Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:
It pictures sinners tying themselves to wrongdoing with empty, worthless cords that become as strong as a heavy cart rope, like a beast of burden harnessed to its load and dragging it along by deliberate, persistent choice. It is willful defiance of God, making light of His counsel, mocking His threatened judgment, and challenging Him to act. It pronounces woe upon indulgence in wine and gluttony and covetousness, which dulls the moral senses, causes forgetfulness of God, and becomes idolatry by coming between the soul and God. Its drawing of iniquity is fulfilled in the last days when wickedness persists and grows worst just before Christ comes, with scoffers denying His coming, faith growing scarce, and crime, fraud, greed, and oppression increasing even in the most enlightened lands. It stands as a merciful warning that the end is near, calling for heeding the beginnings of sin and living in truth and righteousness.
Setting and Meaning
Isaiah, a prophet of Judah during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, spoke this woe from about 760 to 700 B.C. during crucial times in Judah, more than a hundred years before the Babylonian captivity. His book is filled with gospel truth, and its first part contains prophecies and judgments of God looking forward especially to the last days and typical of the great days to come. Chapters 1 to 5 speak of the backsliding of God's people in that time and use their condition as types of last-day apostasies.
Chapter 5 portrays Israel and Judah as God's vineyard grown unfruitful and pronounces woes on those who depart from God. It forcefully depicts Judah's backsliding and warns Judah of the consequences of following Israel's path. Though thus blessed with His temple, the custody of His law, light to give to the world, and divine protection, they failed.
The cords of vanity are empty or worthless cords, and the cart rope is a heavy cart rope, by which men bind themselves to iniquity and keep drawing it along. The sinner is pictured as a beast of burden fastened to a load, and that load is sin. This implies the deceived spiritual condition of those laden with corruption who deliberately and persistently attach themselves to sin and draw it after them.
The drawing is willful, done in defiance of the Holy One of Israel. It is persisting in sin, making light of His counsel through His prophets, deriding His threatened judgment, and challenging Him to show His work so it can be seen.
Judgment and Last-Day Warning
The woe is one of the woes of intemperance, resting upon all classes from highest to lowest. Indulgence in wine and kindred drinks as well as gluttony draws iniquity and sin after itself, and with covetousness, strong drink and related sins it loads men with corruption so that they persistently draw sin to themselves. Such indulgence inevitably dulls the moral senses with consequent forgetting of God, and whatever in this manner comes between a person and God is idolatry.
It exposes a leading cause of the captivity and ruin that came upon the people more than a hundred years before the Babylonian captivity. Though they were God's vineyard, blessed with His temple, the custody of His law, light to give to the world, and divine protection, they failed and willfully dragged sin after themselves in defiance of the Holy One of Israel. Because they rejected God's counsel and His law and word and derided His threatened judgment, His judgments came upon them and woe came upon woe. The binding of themselves to iniquity and sin and drawing them along as with empty cords and a heavy cart rope addresses prevalent wickedness among those who reject God's law and word.
The drawing of iniquity and sin warns that men will persist in wickedness and scoff at the promise of Christ's coming, defiantly challenging Him to come. His apparent long delay emboldens their unbelief and hardens them in sin and wickedness. This proves the world will grow no better but will be worst just before Christ comes, with few truly good people and few holding faith concerning His coming, while even His own people are tempted to despair of it because He has passed their reckoning.
Its fulfillment is seen in the awful increase of crime in the most highly civilized lands most enlightened by Christianity as a sign that Christ's coming is near. That increase is widespread graft, robbery, fraud, arson, perjury and assassination by senators, congressmen, legislators, governors, insurance directors, trustees, businessmen and labor leaders, driven by the money-mad greed of the human heart. It is also the covetous, greedy spirit of professed religionists in the last days who love themselves, heap treasure together, keep back the hire of laborers by fraud, live in pleasure and wantonness, and condemn and kill the just. This condition is characteristic of the last time, the closing years of the reign of man, so widespread that almost every person is touched by it through relation or friend and public sentiment cannot be aroused, and so hardened that after awful calamities the money-mad, pleasure-crazed world quickly turns back to its wickedness.
The woe is pronounced upon drunkenness, misery, crime and licentiousness, warning against even the very beginnings of sin. It stands as a merciful warning and one of God's signs in the social world that the end of all earthly things and the second coming of Jesus Christ is near, showing that the last days are like the corrupt cities and nations God pointed to as warnings. It calls individual Christians to save all they can without compromising truth and righteousness, to heed the warnings, to do their duty, and to live as they preach.
