ends in death and hell, and Hades swallows low and mighty alike.
- Echo — The pattern still runs. Rome went the same way, and any people given over to pleasure and debauchery invites the same collapse.
And harp and lyre, tambour and flute, and wine are in their banquets; but they regard not the work of Jehovah, nor do they see the operation of his hands.
Isaiah 5 pronounces a series of woes on God's people, and this verse sits inside the second one. Their feasts are full of music and wine, but they give no thought to what God is doing.
One writer names who this woe targets, and what happens to nations that live this way.
The second woe is against the drunkard and pleasure-seeker. The passage describes the judgment awaiting them down to verse 17. Notice that a similar disaster always follows a people given over to pleasure and wild living. The great Roman Empire did it in her later years, and then crashed. If Britain and other nations of today do it — what then?
Another writer sums up where this pleasure ends:
There is a woe for the luxury-loving hunters of social pleasure. Captivity will drain them away, and Hades, the place of the dead, will swallow up the lowly and the mighty alike — crowds beyond counting (vv. 11-17).
One instrument in the list is hard to identify. Older translations call it a "viol," and a Bible dictionary explains what is known about it:
The main word used is nebel. It seems to refer to some unknown stringed instrument that went with the singing voice. It is at times mentioned along with the harp. The same word is also translated VIOL in Isaiah 5:12; Isaiah 14:11; Amos 5:23; Amos 6:5.
Nothing in the list is evil in itself. The charge is about the purpose these good things now serve.
Man's heart is estranged from God. He was set at a distance from God, and he tries to make the earth as pleasing to himself as possible. To do this, he uses God's gifts and creatures so that he can do without Him. People say there is no harm in these things. That is true, but that is not the question. They are good as created things. There will be music in heaven too, as a picture. But in heaven no one will use it to entertain the mind apart from God. It is a question of the use we make of these things.
The habit is older than Israel. One writer traces the arts back to the family of Cain. Cain was the son of Adam who murdered his brother. This verse, the writer says, shows what those arts became:
The useful arts, and the fair decorations of life, owe their invention to the family of Cain (Genesis 4:21-22). These things can serve good ends when they are used for God. But as human inventions on their own, they are the chief food and comfort of that "pride of life" which keeps the unrepentant world at a willing distance from the God of grace (Isaiah 5:12).
One writer puts this verse beside Belshazzar. He was the king of Babylon who feasted while using the vessels taken from God's temple.
Belshazzar forgot the captivity of Zion without a care, and he profaned the vessels of God's temple. He gave no thought to the works of His hands, but the wine and the tambourine were in his feast. It is the same now. People agree together to forget the rejection of Christ, so that a man may meet his neighbour and greet him with a shared joy and a shared welcome, because they are all of one earth, of the same world, of related flesh and blood.
Judgment does not fall at once, and the wicked treat that gap as their chance.
The Israelites despise the warning of judgment; the wicked take advantage of the delay... But God does not hurry His counsel. He is patient with us. He does not want anyone to perish, but wants everyone to come to repentance. He knows well that He must judge at the end. Man clings to his own wisdom, and as long as God does not discipline him, man hardens his heart.
- Gift. Lyre, harp, tambourine, flute and wine are all God's creatures, good in themselves — there will be music in heaven too.
- Misuse. The sin is the purpose: using God's gifts so that a person can enjoy the world and do without Him.
- Blindness. Pleasure fills them, so they never notice what God is doing. Belshazzar's feast showed the same forgetting.
- Delay. God holds back judgment out of patience. Man reads that patience as indifference and hardens his heart.
- End. Captivity drains the pleasure-seekers away, and the place of the dead swallows small and great alike.
Therefore my people are led away captive from lack of knowledge, and their nobility die of famine, and their multitude are parched with thirst.
Isaiah 5 sings of a vineyard that God planted and tended, only to find wild grapes. Verse 13 is the verdict on the people that vineyard stands for: they would not notice God's work, and they lose their land, their honour and their bread.
The judgment in this chapter is not random. God weighs a people against all He had given them.
God considers whether the vineyard bears the fruit that a vineyard so cared for ought to bear. It is a general principle that applies to the Jews, to the church, and to each individual. If the church has received more than the Jews, God is entitled to expect that it produce more.
