Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes are parched with thirst.
Parallel Translations
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Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes are parched with thirst.
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Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
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Therefore My people are gone into captivity, for want of knowledge; and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude are parched with thirst.
Cross-references (18)
Passages linked to Isaiah 5:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest to me. Because you have forgotten your God’s law, I will also forget your children.
- Isaiah 1:3 The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but Israel doesn’t know. My people don’t consider.”
- Isaiah 1:7 Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
- Isaiah 27:11 When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.
- John 3:19-20 This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.
- Romans 1:28 Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
- Isaiah 42:22-25 But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons. They have become captives, and no one delivers, and a plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’ Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come? Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Didn’t Yahweh, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law. Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him, and the strength of battle. It set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know. It burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”
- Jeremiah 8:7 Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times. The turtledove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people don’t know Yahweh’s law.
- Jeremiah 14:3 Their nobles send their little ones to the waters. They come to the cisterns, and find no water. They return with their vessels empty. They are disappointed and confounded, and cover their heads.
- Jeremiah 14:18 If I go out into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword! If I enter into the city, then, behold, those who are sick with famine! For both the prophet and the priest go about in the land, and have no knowledge.’ ”
- Lamentations 4:4-5 The tongue of the nursing child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst. The young children ask bread, and no one breaks it for them. Those who ate delicacies are desolate in the streets. Those who were brought up in purple embrace dunghills.
- Lamentations 4:9 Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger; For these pine away, stricken through, for lack of the fruits of the field.
- Matthew 23:16-27 “Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated?’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it, and by everything on it. He who swears by the temple, swears by it, and by him who has been living in it. He who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits on it. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone. You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel! “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
- 2 Peter 3:5 For this they willfully forget that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water by the word of God,
- 2 Kings 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
- 2 Chronicles 28:5-8 Therefore Yahweh his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria. They struck him, and carried away from him a great multitude of captives, and brought them to Damascus. He was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with a great slaughter. For Pekah the son of Remaliah killed in Judah one hundred twenty thousand in one day, all of them valiant men, because they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their fathers. Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the king’s son, Azrikam the ruler of the house, and Elkanah who was next to the king. The children of Israel carried away captive of their brothers two hundred thousand women, sons, and daughters, and also took away much plunder from them, and brought the plunder to Samaria.
- Amos 8:13 In that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint for thirst.
- Luke 19:44 and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn’t know the time of your visitation.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain That is, shall certainly go: for so the Prophets…
That is, shall certainly go: for so the Prophets use to speak, as though the thing which shall come to pass, were done already.
Because they would not obey the word of God.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 5:13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity,…
Isa 5:13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because [they have] no knowledge: and their honourable men [are] famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
Ver. 13. Therefore my people are gone into captivity,] i.e, They are sure to go. {so Amo 6:7}
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Because they have no knowledge.] Heb., Propter non-scientiam; i.e., ut ita dicam, non-curantiam, For their brutish oscitancy and lack of consideration, as having buried their wits in their guts, and being miserably besotted by their daily sensualities. "Surely they are poor, they are foolish; for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God." {Jer 5:4}
And their honourable men are famished.] Heb., Are men of hunger or famine; Congrua huic malo lues. They had abused their food and drink to surfeiting and drunkenness; now they shall know the worth of those good creatures by the want of them.
And their multitude dried up with thirst.] The common sort also shall taste of the common calamity; as they did very deeply, when besieged by Vespasian, for five months. {a} Ox dung was then a precious dish unto them, and the shreddings of pot herbs, cast out and trodden under foot and withered, were taken up again for nourishment; yea some, to prolong their lives, would not stick to eat up that which others had vomited and cast up; see Isa 9:19-20.
{a} Joseph.; Egesip.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Are gone into captivity; either,
Are gone into captivity; either,
1. Are actually gone, which was true of the ten tribes in Hezekiah’s reign, 2Ki 18:9, under whom this prophecy might be uttered; or,
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2. Shall certainly and shortly go, as the two tribes afterward did.
