"Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night until they are inflamed with wine." (Isaiah 5:11) This verse may be painting a portrait of addiction, saying that many of the people are so addicted to alcohol that they start drinking as soon as they wake up in the morning. I know someone whose breakfast is the first drink of the day and you may know one or more people like that too.
Verse 11 may also be a picture of idleness. Many of the people are so wealthy that their servants or employees do everything for them. They wake up in the morning with very little to do and, to fill their time and to dull their awareness of the emptiness of their souls, they start partying early and continue partying until bedtime. Another form of idleness is laziness, in which some of the people probably need to be making a living but don't want to or can't anymore due to their inability to stay sober during the workday.
This next segment is a reference to excess and debauchery at drinking parties. "They have harps and lyres at their banquets, pipes and timbrels and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord, no respect for the work of His hands." (Isaiah 5:12) In other words, they are living like there is no tomorrow. Or rather, as if tomorrow and every day after that will be just like today. They are living as if there is no Sovereign Lord whose laws they have disobeyed. They are living like the heathen nations around them. They are living like people who don't know anything about the Lord.
Because they show no regard for Him, this is what is going to happen: "Therefore My people will go into exile for lack of understanding; those of high rank will die of hunger and the common people will be parched with thirst." (Isaiah 5:13) It's not just the wealthy people who are living lives of pleasure while ignoring the Lord. Even the middle income and lower income people have forsaken Him.
"Therefore Death expands its jaws, opening wide its mouth; into it will descend their nobles and masses with all their brawlers and revelers. So people will be brought low and everyone humbled, the eyes of the arrogant humbled. But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by His justice, and the holy God will be proved holy by His righteous acts." (Isaiah 5:14-16) The Lord wouldn't be righteous and holy if He didn't judge sin. He must judge sin, or else He isn't who He says He is. He must judge sin, or else He isn't a deity worth trusting or worshiping.
The nation will fall and all but the poorest and least educated of the people will be taken captive and deported to a foreign land, leaving the fine mansions and lavish palaces desolate, leaving the fields of once-prosperous estates abandoned. Flocks and herds will graze peacefully there with no one to shoo them away. "Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture; lambs will feed among the ruins of the rich." (Isaiah 5:17) The innocent flocks will have more than they can eat. By contrast, the land's former sinful inhabitants will be slaves of the heathen, not free to come and go as they wish, dependent on the mercy of their captors.
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