Isaiah 1:22

Thy silver is become dross,.... Meaning either that such persons, who had the appearance of goodness, looked like genuine silver, were now become reprobate, and, as the wicked of the earth, like

Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water - Thy princes and people are degenerate in solid worth ("silver," Jeremiah 6:28; Jeremiah

Thou art woefully degenerated from thy former purity. If there be any remainders of religion and justice in thee, they are mixed with many and great corruptions.

Isaiah 1:22 Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:Ver. 22. Thy silver is become dross.] Heb., Drosses, a proverbial kind of speech, deciphering apostasy. It is as if the prophet had said, There is nothing pure in thee, nothing sincere or simple: sed omnia fallacia, omnia fucata, omnia inquinata; but all things are deceitful, degenerate, and corrupt. Dross looketh like silver, and is nothing less. Wine mixed, or marred, with water hath the name of wine, when it is nil nisi vappa. Hypocrites are mere seemers, magicians, having a form of knowledge, a form of godliness. Fair professors they are, and foul sinners. But be not deceived; God is not mocked; he is a faithful metallary, saith a Father, and will easily find out men’ s mixtures. It is to be feared that be hath yet a further controversy with this nation for our hateful hypocrisy and apostasy, for where now, alas! is our ancient fervour and forwardness - our heating and whetting one another. Oh, how dull and diluted are we! &c.

(22) Thy silver is become dross . . .—The two images describe the degeneracy of the rulers to whose neglect this disorder was due. (See Notes on Jeremiah 6:28-30.) Hypocrisy and adulteration were the order of the day. The coinage of judgment and justice was debased; the wine of spiritual life (Proverbs 9:5), of enthusiasm and zeal for good, was diluted till it had lost all power to strengthen and refresh. In “the salt that has lost its savour” of Matthew 5:13 we have a like symbolism.

Verse 22. Wine mixed with water] An image used for the adulteration of wines, with more propriety than may at first appear, if what Thevenot says of the people of the Levant of late times were true of them formerly. He says, "They never mingle water with their wine to drink; but drink by itself what water they think proper for abating the strength of the wine." "Lorsque les Persans boivent du vin, ils le prennent tout pur, a la facon des Levantins, qui ne le melent jamais avec de l'eua; mais en beuvant du vin, de temps en temps ils prennent un pot d'eau, et en boivent de grand traits." Voyage, part ii., liv. ii., chap. x. "Ils (les Turcs) n'y meslent jamais d'eau, et se moquent des Chretiens qui en mettent, ce qui leur semble tout a fait ridicule." Ibid. part i., chap. 24. "The Turks never mingle water with their wine, and laugh at the Christians for doing it, which they consider altogether ridiculous." It is remarkable that whereas the Greeks and Latins by mixed wine always understood wine diluted and lowered with water, the Hebrews on the contrary generally mean by it wine made stronger and more inebriating by the addition of higher and more powerful ingredients, such as honey, spices, defrutum, (or wine inspissated by boiling it down to two-thirds or one-half of the quantity,) myrrh, mandragora, opiates, and other strong drugs. Such were the exhilarating, or rather stupifying, ingredients which Helen mixed in the bowl together with the wine for her guests oppressed with grief to raise their spirits, the composition of which she had learned in Egypt: - Αυτικ' αρ' ειςοινονβαλεφαρμακον, ενθενεπινον, Νηπενθεςτ' αχολοντε, κακωνεπιληθονἁπαντων.αντων HOMER. Odyss. lib. iv., ver. 220. "Meanwhile, with genial joy to warm the soul, Bright Helen mix'd a mirth-inspiring bowl; Temper'd with drugs of sovereign use, to assuage The boiling bosom of tumultuous rage: Charm'd with that virtuous draught, the exalted mind All sense of wo delivers to the wind." POPE. Such was the "spiced wine and the juice of pomegranates," mentioned So 8:2. And how much the Eastern people to this day deal in artificial liquors of prodigious strength, the use of wine being forbidden, may be seen in a curious chapter of Kempfer upon that subject. Amoen. Exot. Fasc. iii., Obs. 15. Thus the drunkard is properly described, Proverbs 23:30, as one "that seeketh mixed wine," and "is mighty to mingle strong drink," Isaiah 5:22. And hence the poet took that highly poetical and sublime image of the cup of God's wrath, called by Isaiah, Isaiah 51:17, the "cup of trembling," causing intoxication and stupefaction, (see Chappelow's note on Hariri, p. 33,) containing, as St. John expresses in Greek the Hebrew idea with the utmost precision, though with a seeming contradiction in terms, κεκερασμενονακρατον, merum mixtum, pure wine made yet stronger by a mixture of powerful ingredients; Revelation 14:10.

22. silver and wine may refer to the great men of the city (Isaiah 1:23) but more naturally to the “judgment” and “righteousness” of Isaiah 1:21;—all that was best in her, purity of morals, excellence of character, &c. The word for mixt occurs only here. The phrase is usually illustrated by the Latin “castrare vinum,” the verb being taken as connected with that for “circumcise.” wine] better: choice drink, found elsewhere only in Hosea 4:18.

Thy silver - The sentiment in this verse, as it is explained by the following, is, thy princes and people have become corrupt, and polluted. Silver is used here to denote what should have been more valuable - virtuous princes.

AN AGAINST THE CITY, Isaiah 1:21-31.21-23. By a Hebrew character called Piskah, after Isaiah 1:20 a long pause is indicated.