They have no knowledge; no serious consideration of God’s works, and of their own duty and danger. Their honourable men, who thought themselves quite out of reach of famine.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Therefore my people are gone into captivity,.... Or rather,…
Therefore my people are gone into captivity,.... Or rather, as Kimchi explains it, "shall go into captivity"; the past for the future; for this cannot be understood even of the captivity of the ten tribes, for they were not carried captive until the sixth year of Hezekiah's reign, Kg2 17:6 whereas this prophecy was delivered out many years before, even in the time of Uzziah, as is manifest from the following chapter, Isa 6:1 and much less it cannot design the captivity of Judah, but respects the captivity by the Romans, in future time.
Because they have no knowledge; of the work of the Lord, and the operations of his hands; the Septuagint and Arabic versions render it, "because they knew not the Lord", the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, the true Messiah; they knew not his person, office, grace, and Gospel; they did not own and acknowledge him, but despised and rejected him; their ignorance was affected and voluntary; they had the means of knowledge, but did not make use of them; they would not know him, they would not attend to the strong and clear evidence of his being the Messiah, which prophecies, miracles, and his doctrines, gave of him; the things belonging to their peace they knew not, these were righteously hid from them, and hence destruction came upon them, Luk 19:42 the words may be rendered in connection with the former, "therefore my people shall go into captivity without knowledge" (b), unawares, unthought of, and unexpected; and the Jews, to the last; did not think their city would be taken, but that in some way of other salvation and deliverance would be wrought for them:
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and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst; or "shall be"; this is expressive of a famine of bread and water, which all, both high and low, prince and people, should be affected with; see Isa 3:1 and was true not only when Jerusalem was besieged by the Chaldeans, Jer 52:6, Jer 5:10 but when it was besieged by the Romans, in which the rich suffered as well as the poor; and was so great, that even women ate their own children, as Josephus (c) relates: this is threatened as a punishment of their rioting and drunkenness, Isa 5:11.
(b) "idcirco exsulat populus meus absque scientia", Cocceius; so Montanus. (c) De Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 10. sect. 2. 3. & 12. 3. & 6. 3, sect. 3.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain No knowledge - No serious consideration of God's works,…
No knowledge - No serious consideration of God's works, and of their own duty and danger. honourable men - Who thought themselves quite out of the reach of famine.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 13. And their honourable men - "And the…
Verse 13. And their honourable men - "And the nobles"] These verses have likewise a reference to the two preceding. They that indulged in feasting and drinking shall perish with hunger and thirst; and Hades shall indulge his appetite as much as they had done, and devour them all. The image is strong and expressive in the highest degree. Habakkuk, Hab 2:5, uses the same image with great force: - the ambitious and avaricious conqueror.
"Enlargeth his appetite like Hades;
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And he is like Death, and will never be satisfied,"
But, in Isaiah, Hades is introduced to much greater advantage, in person; and placed before our eyes in the form of a ravenous monster, opening wide his immeasurable jaws, and swallowing them all together: "Therefore Sheol hath dilated her soul, she hath opened her mouth beyond limit." Destruction expects more than a common meal, when God visits Jerusalem for her iniquities. This seems to refer to the ruin brought on the Jews by the Romans. Our blessed Lord repeats this parable, and applies it to this very transaction, Mt 21:33.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Isa 5:13-14. Therefore the people are gone into captivity…
Isa 5:13-14. Therefore the people are gone into captivity — The prophet may refer to those carried captive in the time of Ahaz: see on Isa 2:20. Or his words may be rendered, the people go into, &c.; that is, shall certainly and shortly go, speaking of the approaching judgments as if they were already come. Because they have no knowledge — No serious consideration of God’s works, and of their own duty and danger. And their honourable men are famished — Who thought themselves quite out of the reach of famine. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself — The grave, or the place of torment to which certainly the souls of such persons must descend; and opened her mouth without measure —
To receive those vast numbers which die by this famine, or otherwise, as is here implied. The prophet is thought to allude “to the form of the ancient sepulchres, which were subterraneous caverns hollowed out of a rock, the mouth of which was generally closed by a great stone. The prosopopœia is extremely fine and expressive, and the image is fraught with the most tremendous horror.” And their glory, &c. — Their nobles, or honourable men, as they are called, Isa 5:13, being distinguished, both here and there, from the multitude; and their pomp — Which shall die with them; and he that rejoiceth — That spendeth all his days in mirth and jollity, and casteth away all cares and fears; shall descend into it — Not only into the grave, but into hell. Bishop Lowth’s translation of this verse is peculiarly striking:
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“Therefore Hades hath enlarged his appetite; And hath stretched open his mouth without measure: And down go her nobility, and her populace, And her busy throng, and all that exult in her.”