The word "therefore" reaches back to verses 11–12. Men rose early for strong drink and filled their feasts with music and wine. They paid no attention to what God was doing. One writer sets each woe beside its punishment. This one runs from banquet to grave.
There is a woe for those who live for luxury and hunt social pleasure. Captivity will drain them. Hades itself will swallow up the lowly and the mighty — crowds beyond counting (vv. 11–17).
The link between the party and the exile is stated in verse 12: they did not regard the work of the Lord. Another writer quotes verses 11–14 as a single unbroken sentence of doom, and applies it to a recognisable type of person:
when the prophet's woe is fulfilled on the careless pleasure-loving worldling… "but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of His hands. Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst."
The knowledge Israel lacked was not information. It was knowing God Himself. One writer calls this failure the standing reproach of the nation. He quotes a charge from Isaiah's first chapter that sounds much like our verse.
Ignorance of God was a continual reproach to that people. "Israel does not know, my people do not understand," is the telling conclusion of Jehovah. He finds the children of His covenant lower than the animals, which know the hand that feeds them (Isaiah 1). Light shone in the hearts of the small remnant that the Lord of hosts kept. But from Egypt onwards the nation was foolish and sinful… This national ignorance reached its lowest point when, not knowing what they did, they crucified the Son of God… Yet for the house of Israel and the house of Judah it is promised and provided, in the days to come, that all that nation, from the smallest to the greatest, will truly know the Lord.
Israel was not left without teaching, so their not knowing was a choice. One commentator writes on a similar charge, that Israel was a nation without understanding. He names both the fault and the cure.
Counsel was available to them in the word of God. They had no good reason to be without understanding. Their ignorance had no excuse. Remember that the word "ignorance" comes from the word "ignore." Israel had ignored what was clearly taught to them, so they were ignorant… An obedient heart will always have understanding.
Older translations read verse 13 as "my people are gone into captivity." One writer takes that past tense at face value. Part of the blow had already fallen, while the rest of the nation carried on as before.
From verse 13 it seems that some of Israel had already been taken into captivity. But the people of Jerusalem and Judah were still unrepentant. They were almost mocking the prophetic word that warned them what was about to happen to those left in the land… They soon knew what God's counsel was. His judgment fell on the city and the temple because of the sin of the people.
Commentators do not leave the phrase in the past. One writer sets it beside a matching cry from Hosea. He applies it to people who own a Bible and still starve.
There is a great deal of Bible knowledge today, and much familiarity with the facts and details of Scripture. Even so, the children of God are suffering much through "lack of knowledge." In the last days of Israel's history the prophet had to cry sadly, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6). Today God's people are immense losers through lack of knowledge of Christ. Many seem to think that the highest blessing they can know here is present forgiveness of sins. So they get entangled with much that is contrary to the Lord's mind, and harmful to their own souls.
- Care — God measured the vineyard by what He had put into it. The same test applies to the church and to each person: more given means more expected.
- Blindness — the feasting of verses 11–12 was not harmless. Those who lived for luxury and never looked at God's work were the ones captivity would drain.
- Cause — the missing knowledge was knowledge of God Himself: "Israel does not know, my people do not understand." Yet God promises a day when the whole nation will truly know Him.
- Choice — ignorance came from ignoring. God's counsel was there for the taking, so an obedient heart would have understood.
- Cost — part of the exile had already begun while Jerusalem still mocked. God's people today are still "immense losers through lack of knowledge of Christ."
Therefore doth Sheol enlarge its desire, and open its mouth without measure; and her splendour shall descend [into it], and her multitude, and her tumult, and [all] that is joyful within her.
Isaiah 5 opens with a song about God's vineyard, which gave Him only bad fruit; from verse 8 the song turns into a series of woes. This verse sits in the second woe, and it shows where a life spent on pleasure ends.
The verse opens with "therefore." It points back to the drinking and pleasure just described. One commentator lays out the woes of the chapter in order, and what each one brings.
There is a woe to those who joined house to house and field to field, careless of everything but their own gain. Jehovah will make it desolate, so that their coveted vineyards and lands will yield only a tenth of what they put in (vv. 8-10). There is a woe to the pleasure-hunters of society. Captivity will drain them, and Hades itself will swallow up both the lowly and the mighty — multitudes without measure (vv. 11-17).
The verse names Sheol. The word does not have one fixed sense everywhere it appears. A reference work sums up how it is used.
