Isaiah 5

Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope. Wesley: not only drawn by allurements, but active in drawing sin to themselves; cords of lying—vain pretenses; a rope—with all their might, as beasts drawing carts.

Judah hauling its own sin. They still pull. Not a fake warning: the cart is theirs.

Calvin: cords are the excuses by which men harden the heart. Conscience would restrain; they break through. They bind themselves to sin and are without excuse.

The rope is self-tied. Both note: woe, cords, cart ropes.

Who say, Let him make haste, let him hasten his work, that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near, that we may know it. Wesley: God in whose name the prophets threaten; the language of their actions; they scornfully repeated the Holy One’s title.

The mockers taunt God with their own mouths. They could have waited on the word. The delay is His; the dare is theirs.

Calvin: utmost contempt—they treat judgment as fable and would be glad to see it, as if God did nothing until He punished. Faith holds us on His mouth when the effect does not immediately appear. Elect rely on the word; the ungodly scorn it and call for works. Peter’s mockers (2 Pet 3:4) speak the same line.

Unbelief demands a spectacle; faith waits. Common confession: quick, speed, Holy One of Israel, that we may know.

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, darkness light, bitter sweet. Wesley: they take away the difference between good and evil; justify the wicked and condemn the righteous.

Swapping in Judah’s gates (1:23; 5:23).

Calvin: not limited to judges; whoever flatters himself in evil and condemns what is done aright. As if they would change light into darkness—folly that would destroy the principles of nature.

Desperate wickedness that erases the table. Evil good, darkness light, bitter sweet.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight. The vineyard’s plants now diagnose themselves.

A conceit they can still drop. Beginning of another course of life is to be taught (5:13).

Calvin: obstinate scorners who set their own wisdom against God’s warnings. The beginning of piety is willingness to be taught, when we have renounced our own judgment. We must become fools if we desire to be God’s disciples. In their own eyes: in their own conceit.

Self-wisdom is already revolt. Wise in their own eyes, prudent in their own sight.

Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink. Wesley: to mingle—to drink.

The strength of 5:11 now named valor. Valor spent in the cup.

Calvin: they waste strength in bacchanalian warfare. Beastly ambition: a man of vigor displays it by swallowing. We eat to support the body and live to obey God.

The might is misused. Both readings hold: heroes, wine, mixing strong drink.

Who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent of his right. Wesley: take away—pronounce sentence against him.

“Acquit”—the cry of 5:7 in the courtroom.

Calvin: gifts blind the wise (Exod 23:8). Where gifts are allowed, regard to right is corrupted. He names the vice that most abounded in their seats.

The vineyard’s bloodshed has a price. They acquit the guilty for a bribe and deny the innocent their right.

As fire devours stubble, their root shall be as rottenness, their blossom dust; they have rejected the law of the LORD of Armies, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Wesley: a tree that dies at the roots, past recovery.

The word they dared in v. 19 is the word they despised. Root-rot is the vineyard without rain (5:6).

Calvin: contempt of the law is the source and accumulation of all that is evil. They shook off the yoke not by ignorance but by inveterate malice. Nothing worse than that Satan take away reverence for the law.

Rejecting the word is the fire’s fuel. Both agree: stubble, root, blossom, law, Holy One of Israel.

The LORD’s anger burns against his people; He has stretched out his hand and struck them; the mountains tremble; corpses lie like refuse in the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is still stretched out still. The past stroke does not empty the next.

Blows already felt, and more coming. They might have turned. The hand is His; the corpses were Judah’s.

Calvin: former punishments, and not near an end. Men forget chastisements as soon as they escape. Therefore: not chance. Chosen people treated sharply proves heinous crime. The hand stretched out still: it may yet pursue them.

One plague does not exhaust Him. Agreed: anger, hand, mountains, corpses, stretched out still.

He will lift up a banner to the nations from far away, and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth; quickly, speedily they come. Wesley: ensign to the Chaldeans, a far country; that army of several nations; hiss—whistle as shepherds gather sheep; how easily God does this.

Far nations—Assyria, then Babylon. He signals; they still march. The armies march under God’s rule.

Calvin: from distant nations they did not expect. He does not need a trumpet; a hiss, a nod, gathers them. Wars are not accidental: God assembles soldiers. The Assyrians aimed at wealth; He employs their agency. They are drawn contrary to their wish; that is no excuse.

The far army is His instrument. Signal, nations far away, whistle, quickly they come.

No one is weary or stumbles among them; no one slumbers or sleeps; not a belt is loosened, not a sandal strap broken. Wesley: watchful to execute His judgments; He takes impediments out of their way.

A host that does not nap.

Calvin: everything prepared so there is no delay. They will be so far from sleeping they will not even slumber (cf. Ps 121:4, inverted).

He clears the road. Common to both: weary, stumbles, sleeps, sandal strap.

Arrows sharp, bows bent, horses’ hoofs like flint, wheels like the whirlwind. Wesley: furnished and ready, waiting His command; flint—not broken by a long rough road; whirlwind—swift march and violent chariots.

The arrows describe an army’s equipment. Length of journey will not save Judah.

Calvin: provided with weapons. Hoofs like flint: no molestation on a long road. Wheels like a whirlwind: chariots arriving without weariness.

No length of way hinders Him. The arrows, bows, flint hoofs, and whirlwind wheels picture an unstoppable army.

They will roar like young lions. Yes, they growl and seize prey and carry it off, and none can rescue. Wesley: cruelty and eagerness to devour.

The invaders prowl over the vineyard like predators. None can rescue—from them, because He sent them.

Calvin: not men of compassion but savage beasts. Strength such that none approach to rescue. God armed them with formidable power so this wayward people might know they have to do with God, into whose hands it is fearful to fall.

The lion is His rod. Both hear: lion, prey, none can rescue.

They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land, darkness and distress; the light is darkened in its clouds. Wesley: sorrow; when they look to the heavens as men in distress, they see no light.

“That day”—dark over Judah’s land. They look up; the sky does not help. The vineyard’s song ends in night.

Calvin: the attack like a deluge, the whole land shipwrecked. Punishment without alleviation. Up or down, no relief: His creatures are armed against us when He pursues. We may escape men; we cannot escape His hand.

Darkness is the last exhibit of the stretched-out hand.