Isaiah 5:8

Those who accumulate houses are as good as dead, ¹  those who also accumulate landed property ²  until there is no land left, ³  and you are the only landowners remaining within the land. ⁴ 

1Ki 21:16-20; Jer 22:13-17; Eze 11:15; Eze 33:24; Mic 2:2; Hab 2:9-12; Mt 23:14; Lu 12:16-24

¹ tn Heb “Woe [to] those who make a house touch a house.” The exclamation הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5) and carries the connotation of death.

² tn Heb “[who] bring a field near a field.”

sn This verse does not condemn real estate endeavors per se, but refers to the way in which the rich bureaucrats of Judah accumulated property by exploiting the poor, in violation of the covenantal principle that the land belonged to God and that every family was to have its own portion of land. See the note at 1:23.

³ tn Heb “until the end of the place”; NASB “until there is no more room.”

⁴ tn Heb “and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.”