What does it mean, "Those who pull evil along using cords of emptiness are as good as dead, who pull sin as with cart ropes"?
Isaiah 5:18
Isaiah 5:1 - 30
ESV - 1 Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
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Tim Maas
Supporter
The verse is about people who are actively and knowingly engaging in sinful behavior or practices, with no desire or effort to recognize them as sinful, repent of them, or forsake them and turn to God. The "cords of emptiness (or "vanity") are deceitful arguments and pretenses that such people use to justify their actions. The "cart rope" (which is a strong means of pulling a wagon) symbolizes the power of sinful habits over those who indulge in them.
Shirley H
Supporter
"Vanity." Life is a fleeting thing. All things pass. God is everlasting. NKJV, Isaiah 5:18: "Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as if with a cart rope." What is to draw iniquity? Luke 13:27: "But He will say, 'I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.'" Iniquity is a wrongful or unjust act. Jesus does not recognize a failure to seek salvation. In life temptation is unavoidable. Proverbs 5:21,22: "For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He ponders all his paths. His own inquiries entrap the wicked man, and he is caught in the cords of his sin." Proverbs 5:15: "Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well." Proverbs 9:17: "Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant." In Jude we have a warning about clouds without water. Verse 13 says, "...raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever." These things lack substance (2 Peter 2:19). While promising freedom, it is everlasting enslavement. Ephesians 3:19: "...to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." Revelation 22:17: "And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who threats come. Whoever desires let him take the water of life freely." Isaiah 55:1 "Ho! everyone, [Ho, is an exclamation of pity] who thirsts, come to the waters and you who have no money. Come... buy and eat without money or price." Isaiah 52:3: "For thus says the Lord: 'You have sold yourselves for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.'"
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