Isaiah 5:8-10

COVETOUSNESS

Isaiah 5:8. Woe unto them that join house to house, &c.

Covetousness is—I. Ruinous to the individual [601] II. Mischievous to society. III. Offensive to God. IV. Certain to be punished.

1. Here, by disappointment and loss (Proverbs 3:33) [604]

2. Hereafter, by exclusion from heaven (1 Corinthians 6:10; Ephesians 5:5) [607]J. Lyth, D.D.

[601] The love of money can never keep good quarter with honesty; there is a mint of fraud in the worldly breast, and it can coin lies as fast as utterance.—Adams, 1653.

[604] As Moses only saw the land of Canaan, but for his sin was not permitted to have any share or portion in it, so misers have, for their miserable covetousness, this punishment by God inflicted on them, that they shall only see their goods with eyes, but never enjoy them for their comfort; and that they shall toil and moil for their successor, oftentimes not knowing who he shall be, and receive no manner of benefit by their own labour. But as pipes keep none of the water to themselves that runs through them, but convey it all to their cisterns, so they are not able to retain any of the goods which they possess, for their own benefit and comfort, but only serve as overseers to convey them to their heirs.—Downame, 1642.

[607] If a man, sick on his bed, burning of a fever, fetching his breath with straitness and shortness, looking like earth, says he is well in health, we do not believe him: so if we see men swelling with pride, flaming with lust, looking earthy with covetousness, and yet flattering themselves with hope of salvation, we cannot credit them, all the world cannot save them.—Adams, 1654.

The covetous is like a camel, with a great hunch on his back; heaven-gate must be made higher and broader, or he will hardly get in.—Adams, 1653.

The avaricious man is like a pig, which seeks its food in the mud, without caring where it comes from.—Vianney.

GOD’S CURSE ON THE COVETOUS

Isaiah 5:8. Woe unto them that join house to house, &c.

God’s curse is in the habitation of the wicked.

1. Sometimes the curse enters into their hearts, and prevents them from enjoying comfort in their estates, and perplexes them with fears and cares about their possessions [610]

2. At other times it wastes and consumes them like a moth, or suddenly devours them by fire and sword.
3. In some existences they are suddenly and unexpectedly snatched away from their enjoyments by death [613]Macculloch, Lectures on Isaiah, i. 275.

[610] The covetous man pines in plenty, like Tantalus, up to the chin.—Adams, 1693.

[613] What can be more miserable, than for a man to toil and labour his whole life, and to have no power to enjoy any fruit of his labours? to bear like an ass a golden burden all the day, and, without any further use of it, at night to have it taken away, reserving nothing to himself but a galled conscience?—Downame, 1644.

I doubt not many covetous men take a great deal of pleasure in ruminating upon their wealth, and in recounting what they have; but they have a great deal of tormenting care and fear about it; and if they had not, it is very hard to understand where the reasonable pleasure and happiness lies of having things to no end. It is, at the best, like that of some foolish birds, which, they say, take pleasure in stealing money, that they may hide it; as if it were worth the while for men to take pains to dig silver out of the earth, for no other purpose but to melt it down and stamp it, and bury it there again.—Tillotson, 1630–1694.