Isaiah 5:12

12 And harp, and psaltery, tabret, and pipe, And wine, have been their banquets, And the work of Jehovah they behold not, Yea, the work of His hands they have not seen.

Isaiah 5:12 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 5:12

And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe
Instruments of music; some struck with a bow or quill, or touched with the fingers; and others blown with the mouth: and wine are in their feasts;
so that they lived jovially and merrily, like sons of Bacchus, more than like the people of God: but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the
operation of his hands;
meaning not the law, as the Targum and Kimchi, which was the work of the Lord, and the writing of his hands; rather, as Aben Ezra, the punishment inflicted on the ten tribes being carried into captivity; or else the works of creation and providence, and the daily mercies of life; or, best of all, the great work of redemption by Christ, and the conversion of sinners, both among Jews and Gentiles, by the preaching of his Gospel; for this refers to the Jews in the times of Christ and his apostles, which immediately preceded their utter destruction; and those sins here mentioned were the cause of it. See ( Psalms 28:5 ) .

Isaiah 5:12 In-Context

10 For ten acres of vineyard do yield one bath, And an homer of seed yieldeth an ephah.
11 Wo [to] those rising early in the morning, Strong drink they pursue! Tarrying in twilight, wine inflameth them!
12 And harp, and psaltery, tabret, and pipe, And wine, have been their banquets, And the work of Jehovah they behold not, Yea, the work of His hands they have not seen.
13 Therefore my people removed without knowledge, And its honourable ones are famished, And its multitude dried up of thirst.
14 Therefore hath Sheol enlarged herself, And hath opened her mouth without limit. And gone down hath its honour, and its multitude, And its noise, and its exulting one -- into her.
Young's Literal Translation is in the public domain.