Isaiah 1:22
in Isaiah 1Your silver has become dross; your fine wine is diluted with water.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water.
KJV
Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:
⋯
This verse in Isaiah 1
Commentary
10 notes on this verseWine mixed with water - An image used for the adulteration of wines, with more propriety than may at first appear, if what Thevenot says of the people of the Levant of late times were true of them formerly.
This site's exposition
How is the faithful city become an harlot
on Isaiah 1:21-23
How is the faithful city become an harlot opens in the meter of a funeral lament, the same rhythm used to mourn the dead, sung here over a city still standing. What was once full of judgment, righteousness lodging in it, is measured against what it has become in three trade images, silver turned to dross, wine cut with water, and princes who keep company with thieves. The corruption named in verse twenty three is specifically judicial, gifts and rewards bought and sold while the fatherless and the widow, named just verses earlier as the test of true religion, cannot get a hearing at all.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
A commentator
Gregory of NazianzusIN DEFENSE OF HIS FLIGHT, ORATION 2:46 · Written before 390.
proposed
And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as the many, able to corrupt the word of truth and mix the wine, which makes glad the heart of man, with water. [We do not] mix, that is, our doctrine with what is common and cheap, and debased, and stale, and tasteless, in order to turn the adulteration to our profit and accommodate ourselves to those who meet us, and curry favor with everyone. [We do not] become ventriloquists and chatterers, who serve their own pleasures by words uttered from the earth, and sink into the earth, and, to gain the special good will of the multitude, injure in the highest degree, no, ruin ourselves, and shed the innocent blood of simpler souls, which will be required at our hands.
(Verse 22.) Your silver has turned into dross. The city of Zion speaks, in which righteousness once rested: that silver, namely the doctrine of the Scriptures, about which we read in the Psalms: The words of the Lord are pure words: silver tried by fire, purified seven times (Psalm 12:6), has turned into dross, which in Hebrew is called Sigim: namely, the rust of metals, or impurities and dirt, which are refined by fire, so that it may keep the metaphor because he mentioned silver. However, it can also be said that the righteous and holy men who previously lived in the city later fell into the filth of sins. Your innkeepers mix wine with water. For Symmachus translated, Your wine is mixed with water. And the meaning is: The law of God, pure and sincere, and (so to speak) supported by pure truth (Matth. XV), was violated by the traditions of the Pharisees: which the Lord more fully teaches in the Gospel, that they have neglected the law of God and followed the commandments of men. And every teacher who, as much as he can, corrects those who listen to the severity of the Scriptures, turns them towards grace: and he speaks in such a way that he does not correct but pleases his listeners; he violates the wine of the holy Scriptures and corrupts it with his own interpretation. Heretics also corrupt the evangelical truth with wicked intelligence, and they are the worst merchants, making water out of wine, when on the contrary our Lord turned water into wine (John 2), and such wine that the master of the feast marveled at; just as the queen of Sheba marveled at the attendants and wine stewards at the banquet of Solomon, praising them with her voice (2 Chronicles 9). But even Ecclesiastes describes the ministries of wine and his own banquet in mystical language (Ecclesiastes 2). […]
A commentator
Athanasius of Alexandria296–373
Discourses Against the Arians 3.26 · Written before 373.
proposed
Someone who looks at what is done divinely by the Word and denies the body, or looks at what is proper to the body and denies the Word's presence in the flesh or from what is human, entertains low thoughts concerning the Word … as a Jewish vintner, mixing water with the wine, shall account the cross an offense, or as a Gentile, will deem the preaching folly.
The Medieval Church1 voice
58. He denounces the sin of the priest in two matters. In corrupting the truth of doctrine: hence he says, your silver is turned into dross: the words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried by the fire, purged from the earth, refined …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Thy silver is become dross,....
