Isaiah 5:11-17

NATIONAL UNGODLINESS

Isaiah 5:11. Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink, &c.

National ungodliness.

I. Its phases, dissipation, drunkenness, forgetfulness of God.

II. Its punishment, captivity, famine, pestilence, humiliation.

III. The certainty of its visitation, God must be vindicated, His people must be delivered [622] Lyth, D.D.

[622] The individual culprit may sometimes

Unpunished to his after-reckoning go:
Not thus collective man; for public crimes
Draw on their proper punishment below.
When nations go astray, from age to age
The effects remain, a fatal heritage.
Bear witness, Egypt, thy huge monuments,
Of priestly fraud and tyranny austere!
Bear witness thou, whose only name presents
All holy feelings to religion dear—
In earth’s dark circlet once the precious gem
Of living light—O fallen Jerusalem!
—Southey.