8 Wo `to' those joining house to house, Field to field they bring near, till there is no place, And ye have been settled by yourselves In the midst of the land!
Wo to him who is building his house by unrighteousness, And his upper chambers by injustice, On his neighbour he layeth service for nought, And his wage he doth not give to him. Who is saying, `I build for myself a large house, And airy upper chambers,' And he hath cut out for himself its windows, Ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermillion. Dost thou reign, because thou art fretting thyself in cedar? Thy father -- did he not eat and drink? Yea, he did judgment and righteousness, Then `it is' well with him. He decided the cause of the poor and needy, Then `it is' well -- is it not to know Me? An affirmation of Jehovah. But thine eyes and thy heart are not, Except on thy dishonest gain, And on shedding of innocent blood, And on oppression, and on doing of violence.
Wo `to' him who is gaining evil gain for his house, To set on high his nest, To be delivered from the hand of evil, Thou hast counselled a shameful thing to thy house, To cut off many peoples, and sinful `is' thy soul. For a stone from the wall doth cry out, And a holdfast from the wood answereth it. Wo `to' him who is building a city by blood, And establishing a city by iniquity.
And it cometh to pass, at Ahab's hearing that Naboth is dead, that Ahab riseth to go down unto the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to possess it. And the word of Jehovah is unto Elijah the Tishbite, saying, `Rise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who `is' in Samaria, -- lo, in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he hath gone down to possess it, and thou hast spoken unto him, saying, Thus said Jehovah, Hast thou murdered, and also possessed? and thou hast spoken unto him, saying, Thus said Jehovah, In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, do the dogs lick thy blood, even thine.' And Ahab saith unto Elijah, `Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?' and he saith, `I have found -- because of thy selling thyself to do the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah;
And he spake a simile unto them, saying, `Of a certain rich man the field brought forth well; and he was reasoning within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have not where I shall gather together my fruits? and he said, This I will do, I will take down my storehouses, and greater ones I will build, and I will gather together there all my products and my good things, and I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast many good things laid up for many years, be resting, eat, drink, be merry. `And God said to him, Unthinking one! this night thy soul they shall require from thee, and what things thou didst prepare -- to whom shall they be? so `is' he who is treasuring up to himself, and is not rich toward God.' And he said unto his disciples, `Because of this, to you I say, Be not anxious for your life, what ye may eat; nor for the body, what ye may put on; the life is more than the nourishment, and the body than the clothing. `Consider the ravens, that they sow not, nor reap, to which there is no barn nor storehouse, and God doth nourish them; how much better are ye than the fowls?
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 5
Commentary on Isaiah 5 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 5
In this chapter the prophet, in God's name, shows the people of God their transgressions, even the house of Jacob their sins, and the judgments which were likely to be brought upon them for their sins,
Isa 5:1-7
See what variety of methods the great God takes to awaken sinners to repentance by convincing them of sin, and showing them their misery and danger by reason of it. To this purport he speaks sometimes in plain terms and sometimes in parables, sometimes in prose and sometimes in verse, as here. "We have tried to reason with you (ch. 1:18); now let us put your case into a poem, inscribed to the honour of my well beloved.' God the Father dictates it to the honour of Christ his well beloved Son, whom he has constituted Lord of the vineyard. The prophet sings it to the honour of Christ too, for he is his well beloved. The Old-Testament prophets were friends of the bridegroom. Christ is God's beloved Son and our beloved Saviour. Whatever is said or sung of the church must be intended to his praise, even that which (like this) tends to our shame. This parable was put into a song that it might be the more moving and affecting, might be the more easily learned and exactly remembered, and the better transmitted to posterity; and it is an exposition of he song of Moses (Deu. 32), showing that what he then foretold was now fulfilled. Jerome says, Christ the well-beloved did in effect sing this mournful song when he beheld Jerusalem and wept over it (Lu. 19:41), and had reference to it in the parable of the vineyard (Mt. 21:33, etc.), only here the fault was in the vines, there in the husbandmen. Here we have,
Isa 5:8-17
The world and the flesh are the two great enemies that we are in danger of being overpowered by; yet we are in no danger if we do not ourselves yield to them. Eagerness of the world, and indulgence of the flesh, are the two sins against which the prophet, in God's name, here denounces woes. These were sins which then abounded among the men of Judah, some of the wild grapes they brought forth (v. 4), and for which God threatens to bring ruin upon them. They are sins which we have all need to stand upon our guard against and dread the consequences of.
Isa 5:18-30
Here are,