Isaiah 5:20

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Isaiah 5:20

Wo unto them that call evil good ... - This is the fourth class of sins denounced. The sin which is reprobated here is that of “perverting and confounding” things, especially the distinctions of morality and religion. They prefer erroneous and fake doctrines to the true; they prefer an evil to an upright course of conduct. The Chaldee renders this, ‘Wo to those who say to the impious, who are prospered in this age, You are good; and who say to the meek, Ye are impious.’ Jarchi thinks that the... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Isaiah 5:20

Isaiah 5:20. Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil That endeavour to confound both the names and the natures of virtue and vice, of piety and impiety; commend and applaud what is evil, and disparage and discountenance what is good; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, &c. Ignorance and error, for knowledge and truth: in other words, who subvert, or pervert, all the great principles of truth, wisdom, and of righteousness. A most corrupt condition of a church... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Isaiah 5:1-30

God’s love and Judah’s response (5:1-30)Judah and Israel together are likened to God’s vineyard. God did everything possible to make it healthy, beautiful and fruitful, and he expected a good harvest of grapes, but the people brought God none of the fruit he expected (5:1-4). He therefore will cease to care for them, so that they might be left to suffer whatever ruin their sin brings upon them. Israel has already been destroyed and Judah will now follow (5-7).Examples of the sins that brought... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Isaiah 5:20

call = are calling. evil good. Note the Introversion in each of the three clauses of this verse. put = give out. read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Isaiah 5:20

IV. WOE TO THOSE WHO REVERSE MORAL STANDARDS"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!"Dummelow called this the "perversion of all moral distinctions."[11] Calling sins by names that appear to approve of them is an old satanic trick. Thus the infidel is called a free thinker; the drunkard is called sociable; the alcoholic suffers from alcoholism; the stingy is called thrifty, etc. read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Isaiah 5:20

Isaiah 5:20. Woe unto them that call evil good, &c.— The fourth crime alleged is, the subversion of all the principles of truth, and of equity in judgment. A most corrupt condition of a church and state is here described, in which men accustomed to vices begin, with the things themselves, to lose also the true names of them, and to draw a vail, as it were, over their impieties, by sanctifying their crimes with the name of virtues. Thucydides pathetically describes this evil in the third... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Isaiah 5:20

20. Fourth Woe—against those who confound the distinctions of right and wrong (compare :-), "reprobate," Greek, "undiscriminating: the moral perception darkened." bitter . . . sweet—sin is bitter (Jeremiah 2:19; Jeremiah 4:18; Acts 8:23; Hebrews 12:15); though it seem sweet for a time (Proverbs 9:17; Proverbs 9:18). Religion is sweet (Proverbs 9:18- :). read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 5:8-25

2. The wildness of the grapes 5:8-25Yahweh’s crop was worthless because it produced wild grapes that manifested six blights. The word "woe" (Heb. hoy), a term of lament and threat, introduces each one (cf. Amos 5:18; Amos 6:1; Revelation 8:13; Revelation 9:12)."The word ’woe’ itself, appearing six times in the passage, does not just denounce our sins, it laments our sins. The same word is translated ’Ah!’ in Isaiah 1:4 and ’Alas!’ in 1 Kings 13:30. Remember that ’woe’ is the opposite of the... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 5:18-23

Four additional woes 5:18-23 read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 5:18-25

Sins of the cynically unbelieving 5:18-25Isaiah proceeded to expose the attitude that resulted in the people not allowing their knowledge of God to affect the way they lived (cf. Isaiah 5:13). They thought that God would not act and that they knew what was better for themselves than He did. The prophet identified more "sour grapes" that issued from these attitudes. read more

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