Yeshayah 5:23

23 Which justify the rasha for shochad (bribe), and take away the tzidkat tzaddikim from him!

Yeshayah 5:23 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 5:23

Which justify the wicked for reward
This is either spoken of judges, and civil magistrates, who gave the cause in favour of the wicked, that bribed them, contrary to law, ( Deuteronomy 16:19 ) or rather of the Scribes and Pharisees, who pronounced the wicked righteous men, provided they kept the traditions of the elders, and paid tithes of all they possessed, and gave them money for their long prayers, ( Matthew 23:14 Matthew 23:23 ) : and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him;
by condemning them as unrighteous persons: so the Jews did Christ and his apostles; they pronounced them wicked, and condemned them to death; and as much as in them lay took away their righteousness from them, by taking away their character from them as righteous persons among men; though their righteousness itself could not be taken away, it being an everlasting one.

Yeshayah 5:23 In-Context

21 Hoy unto them that are chachamim in their own eyes, and clever in their own sight!

22 Hoy unto them that are Gibborim to drink yayin, and anshei chayil to mix shekhar;

23 Which justify the rasha for shochad (bribe), and take away the tzidkat tzaddikim from him!

24 Therefore as the eish licketh up the stubble, and the flame consumeth the dry grass, so their shoresh shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust; because they have cast away the Torat Hashem Tzva’os, and spurned the word of the Kadosh Yisroel.

25 Therefore is the Af Hashem kindled against His people, and He hath stretched forth His yad against them, and hath struck them down; and the mountains did tremble, and their nevilah were like refuse in the streets. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His yad is stretched out still.