Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.

“"Woe unto them that call evil good." For this text is to be understood to refer not to humans but to those things that make humans evil, and the prophet's accusation is rightly applied to one who calls adultery good. But if someone should call another good whom he believes chaste, not knowing that he is an adulterer, he is deceived not in his understanding of good and evil but through the secrets of human conduct. He is calling a person good whom he believes to possess that which indubitably is good. The adulterer he would call evil, the chaste person good, and he calls the person in question good simply through not knowing that he is an adulterer and not chaste.”

“Those who say of the evil that it is good They praise idolators [var. idolatry], but they consider it evil to worship the Holy One, blessed be He, Who is good. who present darkness as light A thing which is destined to bring darkness upon them, they say, will bring light to them. who present bitter as sweet Iniquity, [var. idolatry] which is destined to bring upon them bitter retribution, they say, will be sweet for them. and sweet as bitter The sweet worship of the Holy One, blessed be He, they say, is bitter.”

“Woe to you who call evil good. Here is set down the vanity as to the excusing of sin; and first as to the effect, evil for good: Micah 7: they call the evil of their own hands good; second as to the understanding, light for darkness, truth for error: John 3: men loved darkness more than light; third as to the affection, bitter into sweet, esteeming the life of sin sweet. Wisdom 14: and it was not enough for them to have erred concerning the knowledge of God, but living in a great war of ignorance, they call so many and so great evils peace. Woe to you who are wise. Here is set down the third vanity as to the presumption of sinning, which concerns three things. First, the wisdom of the heart, both in speculative matters, who are wise: Proverbs 3: be not wise in your own estimation: and in practical matters, prudent. Romans 12: do not be prudent in your own estimation. Second, as to the power of the body for sinning: who are mighty to drink: they boast that they can drink much, and become drunk, on account of the custom of the land in which mixed wine is drunk. Below, 41: let the islands be silent toward me, and let the nations change strength. Proverbs 2: they rejoice when they have done evil, and exult in most wicked things. Third, as to authority, who justify — that is, you say that you are of such great authority that at your own pleasure you can justify the impious, so that whatever pleases you may have the force of law: below, 10: woe to those who make unjust laws, and who, writing, have written injustices. Proverbs 17: and he who justifies the impious, and he who condemns the just. Micah 3: and if anyone has not put something into their mouth, they sanctify war against him. Because of this, as it devours. Here he threatens punishment. And first he sets down the punishment of consumption under the metaphor of fire. Because of this, that you draw iniquity, setting for yourselves a root in sins. As the flame of fire burns up the stubble which it touches, and the heat of the flame burns that which is distant: for persecution kills those it takes captive, and afflicts others: Deuteronomy 32: without, the sword shall lay them waste, and within, dread: so their root shall be as ashes, as to those things in which they trusted — whether fathers or kinsmen — and their offshoot, the sons, shall go up as dust; in which is noted the strength arising from those causes. Malachi, last chapter: and all the proud, and all who do wickedness, shall be stubble, and it will set them ablaze. Second, he sets down the process and order of the punishment; and first he sets down the cause of the punishment, and especially as to the first vanity, whence he says: for they have cast away the law, despising it in heart, and have blasphemed the holy word of Israel, mocking with the mouth. Jeremiah 32: they have not obeyed your voice, and have not walked in your law. Second, the anger of the one who punishes; therefore he was angry: he speaks after the manner in which the process of anger occurs in men. Psalm 105: the Lord was angry with fury. Third, the infliction of the punishment: and he stretched out his hand, of power to strike, which, folded, he had held back in sparing. Zephaniah 2: and he shall stretch out his hand over the north, and destroy Assyria, and make the beautiful one a wilderness. Fourth, the effect of the punishment in the destruction of the great ones: the mountains were troubled, that is, the great ones, from fear. The Gloss says that he speaks hyperbolically. But against this: then the prophet would have exceeded the truth. And it must be said that in some writings, "hyperbolically" is taken for an excess of truth simply, but in sacred Scripture for an excess of truth according to the opinion of men; as if he were to say: the trouble will be beyond what could be believed. Or otherwise, hyperbole is a certain trope, and in figurative expressions one thing is said and another is understood. Hence there is no falsity as to the sense which it intends to convey, just as also in metaphor; as if he were to say: so great will the trouble be, that the mountains, if it were possible, would be troubled. Psalm 45: the mountains were troubled, etc. And as to the vileness of bodies, they became carcasses. Jeremiah 8: they shall not be gathered nor buried; they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth. The same, 16: they shall die of grievous deaths, and shall not be lamented, and shall not be buried; they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth.”

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil,.... That call evil actions good, and good actions evil; that excuse the one, and reproach the other; or that call evil men good, and good men evil; to which the Targum agrees. Some understand this of false prophets rejecting the true worship of God, and recommending false worship; others of wicked judges, pronouncing the causes of bad men good, and of good men evil; others of sensualists, that speak in praise of drunkenness, gluttony, and all carnal pleasures, and fleshly lusts, and treat with contempt fear, worship, and service of God. It may very well be applied to the Scribes and Pharisees in Christ's time, who preferred the evil traditions of their elders, both to the law of God, that is holy, just, and good, and to the Gospel, the good word of God, preached by John the Baptist, Christ and his apostles, and to the ordinances of the Gospel dispensation: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter; for calling good evil, and evil good, is all one as putting these things one for another; there being as great a difference between good and evil, as between light and darkness, sweet and bitter; and it suggests, as if the perversion of these things was not merely through ignorance and mistake, but purposely and wilfully against light and knowledge; so the Jews acted when they preferred the darkness of their rites and ceremonies, and human traditions, before the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ; which showed they loved darkness rather than light, Joh 3:19 and chose that which would be bitter to them in the end, than the sweet doctrines of the grace of God; the bitter root of error, rather than the words of Christ's mouth, which are sweeter than the honey, or the honeycomb. The Targum is, "woe to them that say to the wicked who prosper in this world, ye are good; and say to the meek, ye are wicked: when light cometh to the righteous, shall it not be dark with the wicked? and sweet shall be the words of the law to them that do them; but bitterness (some read "rebellion") shall come to the wicked; and they shall know, that in the end sin is bitter to them that commit it.'' Abarbinel interprets this of the ten tribes preferring the worship at Dan and Bethel, before that at Jerusalem.”

“Fourth Woe--against those who confound the distinctions of right and wrong (compare Rom 1:28), "reprobate," Greek, "undiscriminating: the moral perception darkened." bitter . . . sweet--sin is bitter (Jer 2:19; Jer 4:18; Act 8:23; Heb 12:15); though it seem sweet for a time (Pro 9:17-18). Religion is sweet (Psa 119:103).”

“The fourth woe: "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who give out darkness for light, and light for darkness; who give out bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." The previous woe had reference to those who made the facts of sacred history the butt of their naturalistic doubt and ridicule, especially so far as they were the subject of prophecy. This fourth woe relates to those who adopted a code of morals that completely overturned the first principles of ethics, and was utterly opposed to the law of God; for evil, darkness, and bitter, with their respective antitheses, represent moral principles that are essentially related (Mat 6:23; Jam 3:11), Evil, as hostile to God, is dark in its nature, and therefore loves darkness, and is exposed to the punitive power of darkness. And although it may be sweet to the material taste, it is nevertheless bitter, inasmuch as it produces abhorrence and disgust in the godlike nature of man, and, after a brief period of self-deception, is turned into the bitter woe of fatal results. Darkness and light, bitter and sweet, therefore, are not tautological metaphors for evil and good; but epithets applied to evil and good according to their essential principles, and their necessary and internal effects.”