It pictures sinners tying themselves to wrongdoing with empty, worthless cords that become as strong as a heavy cart rope, like a beast of burden harnessed to its load and dragging it along by deliberate, persistent choice. It is willful defiance of God, making light of His counsel, mocking His threatened judgment, and challenging Him to act. It pronounces woe upon indulgence in wine and gluttony and covetousness, which dulls the moral senses, causes forgetfulness of God, and becomes idolatry by coming between the soul and God. Its drawing of iniquity is fulfilled in the last days when wickedness persists and grows worst just before Christ comes, with scoffers denying His coming, faith growing scarce, and crime, fraud, greed, and oppression increasing even in the most enlightened lands. It stands as a merciful warning that the end is near, calling for heeding the beginnings of sin and living in truth and righteousness.
Setting and Meaning
Isaiah, a prophet of Judah during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, spoke this woe from about 760 to 700 B.C. during crucial times in Judah, more than a hundred years before the Babylonian captivity. His book is filled with gospel truth, and its first part contains prophecies and judgments of God looking forward especially to the last days and typical of the great days to come. Chapters 1 to 5 speak of the backsliding of God's people in that time and use their condition as types of last-day apostasies.
Chapter 5 portrays Israel and Judah as God's vineyard grown unfruitful and pronounces woes on those who depart from God. It forcefully depicts Judah's backsliding and warns Judah of the consequences of following Israel's path. Though thus blessed with His temple, the custody of His law, light to give to the world, and divine protection, they failed.
The cords of vanity are empty or worthless cords, and the cart rope is a heavy cart rope, by which men bind themselves to iniquity and keep drawing it along. The sinner is pictured as a beast of burden fastened to a load, and that load is sin. This implies the deceived spiritual condition of those laden with corruption who deliberately and persistently attach themselves to sin and draw it after them.
The drawing is willful, done in defiance of the Holy One of Israel. It is persisting in sin, making light of His counsel through His prophets, deriding His threatened judgment, and challenging Him to show His work so it can be seen.
Judgment and Last-Day Warning
The woe is one of the woes of intemperance, resting upon all classes from highest to lowest. Indulgence in wine and kindred drinks as well as gluttony draws iniquity and sin after itself, and with covetousness, strong drink and related sins it loads men with corruption so that they persistently draw sin to themselves. Such indulgence inevitably dulls the moral senses with consequent forgetting of God, and whatever in this manner comes between a person and God is idolatry.
It exposes a leading cause of the captivity and ruin that came upon the people more than a hundred years before the Babylonian captivity. Though they were God's vineyard, blessed with His temple, the custody of His law, light to give to the world, and divine protection, they failed and willfully dragged sin after themselves in defiance of the Holy One of Israel. Because they rejected God's counsel and His law and word and derided His threatened judgment, His judgments came upon them and woe came upon woe. The binding of themselves to iniquity and sin and drawing them along as with empty cords and a heavy cart rope addresses prevalent wickedness among those who reject God's law and word.
The drawing of iniquity and sin warns that men will persist in wickedness and scoff at the promise of Christ's coming, defiantly challenging Him to come. His apparent long delay emboldens their unbelief and hardens them in sin and wickedness. This proves the world will grow no better but will be worst just before Christ comes, with few truly good people and few holding faith concerning His coming, while even His own people are tempted to despair of it because He has passed their reckoning.
Its fulfillment is seen in the awful increase of crime in the most highly civilized lands most enlightened by Christianity as a sign that Christ's coming is near. That increase is widespread graft, robbery, fraud, arson, perjury and assassination by senators, congressmen, legislators, governors, insurance directors, trustees, businessmen and labor leaders, driven by the money-mad greed of the human heart. It is also the covetous, greedy spirit of professed religionists in the last days who love themselves, heap treasure together, keep back the hire of laborers by fraud, live in pleasure and wantonness, and condemn and kill the just. This condition is characteristic of the last time, the closing years of the reign of man, so widespread that almost every person is touched by it through relation or friend and public sentiment cannot be aroused, and so hardened that after awful calamities the money-mad, pleasure-crazed world quickly turns back to its wickedness.
The woe is pronounced upon drunkenness, misery, crime and licentiousness, warning against even the very beginnings of sin. It stands as a merciful warning and one of God's signs in the social world that the end of all earthly things and the second coming of Jesus Christ is near, showing that the last days are like the corrupt cities and nations God pointed to as warnings. It calls individual Christians to save all they can without compromising truth and righteousness, to heed the warnings, to do their duty, and to live as they preach.