M-W-F Bible study: Isaiah 5:8-23

8Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.9The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing: "Surely the great houses will become desolate,the fine mansions left without occupants.10A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine, a homer of seed only an ephah of grain."11Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine.12They have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, no respect for the work of his hands.13Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding; their men of rank will die of hunger and their masses will be parched with thirst.14Therefore the grave enlarges its appetite and opens its mouth without limit; into it will descend their nobles and masses with all their brawlers and revelers.15So man will be brought low and mankind humbled, the eyes of the arrogant humbled.16But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness.17Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture; lambs will feed among the ruins of the rich.18Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes,19to those who say, "Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so we may see it. Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come, so we may know it."20Woe to those 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.21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.22Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks,23who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.


(the following is from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary -- www.christnotes.org)

"Commentary on Isaiah 5:8-23

Here is a woe to those who set their hearts on the wealth of the world. Not that it is sinful for those who have a house and a field to purchase another; but the fault is, that they never know when they have enough. Covetousness is idolatry; and while many envy the prosperous, wretched man, the Lord denounces awful woes upon him. How applicable to many among us! God has many ways to empty the most populous cities. Those who set their hearts upon the world, will justly be disappointed. Here is woe to those who dote upon the pleasures and the delights of sense. The use of music is lawful; but when it draws away the heart from God, then it becomes a sin to us. God's judgments have seized them, but they will not disturb themselves in their pleasures. The judgments are declared. Let a man be ever so high, death will bring him low; ever so mean, death will bring him lower. The fruit of these judgments shall be, that God will be glorified as a God of power. Also, as a God that is holy; he shall be owned and declared to be so, in the righteous punishment of proud men. Those are in a woful condition who set up sin, and who exert themselves to gratify their base lusts. They are daring in sin, and walk after their own lusts; it is in scorn that they call God the Holy One of Israel. They confound and overthrow distinctions between good and evil. They prefer their own reasonings to Divine revelations; their own devices to the counsels and commands of God. They deem it prudent and politic to continue profitable sins, and to neglect self-denying duties. Also, how light soever men make of drunkenness, it is a sin which lays open to the wrath and curse of God. Their judges perverted justice. Every sin needs some other to conceal it."