Isaiah 5:20 Meaning: When We Call Evil Good

The Hebrew word hōy, “woe”, is more than a shout of anger. It carries grief, like a cry at a funeral. When Isaiah opens with this word, he is not just scolding. He is mourning what is about to be lost. The verb ’ōmerîm, “those who say,” suggests not a casual opinion but a public declaration. These are people with influence, using their words to rename things. And the verb śāmîm, “put” or “make,” appears twice. It pictures an active exchange: someone deliberately swaps darkness for light, bitter for sweet. This is not confusion. It is a choice to invert the order God built into creation. The three pairs, evil/good, darkness/light, bitter/sweet, cover every layer of life: what we choose, what we see, what we taste. When we start calling sin by a nicer name, we are doing exactly what this verse warns against.

Christians across traditions have read this verse as a warning against moral confusion. John Calvin saw it as a general rebuke to anyone who uses clever words to excuse sin or condemn righteousness. Matthew Henry applied it to those who justify the wicked and condemn the pious. The Geneva Bible notes simply say it is “to speake good of euill, and euill of good.” Roman Catholic teaching has connected this verse to the sin of suppressing natural law, the moral sense God has written on every heart. Protestants often link it to the danger of replacing Scripture with human tradition, as Jesus accused the Pharisees of doing in Matthew 15. All these readings agree: the sin here is not an accident but a willful turning away from God’s standard of truth.

Some readers assume this verse only applies to extreme cases, saying that murder or theft is good. In fact, the prophet targets subtler inversions: calling selfishness “practical,” calling cruelty “strong leadership,” or calling faith “foolish.” The verse warns against the everyday habit of renaming our sins so they sound acceptable. It is not about obvious evil but about the slow drift that happens when we stop trusting God’s definitions.

This week, pay attention to the small justifications that cross your mind. When you stretch the truth to avoid embarrassment, what do you call it? When you hold a grudge and call it “setting a boundary,” is that honest? Isaiah’s words are an invitation to stop and ask: am I calling this what God calls it? You might not have the power to change a whole culture, but you can start with your own heart. Name your actions plainly before God. That is the first step back toward the light.