Bible Strands
Isaiah 5:12
At their feasts are the lyre and harp, tambourines and flutes and wine. They disregard the actions of the LORD and fail to see the work of His hands.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Isaiah pronounces this oracle to Judah at a moment of national spiritual decline, directly following a condemnation of those who chase intoxication from dawn to dusk. The prophet addresses a populace whose social gatherings have become the center of their attention.
The words — כִנּוֹר (kinnor) translates as harp, and מִשְׁתֵּיהֶם (mishtehhem) means their feast, anchoring the verse in the specific instruments and gatherings that define their indulgence.
The thread — The motif of ignoring divine works runs through Psalms 28:5 and Job 34:27, where parallel language condemns a failure to acknowledge God's actions and ways.
Why it lands — The text states that musical celebration and wine accompany a deliberate blindness to God's actions and the work of His hands. Readers must confront whether their own pursuits are causing them to overlook divine authority.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands.
Cross-references
- Psalms 28:5 Since they show no regard for the works of the LORD or what His hands have done, He will tear them down and never rebuild them.
- Job 21:11 They send forth their little ones like a flock; their children skip about,
- Job 34:27 because they turned aside from Him and had no regard for any of His ways.
- Amos 6:4 You lie on beds inlaid with ivory, and lounge upon your couches. You dine on lambs from the flock and calves from the stall.
- Daniel 5:23 Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels from His house were brought to you, and as you drank wine from them with your nobles, wives, and concubines, you praised your gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you have failed to glorify the God who holds in His hand your very breath and all your ways.
- Jude 1:12 These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted.
- Genesis 31:27 Why did you run away secretly and deceive me, without even telling me? I would have sent you away with joy and singing, with tambourines and harps.
- Psalms 92:5 How great are Your works, O LORD, how deep are Your thoughts!
- Isaiah 5:19 to those who say, “Let Him hurry and hasten His work so that we may see it! Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come so that we may know it!”
- Isaiah 22:13 But look, there is joy and gladness, butchering of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”