Sheol is often translated "grave," and three times "pit." It refers to an invisible place or state, which may have several applications, depending on the context of each passage.
So the picture is not simply a burial place. It is the unseen world taking people in. The name itself may explain the mouth stretched wide here. One writer weighs where the word comes from.
The word seems to come from shaal, "to ask." Most take its meaning from the way death never stops "demanding" its victims. Others suggest, and it seems just as likely, that it comes instead from the "questioning" about the dead, as in Job 14:10: "man breathes his last, and where is he?" Writers agree that Sheol matches the Greek word hades. From the only likely derivation, its sense is the "unseen" — the invisible world, as people sometimes say.
The grave's hunger has a human counterpart. Writing about the proud conqueror of Habakkuk 2, who "enlarges his desire as Sheol," a commentator points to this verse and to the same restless craving in those who rule nations.
This man, the Chaldean, was drunk with self-importance and ambitious desires. He could not be content with successes already won, and he was never satisfied (Prov. 30:16; Isa. 5:14). He made himself the centre of everything, of the people and the nations. From the beginning until now, hasn't this been the thought, the longing, and the politics of those who lead the nations? Isn't it still?
Those swallowed up are named by their splendour, not their crimes — everything a society is proud of goes down together. A writer notes what stirred God's anger in these woes, and how the pattern has repeated since.
The second woe is against the drunkard and pleasure-seeker. The passage describes the judgment waiting for them down to verse 17. Notice that the same disaster always follows a people given over to pleasure and wild living. The great Roman Empire did this in her later years, and then crashed. If Britain and other nations of today do it — what then?
Isaiah's picture is not left behind in the Old Testament. Commenting on the fourth seal, where Death rides and Hades follows him, a writer reaches back to this verse for the imagery.
The pale horse, a picture of haggard want and despair, has Death as its rider. Hades, the unseen world, follows behind him, as if to devour his victims, just as the prophet pictures it… The sword ravages whole lands. War leaves the wretched survivors with wasted fields and supplies, to die of hunger and plague. Wild beasts leave their lairs and prowl over the ruined countryside. Such is a picture of the woes hanging over this world.
- Privilege — God tended a vineyard and got bad fruit, so the song of chapter 5 turns into woes.
- Pleasure — this woe targets the drunkard and the pleasure-seeker; Rome went the same road in her later years and crashed.
- Appetite — Sheol never stops "demanding" its victims; the proud ruler who is never satisfied copies it.
- Reach — Sheol swallows the lowly and the mighty alike, multitudes without measure; rank, crowds and revelry go down together.
- Reckoning — the same picture returns later: Death rides, Hades follows to devour, and the woes still hang over this world.
And the mean man shall be bowed down, and the great man brought low, and the eyes of the lofty shall be brought low;
Isaiah 5 opens with a song about a vineyard. God planted it and cared for it, and it gave Him worthless fruit. The chapter then turns to a run of woes against the people. Verse 15 is where those woes land: a whole society bent down, small and great alike, with proud eyes forced to the ground.
This humbling is not a random disaster. It is the announced end of a way of living Isaiah has just named.
The second woe is against the drunkard and pleasure-seeker. The judgment awaiting them is described down to verse 17. We may notice that a similar collapse always follows a people given over to pleasure and debauchery. The great Roman Empire did it in her later years, and then crashed. If Britain and other nations of today do it — what then?
The verse brings man down in general and each one in particular. Older translations make the two classes plain: "the mean man" and "the great man", the lowly and the important. One judgment takes both.
There is a woe against those who chase luxury and social pleasure. Captivity will drain them, and Hades itself will swallow up the lowly and the mighty — crowds beyond counting (vv. 11-17).
The verse ends with the eyes. Why would God single out a look?
Yes, it is pride which calls for being brought low. The day of Jehovah of hosts is against everything proud and lofty, and against all that is lifted up, to bring it low. The loftiness of man will be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men made low. Jehovah alone will be exalted in that day (Isa. 2:12-17).
This is not God grudging man greatness. God has His own way of lifting man up. The tragedy is that man grabs at height on his own terms.
God has lifted man up in Christ, in His own gracious and wonderful way. Yet man, by exalting himself, drags himself down to his own ruin. "Man's day" is a day when man makes himself great with what he has robbed from God, and lifts himself up by what God's mercy has given him. And so the day of the Lord must come against everything proud and haughty, and against all that is lifted up (Isa. 2:12).
