Yesaya 5:11

5:11 Those who get up early to drink beer are as good as dead, ¹ 

those who keep drinking long after dark

until they are intoxicated with wine. ² 

Yesaya 42:7

42:7 to open blind eyes, ³ 

to release prisoners ⁴  from dungeons,

those who live in darkness from prisons.

Yesaya 66:16

66:16 For the Lord judges all humanity ⁵ 

with fire and his sword;

the Lord will kill many. ⁶ 

[5:11]  ¹ tn Heb “Woe [to] those who arise early in the morning, [who] chase beer.”

[5:11]  ² tn Heb “[who] delay until dark, [until] wine enflames them.”

[5:11]  sn This verse does not condemn drinking per se, but refers to the carousing lifestyle of the rich bureaucrats, made possible by wealth taken from the poor. Their carousing is not the fundamental problem, but a disgusting symptom of the real disease – their social injustice.

[42:7]  ³ sn This does not refer to literal physical healing of the blind. As the next two lines suggest, this refers metonymically to freeing captives from their dark prisons where their eyes have grown unaccustomed to light.

[42:7]  ⁴ sn This does not refer to hardened, dangerous criminals, who would have been executed for their crimes in ancient Near Eastern society. This verse refers to political prisoners or victims of social injustice.

[66:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NIV “upon all men”; TEV “all the people of the world.”

[66:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “many are the slain of the Lord.”