b. A series of woes (5:8-25)
Each of the woe sayings begins with the Hebrew word hôy, commonly translated “woe.” It is a term that probably comes from the context of a funeral lament: Hôy is a cry of mourners as they lament the passing of the deceased. The term is, no doubt, intentionally chosen by Isaiah, for in his eyes the impending judgment of God is so certain that wrongdoers, when he addresses them, are as good as dead. The mood of lament conveyed by this term is appropriate as well. Isaiah does not communicate God’s message of punishment with sinister joy but with deep sorrow.
The first woe is an attack on those wealthy landowners who accrue as much land as possible at whatever cost. It was a practice that was oppressive to the poor and therefore stood under the judgment of God.
But there was another dynamic at work here. Basic to OT thought was the idea that the land was Yahweh’s (Lev 25:23, “The land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants”). Indeed, the previous parable of the vineyard clearly made this very point. So both the theological and social dimensions of life had been violated. God could not let this go unpunished.
The punishment is stated in vv.9 and 10: The vast accumulations will be destroyed, and the new houses will all be empty. The land that they have seized will yield next to nothing.
The second woe is against indulgent and godless living (vv.11-17). The people have become so hedonistic that their first thought in the morning is the pursuit of pleasure. They have no regard for God (v.12). And because they have chosen to live without God, then indeed they will. Exile and death, life without God will be their lot (v.13).
Note Isaiah’s graphic picture of the mouth of death extended without limit, into which the people descend (v.14). Their descent brings to the prophet’s mind his earlier depiction of Yahweh’s Day of Judgment from ch. 2 (2:11, 17; 5:15-16).
The holy and righteous character of God will not permit unrighteousness and godlessness to go unchecked. V.16 suggests that when God acts in accordance with his character, all that is contrary to that character of holiness and righteousness will be destroyed.
The third woe is against those who have become so accustomed to sinning that it becomes a part of them and they drag it along with them wherever they go. Some interpreters would change the phrase “cords of deceit” to “like a sheep on a tether,” but this requires a change in the Hebrew text and misses the more subtle nuance. The phrase refers to deceptively thin cords like a spider’s web. The first sin seems harmless enough and perhaps the second, but soon the sinner is trapped in the webbing, unable to get out (cf. Sawyer, 59).
V.19 is directed against those who mock God and his prophet. Isaiah has prophesied that God’s judgment was imminent, but these foolish ones do not believe him! “If what you say is true, show us. See, it won't happen.”
The forth woe is against deliberate falsification of reality (v.20), while the fifth woe is against distorted perspective (v.21). The sixth woe is against those who misappropriate justice (vv.22-23). Those in the law court are portrayed as experts regarding things of no consequence, such as mixing drinks. But more seriously they have imbibed freely of the corrupt spirit of the times and are no longer able or willing to deal justly.
The judgment is now stated: Because they have rejected the word and law of God, the Holy One of Israel, God will destroy them with fire.