Every proud head goes down in the end. The question is whether it bows now or is broken later.
Grace bows our hearts now, and we confess His name with joy! In that day judgment will break the proud spirit of the enemy. When His anger is kindled just a little — that is the beginning of His judgment — they perish from the way.
Later chapters of Isaiah add something to this. God does not only push a proud people down. He can also work lowliness into them.
They are promised that everything high and lofty will be brought low. And grace can give poverty of spirit and lowliness to the Jews themselves, once so proud. They will have come through tremendous trials. They will have carried the extra and painful shame of being a most guilty and yet haughty people. But all is changed now.
- Cause — pleasure. Verse 15 is where the woe against drink and pleasure-seeking ends. The same collapse has followed other nations with the same appetite.
- Reach — everyone. Small man and great man go down together. The judgment that swallows the mighty swallows the ordinary too.
- Target — pride. God aims at the lifted-up look. Pride is what calls for being brought low.
- Irony — self-ruin. God's own way of raising man is in Christ. Man's way is to exalt himself with what he has taken from God, and so he ruins himself.
- Choice — bowed or broken. Grace bows the heart now, and the confession is a joy. Judgment breaks the proud spirit later. Grace can go further still and give lowliness to those who were once the proudest.
and Jehovah of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and the holy God hallowed in righteousness.
Isaiah's song of the vineyard has just exposed a nation that took every gift from God and gave back wild grapes. The woes that follow bring the proud and the greedy low, and God alone stands high — exalted, holy and righteous.
The chapter is God putting a question to a people He had planted and protected. One writer notes that the standard is not arbitrary — it rises with the privilege given.
God considers whether the vineyard bears the fruit that a vineyard so cared for ought to bear. It is a general principle that applies to the Jews, to the church, and to each individual. If the church has received more than the Jews, God is entitled to expect that it produce more. When you look at the glory of Christ, you see what ought to match that glory. God has shaped the whole situation, among the Jews and in the church, with Christ in view.
Verse 15 has just described everyone humbled — ordinary people, important people, proud eyes. That reversal runs all through Isaiah. One writer traces it to the root problem: self-exaltation.
God has exalted man in Christ, in His own gracious and wonderful way. Yet man, by exalting himself, drags himself down to his own ruin... "man's day" is a day when man makes himself great with what he has taken from God, and lifts himself up with what God's mercy has given him. And therefore the day of the Lord must be "against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up... And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day." (Isa. 2:12, 17.)
The verse names Him "the Holy God." One writer draws out what the title means.
The name "Holy One of Israel" means that the God of Israel is completely separated from all evil. His eyes are too pure to look at evil. This is also what the seraphim express who cry out in front of His throne: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts."
Older wording says the holy God is hallowed, or sanctified. God cannot be made holier than He is, so the word must mean something else here.
Again, how can we think of God Himself, or the Lord Jesus, as being sanctified? The angels cover their faces in His presence and cry, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts." In this sense alone the Lord Jesus has set Himself apart in heaven for our sakes. In this same sense we can set God Himself apart in our hearts. That means always giving Him that place of supremacy and honour which is His by right.
God shows His holiness through faith that welcomes His grace. Where there is no faith, He shows it another way.
Jehovah must therefore sanctify Himself in judgment, if there is no faith to receive His grace. So it was at the end of the Jewish age. So it will be at the end of the Christian age. And so the earth will be filled with His glory. Scripture says here: "when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness." (Isa. 26:9.)
The verse is severe, but judgment is not the end of the story. It serves something beyond itself.
Grace has already been offered, and its purposes and provisions have been brought out and revealed. But that grace was despised. So judgment enters, and judgment teaches righteousness. Then grace will have gathered its own, and judgment will have cleared the scene. Glory will be revealed and set up. The kingdom will be the place of living, practical righteousness.
- Planted. God's claim on Israel rests on what He gave her. The same measure applies to every people and person He has favoured: more given, more expected.
- Refused. Grace was offered first. People despised it, so judgment came in to teach righteousness instead.
- Lowered. The proud are not brought low by accident. It is the fixed pattern of God's day: self-exaltation ends in self-ruin.
