Isaiah 5:13
in Isaiah 5Therefore My people will go into exile for their lack of understanding; their dignitaries are starving and their masses are parched with thirst.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Therefore my people are gone into captivity for lack of knowledge; and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude are parched with thirst.
KJV
Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
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This verse in Isaiah 5
Commentary
11 notes on this verse(Verse 13.) Therefore, my people have been taken captive because they lack knowledge, and their nobles have perished of hunger, and their multitude has dried up with thirst. This happened literally to the people of Judah under the Roman princes Vespasian and Titus, as both Greek and Latin history relate. And even today, they suffer from this spiritually, enduring not the hunger for bread or the thirst for water, but the hunger to hear the word of God.
This site's exposition
Woe to those who rise early
on Isaiah 5:11-14
The second woe turns to drinking, men who rise early for strong drink and linger until wine inflames them. The charge falls on the blindness drink produces, a people entertained past noticing their own coming exile. Sheol "opens wide its enormous jaws," and down go the nobles and revelers.
This site's exposition
My people will go into exile
The Hebrew verb is past, and Gill and Barnes take it as the prophet seeing the exile as done. The feasters of 5:12 are the dignitaries now starving. Clarke joins the wine of those feasts to this hunger and thirst.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
What do servants think of themselves when they dare to despise the Lord's precepts, not even condescending to reread the letters of invitation whereby he asks them to the blessedness of his kingdom? If any one of us sends a letter to his administrator and …
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
BonaventureCollationes de Septem Donis, Collation 4 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
"Therefore my people are led into captivity, because they did not have knowledge," namely neither in the head nor in the members.
179. Therefore is my people led away captive. Here he sets out the corresponding punishment: and first, as to the affection of the will; hence he says, therefore, just as their knowledge was taken captive by drunkenness, so will they themselves be taken captive: my …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Therefore my people are gone into captivity,.... Or rather, as Kimchi explains it, "shall go into captivity"; the past for the future; for this cannot be understood even of the captivity of the ten tribes, for they were not carried captive until the sixth year of Hezekiah's reign, 2Ki 17:6 whereas this prophecy was delivered out many years before, even in the time of Uzziah, as is manifest from the following chapter, Isa 6:1 and much less it cannot design the captivity of Judah, but respects the captivity by the Romans, in future time.
(2.) That they should be impoverished, and come to want that which they had wasted and abused to excess: Even their glory are men of famine, subject to it and slain by it; and their multitude are dried up with thirst. Both the great men and the common people are ready to perish for want of bread and water.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Therefore my people are gone - This is evidently used with reference to the “future.” The prophet described events as “passing before his eyes” as a vision (note, Isa 1:1); and he here seems to “see” the people going into captivity, and describes it as an event actually occurring. Into captivity - Referring, doubtless, to the captivity at Babylon. Because they have no knowledge - Because they do not choose to retain the knowledge of God.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
are gone--The prophet sees the future as if it were before his eyes. no knowledge--because of their foolish recklessness (Isa 5:12; Lu 19:44). famished--awful contrast to their luxurious feasts (Isa 5:11, 12). multitude--plebeians in contradistinction to the "honorable men," or nobles. thirst-- (Ps 107:4, 5).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
And their honorable men “And the nobles” - These verses have likewise a reference to the two preceding. They that indulged in feasting and drinking shall perish with hunger and thirst; and Hades shall indulge his appetite as much as they had done, and devour them all. The image is strong and expressive in the highest degree. Hab 2:5, uses the same image with great force: - the ambitious and avaricious conqueror. “Enlargeth his appetite like Hades; And he is like Death, and will never be satisfied,” But, in Isaiah, Hades is introduced to much greater advantage, in person; and placed before our eyes in the form of a ravenous monster, opening wide his immeasurable jaws, and swallowing them all together: “Therefore Shoel hath dilated her soul, she hath opened her mouth beyond limit.” Destruction expects more than a common meal, when God visits Jerusalem for her iniquities. This seems to refer to the ruin brought on the Jews by the Romans. Our blessed Lord repeats this parable, and applies it to this very transaction, Mat 21:33.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
because of lack of knowledge because their heart was without knowledge.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Therefore, the nether-world has expanded Retribution corresponding to deed; they expanded themselves to swallow much food and drink, and they opened their mouth to swallow, so will the nether world expand itself to swallow.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 2 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
11 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לָכֵ֛ן | lakhen | <to> therefore | H3651 → | 771 times |
| גָּלָ֥ה | galah | it will go into exile | H1540 → | 186 times |
| עַמִּ֖י | ʾami | people my | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| מִבְּלִי־ | mibeli- | because not | H1097 → | 58 times |
| דָ֑עַת | daat | knowledge | H1847 → | 92 times |
| וּכְבוֹדוֹ֙ | ukhevodo | and honor its | H3519 → | 200 times |
| מְתֵ֣י | metei | [will be] men of | H4962 → | 22 times |
| רָעָ֔ב | raav | hunger | H7458 → | 101 times |
| וַהֲמוֹנ֖וֹ | vahamono | and multitude its | H1995 → | 83 times |
| צִחֵ֥ה | tzicheh | [will be] parched of | H6704 → | |
| צָמָֽא׃ | tzama' | thirst | H6772 → | 17 times |
לָכֵ֛ן<to> therefore
lakhenH3651 →771 times
גָּלָ֥הit will go into exile
galahH1540 →186 times
עַמִּ֖יpeople my
ʾamiH5971 →1873 times
מִבְּלִי־because not
mibeli-H1097 →58 times
דָ֑עַתknowledge
daatH1847 →92 times
וּכְבוֹדוֹ֙and honor its
ukhevodoH3519 →200 times
מְתֵ֣י[will be] men of
meteiH4962 →22 times
רָעָ֔בhunger
raavH7458 →101 times
וַהֲמוֹנ֖וֹand multitude its
vahamonoH1995 →83 times
צִחֵ֥ה[will be] parched of
tzichehH6704 →
צָמָֽא׃thirst
tzama'H6772 →17 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 4:6My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you as My priests. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget…
it leads to
- Proverbs 19:2
Even zeal is no good without knowledge, and he who hurries his footsteps misses the mark.
- Hosea 6:6
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
- 2 Corinthians 4:3–6
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.
- Hosea 4:1
Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a case against the people of the land: “There is no truth, no loving devotion, and no knowledge of God…
- Matthew 15:8
‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.
- Proverbs 19:2
Through
Romans 1:28Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
it leads to
- 2 Thessalonians 2:10–12
and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them.
- Titus 1:16
They profess to know God, but by their actions they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.
- Romans 1:21
For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:10–12
Where this verse is studied
About Isaiah
This page draws on 10 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); Bonaventure, Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 4; Caesarius of Arles, SERMON 7; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.