Isaiah 5:20 kjv
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Isaiah 5:20 nkjv
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Isaiah 5:20 niv
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
Isaiah 5:20 esv
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Isaiah 5:20 nlt
What sorrow for those who say
that evil is good and good is evil,
that dark is light and light is dark,
that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.
Isaiah 5 20 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Gen 3:5-6 | "...you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Adam and Eve reversed God's command. | Defining good/evil on own terms. |
| Deut 30:19 | "...choose life, so that you and your children may live." | Choosing between clearly defined good and evil. |
| Prov 17:15 | "He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD." | Calling evil good and good evil in judicial sense. |
| Prov 24:24-25 | "Whoever says to the wicked, 'You are righteous,' peoples will curse him..." | Warning against false declaration of righteousness. |
| Prov 28:5 | "Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it completely." | Lack of understanding justice/righteousness. |
| Psa 36:3-4 | "The words of his mouth are mischief and deceit; he has ceased to act wisely and do good." | Deliberate rejection of wisdom and goodness. |
| Jer 5:21 | "Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not; who have ears, but hear not." | Spiritual blindness. |
| Amo 5:7 | "O you who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness to the ground!" | Perverting justice, making bitter what should be just. |
| Mal 3:15 | "So now we call the arrogant blessed..." | Envying wicked, blurring moral lines. |
| Matt 6:23 | "If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!" | Inverted inner light leads to great spiritual darkness. |
| John 3:19-20 | "And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light..." | Preference for darkness over divine light. |
| Rom 1:21-25 | "...they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator." | Exchanging truth for falsehood, idolatry. |
| Rom 12:2 | "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind..." | Avoid world's distorted standards. |
| Rom 14:16 | "So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil." | Protecting the integrity of Christian 'good'. |
| Eph 4:17-19 | "...darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance..." | Gentiles' darkened understanding before Christ. |
| Eph 5:8-11 | "...for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord... take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness..." | Christian transformation from darkness to light. |
| Col 3:5-6 | "...put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality... because of these things the wrath of God comes..." | Calling sin 'good' brings God's wrath. |
| 1 Thess 5:4-7 | "...for you are all children of light and children of the day... We are not of night nor of darkness." | Living as children of light. |
| 1 Tim 4:1-2 | "...some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons... their own consciences seared." | Conscience seared, leading to moral perversion. |
| 2 Tim 3:1-5 | "...people will be lovers of self... disobedient to parents... holding to a form of godliness but denying its power." | Characterizing people with distorted values. |
| Titus 1:15-16 | "To the pure, all things are pure, but to defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled." | Internal corruption affects perception of good. |
| 1 John 1:5-6 | "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie..." | God's absolute nature (light) and the impossibility of claiming fellowship while living in spiritual darkness. |
Isaiah 5 verses
Isaiah 5 20 Meaning
Isaiah 5:20 is a powerful prophetic declaration of judgment, a "woe," against those who deliberately and defiantly reverse moral and spiritual truth. It condemns the perversion of good into evil and evil into good, the deliberate substitution of spiritual darkness for divine light, and the rejection of what is pure and pleasant in favor of what is corrupted and bitter. This passage describes a profound spiritual blindness and moral rebellion where humanity attempts to redefine reality according to its own desires, thereby undermining the very foundation of God's unchanging nature and truth.
Isaiah 5 20 Context
Isaiah 5:20 is one of a series of "woe oracles" (verses 8, 11, 18, 20, 21, 22) pronounced by the prophet Isaiah against the kingdom of Judah. These oracles highlight various sins that had become prevalent in society during the 8th century BC, leading to moral decay and social injustice. Chapter 5 begins with the "Song of the Vineyard," an allegory illustrating God's loving care for Israel (His vineyard) and their failure to produce good fruit (righteousness), yielding only "wild grapes" (injustice and oppression). This particular woe in verse 20 targets the fundamental corruption of ethical judgment, a deeper societal issue where the very definitions of right and wrong, truth and falsehood, are deliberately twisted. It's not merely a failure to live righteously but an active inversion of moral standards, suggesting a widespread spiritual and intellectual rebellion against God's order. This distortion paved the way for the judgments pronounced throughout the chapter, leading towards exile and national calamity.
Isaiah 5 20 Word analysis
- Woe (הוֹי, hoy): An exclamation used by prophets, typically a cry of lamentation, an expression of grief, or a stern announcement of judgment and impending doom. It conveys divine sorrow and serious warning, indicating that the following pronouncements describe behaviors that will bring severe consequences.
- unto them that call: Implies a deliberate and public declaration or proclamation. This is not an accidental mistake but an intentional act of re-labeling and redefining moral, spiritual, or experiential realities. They are asserting their own authority to name things.