“These verses,” (13 and 14,) he justly observes, “have a reference to the two preceding. They that indulged in feasting and drinking, shall perish with hunger and thirst: and Hades” (the invisible world, hell prepared to receive these sinners that live and die in sin) “shall indulge his appetite as much as they had done, and devour them all. The image is strong and expressive in the highest degree. Habakkuk uses the same image with great force, chap. 2:5. But in Isaiah, Hades is introduced, to much greater advantage, in person; and placed before our eyes as a ravenous monster, opening wide his unmeasurable jaws, and swallowing them all together.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Therefore my people are gone - This is evidently…
Therefore my people are gone - This is evidently used with reference to the “future.” The prophet described events as “passing before his eyes” as a vision (note, Isa 1:1); and he here seems to “see” the people going into captivity, and describes it as an event actually occurring.
Into captivity - Referring, doubtless, to the captivity at Babylon.
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Because they have no knowledge - Because they do not choose to retain the knowledge of God.
And their honorable men - The Hebrew is, ‘The glory of the people became people of famine;’ that is, they shall be destroyed with famine. This was to be a “punishment” for their dissipation at their feasts.
And their multitude - The mass, or body of the nation; the common people.
Dried up with thirst - Are punished in this manner for their indulgence in drinking. The punishment here specified, refers particularly to a journey through an arid, desolate region, where drink could be obtained only with difficulty. Such was the route which the nation was compelled afterward to take in going to Babylon.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain are gone--The prophet sees the future as if it…
are gone--The prophet sees the future as if it were before his eyes.
no knowledge--because of their foolish recklessness (Isa 5:12; Isa 1:3; Hos 4:6; Luk 19:44).
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famished--awful contrast to their luxurious feasts (Isa 5:11-12).
multitude--plebeians in contradistinction to the "honorable men," or nobles.
thirst-- (Psa 107:4-5). Contrast to their drinking (Isa 5:11). In their deportation and exile, they shall hunger and thirst.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 13. Therefore — In consequence of the delinquencies that…
13. Therefore — In consequence of the delinquencies that bring down both these woes.
My people — Still His, (iii, 12,) but therefore all the more to be chastised. Amo_3:2.
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No knowledge — They were heedless of what the consequences must be. These they might have known, and ought to have known and heeded.
Their — Literally, his; his people of honour, or honourable men, are men of starvation, famished from want of food and drink. This is clearly the sense. Hence, great mortality among them. Hence, too, the next therefore.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 13. Therefore (because its leaders are so blind) my…
13. Therefore (because its leaders are so blind) my people goeth into captivity (proph. perf.). This is the only explicit mention of exile in Isaiah. Cf. again Amo_6:7. The next words may be rendered either from lack of knowledge (R.V.) or without knowing it—“unawares” (Cheyne). The former gives the better sense (cf. Hos_4:6).
their honourable men … their multitude] lit. “its glory” … “its tumult.” The contrast, however, is rightly indicated by A.V.—the noblesse over against the populace. famished] Hebr. “men of hunger.” But the word for “men” is poetic (Isa_3:25) and never found in such phrases as this. The ancient versions, with a different vocalisation, read “dead with hunger,” which is obviously too strong. Most commentators now follow Ewald and Hitzig, and alter the text in accordance with Deu_32:24 (R.V. “wasted”), reading “sucked out (exhausted) with hunger.” This involves the change of a single letter, and yields a suitable parallelism to “dried up with thirst.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (13) My people are gone into captivity.—The great captivity…
(13) My people are gone into captivity.—The great captivity of Judah lay as yet far off, but the prophet may be speaking of it as already present in his vision of the future. Probably, however, the disastrous wars of Ahaz had involved many captures of the kind referred to (2Ch_28:5; 2Ch_28:8; 2Ch_28:17-18).