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
This degeneracy of the magistrates, whose character is the reverse of that of their predecessors, is a great a reproach and injury to the kingdom as the debasing of their coin would be and the turning of their silver into dross. Righteous princes and righteous cities are as silver for the treasury, but unrighteous ones are as dross for the dunghill.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Thy princes and people are degenerate in "solid worth," equivalent to "silver" (Jer 6:28, 30; Eze 22:18, 19), and in their use of the living Word, equivalent to "wine" (So 7:9). mixed--literally, "circumcised." So the Arabic, "to murder" wine, equivalent to dilute it.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Thy silver - The sentiment in this verse, as it is explained by the following, is, thy princes and people have become corrupt, and polluted. Silver is used here to denote what should have been more valuable - virtuous princes. Dross - This word - סיג sı̂g - means the scoriae, or baser metal, which is separated from the purer in smelting. It is of little or no value; and the expression means, that the rulers had become debased and corrupt, as if pure silver had been converted wholly to dross. Thy wine - Wine was regarded as the most pure and valuable drink among the ancients. It is used, therefore, to express that which should have been most valued and esteemed among them - to wit, their rulers. Mixed with water - Diluted, made weak. According to Gesenius, the word rendered “mixed” - מהוּל mâhûl - is from מהל mâhal, the same as מוּל mûl, to circumcise; and hence, by a figure common with the Arabians, to adulterate, or dilute wine. The word does not occur in this sense elsewhere in the Scriptures, but the connection evidently requires it to be so understood. Wine mixed with water is that which is weakened, diluted, rendered comparatively useless. So with the rulers and judges. They had lest the strength and purity of their integrity, by intermingling those things which tended to weaken and destroy their virtue, pride, the love of gifts, and bribes, etc. Divested of the figure, the passage means, that the rulers had become wholly corrupt.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כַּסְפֵּ֖ךְ | kaspekh | silver your | H3701 → | 403 times |
| הָיָ֣ה | hayah | it has become | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| לְסִיגִ֑ים | lesigim | <into> dross<es> | H5509 → | |
| סָבְאֵ֖ךְ | saveekh | drink your | H5435 → | |
| מָה֥וּל | mahul | [has been] mixed | H4107 → | |
| בַּמָּֽיִם׃ | bamayim | with <the> water | H4325 → | 581 times |
כַּסְפֵּ֖ךְsilver your
kaspekhH3701 →403 times
הָיָ֣הit has become
hayahH1961 →3559 times
לְסִיגִ֑ים<into> dross<es>
lesigimH5509 →
סָבְאֵ֖ךְdrink your
saveekhH5435 →
מָה֥וּל[has been] mixed
mahulH4107 →
בַּמָּֽיִם׃with <the> water
bamayimH4325 →581 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Hosea 6:4What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes.
it leads to
- Psalms 78:34–37
When He slew them, they would seek Him; they repented and searched for God.
- Hosea 13:3
Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes, like chaff blown from a threshing floor, like smoke through an open window.
- Hosea 11:8
How could I give you up, O Ephraim? How could I surrender you, O Israel? How could I make you like Admah? How could I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within…
- Psalms 106:12–13
Then they believed His promises and sang His praise.
- Luke 13:7–9
So he said to the keeper of the vineyard, ‘Look, for the past three years I have come to search for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Therefore cut it down!…
- Psalms 78:34–37
Through
Hosea 4:18When their liquor is gone, they turn to prostitution; their rulers dearly love disgrace.
it leads to
- Micah 3:11
Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean upon the LORD, saying, “Is not the LORD among us? No disaster…
- Proverbs 30:15–16
The leech has two daughters: Give and Give. There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, ‘Enough!’:
- Psalms 47:9
The nobles of the nations have assembled as the people of the God of Abraham; for the shields of the earth belong to God; He is highly exalted.
- Micah 3:11
Where this verse is studied
About Isaiah
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Athanasius of Alexandria, Discourses Against the Arians 3.26; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Gregory of Nazianzus, IN DEFENSE OF HIS FLIGHT, ORATION 2:46; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Joseph Addison Alexander, Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.