Isaiah 5:11

5:11 Those who get up early to drink beer are as good as dead,

those who keep drinking long after dark

until they are intoxicated with wine.

Isaiah 6:11

6:11 I replied, “How long, sovereign master?” He said,

“Until cities are in ruins and unpopulated,

and houses are uninhabited,

and the land is ruined and devastated,

Isaiah 26:20

26:20 Go, my people! Enter your inner rooms!

Close your doors behind you!

Hide for a little while,

until his angry judgment is over!

Isaiah 36:17

36:17 until I come and take you to a land just like your own – a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

Isaiah 38:13

38:13 I cry out until morning;

like a lion he shatters all my bones;

you turn day into night and end my life.


tn Heb “Woe [to] those who arise early in the morning, [who] chase beer.”

tn Heb “[who] delay until dark, [until] wine enflames them.”

sn This verse does not condemn drinking per se, but refers to the carousing lifestyle of the rich bureaucrats, made possible by wealth taken from the poor. Their carousing is not the fundamental problem, but a disgusting symptom of the real disease – their social injustice.

tn Heb “until anger passes by.”

tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Piel from שָׁוַה (shavah). There are two homonyms שָׁוַה, one meaning in the Piel “level, smooth out,” the other “set, place.” Neither fits in v. 13. It is likely that the original reading was שִׁוַּעְתִּי (shivvati, “I cry out”) from the verbal root שָׁוַע (shava’), which occurs exclusively in the Piel.

tn Heb “from day to night you bring me to an end.”