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Selected Verse: Isaiah 1:22 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Isa 1:22	Strong Concordance	Thy silver [03701] is become dross [05509], thy wine [05435] mixed [04107] with water [04325]:
	King James	Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:

Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
Thy princes and people are degenerate in "solid worth," equivalent to "silver" (Jer 6:28, Jer 6:30; Eze 22:18-19), and in their use of the living Word, equivalent to "wine" (Sol 7:9). mixed--literally, "circumcised." So the Arabic, "to murder" wine, equivalent to dilute it.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

Thy princes and people are degenerate in "solid worth," equivalent to "silver" (Jer 6:28, Jer 6:30; Eze 22:18-19), and in their use of the living Word, equivalent to "wine" (Sol 7:9).

mixed--literally, "circumcised." So the Arabic, "to murder" wine, equivalent to dilute it.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
Thy silver - The sentiment in this verse, as it is explained by the following, is, thy princes and people have become corrupt, and polluted. Silver is used here to denote what should have been more valuable - virtuous princes. Dross - This word - סיג sı̂g - means the scoriae, or baser metal, which is separated from the purer in smelting. It is of little or no value; and the expression means, that the rulers had become debased and corrupt, as if pure silver had been converted wholly to dross. Thy wine - Wine was regarded as the most pure and valuable drink among the ancients. It is used, therefore, to express that which should have been most valued and esteemed among them - to wit, their rulers. Mixed with water - Diluted, made weak. According to Gesenius, the word rendered "mixed" - מהוּל mâhûl - is from מהל mâhal, the same as מוּל mûl, to circumcise; and hence, by a figure common with the Arabians, to adulterate, or dilute wine. The word does not occur in this sense elsewhere in the Scriptures, but the connection evidently requires it to be so understood. Wine mixed with water is that which is weakened, diluted, rendered comparatively useless. So with the rulers and judges. They had lest the strength and purity of their integrity, by intermingling those things which tended to weaken and destroy their virtue, pride, the love of gifts, and bribes, etc. Divested of the figure, the passage means, that the rulers had become wholly corrupt.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
The complaint now turns from the city generally to the authorities, and first of all figuratively. "Thy silver has become dross, thy drink mutilated with water." It is upon this passage that the figurative language of Jer 6:27. and Eze 22:18-22 is founded. Silver is here a figurative representation of the princes and lords, with special reference to the nobility of character naturally associated with nobility of birth and rank; for silver - refined silver - is an image of all that is noble and pure, light in all its purity being reflected by it (Bhr, Symbolik, i. 284). The princes and lords had once possessed all the virtues which the Latins called unitedly Candor animi, viz., the virtues of magnanimity, affability, impartiality, and superiority to bribes. This silver had now become l'sigim, dross, or base metal separated (thrown off) from silver in the process of refining (sig, pl. sigim, siggim from sug, recedere, refuse left in smelting, or dross: cf., Pro 25:4; Pro 26:23). A second figure compares the leading men of the older Jerusalem to good wine, such as drinkers like. The word employed here (sobe) must have been used in this sense by the more cultivated classes in Isaiah's time (cf., Nah 1:10). This pure, strong, and costly wine was now adulterated with water (lit. castratum, according to Pliny's expression in the Natural History: compare the Horatian phrase, jugulare Falernum), and therefore its strength and odour were weakened, and its worth was diminished. The present was nothing but the dross and shadow of the past.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
Wine mixed with water - An image used for the adulteration of wines, with more propriety than may at first appear, if what Thevenot says of the people of the Levant of late times were true of them formerly. He says, "They never mingle water with their wine to drink; but drink by itself what water they think proper for abating the strength of the wine." "Lorsque les Persans boivent du vin, ils le prennent tout pur, a la facon des Levantins, qui ne le melent jamais avec de l'eua; mais en beuvant du vin, de temps en temps ils prennent un pot d'eau, et en boivent de grand traits." Voyage, part ii., 54 ii., chap. 10. "Ils (les Turcs) n'y meslent jamais d'eau, et se moquent des Chretiens qui en mettent, ce qui leur semble tout a fait ridicule." Ibid. part i., chap. 24. "The Turks never mingle water with their wine, and laugh at the Christians for doing it, which they consider altogether ridiculous." It is remarkable that whereas the Greeks and Latins by mixed wine always understood wine diluted and lowered with water, the Hebrews on the contrary generally mean by it wine made stronger and more inebriating by the addition of higher and more powerful ingredients, such as honey, spices, defrutum, (or wine inspissated by boiling it down to two-thirds or one-half of the quantity), myrrh, mandragora, opiates, and other strong drugs. Such were the exhilarating, or rather stupefying, ingredients which Helen mixed in the bowl together with the wine for her guests oppressed with grief to raise their spirits, the composition of which she had learned in Egypt: - Αυτικ' αρ' εις οινον βαλε φαρμακον, ενθεν επινον, Νηπενθες τ' αχολον τε, κακων επιληθον ἁπαντων. Homer. Odyss. lib. iv., ver. 220. "Meanwhile, with genial joy to warm the soul, Bright Helen mix'd a mirth-inspiring bowl; Temper'd with drugs of sovereign use, to assuage The boiling bosom of tumultuous rage: Charm'd with that virtuous draught, the exalted mind All sense of wo delivers to the wind." Pope. Such was the "spiced wine and the juice of pomegranates," mentioned Sol 8:2. And how much the Eastern people to this day deal in artificial liquors of prodigious strength, the use of wine being forbidden, may be seen in a curious chapter of Kempfer upon that subject. Amoen. Exot. Fasc. iii., Obs. 15. Thus the drunkard is properly described, Pro 23:30, as one "that seeketh mixed wine," and "is mighty to mingle strong drink," Isa 5:22. And hence the poet took that highly poetical and sublime image of the cup of God's wrath, called by Isa 51:17, the "cup of trembling," causing intoxication and stupefaction, (see Chappelow's note on Hariri, p. 33), containing, as St. John expresses in Greek the Hebrew idea with the utmost precision, though with a seeming contradiction in terms, κεκερασμενον ακρατον, merum mixtum, pure wine made yet stronger by a mixture of powerful ingredients; Rev 14:10. "In the hand of Jehovah," saith the psalmist, Psa 75:8, "there is a cup, and the wine is turbid: it is full of a mixed liquor, and he poureth out of it," or rather, "he poureth it out of one vessel into another," to mix it perfectly, according to the reading expressed by the ancient versions, ויגר מזה אל זה vaiyagger mizzeh al zeh, and he pours it from this to that, "verily the dregs thereof," the thickest sediment of the strong ingredients mingled with it, "all the ungodly of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them." R. D. Kimchi says, "The current coin was adulterated with brass, tin, and other metals, and yet was circulated as good money. The wine also was adulterated with water in the taverns, and sold notwithstanding for pure wine."

