Isaiah 5:20

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil,.... That call evil actions good, and good actions evil; that excuse the one, and reproach the other; or that call evil men good, and good men evil; to which the Targum agrees.

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil.

That call evil good, and good evil; that take away the difference between good and evil; that justify and approve wicked men and things, and condemn piety, or virtue; or righteous persons. Compare . Thus many call serious godliness, humorous singularity; and justice, morosity; and meekness, stupidity, &c.; as, on the contrary, they call pride, magnanimity; and covetousness, good husbandry. And men are very apt to follow the course of the world in their false judgments of things; which therefore the prophet so severely forbids.

Isaiah 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!Ver. 20. Woe unto them that call evil good, &c.] That can make candida de nigris, et de candentibus atra, and go about to invert the nature of things, and to change the very names of them; while they call - not out of ignorance or infirmity, but out of base calumny or gross flattery - evil good, and good evil; calling drunkenness good fellowship, covetousness good husbandry, prodigality liberality, swearing with a grace a gentleman-like quality, fornication a trick of youth, adultery an enjoyment of the fellow creature, as Ranters call it, &c. Thus the Athenians flattered their own vices, calling πορναςεταιρας, φιρουςσυνταξεις, φυλακαςφρουραςτωνπολεων, &c. Cicero said it was an ill omen of the overthrow of the commonwealth, that the true names of things were lost; and in divinity it is a rule, Qui fingit nova verba, nova gignit dogmata, He that affecteth new terms would bring in new opinions. That saying of Luther was oft in Pareus’ s mouth, Theologus gloriae dicit malum bonum, et bonum malum. Theologus crucis dicit id quod res est. The theology of vain glory says good is bad and bad is good. The theology of popery says this because it is the problem. Not long before our late unhappy troubles the martyrs of the Protestant religion were disgraced, the conspirators in the gunpowder treason excused in a sermon at St Mary’ s, Cambridge, by one Kemp of Queen’ s College. The schools, press, and pulpit began to speak Italian apace, and to persuade to a moderation, to a reconciliation with Rome, which now was said to be a true Church, the Pope not Antichrist, &c. The great elixir called state policy hath, with some at least, so transmutive a faculty, as to make copper seem gold, right wrong, and wrong right. But let us pray, with good David in Psalms 119:66, "Teach me good judgment and knowledge"; give me senses habitually "exercised to discern between good and evil." And then take heed that we neither make censure’ s whip nor charity’ s cloak too long; we may offend in both. In Catil. David. Par. Vita. Myst. of Iniquity, p. 15.

(20) Woe unto them that call evil good.—The moral state described was the natural outcome of the sins condemned in the preceding verses. So Thucydides (iii. 82-84) describes the effects of the spirit of party in the Peloponnesian war. Rashness was called courage, and prudence timidity, and treachery cleverness, and honesty stupidity. That deliberate perversion is in all ages the ultimate outcome of the spirit that knows not God, and therefore neither fears nor loves Him, whether it shows itself in the licence of profligacy, or the diplomacy of Machiavellian statesmen, or the speculations of the worshippers of Mammon.

20. The fourth woe, against those who confuse moral distinctions. Amongst the “wise men” of the time (Proverbs 25:1) there may have been a class of sophists, who employed their subtlety in making out a case for abuses condemned by the unsophisticated moral sense.

Wo unto them that call evil good ... - This is the fourth class of sins denounced. The sin which is reprobated here is that of “perverting and confounding” things, especially the distinctions of morality and religion.

Fourth woe — on the reversers of right and wrong, Isaiah 5:20.It takes but little time for such sinners wholly to reverse and uproot all moral distinctions, hence another woe is pronounced upon such.20.