Isaiah 5:25

25 Therefore {Yahweh's wrath was kindled} against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked, and their corpses were like refuse in [the] middle of [the] streets.

Isaiah 5:25 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 5:25

Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his
people
His professing people; which character, as it aggravated their sin in rejecting and despising the word of the Lord, so it increased his anger and indignation against them: and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten
them;
which some understand of past judgments and afflictions upon them, under Joash, Amaziah, and Ahaz; and others of future ones, under Shalmaneser and Nebuchadnezzar: and the hills did tremble;
which Jarchi interprets of their kings and princes; or it may be only a figurative expression, setting forth the awfulness of the dispensation: and their carcasses [were] torn in the midst of the streets.
The Targum renders it, "were as dung"; so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions; being slain there, and lying unburied, were trampled upon, and trodden down like "clay", as the Syriac version; or like the mire of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away;
this being abundantly less than their sins deserved; which shows how great were their sins, and how much the Lord was provoked to anger by them: but his hand [is] stretched out still;
to inflict yet sorer judgments. The Targum is

``by all this they turn not from their sins, that his fury may turn from them; but their rebellion grows stronger, and his stroke is again to take vengeance on them;''

which expresses their impenitence and hardness of heart, under the judgments of God, which caused him to take more severe methods with them.

Isaiah 5:25 In-Context

23 Those who acquit the guilty because of a bribe and remove [the] justice of [the] innocent from him.

24 Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and dry grass sinks down [in the] flame, so their root will become like [the] stench, and their blossom will go up like [the] dust. For they have rejected the instruction of Yahweh of hosts, and they have treated the word of the holy one of Israel with contempt.

25 Therefore {Yahweh's wrath was kindled} against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked, and their corpses were like refuse in [the] middle of [the] streets.

26 And he will raise a signal for a nation from afar, and he will whistle for it from the end of the earth. And look! It comes quickly, swiftly!

27 None [is] weary, and none among him stumbles; none slumbers and none sleeps. And no loincloth on his waist is opened, and no thong of his sandals is drawn away.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "the anger of Yahweh became hot"
• [b] Hebrew "it"
• [c] Hebrew "it"
• [d] Hebrew "corpse"