- Hallowed. To "sanctify" God is to give Him the place of supremacy that is already His by right. If people will not give Him that place, His judgments will.
- Restored. The end is not ruin but glory. Judgment clears the scene, and His kingdom becomes the place where righteousness is lived out.
And the lambs shall feed as on their pasture, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.
Verse 17 closes a stretch of woes aimed at a nation that had everything from God and gave Him nothing back. Lambs now graze over ground that belonged to the rich. The verse shows what God's judgment leaves behind: ruined estates, with flocks and outsiders feeding on them.
The verse is the last line of a warning aimed at people who lived for pleasure. One writer sums up the woe that ends in this verse:
There is a woe against those who hunt luxury and social pleasure. Captivity will drain them away, and the world of the dead will swallow up the lowly and the mighty alike — crowds beyond counting (vv. 11-17).
Judgment took away the owners, but it left no golden age behind. Grazing flocks and passing strangers are all that remain.
The ruins in this verse were once the estates of a nation God had equipped with everything:
Israel had been the Lord's vineyard, and He had arranged everything in their favour. He put them in a very fruitful place and gave them all they needed. The law, given through Moses, fenced them in to keep outside corruption away — if they had kept it. They were also a "choicest vine," since they came from Abraham, one of God's choicest saints. So everything was in their favour. What was the result?
The answer came back in a single verdict, and the woes follow from it:
So the nation as a whole is weighed in God's scales and found wanting… The goodness God showed to Israel was as certain as their duty to bear fruit for Him. But duty on its own produces no fruit fit for Him. What was the result on ground like this? Nothing but woe after woe. Their doom would match their guilt.
God looked for justice, and found something else:
There was a result, but it was worthless and evil. In place of justice there was oppression; in place of righteousness, only a cry of distress. Again we should notice that the charge against them is moral corruption, not a failure to keep religious ceremonies.
Even the quiet scene in verse 17 is emptiness, not peace. One writer explains what is missing from the whole chapter:
Notice that there is nothing of Christ here as the means and channel of grace. So everything is darkness and death, with no relief. The prophet presses home the evidence of constant, overwhelming evil among the people of God. Not a ray of comfort or even hope breaks through. Only their sins and His judgments sound out, one answering the other. This is the severity of God, Who did not spare the natural branches, as the apostle says in Rom. 11:21.
The ruined vineyard is not only Israel's story. One writer takes it to the cross:
When the Lord Jesus spoke of Himself as "the true Vine," (John 15:1), the minds of His disciples may well have turned back to this scripture, as ours also may do. Israel was the sample of humanity chosen to test the whole human race. The condemnation of Israel is the condemnation of us all. But it was at the cross of Christ that this condemnation was announced openly and for the last time. The first man and his race: condemned and rejected. The Second Man, and those who belong to Him and are in Him: accepted and established for ever.
What happened to these estates has happened since. One writer points to history:
We may notice that the same kind of disaster always follows a people given over to pleasure and vice. The great Roman Empire did it in her later years, and then crashed. If Britain and other nations of today do it — what then?
- Planted. God gave this nation good soil, a law to guard them, and the best ancestry. Everything was in their favour.
- Failed. God weighed them and found them wanting. He looked for justice and found oppression; He looked for righteousness and heard a cry.
- Judged. The doom matched the guilt. The pleasure-seekers went into captivity, and death swallowed the lowly and the mighty alike.
- Emptied. Chapter 5 has nothing of Christ in it, so nothing softens it. Only sins and judgments answer each other, and lambs graze where rich estates stood.
- Replaced. The failed vine points to the true Vine. The first man and his race are set aside; the Second Man and all who are in Him stand for ever.
Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as with cart-ropes!
Isaiah 5 sings of a vineyard God planted and cared for, which then gave Him wild grapes. The chapter closes with a string of woes, and the third one, in verse 18, pictures sin as a load men harness themselves to and haul along.
Commentators read the woes of this chapter as portraits of a nation gone wrong. This one is not aimed at the quiet or the secret sinner.
The third woe (verse 18) falls on those who sin openly and violently, in defiance of God. The fourth falls on men of a more subtle kind, who overturn all the foundations of right and wrong.
One writer pictures the prophet at a window, naming one kind of sinner after another. The cart-rope pullers come third, after the grasping landowner and the drunkard.