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826

Wine mixed with water - An image used for the adulteration of wines, with more propriety than may at first appear, if what Thevenot says of the people of the Levant of late times were true of them formerly. He says, "They never mingle water with their wine to drink; but drink by itself what water they think proper for abating the strength of the wine." "Lorsque les Persans boivent du vin, ils le prennent tout pur, a la facon des Levantins, qui ne le melent jamais avec de l'eua; mais en beuvant du vin, de temps en temps ils prennent un pot d'eau, et en boivent de grand traits." Voyage, part ii., 54 ii., chap. 10. "Ils (les Turcs) n'y meslent jamais d'eau, et se moquent des Chretiens qui en mettent, ce qui leur semble tout a fait ridicule." Ibid. part i., chap. 24. "The Turks never mingle water with their wine, and laugh at the Christians for doing it, which they consider altogether ridiculous."

It is remarkable that whereas the Greeks and Latins by mixed wine always understood wine diluted and lowered with water, the Hebrews on the contrary generally mean by it wine made stronger and more inebriating by the addition of higher and more powerful ingredients, such as honey, spices, defrutum, (or wine inspissated by boiling it down to two-thirds or one-half of the quantity), myrrh, mandragora, opiates, and other strong drugs. Such were the exhilarating, or rather stupefying, ingredients which Helen mixed in the bowl together with the wine for her guests oppressed with grief to raise their spirits, the composition of which she had learned in Egypt: -

Αυτικ' αρ' εις οινον βαλε φαρμακον, ενθεν επινον,

Νηπενθες τ' αχολον τε, κακων επιληθον ἁπαντων.

Homer. Odyss. lib. iv., ver. 220.

"Meanwhile, with genial joy to warm the soul,

Bright Helen mix'd a mirth-inspiring bowl;

Temper'd with drugs of sovereign use, to assuage

The boiling bosom of tumultuous rage:

Charm'd with that virtuous draught, the exalted mind

All sense of wo delivers to the wind."

Pope.

Such was the "spiced wine and the juice of pomegranates," mentioned Sol 8:2. And how much the Eastern people to this day deal in artificial liquors of prodigious strength, the use of wine being forbidden, may be seen in a curious chapter of Kempfer upon that subject. Amoen. Exot. Fasc. iii., Obs. 15.

