Isaiah 5:13

13 So my people will be captured and taken away, because they don't really know me. All the great people will die of hunger, and the common people will die of thirst.

Isaiah 5:13 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 5:13

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, ( 2 Kings 17:6 ) ( 18:1 ) whereas this prophecy was delivered out many years before, even in the time of Uzziah, as is manifest from the following chapter, ( Isaiah 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, ( Luke 19:42-44 ) 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: 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 ( Isaiah 3:1 ) and was true not only when Jerusalem was besieged by the Chaldeans, ( Jeremiah 52:6 ) ( Lamentations 4:4 Lamentations 4:5 Lamentations 4:8-10 ) ( Jeremiah 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 ^F3 relates: this is threatened as a punishment of their rioting and drunkenness, ( Isaiah 5:11 Isaiah 5:12 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (ted ylbm yme hlg Nkl) "idcirco exsulat populus meus absque scientia", Cocceius; so Montanus.
F3 De Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 10. sect. 2. 3. & 12. 3. & 6. 3, sect. 3.

Isaiah 5:13 In-Context

11 How terrible it will be for people who rise early in the morning to look for strong drink, who stay awake late at night, becoming drunk with wine.

12 At their parties they have lyres, harps, tambourines, flutes, and wine. or notice the work of his hands.

13 So my people will be captured and taken away, because they don't really know me. All the great people will die of hunger, and the common people will die of thirst.

14 So the place of the dead wants more and more people, and it opens wide its mouth. Jerusalem's important people and common people will go down into it, with their happy and noisy ones.

15 So the common people and the great people will be brought down; those who are proud will be humbled.