¶Woe to those who attach house to house and join field to field, Until there is no more room, And you alone are a landowner in the midst of the land!
Parallel translations
- WEB Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the middle of the land!
- KJV 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!
- BSB Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field until no place is left and you live alone in the land.
- NKJV Woe to those who join house to house; They add field to field, Till there is no place Where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!
- NLT What sorrow for you who buy up house after house and field after field, until everyone is evicted and you live alone in the land.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The first woe condemns the greedy who seize house after house and field after field until they crowd out everyone else. It denounces oppressive accumulation that violates God's design for the land.
Overview
In Israel, land was an inheritance meant to remain within families (Leviticus 25), so monopolizing it trampled the poor and defied God's law. This covetous land-grabbing is one of the 'wild grapes' the previous verse condemned. The woe warns that injustice and greed do not escape God's notice but bring His judgment.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Mic 2:2They covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.
- Hab 2:9–12Woe to him who gets an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil!
- Jer 22:13–17“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his rooms by injustice; who uses his neighbor’s service without wages, and doesn’t give him his hire;
- Luke 12:16–24He spoke a parable to them, saying, “The ground of a certain rich man produced abundantly.
- 1 Kgs 21:16–20When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.
- Matt 23:13“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
- Ezek 11:15“Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, the men of your relatives, and all the house of Israel, all of them, to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Go far away from Yahweh. This land has been given to us for a possession.’”
- Ezek 33:24Son of man, they who inhabit those waste places in the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 5:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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