He looks out of one window and sees the man who grabs everything — greedy for more, joining house to house and field to field until everyone else is pushed out. He cries woe to him. Then he looks out of another window, sees the drunkard deep in his drink, and cries woe to him. Next he marks the out-and-out sinners, those who draw sin as with cart ropes — the prostitute, the gambler, the swearer — and he pronounces woe on them.
The picture is of an animal in harness, straining at a heavy wagon. No one drags these men into evil; they lean into the rope. And once they pull, they lose their sight of right and wrong.
Crime was everywhere, for men had grown fearless in their godlessness. They gave free rein to their wilful passions, sinning "as with cart ropes". Blinded by the god of this world, they called evil good, and good evil.
The verse names two ropes: cords of falsehood first, then cart ropes. What starts as a thin lie ends up towing a wagon-load.
In the next verse these people dare God to get on with it — let His work hurry up so they can see it. That is what turns bad behaviour into insult.
It is not only greed that ends in ruin, and corrupt luxury that ends in death and hell. There are also excuses for sin that grow into contempt for God's judgment. We see it in the godless indifference of the Christian world, where men have God's warnings and think they will never be carried out. "Scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, 'Where is the promise of His coming?'" (2 Peter 3:3-4). It matches the insult against God in verses 18 and 19.
They read delay as absence. They take God's patience as proof that nothing is coming.
Isaiah does not stop at naming the sin. He names where it lands, and he groups the scoffers of verse 18 with the corrupters who follow them.
The bold sinners mocked the LORD and invited Him to hurry, so that they might see His work (verses 18, 19). For them, and for the moral corrupters who broke down every moral distinction, there is woe upon woe with utter destruction.
The verse is about drawing. One writer sets another drawing against it, made by a Man lifted up in death, whose pull reaches the very people who had been hauling sin.
His being lifted up was the witness in the world of this — that He submitted to Satan, to death, and to the judgment that sin brings, the very state in which men were lying. I say, the witness lifted up in the world, the point that draws all … the cords of a man to those who had been sinning even with a cart rope.
- Cords. Men do not stumble into this sin; they haul it — first with thin cords of falsehood, then with ropes fit for a wagon.
- Boldness. The woe targets those who sin openly and violently, in defiance of God, not the quiet or the hidden offender.
- Willingness. Men had grown fearless in their godlessness and gave free rein to their wilful passions. The load moves because they want it to.
- Contempt. The pulling ends in mockery: they dare God to hurry His work. It matches the scoffers who ask where the promise of His coming is.
- Counter-pull. Against every cart rope stands a Man lifted up. He draws with the cords of a man the same people who once hauled sin.
who say, Let him hasten, let him speed his work, that we may see [it]; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!
Isaiah 5 turns from a song about a vineyard into a series of woes. This one falls on people who heard God's warnings and answered with a dare. Their words almost sound like faith. They ask to see God's work and to know His counsel. But the men who said them had already decided that nothing would happen.
This woe falls on bold sinners, not careless ones. One writer sets their dare beside the other sins the chapter names, and gives the reason for the woe:
There is a woe to those who joined house to house and field to field. They were reckless of everything but their own gain... Think of the bold sinners, who mockingly invited Jehovah to hurry so that they might see His work. Think of the moral corrupters, who broke down every moral distinction. Think of the wise in their own eyes, who could do without God. For all of them there is woe upon woe with utter destruction, "because they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel."
The mocking demand is the last step in a slide. One writer traces the steps, and finds the same spirit alive today:
God enters into details to show the righteousness of His judgments. It is not only covetousness that ends in desolation, and corrupt luxury that ends in death and hell. Excuses for wrongdoing also grow into contempt for God's judgment. We see this in the careless indifference of the Christian world, where men have God's warnings and think God will never carry them out. "Scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, 'Where is the promise of his coming?'" (2 Peter 3:3-4). It answers to the insult offered to God in verses 18, 19.
The mockers were trading on a delay. God had announced judgment, and it had not come. The delay had a reason, and it was not weakness:
The Israelites despise the warning of judgment. The wicked take advantage of the delay. The same thing was to happen in the last days of the Christian testimony (2 Peter 3). But God does not hurry His counsel. He is patient toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He knows well that He must judge at the end. Man attaches himself to his own wisdom, and as long as God does not chastise, man hardens his heart.
