The next three Woes are upon different aggravations of that moral perversity which the prophet has already traced to strong drink. In the first of these it is better to read, _draw punishment near with cords of vanity_, than _draw iniquity_. Then we have a striking antithesis--the drunkards mocking Isaiah over their cups with the challenge, as if it would not be taken up, _Let Jehovah make speed, and hasten His work of judgement, that we may see it_, while all the time they themselves were dragging that judgement near, _as with cart-ropes_, by their persistent diligence in evil. This figure of sinners jeering at the approach of a calamity while they actually wear the harness of its carriage is very striking. But the Jews are not only unconscious of judgement, they are confused as to the very principles of morality: _Who call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!_
In his fifth Woe the prophet attacks a disposition to which his scorn gives no peace throughout his ministry. If these sensualists had only confined themselves to their sensuality they might have been left alone; but with that intellectual bravado which is equally born with "Dutch courage" of drink, they interfered in the conduct of the State, and prepared arrogant policies of alliance and war that were the distress of the sober-minded prophet all his days. _Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight._
In his last Woe Isaiah returns to the drinking habits of the upper classes, from which it would appear that among the judges even of Judah there were "six-bottle men." They sustained their extravagance by subsidies, which we trust were unknown to the mighty men of wine who once filled the seats of justice in our own country. _They justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him._ All these sinners, dead through their rejection of the law of Jehovah of hosts and the word of the Holy One of Israel, shall be like to the stubble, fit only for burning, and their blossom as the dust of the rotten tree.
III. THE ANGER OF THE LORD (v. 25; ix. 8-x. 4; v. 26-30).