Isaiah 5:8

8 How horrible it will be for you who acquire house after house and buy field after field until there's nothing left and you have to live by yourself in the land.

Isaiah 5:8 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 5:8

Woe unto them that join house to house
Or "O ye that join"; for, as Aben Ezra observes, it signifies calling, as in ( Isaiah 55:1 ) though Jarchi takes it to be expressive of crying and groaning, on account of future punishments; and he observes, that as there are twenty two blessings pronounced in the book of Psalms, on those that keep the law, so there are twenty two woes pronounced by Isaiah upon the wicked: [that] lay field to field;
the sin of covetousness is exposed and condemned in these words; not that it is unlawful in itself for a man that has a house or field of his own to purchase another that is next unto it; but when he is insatiable, and not content with his houses and lands, but is always coveting more, this is his sin, and especially if he seeks to get them by fraud or force: till [there] be no place;
for others to dwell in and possess; and so the Targum,

``and say, until we possess every place;''

or "unto the end of the place" ^F24, city, or field; till they have got all the houses in the town or city, and all the pieces of ground in the field, in their own possession: that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth,
or land; that is, of Judea; wholly inhabit it themselves, and have the sole power and jurisdiction over it. It is in the Hebrew text ^F25 "that ye may be placed"; the Targum is,

``and they think they shall dwell alone in the midst of the land.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F24 (Mwqm opa de) "usque ad terminum loci", V. L.
F25 (Mtbvwhw) "constituamini", Vatablus, Forerius, Montanus; "colloeemini", Calvin.

Isaiah 5:8 In-Context

6 I will make it a wasteland. It will never be pruned or hoed. Thorns and weeds will grow in it, and I will command the clouds not to rain on it.

7 The vineyard of the LORD of Armies is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the garden of his delight. He hoped for justice but saw only slaughter, for righteousness but heard only cries of distress.

8 How horrible it will be for you who acquire house after house and buy field after field until there's nothing left and you have to live by yourself in the land.

9 With my own ears I heard the LORD of Armies say, "Many houses will become empty. Large, beautiful houses will be without people to live in them.

10 A ten-acre vineyard will produce only six gallons of wine, and two quarts of seed will produce only four quarts of grain."