Because they have no knowledge.—Better, and they knew not—i.e., did not foresee that this must be the outcome of their conduct. The “honourable men” and the “multitude” are named as representing all classes of society.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Therefore my people are gone into captivity. "Are gone"…
Therefore my people are gone into captivity. "Are gone" or "have gone" is "the perfect of prophetic certainty" (Cheyne). The prophet sees the captivity as a thing that had already taken place. It as an appropriate punishment for drunkenness and revelry to be carried off into servitude, and in that condition to suffer, as slaves so often did, hunger and thirst. Because they have no knowledge; or, unawares, without foreseeing it (so Rosenm Gesenius, Ewald, Delitzsch, Cheyne). Their honorable men; literally, their glory, for "their glorious ones the abstract for the concrete. Are famished; literally, sons of famine; i.e. "starvelings." Their multitude; or, their noisy crowd (Kay) the "throng of voluptuaries" who frequented the great banquets of vers. 11, 12.
Vers. 13-17. The calamities of spiritual ignorance.
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The miseries which are unfolded in this passage are ascribed, in the thirteenth verse, to ignorance. "My people are gone, ere because they have no knowledge." But it is necessary to distinguish here. We must consider
I THE IGNORANCE WHICH IS SPIRITUAL AND THEREFORE GUILTY. There is ignorance which is entirely mental and which is wholly guiltless; e.g. that of the little child who cannot understand some of the obligations into which we grow, or that of the heathen who cannot possibly acquire a knowledge of Christ and his salvation. There is a mental ignorance which is not guiltless, but culpable; viz. that of the man who has not acquired the information he had the opportunity of gaining in earlier days, and that of the man who goes down through iniquity and immorality into intellectual feebleness and impotence. But the ignorance of which our text treats (ver. 13) is not mental, but spiritual; it is that of the whole spiritual nature rather than of the understanding; it is that of men who had a formal knowledge of God and duty, but who did not lay it to heart and did not act upon it. It is the ignorance of the nation, which might, if it would, understand what the will of God is in the matter of Divine worship, or in regard to its poor and uninstructed members, or to its uncivilized and helpless neighbors; but which will not take the trouble to ascertain it, or even blinds its eyes so that it shall not see it. It is the ignorance of the individual man, who has indeed an undefined knowledge of his obligations to his Father and his Savior, but who studiously keeps it out of view; who will not present it to the eyes of his soul, lest he should be constrained to reproach himself and to change his course. These are they who "have no knowledge," in the sense of the prophet.
II THE CALAMITIES WHICH IT ENTAILS. These are manifold, as the passage intimates. They include:
1. Exile "going into captivity" (ver. 13); dwelling in a "far country;" being, spiritually, where all is strange and alien and hostile, a long way from God and from the privileges of his house and the enjoyment of his service.
2. A void and aching heart. "The honorable men are famished, and the multitude dried up with thirst" (ver. 13). Not knowing God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, depriving themselves of the deep and lasting satisfactions of his favor and friendship, men find all material sources of joy utterly unsatisfying; they eat, and hunger still; they drink, but" thirst again.
3. Impoverishment. (Ver. 4.) The nation that does not act up to the height of its knowledge and its opportunity, that is not governed by its sense of right and duty, but by its inclination to pride and pleasure, is a nation that will decline; it will soon be stripped of its power. Hades will open its mouth without measure," and "swallow up" its glory, its eminence, its joy; it will be bereft of all of which it boasts, for the hand of the Lord will be against it, and his righteous judgments will overtake it (ver. 16).
4. Humiliation. (Ver. 15.)
5. Mortification. How unspeakably mortified would those Jewish captives be to find themselves pining in a foreign land when their own fields at home were unoccupied, the spoil of the roving flock, the prey of the marauding stranger! (ver. 17) And how bitter must be the mortification and self-reproach which they must feel who have to realize the results of their guilty spiritual ignorance; who have to see that, afar off and beyond their reach, are joys which they might have shared, honors which they might have won, spheres which they might have filled, a large heritage which was their own but which will never be theirs again! C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain My people are gone into captivity, because they have…
Isa_5:13
My people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge
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A sermon for Trinity Sunday
1.
