Isaiah 5:8

Woe unto them that join house to house,.... Or "O ye that join", c.

Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!

That join house to house, that lay field to field; that add new purchases of houses and lands to their former possessions; not that this was in itself unlawful, but because they did this from an inordinate and insatiable desire of riches, and with the injury of their brethren, as is manifest from the foregoing and following words. That they may be alone; that they alone may be the lords and owners, all others only their tenants and servants.

Isaiah 5:8 Woe unto them that join house to house, [that] lay field to field, till [there be] no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!Ver. 8. Woe unto them that join house to house.] The prophet goeth on in the exposition of his parable, showing us some more of those wild or stinking grapes, with the sad effects thereof, to the end of the chapter. He beginneth with covetousness - that "root of all evil," as Paul calleth it, that metropolis of all wickedness, as Bion - and throweth a woe at it, as do also sundry other prophets. Covetous persons are of the dragon’ s temper, who, they say, is so thirsty, that no water can quench his thirst. Covetousness is a dry drunkenness, saith one, an insatiable dropsy, and like hell itself, insatiabiliter cava guttura pandit; its never enough will be once alive with fire enough in the bottom of hell. Here they are brought in "joining house to house," as Shallum did at Jerusalem, as Nero did at Rome for the enlarging of his palace to a vast extent: whence that of the poet - “ Roma domus fiet, Veios migrate Quirites, Si non et Veios oecupet ista domus. ” - Martial. That lay field to field.] Encroaching upon others, and engrossing all to yourselves; as William the Conqueror did at New Forest, wherein forty-six parish churches were demolished, with the removing of all the inhabitants, to make room for beasts or dog’ s-game. But in true account - “ Parva seges satis est: laudato ingentia rura, Exiguum colito. ” The holy patriarchs were content to dwell in tents. Abraham’ s only purchase was a burying place. David in that Litany of his, as one calleth it, blesseth himself from those "men of God’ s hand who have their portion here." Christ biddeth us lay up treasures, and build tabernacles for ourselves in heaven; and having food and raiment, saith the apostle, let us therewith be content. “ Discite quam parvo liceat producere vitam: Et quantum natura petat. ” - Lucan. Phar., lib. iv. If a man will study rather to satisfy his hunger than his humour, a little will serve. But it is as easy to quench the fire of Etna as the thoughts set on fire by covetousness. Unus Pelaeo iuveni non sufficit orbis. Till there be no place,] sc., Left unseized upon by you: Usque ad desitionem loci, no place or room for any other. That they may be placed alone.] Man is a sociable creature, and not born for himself. Aristotle calleth him nature’ s good fellow; but the covetous wretch hath put off all humanity, and would have all to himself, be placed alone; and herein, as Ambrose rightly observeth, he is worse than the unreasonable creatures. Avis avibus se associat, saith he, pecus pecori adiungitur, piscis piscibus, Birds, beasts, and fishes sort and shoal together, and account it no loss, but a comfort, to be in company of their own kind.

(8) Woe unto them that join house to house.—The series of “Woes” which follows has no precedent in the teaching of earlier prophets. The form of Luk 6:24-26 seems based upon it. The general indictment of Isaiah 1 is followed by special counts. That which leads off the list was the destruction of the old village life of Palestine. The original ideal of the nation had been that it should consist of small proprietors; and the Jubilee (Leviticus 25:13; Leviticus 27:24), and the law of the marriage of heiresses (Numbers 27:1-11, Numbers 36, Numbers 33:54) were intended as safeguards for the maintenance of that ideal. In practice it had broken down, and might had taken the place of right. Landmarks were removed (Deuteronomy 19:14; Deuteronomy 27:17; Proverbs 22:28), the owners of small estates forcibly expelled (Micah 2:2) or murdered as Naboth had been (1 Kings 21:16); the law of debt pressed against the impoverished debtor (Nehemiah 5:5), and the law of the Jubilee was practically set aside. In place of the small freeholders there rose up a class of large proprietors, often the novi homines of the state (e.g., Shebna in Isaiah 22:16), while the original owners sank into slavery (Nehemiah 5:5) or became tenants at will, paying exorbitant rents in kind or money, and liable at any moment to be evicted. Isaiah’s complaint recalls the agrarian laws by which first Licinius and then the Gracchi sought to restrain the extension of the latifundia of the Roman patricians, and Latimer’s bold protest against the enclosure of commons in the sixteenth century. The evil had been denounced before by Micah (Micah 2:2), and in a psalm probably contemporary with Isaiah (Psalms 49:11). The fact that the last year of Uzziah coincided with the Jubilee may have given a special point to Isaiah’s protest.

Verse 8. Wo unto them that - lay field to field - "You who lay field unto field" ] Read תקריבו takribu, in the second person; to answer to the verb following. So Vulgate.

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 ... - The prophet now proceeds to “specify” some of the crimes to which he had referred in the parable of the vineyard, of which the Jews had been guilty.

First woe — upon great land monopoly, Isaiah 5:8-10.8. Join house to house… field to field — The building of long city blocks, and forming immense estates, by monopolizing landholders.