Isaiah 5:18

Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceit and pull sin along with cart ropes,

BSB

Parallel translations

4 additional translations

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KJV

Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:

ASV

Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and sin as it were with a cart rope;

YLT

Woe to those drawing out iniquity with cords of vanity, And as with thick ropes of the cart--sin.

DBT

Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as with cart-ropes!

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Voices5

On this verse

(Verse 18, 19.) Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as if with a cart rope. Those who say: let his work speed up and come quickly, so that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel approach and come, so that we may know it. As for the cart rope, the Septuagint translated it as a strap of the yoke of a heifer or a cow. And it is more commonly read that the ropes are called sins.

Jerome· Commentary on Isaiah, 420patristic

Related commentary

Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity,....

John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed

With a cart-rope As a long cable - The Septuagint, Aquila, Sym., and Theod., for בחבלי bechabley, read כחבלי kechahley, ὡς σχοινιῳ, or σχοινιοις; and the Septuagint, instead of שוא shau, read some other word signifying long; ὡς σχοινιῳ μακρῳ; and so likewise the Syriac, אריכא arecha. Houbigant conjectures that the word which the Septuagint had in their copies was שרוע sarua, which is used Lev 21:18, Lev 22:23, for something in an animal body superfluous, lengthened beyond its natural measure.

Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832evangelical

That draw - That are not only drawn to sin by the allurements of the world; but are active and illustrious in drawing sin to themselves. Cords - Or, with cords of lying, as the last word frequently signifies, with vain and deceitful arguments and pretenses, whereby sinners generally draw themselves to sin.

John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765evangelical

For the righteous Lord will cut in sunder the cords of the wicked, Ps. cxxix. They are by long custom and confirmed habits so hardened in sin that they cannot get clear of it. Those that sin through infirmity are drawn away by sin; those that sin presumptuously draw iniquity to them, in spite of the oppositions of Providence and the checks of conscience.

Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan

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Cross-references

32 linked verses

The verses this one reaches12

2 Peter 3:4
“Where is the promise of His coming?” they will ask. “Ever since our fathers fell asleep, everything continues as it has from the beginning of creation.”
Ecclesiastes 8:11
When the sentence for a crime is not speedily executed, the hearts of men become fully set on doing evil.
Isaiah 29:15
Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?”
Proverbs 30:8
Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the bread that is my portion.
Jeremiah 23:14
And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns his back on wickedness. They are all like Sodom to Me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.”
Malachi 2:17
You have wearied the LORD with your words; yet you ask, “How have we wearied Him?” By saying, “All who do evil are good in the sight of the LORD, and in them He delights,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”
Jeremiah 5:31
The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?
Ezekiel 13:22
Because you have disheartened the righteous with your lies, even though I have caused them no grief, and because you have encouraged the wicked not to turn from their evil ways to save their lives,
Psalms 36:2
For his eyes are too full of conceit to detect or hate his own sin.
Jeremiah 23:10
For the land is full of adulterers— because of the curse, the land mourns and the pastures of the wilderness have dried up— their course is evil and their power is misused.
Isaiah 28:15
For you said, “We have made a covenant with death; we have fashioned an agreement with Sheol. When the overwhelming scourge passes through it will not touch us, because we have made lies our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.”
Proverbs 16:27
A worthless man digs up evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire.

20 more linked verses are grouped by book below ↓

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The quotation web

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Around this verse

Word doors

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

About this book

The Prophet Isaiah — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

Isaiah — The gospel prophet — a Judean court-prophet across Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (c. 740–700 BC) who sees past Assyria to Babylon and past Babylon to the Messiah. Sixty-six chapters divided into the Book of Judgment (1–39) and the Book of Comfort (40–66), climaxing in the Servant wounded for our transgressions.

Canon: Old Testament
Author: Isaiah ben Amoz — Heb. Yəša'yāhû, 'Yahweh saves' (1:1); Jewish tradition (b. Megillah 10b; b. Yevamot 49b) holds he was of royal blood and was martyred 'sawn asunder' under Manasseh — a tradition, not Scripture
Date: Ministry c. 740–700 BC — call 'in the year that king Uzziah died' (6:1) through Sennacherib's 701 BC siege of Jerusalem (36–37); spanning the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (1:1)

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
Jeremiah 5:31
The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?
leads to
- Ezekiel 13:6
  They see false visions and speak lying divinations. They claim, ‘Thus declares the LORD,’ when the LORD did not send them; yet they wait for the fulfillment of their message.
- Jeremiah 14:14
  “The prophets are prophesying lies in My name,” replied the LORD. “I did not send them or appoint them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, a worthless divination,…
- Micah 2:11
  If a man of wind were to come and say falsely, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be just the preacher for this people!
Through
Ezekiel 13:22
Because you have disheartened the righteous with your lies, even though I have caused them no grief, and because you have encouraged the wicked not to turn from their evil ways to save their…
leads to
- Jeremiah 23:14
  And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns his back on wickedness.…
Through
Jeremiah 23:10
For the land is full of adulterers— because of the curse, the land mourns and the pastures of the wilderness have dried up— their course is evil and their power is misused.
leads to
- Hosea 4:2–3
  Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.
- Psalms 107:34
  and fruitful land into fields of salt, because of the wickedness of its dwellers.
Through
Psalms 36:2
For his eyes are too full of conceit to detect or hate his own sin.
leads to
- Deuteronomy 29:19
  because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.’ This…
Through
Jeremiah 23:14
And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns his back on wickedness.…
leads to
- Jeremiah 29:23
  For they have committed an outrage in Israel by committing adultery with the wives of their neighbors and speaking lies in My name, which I did not command them to do. I am He…

The whole web at once: see the Arc.

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Continue: Isaiah 5 →