They asked to know God's counsel. God answered them, but not in the way they expected:
From verse 13 it would seem that some of Israel had already been taken into captivity. But the people of Jerusalem and Judah were still unrepentant. They were almost mocking the prophetic word that warned them of what was about to come on those who remained in the land... They very soon knew what God's counsel was. His judgment fell on the city and the temple because of the wrongdoing of the people.
Scripture uses the word "counsel" in two senses, and only one of them can be refused:
Scripture presents God's counsel to us in two distinct ways. First, there is God's mind for us. He gives it for our help and blessing, and man can accept it or reject it. Second, there is what God has determined to do. No one can interfere with it, and God will certainly bring it to pass. It is a great blessing that God stoops to give us His counsel and shows us the way of blessing. It is a very serious matter for those who refuse to listen to what God counsels.
They used God's own title, "the Holy One of Israel," while treating Him with contempt. That title runs right through the book. It is not only a name of judgment:
All through Isaiah He is called "the Holy One of Israel." This title appears in Isaiah twenty-five times. It belongs to the Lord, who deals with His people in judgment and in mercy. Read 1:4; 5:19, 24; 10:20; 12:6... The Holy One of Israel is Jehovah; He is the Redeemer of His people. "Our Redeemer—the LORD of hosts is His name—is the Holy One of Israel" (47:4).
- Counsel offered. God gives His mind to men for their help and blessing, and they may accept it or refuse it. What He has determined to do, no one can stop.
- Counsel despised. This taunt ends a slide: covetousness, then luxury, then excuses for sin, then open contempt for God's judgment.
- Counsel delayed. God does not hurry His counsel. He is patient, not willing that any should perish. The wicked read that patience as proof that nothing is coming.
- Counsel known. They asked to know it, and they did: judgment fell on the city and the temple.
- Counsel repeated. The same voice speaks today in the scoffers who ask, "Where is the promise of his coming?" The Holy One they mock is both Judge and Redeemer.
Woe unto them who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and intelligent in their own esteem!
Isaiah 5 pronounces a series of woes over Judah, and this one falls on people whose only measure of wisdom is their own opinion of themselves. The verse raises a plain question: who decides what is true? And what does God do with people who appoint themselves to the job?
This woe is one of a chain running through the chapter, each aimed at a different sin. One commentator names the fault behind this one.
Another writer works down the prophet's list of sinners and comes to a respectable-looking group.
Next he notices those "that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight," and cries woe to them. God cannot stand self-satisfied people, who think their thoughts are good enough for Him.
Self-wisdom does not stay a private opinion. One writer places it right beside the moral confusion of the verse before, and shows where it aims — at God's Word.
Blinded by the god of this world, they called evil good, and good evil; they put darkness for light, and light for darkness (Isa. 5:20). Men thought themselves wiser than God: they were wise and prudent in their own eyes, like those who dare to criticize His Word and put their own thoughts in place of His (Isa. 5:21).
That order matters. One commentator explains how the two woes connect.
The men who do this, who twist the way other people think, pose as the wise and prudent leaders of others. At least they consider themselves to be such. Their teachings are new and progressive, as they would call them. The effect of those teachings on the people who take them in leads on to the sixth woe.
Behind that confused moral vision an enemy is at work. The Christian mind is meant to run the other way.
Satan brings about sin and a hardened conscience. His aim is always to darken the understanding, just as the Christian's aim should always be to judge more and more according to God. The apostle prayed that the Colossians would be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
Isaiah returns to this theme later. There God passes sentence on self-appointed wisdom: He does not argue with it, He removes it.
Therefore by God's sentence their wisdom should perish: "the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent ones will be hidden." Their efforts to hide from the Lord, or to be independent of Him, are useless. God, after all, remains God, and man is only clay in the hand of the potter.
The opposite of this woe is not ignorance. It is a childlike place before God. One writer sets the self-sufficient next to the babe.
These things were hidden from the wise and the prudent, the self-sufficient religious people, but revealed to babes. They had refused Him, the wisdom of God. They were wise in their own opinion, and blindness was the dreadful result… Only the person who owns his nothingness, who takes his place in weakness at His feet, and is like a babe, can receive these things. Never does the Lord entrust His secrets and His counsels to the wise and prudent.
The reason self-wisdom fails is short and blunt.
Self-confidence is ruin. "Be not wise in your own eyes." They do not see far if they only see self, and that is what is always in our own eyes.
