Isaiah 28:8

8 Their tables are covered with vomit; filth is everywhere.

Isaiah 28:8 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 28:8

For all tables are full of vomit [and] filthiness
The one signifies what is spued out of a man's mouth, his stomach being overcharged, and the other his excrements; and both give a just, though nauseous, idea of a drunken man. This vice was very common; men of all ranks and degrees were infected with it, rulers and people; and no wonder that the common people ran into it, when such examples were set them; the tables of the priests, who ate of the holy things in the holy place, and the tables of the prophets, who pretended to see visions, and to prophesy of things to come, were all defiled through this prevailing sin; [so that there is] no place [clean]
or free from vomit and filthiness, no table, or part of one, of prince, prophet, priest, and people; the Targum adds,

``pure from rapine or violence.''
R. Simeon, as De Dieu observes, makes "beli Makom" to signify "without God", seeing God is sometimes with the Jews called Makom, "place", because he fills all places; and as if the sense was, their tables were without God, no mention being made of him at their table, or in their table talk, or while eating and drinking; but this does not seem to be the sense of the passage. Vitringa interprets this of schools and public auditoriums, where false doctrines were taught, comparable to vomit for filthiness; hence it follows:

Isaiah 28:8 In-Context

6 He will give a longing for justice to their judges. He will give great courage to their warriors who stand at the gates.
7 Now, however, Israel is led by drunks who reel with wine and stagger with alcohol. The priests and prophets stagger with alcohol and lose themselves in wine. They reel when they see visions and stagger as they render decisions.
8 Their tables are covered with vomit; filth is everywhere.
9 “Who does the LORD think we are?” they ask. “Why does he speak to us like this? Are we little children, just recently weaned?
10 He tells us everything over and over— one line at a time, one line at a time, a little here, and a little there!”
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