- evil (רָע, ra): Denotes that which is morally bad, wicked, injurious, or harmful. In this context, it refers to actions and characteristics contrary to God's revealed will and righteous character.
- good (טוֹב, tov): Refers to that which is morally upright, righteous, beneficial, pleasant, and in accordance with God's design and character.
- that put: (יָשִׁיתוּ, yashitu), from שִׂים (sim): Means "to set," "to place," "to put," or "to appoint." It signifies a conscious and active substitution or exchange. They are actively replacing one thing with another, indicating a complete reversal of established order.
- darkness (חֹשֶׁךְ, choshekh): Biblically symbolizes ignorance, evil, judgment, death, spiritual blindness, chaos, and separation from God.
- light (אוֹר, 'or): Biblically symbolizes truth, revelation, divine presence, life, righteousness, and knowledge of God.
- bitter (מָרוֹר, maror): Refers to a literal taste, often associated with affliction, sorrow, suffering, or spiritual rebellion (as in the bitter herbs of Passover signifying slavery). It represents that which is unpleasant, disagreeable, or harmful.
- sweet (מָתוֹק, matoq): Refers to a pleasant taste, symbolizing that which is desirable, pleasant, delightful, or spiritually edifying.
Words-group by words-group analysis
- "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil": This is the foundational moral perversion. It highlights a deliberate reversal of established ethical standards. It implies moral relativism taken to an extreme, where sin is rationalized or even celebrated, and righteousness is condemned or ridiculed. This isn't merely acting badly but intellectually asserting that bad is good, and good is bad.
- "that put darkness for light, and light for darkness": This extends the perversion to the spiritual and intellectual realm. Light represents divine truth, knowledge, and understanding. Darkness represents spiritual ignorance, deception, and wickedness. To interchange these is to deliberately obscure spiritual truth, reject God's revelation, and promote falsehood as enlightenment. This can manifest as celebrating erroneous philosophies or demonizing biblical truth.
- "that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter": This refers to the experiential and consequences of the previous inversions. Bitter often symbolizes hardship, consequences of sin, or unpleasant truths. Sweet symbolizes blessing, delight, or things that are pleasant and beneficial. This group means calling harmful or corrupting experiences "good" or "liberating," while rejecting truly wholesome or spiritually nourishing experiences as undesirable or restrictive. This shows a deep-seated disorder in perception and appetite, leading to destructive choices celebrated as beneficial. The three parallel phrases demonstrate a complete, progressive inversion: from abstract moral values, to spiritual discernment, to personal experience.
Isaiah 5 20 Bonus section
The specific arrangement of the three pairs—evil/good, darkness/light, bitter/sweet—follows a chiastic structure within the pairs (A-B and B-A), emphasizing the complete and defiant reversal. This literary device highlights the total inversion and rejection of God's order. The progression in the pairs also deepens the accusation: from basic morality, it moves to spiritual understanding, and then to the experiential and discerning aspects of life, showing that the corruption penetrates every layer of existence. This isn't just about committing sins, but about celebrating them, and scorning goodness and truth as abhorrent. It's an attempt to usurp God's role as the arbiter of reality itself. This sin is particularly grave because it leads people astray not only by their actions but by the very intellectual frameworks they adopt.
Isaiah 5 20 Commentary
Isaiah 5:20 represents a devastating indictment of moral and spiritual degeneracy, characterized by a deliberate inversion of God's objective standards. It's more than merely committing evil; it's a defiant redefinition of good and evil itself. This passage identifies three interlocking forms of perversion, moving from ethical relativism ("evil good, good evil"), to spiritual blindness ("darkness light, light darkness"), and finally to a distorted palate for life's experiences ("bitter sweet, sweet bitter").
The "woe" is directed at those who do not just slip into error but actively assert and promote this corrupted worldview. They actively call, declare, and put forth these inverted values. This suggests a societal climate where sin is normalized and even championed, and righteousness is derided as narrow-mindedness or repression. This intentional twisting of reality constitutes a rebellion against the divine authority to define truth and morality. Such an inversion undermines the very fabric of society and provokes God's righteous judgment because it denies His nature as the ultimate source of goodness, light, and truth.
This profound moral disorientation leads people to embrace what is destructive (spiritual darkness, bitter consequences) while rejecting what is truly life-giving (divine light, sweet truth). This woe thus serves as a timeless warning against any system or mindset that seeks to subvert objective truth and moral standards revealed by God, emphasizing the inescapable consequences of such profound error.
Examples:
- A society redefining "marriage" contrary to biblical understanding, or celebrating lifestyles the Bible condemns as morally good.
- Ideologies that claim ancient spiritual texts are oppressive while promoting practices or beliefs contrary to divine truth as enlightenment or liberation.
- People rationalizing addiction or destructive behaviors as "freedom" or "self-expression" while dismissing disciplines and boundaries as "restrictive."