Note: older translations read "prudent in their own sight"; the ESV renders it "shrewd in their own sight."
- The sin. Being wise in your own eyes means thinking you can do without God. It means thinking your own thoughts are good enough for Him.
- The spread. Self-wisdom does not stay private. It criticizes God's Word, puts its own thoughts in place of His, and poses as a guide for others.
- The darkness. Satan works to darken the mind, so good and evil get swapped. The believer's aim is the opposite: to judge according to God.
- The sentence. God does not debate such wisdom. He declares that the wisdom of the wise will perish, for man is clay in the hand of the potter.
- The way back. The Lord entrusts His secrets to babes, not to the self-sufficient. Owning your nothingness at His feet is the only path to real knowledge.
Woe unto them that are mighty for drinking wine, and men valiant to mix strong drink;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
who justify the wicked for a bribe, and turn away the righteousness of the righteous from them!
Isaiah's song about the vineyard gives way to six woes, and this verse closes the last one. It falls on judges who sell their verdicts: they clear the guilty for a payment and strip the innocent of their rights.
The verse before it praises the same men as heroes — at drinking wine. One writer groups them in a single description, friends of the wicked and foes of the righteous, and then gives the reason for the judgment.
The moral corrupters broke down all moral distinction. The wise in their own eyes could do without God. The unjust friends of the wicked, whose heroism was in wine and strong drink, were foes of the righteous. For them there is woe upon woe with utter destruction, "because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel."
The order of the woes is not random. Corrupt courts come last. Before them stand the woe on those who break down moral distinctions, and the woe on those who are wise in their own eyes.
The men who twist how their neighbours think pose as the wise and prudent leaders of others. At least they consider themselves to be such. Others take in their teachings — new and progressive, as they would call them — and the effect of that leads to the sixth woe. Those people go back to their drink and debauchery, and pervert everything that is right in their dealings with others.
A bribe does more than buy a verdict. It blinds the man who takes it, and it marks the man who offers it as wicked too.
A gift given to pervert the course of judgment blinds the eyes. It shows the man who takes it to be wicked, and the man who gives it no less. Taking it in secret, from the fold of a robe, ought to be a signal of danger. No other human eye sees it, but God hates the wrong, and He is not mocked.
The principle reaches further than envelopes of cash, and one writer presses it on readers who would never dream of accepting one.
The law prohibits all forms of bribery. A bribe is an appeal to the feelings of the person who takes it. Where bribery is widespread, justice is almost unknown. "The bribe blinds those whose eyes are open" (New Translation). Let us read this verse in the spirit of it as well as in the letter, for it is possible for self-interest to blind the eyes of a sincere Christian.
Acquitting the guilty is not just bad administration. Scripture puts it and its opposite, condemning the innocent, under the same sentence.
Power can create a world or a universe. It cannot cancel sin. It cannot act as if God were indifferent to sin. It cannot take up the sinner and justify him, or bless him while he is unjustified... If He justifies, it is for righteousness to pronounce it: that is its place. And it is written, "The one who justifies the wicked and the one who condemns the just are both an abomination to the Lord" (Prov. 17:15).
A bought judge only lets the guilty off. One writer shows that God alone can justify a guilty man, and He does it without setting His own righteousness aside.
Who are we to believe in? The God "who justifies the ungodly." Who but God could do that? A human judge could not. He might let the guilty one off, or be merciful to him. But no human judge has the power to justify a guilty criminal. To justify him, he would have to clear him of every charge against him, and if the man was guilty he could not do that. But, blessed be His name, God can, and He does it in a way perfectly consistent with His own perfect righteousness.
- Sequence. Teachers who blur good and evil breed men who pervert everything right in their dealings with others. That is why the sixth woe lands last.
- Bribe. A bribe blinds the taker and marks him as wicked, along with the giver. It works on the feelings, so self-interest can blind a sincere believer too.
- Reversal. Acquitting the guilty and condemning the just are both an abomination to the Lord. God cannot act as if He were indifferent to sin.
- Contrast. No human judge can justify a guilty man. God justifies the ungodly, and He does it in full keeping with His own righteousness.
- Verdict. The ground of the woe is stated plainly: they cast away the law of the Lord and despised His word. Corrupt courts were the symptom. Contempt for God's word was the disease.