Isaiah 5:22

Woe unto [them that are] mighty to drink wine,.... That can bear a great deal, and not be overcome and intoxicated with it; that try their strength this way with others, and get the mastery and glory

Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Woe unto (them that are) mighty to drink wine ... Which justify the wicked for reward.

That are mighty to drink wine; that can drink much without intoxication, in which they gloried, as too many do at this day. To mingle, i.e. to drink; the antecedent being put for the consequent, which is usual; for they mingled it in order to drinking.

Isaiah 5:22 Woe unto [them that are] mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:Ver. 22. Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine.] Iterate taxat hoc vitium, eo quod invaluerat. The prophet inveigheth against this vice a second time, because it was grown so common. Drunkards also are a sottish kind of creatures, and had therefore more than need to be double dealt with; like as physicians use to give double quantities to such as have palsies or epilepsies, so to awaken their dull, drowsy senses. Many of these sots take it for a great glory that they are mighty to drink wine; as did Darius King of Persia, who caused it to be written upon his tomb, I was a great hunter; I could also drink much wine, and bear it bravely. This was, as one well saith, to glory in his shame; it being rather the commendation of a tun than of a man, for a beast will scarce abide it, to be able to take in and contain much liquor. When Bonosus the drunken Roman had hanged himself, it went for a by-word Amphoram pendere non hominem, that a tun or tankard hung there, and not a man. And when one was commended to King Alphonsus for a great drinker, and able to bear it, he answered that that was a good praise in a sponge, but not in a prince. This, if Alexander the Great and Tiberius the Emperor - those great drinkers and encouragers of others to that vice - had well remembered, they would not have been so infamous as they are and will be to all posterity. And men of strength.] Or, Valour. But to do what? Pινεινκαιβινεινμονον, as the comedian hath it: To drink and do worse only. A goodly prize surely, a fair commendation. Fortes esse et strenuos non contra hostes, sed ad exhauriendos calices; gigantes esse non ad bellandum, sed ad potandum. To be carpet knights, not of Mars, but of Bacchus, and fitter for a canopy than a camp. To mingle.] Or, To pour in. Whether into their own wide gullets, or into the cup to make others drunk; for preventing whereof Minos, King of Crete, made a law that men should not drink one to another, ειςμεθην, to drunkenness. So did Lycurgus at Lacedemon. And our King Edgar made an ordinance for putting pins in cups that none should quaff whole ones, or cause others to do so. Kυνηγεινεκρατουν, οινονπολυνπινεινεδυναμηνκαιτουτονφερεινκαλως. - Athen. A large cask or barrel, usually for liquids, esp. wine, ale, or beer, or for various provisions. Now less common than cask. Vopsic. in Bonoso. Gentiles ipsi risere tales athletas. Arist, in Ranis. Civilis est irrisio non carens sale. - Oecolamp.

(22) Woe unto them that are mighty to drink. . . . strong drink.—The words in part reproduce the “woe” of Isaiah 5:11-12, but with the distinctive feature that there the revellers were simply of the careless self-indulgent type, while here they are identified with the unjust and corrupt rulers. They were heroes and valiant men only in and for their cups. To such men it seemed a light matter to acquit the guilty and condemn the guiltless. The prophet dwells on the familiar truth, Judex damnatur cum nocens absolvitur. The Targum, it may be noticed, has “the mammon of falsehood” (comp. Luke xvi, 9), for the “reward” of the Hebrew.

Verse 22. Mighty to drink wine] "They show not," says Kimchi, "their strength in combating their enemies, but in drunkenness and debauchery."

8–24. Denunciation of the Social Evils which call down God’s Judgment on the NationThe indictment contains six counts, each introduced by the word “Woe,” and is addressed exclusively to the upper classes, although the punishment of their sin falls on the nation as a whole. The prophet sets before us a vivid picture of a debased aristocracy, in whom public virtue has been eaten out by avarice and sensuality; and he traces with remarkable insight the effect of these sins in the religious insensibility and perversion of the moral sentiments which characterised the nobles of Judah at this time.

Wo unto them that are mighty ... - This is the sixth specification of crime. He had already denounced the intemperate in Isaiah 5:11. But probably this was a prevailing sin.

Sixth woe — on public dissoluteness, Isaiah 5:22-23.Drunkards, too, again receive their woe; (see Isaiah 5:11;) where the people indulge in thoughtless, rollicking dissoluteness.22, 23.