My people. The Almighty has a people of His own; a people with special privileges and a special work to do. In the Old Testament and the New this is clearly written. My people, says Isaiah; My flock, says Jesus Christ. That is the method of grace. God acts upon some of us that they may act upon the rest. In the days of a school the young influence one another. In a town, in a nation, it is the same. And a whole country has its mission for the world as the Hebrews had. Now, in the text that nation is complained of. Why? Because they had no knowledge.
2. My people is a term which shows us Gods character. The inferences which arise from it should be dear to Christians. God will not be without a people, because He is a God of love. He must have around Him children to love. But it is a quality inherent in love to love its like. Children may be helpless, or wayward: we can bear with them, love them, not less, perhaps more, for their weakness and dependence; but they must not be reprobate. There must be some affinity of feeling, something lovable in them, or at last we shall not love, or at any rate love will be in abeyance. God, we believe, has not, and never will, disinherit Israel finally. Why did he go so wrong and choose so badly? Therefore My people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge. They had knowledge enough in their head no doubt, but they had not taken it to their heart.
3. Now, as regards ourselves, we are Gods people--not exclusively, but among other Christian nations of this later time. God has given us great knowledge of His truth. He has even revealed to us deep secrets of His own nature: even the mystery of the Holy Trinity itself. Since God has given knowledge to us, it should be kept by us not in a passive but in a living active state. (2Ti_1:13; Tit_1:13; Tit_2:1; 2Co_13:5; Jud_1:3.) And this knowledge is so efficient and operative a force that it is all-important to keep it whole and undefiled. This doctrine of the Holy Trinity is no speculative thing, but it is closely interwoven with the principles of Christian life. (T. F. Crosse, D. C. L.)
They have no knowledge
How should they, when by their excessive drinking they make sots and fools of themselves? They set up for wits; but because they regard not Gods controversy with them, nor take any care as to their peace with Him, they may truly be said to have no knowledge; and the reason is, because they will have none; inconsiderate and wilful, and therefore destroyed for lack of knowledge. (M. Henry.)
Inconsideration and ignorance
1. Ignorance is the certain consequence of inconsideration.
2. Inconsideration is the natural effect of luxury and dissipation, which arise from gratified avarice and ambition. (R. Macculloch.)
Records of the past
The great stone book of nature reveals many strange records of the past. In the red sandstone there are found in some places marks which are clearly the impressions of showers of rein, and these so perfect that it can even be determined in which direction the shower inclined, and from what quarter it proceeded; and this ages ago! So sin leaves its track behind it, and God keeps a faithful record of all our sins. (G. H. Morrison, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain (Sunday School or Bible Society Sermon.)
THE EVILS OF IGNORANCE
(Sunday School or Bible Society Sermon.)
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Isa_5:13-15. Therefore my people are gone away into captivity, because they have no knowledge, &c.
Isaiah speaks of the future as if it were already present. He traces the terrible disasters about to befall his countrymen to their true cause—their ignorance of God,—in their case a wilful ignorance (Hos_4:6), which had betrayed them into courses of conduct ruinous in themselves, and certain to bring down the judgments of the Almighty. The history of mankind justifies us in laying down two propositions:
I. That ignorance is a terrible evil. To be in ignorance of the great facts of God’s universe, of the great laws by which He governs it, is to be in a condition of constant peril. We are as men who wander in darkness over the great mountains; every step may be taking us further from the right path, the next step may hurl us over some unsuspected precipice. Remember what calamities—political, commercial, social—have been due solely to ignorance. [Illustrate by examples] [640]
[640] As blindness is the deformity of the face, so is ignorance the deformity of the soul. As the want of fleshly eyes spoils the beauty of the face, so the want of spiritual eyes spoils the beauty of the soul. A man without knowledge is as a workman without his hands, as a painter without his eyes, as a traveller without his legs, or as a ship without sails, or a bird without wings, or like a body without a soul.—Brooks, 1680.
II. That the most terrible of all kinds of ignorance is ignorance of God Himself.
1. Much sin is due to ignorance [643] Not all sin, for there are many transgressions committed against full light—the worst form of iniquity. But concerning multitudes of sinners we may pray, as did our Lord for His executioners, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” The most appalling of all sins was committed in ignorance (1Co_2:8). Did men truly know God, they would fear, love, and gladly serve Him. For lack of a true knowledge of God, men who desired to serve Him have perpetrated the most frightful crimes (Joh_16:2; Act_26:9).
