Compare verse 21 to 2 Nephi 9:28–29.
Verse 22: It is ironic that Judah’s men of valor were mighty not in the battle but in the bottle.
Verse 23: They acquit the wicked for a bribe and deny justice to the innocent.
Verse 24: Isaiah eloquently illustrates from nature the dire consequences of Israel’s rejection of the law and the word of their God. Just as the weed or waste part of the grain is consumed by fire, so Israel’s root—from which all the rest of the tree is supposed to receive nourishment—is full of rotten decay, and therefore its blossoms (its potential for fruit) are blown away by the winds of corruption. A later prophet similarly described the tragedy: “For behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble … , that it shall leave them neither root nor branch” (Malachi 4:1).
Verse 25: The Lord was angry with them and had smitten them with drought, famine, plague, pestilence, earthquake, and war (Amos 4:6–11). “For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still” (see commentary at 2 Nephi 19:8–14).