Isaiah 5:13

13 Therefore my people will end up in exile because they don't know the score. Their "big men" will starve to death and the common people die of thirst.

Isaiah 5:13 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 5:13

Therefore my people are gone into captivity
Or rather, as Kimchi explains it, "shall go into captivity"; the past for the future; for this cannot be understood even of the captivity of the ten tribes, for they were not carried captive until the sixth year of Hezekiah's reign, ( 2 Kings 17:6 ) ( 18:1 ) whereas this prophecy was delivered out many years before, even in the time of Uzziah, as is manifest from the following chapter, ( Isaiah 6:1 ) and much less it cannot design the captivity of Judah, but respects the captivity by the Romans, in future time. Because [they have] no knowledge;
of the work of the Lord, and the operations of his hands; the Septuagint and Arabic versions render it, "because they knew not the Lord", the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, the true Messiah; they knew not his person, office, grace, and Gospel; they did not own and acknowledge him, but despised and rejected him; their ignorance was affected and voluntary; they had the means of knowledge, but did not make use of them; they would not know him, they would not attend to the strong and clear evidence of his being the Messiah, which prophecies, miracles, and his doctrines, gave of him; the things belonging to their peace they knew not, these were righteously hid from them, and hence destruction came upon them, ( Luke 19:42-44 ) the words may be rendered in connection with the former, "therefore my people shall go into captivity without knowledge" {b}, unawares, unthought of, and unexpected; and the Jews, to the last; did not think their city would be taken, but that in some way of other salvation and deliverance would be wrought for them: and their honourable men [are] famished, and their multitude dried
up with thirst;
or "shall be"; this is expressive of a famine of bread and water, which all, both high and low, prince and people, should be affected with; see ( Isaiah 3:1 ) and was true not only when Jerusalem was besieged by the Chaldeans, ( Jeremiah 52:6 ) ( Lamentations 4:4 Lamentations 4:5 Lamentations 4:8-10 ) ( Jeremiah 5:10 ) but when it was besieged by the Romans, in which the rich suffered as well as the poor; and was so great, that even women ate their own children, as Josephus ^F3 relates: this is threatened as a punishment of their rioting and drunkenness, ( Isaiah 5:11 Isaiah 5:12 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (ted ylbm yme hlg Nkl) "idcirco exsulat populus meus absque scientia", Cocceius; so Montanus.
F3 De Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 10. sect. 2. 3. & 12. 3. & 6. 3, sect. 3.

Isaiah 5:13 In-Context

11 Doom to those who get up early and start drinking booze before breakfast, Who stay up all hours of the night drinking themselves into a stupor.

12 They make sure their banquets are well-furnished with harps and flutes and plenty of wine, But they'll have nothing to do with the work of God, pay no mind to what he is doing.

13 Therefore my people will end up in exile because they don't know the score. Their "big men" will starve to death and the common people die of thirst.

14 Sheol developed a huge appetite, swallowing people nonstop! Big people and little people alike down that gullet, to say nothing of all the drunks.

15 The down-and-out on a par with the high-and-mighty, Windbag boasters crumpled, flaccid as a punctured bladder.