Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
The woe falls on those who are mighty, powerful and strong in drinking wine and in mixing strong drink, who are skilled and celebrated for it and take pride in it, so that strength put to drunkenness stands condemned. In its setting it describes Judah in Isaiah's day and in later years as given to gross drunkenness and a spirit of revelry. That revelry went together with pride, extravagance, love of display, wealth and oppression, as part of discouraging social conditions in which iniquitous practices had become prevalent among all classes.
The same condemnation reaches lawmakers and officials, with witnesses, jurors, lawyers and judges included, whose drinking clouds judgment and confuses right and wrong. With judgment clouded they distort moral truth and call evil good, and for reward they justify and clear the wicked while taking righteousness from the righteous, condemning the innocent and enacting oppressive laws.
Joined to the surrounding verses, this course is bound up with rejecting God's law and despising the word of the Holy One of Israel, bringing the pronounced woe and curse to ruin. Their apparent strength ends in complete destruction, like fire devouring stubble and flame consuming chaff, with root turned to rottenness and blossom going up as dust.
The woe falls on those who are mighty, powerful and strong in drinking wine and in mixing strong drink, who are skilled and celebrated for it and take pride in it, so that strength put to drunkenness stands condemned. In its setting it describes Judah in Isaiah's day and in later years as given to gross drunkenness and a spirit of revelry. That revelry went together with pride, extravagance, love of display, wealth and oppression, as part of discouraging social conditions in which iniquitous practices had become prevalent among all classes.
The same condemnation reaches lawmakers and officials, with witnesses, jurors, lawyers and judges included, whose drinking clouds judgment and confuses right and wrong. With judgment clouded they distort moral truth and call evil good, and for reward they justify and clear the wicked while taking righteousness from the righteous, condemning the innocent and enacting oppressive laws.
Joined to the surrounding verses, this course is bound up with rejecting God's law and despising the word of the Holy One of Israel, bringing the pronounced woe and curse to ruin. Their apparent strength ends in complete destruction, like fire devouring stubble and flame consuming chaff, with root turned to rottenness and blossom going up as dust.