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Selected Verse: Isaiah 5:13 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Isa 5:13 |
King James |
Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
are gone--The prophet sees the future as if it were before his eyes.
no knowledge--because of their foolish recklessness (Isa 5:12; Isa 1:3; Hos 4:6; Luk 19:44).
famished--awful contrast to their luxurious feasts (Isa 5:11-12).
multitude--plebeians in contradistinction to the "honorable men," or nobles.
thirst-- (Psa 107:4-5). Contrast to their drinking (Isa 5:11). In their deportation and exile, they shall hunger and thirst. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Therefore my people are gone - This is evidently used with reference to the "future." The prophet described events as "passing before his eyes" as a vision (note, Isa 1:1); and he here seems to "see" the people going into captivity, and describes it as an event actually occurring.
Into captivity - Referring, doubtless, to the captivity at Babylon.
Because they have no knowledge - Because they do not choose to retain the knowledge of God.
And their honorable men - The Hebrew is, 'The glory of the people became people of famine;' that is, they shall be destroyed with famine. This was to be a "punishment" for their dissipation at their feasts.
And their multitude - The mass, or body of the nation; the common people.
Dried up with thirst - Are punished in this manner for their indulgence in drinking. The punishment here specified, refers particularly to a journey through an arid, desolate region, where drink could be obtained only with difficulty. Such was the route which the nation was compelled afterward to take in going to Babylon. |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
| Therefore judgment would overtake them in this blind, dull, and stupid animal condition. "Therefore my people go into banishment without knowing; and their glory will become starving men, and their tumult men dried up with thirst." As the word "therefore" (lâcēn, as in Isa 1:24) introduces the threat of punishment, gâlâh (go into captivity) is a prophetic preterite. Israel would go into exile, and that "without knowing" (mibb'li-da'ath). The meaning of this expression cannot be "from want of knowledge," since the min which is fused into one word with b'li is not causal, but negative, and mibb'li, as a preposition, always signifies "without" (absque). But are we to render it "without knowing it" (as in Hos 4:6, where hadda'ath has the article), or "unawares?" There is no necessity for any dispute on this point, since the two renderings are fundamentally one and the same. The knowledge, of which Isa 5:12 pronounces them destitute, was more especially a knowledge of the judgment of God that was hanging over them; so that, as the captivity would come upon them without knowledge, it would necessarily come upon them unawares. "Their glory" (Cebōdō) and "their tumult" (hamono) are therefore to be understood, as the predicates show, as collective nouns used in a personal sense, the former signifying the more select portion of the nation (cf., Mic 1:15), the latter the mass of the people, who were living in rioting and tumult. The former would become "men of famine" (mĕthē rââb: מתי, like אנשׁי in other places, viz., Sa2 19:29, or בּני, Sa1 26:16); the latter "men dried up with thirst" (tsichēh tsâmâh: the same number as the subject). There is no necessity to read מתי (dead men) instead of מתי, as the lxx and Vulgate do, or מזי (מזה) according to Deu 32:24, as Hitzig, Ewald, Bttcher, and others propose (compare, on the contrary, Gen 34:30 and Job 11:11). The adjective tzicheh (hapax leg) is formed like Chirēsh, Cēheh, and other adjectives which indicate defects: in such formations from verbs Lamed - He, instead of e we have an ae that has grown out of ay (Olshausen, 182, b). The rich gluttons would starve, and the tippling crowd would die with thirst. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| No knowledge - No serious consideration of God's works, and of their own duty and danger. Honourable men - Who thought themselves quite out of the reach of famine. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
And their honorable men "And the nobles" - These verses have likewise a reference to the two preceding. They that indulged in feasting and drinking shall perish with hunger and thirst; and Hades shall indulge his appetite as much as they had done, and devour them all. The image is strong and expressive in the highest degree. Hab 2:5, uses the same image with great force: - the ambitious and avaricious conqueror.
"Enlargeth his appetite like Hades;
And he is like Death, and will never be satisfied,"
But, in Isaiah, Hades is introduced to much greater advantage, in person; and placed before our eyes in the form of a ravenous monster, opening wide his immeasurable jaws, and swallowing them all together: "Therefore Shoel hath dilated her soul, she hath opened her mouth beyond limit." Destruction expects more than a common meal, when God visits Jerusalem for her iniquities. This seems to refer to the ruin brought on the Jews by the Romans. Our blessed Lord repeats this parable, and applies it to this very transaction, Mat 21:33. |
11 Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!
4 They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.
5 Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
11 Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!
12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.
44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.
1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
11 For he knoweth vain men: he seeth wickedness also; will he not then consider it?
30 And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.
24 They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.
16 This thing is not good that thou hast done. As the LORD liveth, ye are worthy to die, because ye have not kept your master, the LORD'S anointed. And now see where the king's spear is, and the cruse of water that was at his bolster.
29 And the king said unto him, Why speakest thou any more of thy matters? I have said, Thou and Ziba divide the land.
15 Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel.
12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
24 Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:
33 Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country:
5 Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people: