“WOE TO THOSE!”

Isaiah 5:18-21                    (ESV)

“18 “WOE TO THOSE” who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes, 

19 who say: "Let him be quick, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the counsel of the HOLY ONE of Israel draw near, and let it come, that we may know it!" 

20 “WOE TO THOSE” who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! 

21 “WOE TO THOSE” who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!”

Seeing a message recently that had Isaiah 5:20 on it caused me to go to my Bible and verify the wording of the post.  Sure enough, what was shown differed from what the English Standard Version shows, along with the KJV, NASB, and 1599 Geneva Bible.  One central theme of all four of the transactions that I trust the most is “WOE TO THOSE”!  

After researching the original Hebrew, the most correct word used for “ה֣וֹי” is “WOE”!  Now WOE to a country boy would mean to STOP what you were doing!  So looking up “WOE” in a dictionary brought me to the definition of “grievous distress, affliction, or trouble”. 

So “grievous distress, affliction, or trouble” to those “who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes”, “Let him be quick, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the counsel of the HOLY ONE of Israel draw near, and let it come, that we may know it!", “who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”, “who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!”

Now I have always said that you don’t need to keep kicking a person to when they are already down, so I won’t belabor the point being made.   But apparently there are those who either haven’t had read, or aren’t aware that the AUTHOR IS OUR CREATOR, of the book of Isaiah?  Isaiah 5:12 says “They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts, but they do not regard the deeds of the LORD, or see the work of HIS hands.”

Folks, I am not “highly educated” in the institutes of higher learning, but I do know that GOD ALMIGHTY has given us HIS WORD as a LIGHT unto our paths (Psalms 119:105), and we are CHOOSING to ignore HIS teachings and do whatever our minds tell us we should do!  It would behoove us to inject some “grievous distress, affliction, or trouble” before we devolve into a scenario where we hear “WOE TO THOSE” who are living on earth today!!!!