2. Sins committed in ignorance entail terrible disasters. That unavoidable ignorance is a palliation of the guilt of transgressors is clearly the teaching of the New Testament (Luk_23:34; 1Ti_1:13), as it had been previously of the Old (Num_15:28; Deu_19:4, &c.); and it will affect their condition in the eternal world (Luk_12:47-48). But here and now it does nothing to exempt men from the natural consequences of their transgressions. The man who swallows a poison by mistake is killed by it as surely as the deliberate suicide, &c.
[643] Ignorance opens the door for Satan to enter in with his troops of lusts; where the watch is blind, the city is soon taken.—Gurnall, 1617–1679.
In view of these solemn truths, of which all human history is one prolonged corroboration,—
1. We should constantly endeavour to grow in knowledge. “More light!” should be our constant prayer. Every means of acquainting ourselves with God and His will we should diligently use. Let us beware of the temptation indolently to rest in a voluntary ignorance. Voluntary ignorance is no palliation, but a tremendous aggravation of iniquity [646]
2. Let us diligently impart to our fellow-men such knowledge as we have already acquired. Benevolence should move us to do this. We can confer upon our fellow-men no greater or more needed blessing. Self-interest should impel us to the same course. In teaching we learn. In labouring to cause others to see, we ourselves for the first time attain to clear vision. Knowledge is like the bread with which the five thousand were fed; it multiplies as it is dispensed, and when the feast is over, those who carried it to others themselves possess more than they did when the feast began.
3. Every organisation which exists for the diffusion of knowledge should have our sympathy and support both as patriots and Christians. This is true even of secular knowledge, but especially of that knowledge which is able to make men “wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” [649]
[646] He that knew not his Lord’s will, because he wilfully rejected the means of coming to the knowledge of it, deserves to be beaten with as many stripes as if he had known it and would not. He that will not take notice of the king’s proclamation, or will stop his ears when it is read, and afterwards offends against it, does equally deserve punishment with those who have read it, and heard it, and disobey it; because he was as grossly faulty in not knowing it; and there is no reason that any man’s gross fault should be his excuse.—Tillotson, 1630–1694.
[649] Oh, for the coming of that glorious time
When, prizing knowledge as her noblest wealth
And best protection, this imperial realm,
While she exacts allegiance, shall admit
An obligation, on her part, to teach
Them who are born to serve her and obey;
Binding herself by stature to secure
For all the children whom her soil maintains
The rudiments of letters, and inform
The mind with moral and religious truth,
Both understood and practised,—so that none,
However destitute, be left to droop
By culture unsustained; or run
Into a wild disorder; or be forced
To drudge through a weary life without the help
Of intellectual implements and tools;
A savage horde among the civilised;
A servile band among the lordly free.
—Wordsworth.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
These verses tell what will happen to the people because they have disobeyed God.
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my people have gone into captivity
In prophecy things that will happen in the future are often referred to as if they had already happened. This emphasizes that the prophecy will certainly come true. AT: "enemies from other countries will take my people, Israel, as slaves" (See: Predictive Past)
for lack of understanding
What they do not understand can be made explicit. AT: "because they do not understand Yahweh or his law" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
Sheol has made its appetite greater and has opened its mouth very wide
This phrase speaks of Sheol, which stands here for the grave, to an animal that is ready to eat other animals. It implies that many, many people will die. AT: "death is like a hungry animal that has opened its mouth wide to eat up many people" (See: Metaphor)
their elite, the people, their leaders, and the revelers and those who are happy among them, descend into Sheol
The prophet speaks of the future as if it were happening now. AT: "Many people of Israel, their important people and common people, their leaders and those who enjoy wild parties, will go into Sheol" (See: Predictive Past)
translationWords
people group
captive
Hades
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 5:13 Israel and Judah would go into exile to…
5:13 Israel and Judah would go into exile to Assyria (722 BC) and Babylon (586 BC). • The people did not respond to the Lord because they did not know him (see 1:3). They likely knew about him, but their behavior showed that they did not know him in any intimate way.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.