What Does Isaiah 5:11 Mean?
Woe to those who rise early in the morning to pursue strong drink, who continue into the night until wine burns in them!
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!THE KEY
The drink they pursue from dawn becomes the fire acting on them by night.
THE MEANING
This verse names a pattern alive now: a pursuit can take the whole day, then become the force acting on the pursuer. The hours narrow around the drink until night brings its heat to the surface.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that drinking remains a bounded pleasure because the drinker chooses it. The verse shows the pursuit filling the day and the wine taking the final action on the pursuer.
THE ROOT
שֵׁכָר
shekar
GROWS FROM
שכר
To become intoxicated; as a noun, an intoxicating drink.
“strong drink” in this verse is shekar. The drink’s name and the word for a person who is drunk belong to one word-family. The object pursued and the state it produces are linguistically close.
ALSO GROWS
shikkor: Drunk or intoxicated
שִׁכּוֹר
The same root names the state of the person who drinks, drawing the drink and its effect together.
shikkaron: Drunkenness
שִׁכָּרוֹן
This branch names intoxication as a condition, echoing the verse’s movement from pursuing the drink to being acted upon by it.
יִרְדְּפוּ
yirdefu
GROWS FROM
רדף
To pursue, chase, or press after.
“pursue strong drink” in this verse is yirdefu. The Hebrew verb carries the force of pursuit, more than casually following along. Joined to the markers from early morning until night, it makes drinking the day’s organizing chase.
ALSO GROWS
radaph: To pursue or chase
רָדַף
This is the root verb behind the verse’s description of their pursuit.
rodefei: Those who pursue
רֹדְפֵי
The participle makes the pursuers visible as people defined by what they press after.
יַדְלִיקֵם
yadliqem
GROWS FROM
דלק
To kindle, burn, or set alight.
“until wine burns in them” in this verse is yadliqem. The verb pictures the wine as setting the drinkers alight. The day’s chase ends with the pursued substance acting upon them.
ALSO GROWS
dalaq: To burn or kindle
דָּלַק
This is the basic verb whose fire-image appears in the verse’s final action.
doleq: Burning or blazing
דֹּלֵק
This form carries the same root’s image of something lit and burning, sharpening the force of inflame.
THE PATTERN
When intoxicating drink becomes the object of relentless pursuit, it begins to govern the pursuer’s body and conduct.
Who has woe? Who has the outcry? Who has quarrels? Who has murmuring? Who has bruises for nothing? Who has eyes gone red? Those who linger long over wine, those who go searching out the mixed drink.Woe to the one who gives his neighbor drink, mixing in your heat and making him drunk also, so that you may look upon their nakedness!And do not become drunk with wine, in which is excess, but be filled with the breath.THE THREAD
Wine is a mocker, strong drink is roaring, and whoever reels in it is not wise.Isaiah’s שֵׁכָר (shekar, strong drink) is the same Hebrew word used in Proverbs 20:1. Isaiah shows the drink pursued from morning to night; Proverbs gives it a disordering force, extending the image from consumption to influence.
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