Isaiah 5:20
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The context
Isaiah 5 is a series of woes pronounced on Judah, following the song of the vineyard. The list names land-grabbers, drunkards, and those who drag iniquity with ropes of falsehood. Verse 20 sits in the middle of that list and targets a specific corruption of speech: the reversal of moral categories.
What it establishes
It establishes that the prophet treats the confusion of good and evil as a distinct offense, not as a failure of intelligence. The woe is addressed to people who do the renaming, and it assumes that good and evil are not simply whatever a speaker decides they are.
What it does not establish
It does not establish that moral language is always clear. The prophet names the reversal as scandal because he thinks the difference is knowable; he supplies no method for hard cases. Nor does the verse identify who renames.
Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.
Cited in these answers
Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.