Bible Strands
Isaiah 5:14
Therefore Sheol enlarges its throat and opens wide its enormous jaws, and down go Zion’s nobles and masses, her revelers and carousers!
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Isaiah pronounces judgment on Zion’s leaders and commoners following their exile for rejecting divine instruction. The oracle addresses the nation’s collapse after years of moral and spiritual failure.
The words — The Hebrew הִרְחִיבָה (hirchivah, "it will enlarge") and פָּעַר (pa‘ar, "open wide") describe Sheol’s insatiable throat and mouth. The phrase לִבְלִי־חֹק (livli-chok, "without limit") emphasizes that this grave’s appetite has no boundary.
The thread — This imagery of an insatiable grave echoes Proverbs 30:16 and Habakkuk 2:5, where Sheol and the arrogant man are depicted as never satisfied. It also warns against the dissipation and drunkenness that Luke 21:34 identifies as heart-weighting dangers.
Why it lands — The text declares that moral rebellion guarantees collective ruin, with no social class exempt from Sheol’s reach. It demands sober self-examination rather than reliance on status or revelry.
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
Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 30:16 Sheol, the barren womb, land never satisfied with water, and fire that never says, ‘Enough!’
- Habakkuk 2:5 and wealth indeed betrays him. He is an arrogant man never at rest. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, and like Death, he is never satisfied. He gathers all the nations to himself and collects all the peoples as his own.
- Luke 21:34 But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare.
- Psalms 55:15 Let death seize them by surprise; let them go down to Sheol alive, for evil is with them in their homes.
- Proverbs 27:20 Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.
- Isaiah 30:33 For Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.
- Matthew 7:13 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
- Revelation 20:13 The sea gave up its dead, and Death and Hades gave up their dead, and each one was judged according to his deeds.
- Numbers 16:30 But if the LORD brings about something unprecedented, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them and all that belongs to them so that they go down alive into Sheol, then you will know that these men have treated the LORD with contempt.”
- Isaiah 14:9 Sheol beneath is eager to meet you upon your arrival. It stirs the spirits of the dead to greet you—all the rulers of the earth. It makes all the kings of the nations rise from their thrones.