Isaiah 5:12 contains the highest concentration of terms for musical instruments in the Old Testament outside a liturgical setting. Even Daniel 3 is liturgical: When the seven instruments sound, everyone is supposed to bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s image. Elsewhere, lists of musical instruments are lists of temple instruments.
At the temple, musical instruments, with singing, memorialized the works of Yahweh and the doings of His hands. The festivities that Isaiah describes in 5:12 form an anti-liturgy, the sounds of commemoration, wine and strong drink like a temple festival, but without any attention to the mighty works of Yahweh.
The outcome is deadly. Personified Sheol enlarges her soul, her appetite;no longer satisfied with the dead, she opens wide for the living. There is no boundary; Sheol opens up like an infinite, boundless pit,. and all the finery and festivity, the roar and the murmur of the peopl, go down. Those who swallow wine from morning to night will be swallowed.
Then every Adam will be forced to true worship, all forced to prostrate themselves before the exalted Lord of hosts (v. 15-16). All the high ones will be brought low, and Yahweh will be high.
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