Thus the drunkard is properly described, Pro 23:30, as one "that seeketh mixed wine," and "is mighty to mingle strong drink," Isa 5:22. And hence the poet took that highly poetical and sublime image of the cup of God's wrath, called by Isa 51:17, the "cup of trembling," causing intoxication and stupefaction, (see Chappelow's note on Hariri, p. 33), containing, as St. John expresses in Greek the Hebrew idea with the utmost precision, though with a seeming contradiction in terms, κεκερασμενον ακρατον, merum mixtum, pure wine made yet stronger by a mixture of powerful ingredients; Rev 14:10. "In the hand of Jehovah," saith the psalmist, Psa 75:8, "there is a cup, and the wine is turbid: it is full of a mixed liquor, and he poureth out of it," or rather, "he poureth it out of one vessel into another," to mix it perfectly, according to the reading expressed by the ancient versions, ויגר מזה אל זה vaiyagger mizzeh al zeh, and he pours it from this to that, "verily the dregs thereof," the thickest sediment of the strong ingredients mingled with it, "all the ungodly of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them."

R. D. Kimchi says, "The current coin was adulterated with brass, tin, and other metals, and yet was circulated as good money. The wine also was adulterated with water in the taverns, and sold notwithstanding for pure wine."

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⁹ And the roof of thy mouth [02441] like the best [02896] wine [03196] for my beloved [01730], that goeth [01980] down sweetly [04339], causing the lips [08193] of those that are asleep [03463] to speak [01680].

³⁰ Reprobate [03988] silver [03701] shall men call [07121] them, because the LORD [03068] hath rejected [03988] them.

²⁸ They are all grievous [05493] revolters [05637], walking [01980] with slanders [07400]: they are brass [05178] and iron [01270]; they are all corrupters [07843].

¹⁰ For while they be folden together [05440] as thorns [05518], and while they are drunken [05433] as drunkards [05435], they shall be devoured [0398] as stubble [07179] fully [04392] dry [03002].

²³ Burning [01814] lips [08193] and a wicked [07451] heart [03820] are like a potsherd [02789] covered [06823] with silver [03701] dross [05509].

⁴ Take away [01898] the dross [05509] from the silver [03701], and there shall come forth [03318] a vessel [03627] for the finer [06884].

¹⁸ Son [01121] of man [0120], the house [01004] of Israel [03478] is to me become dross [05509]: all they are brass [05178], and tin [0913], and iron [01270], and lead [05777], in the midst [08432] of the furnace [03564]; they are even the dross [05509] of silver [03701].
¹⁹ Therefore thus saith [0559] the Lord [0136] GOD [03069]; Because ye are all become dross [05509], behold, therefore I will gather [06908] you into the midst [08432] of Jerusalem [03389].
²⁰ As they gather [06910] silver [03701], and brass [05178], and iron [01270], and lead [05777], and tin [0913], into the midst [08432] of the furnace [03564], to blow [05301] the fire [0784] upon it, to melt [05413] it; so will I gather [06908] you in mine anger [0639] and in my fury [02534], and I will leave [03240] you there, and melt [05413] you.
²¹ Yea, I will gather [03664] you, and blow [05301] upon you in the fire [0784] of my wrath [05678], and ye shall be melted [05413] in the midst [08432] thereof.
²² As silver [03701] is melted [02046] in the midst [08432] of the furnace [03564], so shall ye be melted [05413] in the midst [08432] thereof; and ye shall know [03045] that I the LORD [03068] have poured out [08210] my fury [02534] upon you.

²⁷ I have set [05414] thee for a tower [0969] and a fortress [04013] among my people [05971], that thou mayest know [03045] and try [0974] their way [01870].

⁸ For in the hand [03027] of the LORD [03068] there is a cup [03563], and the wine [03196] is red [02560]; it is full [04392] of mixture [04538]; and he poureth out [05064] of the same [02088]: but the dregs [08105] thereof, all the wicked [07563] of the earth [0776] shall wring them out [04680], and drink [08354] them.

¹⁰ The same [846] [2532] shall drink [4095] of [1537] the wine [3631] of the wrath [2372] of God [2316], which [3588] is poured out [2767] without mixture [194] into [1722] the cup [4221] of his [846] indignation [3709]; and [2532] he shall be tormented [928] with [1722] fire [4442] and [2532] brimstone [2303] in the presence [1799] of the holy [40] angels [32], and [2532] in the presence [1799] of the Lamb [721]:

¹⁷ Awake [05782], awake [05782], stand up [06965], O Jerusalem [03389], which hast drunk [08354] at the hand [03027] of the LORD [03068] the cup [03563] of his fury [02534]; thou hast drunken [08354] the dregs [06907] of the cup [03563] of trembling [08653], and wrung them out [04680].

²² Woe [01945] unto them that are mighty [01368] to drink [08354] wine [03196], and men [0582] of strength [02428] to mingle [04537] strong drink [07941]:

³⁰ They that tarry long [0309] at the wine [03196]; they that go [0935] to seek [02713] mixed wine [04469].

² I would lead [05090] thee, and bring [0935] thee into my mother's [0517] house [01004], who would instruct [03925] me: I would cause thee to drink [08248] of spiced [07544] wine [03196] of the juice [06071] of my pomegranate [07416].