The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 94

seed sown .fo them. ticularized as those 'll'hicq. -,he.ve especially Ver. 11.-Woe unto them that . . . follow pr~voked God to gi;e the warning. On strong drink. ·we have here the second each of these woe . is denounced. Two woe, It is pronounced on d:runkenne88 and have special punishmenrs l!,SSigned to them revelry. ·Drunkenness is an infrequent (vers. 8-17); the_ remainder are joined in Oriental vice; but it seems to have been • one whereto many among the Jews were one general thrila~, of retribution (vers. 18 at' all times proue (see Prov. n:. I; uiii. -24). 29-32 ;· Eccles. x. 17; Hos. iv. JI; eh. Ver. 8.-Woe 11.ii.to them that join house n:viii 7,: etc.). Even the priests and the to house. This is' the first woe. It is :pro- wi-disant prophets "en·ed through strong nounced on the greed. which leads men to drink nnd were swallowed up of wine" continually enlarge their estates,. without ( eh. :riviii. 7). That rise 1Ip early in the regard to their neighbourB' • convenience. mormng. Great banquet~ were belt! by the Nothing is said of any use of unfair' means, •~princes" and "nobles," beginning at an much less of., violence in dispossessing the early honr (Eccles. x. 16), ancl accompanied former proprieto~s~·'. What is denouuced is by music of an exciting 'kind (Amos•vi. 5, 6), the selfishness of. vast .. sccumulutious of which· were " continued until night," or land in single hnnd_s 1 to the detriment of the rather," i11to the night" (Revised Version), rest of the community.• The Jewish la,w a.nd terminated in geneml drunkenness, per- was pcculiW"ly. inimical to this , pra,ritice haps in general licentiousness. (See Prov. (Numb. xxviL .. 1.,...11; xxxiii,.54,;,l Kinga mii. 21~ao. aricl Hos. iv.11 for foe connection ui: 4) ; butt. perhaps it; is .not·. without of'inebriet\y with whoredom.) Two kindsol reason that ·me.nyi 'Wiiiters of· ·our• ,own time intoxioa.ting .liquor seem .to- have been con- oliject to iit oµ,-general grounds.· Till there sumed·a& these banquets, viz. ordinary grape be no place; literally, till want of place; ie1 wine, and a much stron:::er drink, which is till there is no. toom•for others. A hyper- said to have been "made ot' dates, pome- bo:e, doubtless, but marking,!\ real national granates, apples, hon1c>y, barley, and other inconveuience, That they :may be placed ingredients," which was known e.s sheka1' alone in ,the midst of the earth ; . rather, (Greek, a-(1<,pa), and is called "strong drink" that ye may dwell by yourselves. in the midst in the.Authorized Version. Till wine inflame of tM .land. The great, landlords wished them ; or, the wine inftamfng them. to isolate themselves; they disliked neigh~ Ver. 12.-The harp and the viol, the hours ; they would foin "dwell by them- tabret e.nd pipe. It is difficult to identify selves," without neighbours to .trouble them. the Hebrew instruments of musio with Uzziah seems, by what is &Bid of his pos- modern names; but there seems to be no sessions (2 Chron. xxvi. 10), to have been doubt that. the kinno,· was a sort of harp, ono of tho greatest sinners in respect of tho and the kholib a sort of pipe. The nebel, accumulation of lnnd. generally rendered by" psaltery," but here Ver. !J.-Eithor something has fallen out and in eh. xiv. 11 by " viol," was a in the fl"st olause of this verso, or there is stringed instrument played with the fingers a most unusuul ellipse of the verb "Sil.id," (Josephus); pei·h!\pB a lyro, perhnps a sort which our translators have supplied, very of dulcimer. 'l'ho tliph, hero trauslale,l properly. There seems to he nothing em- "tabret," and. eleswb,•re often "timbrel." PO THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [ou. v. 1-30.