(Isa. 5:23)
This refers to those who take bribes. Because this statement immediately follows a woe pronounced against drunkenness, one wonders if Isaiah saw those well-known figures in sports, entertainment, or other positions of notoriety who accept payment for endorsing harmful products such as alcohol.
(Hoyt W. Brewster, Jr., Isaiah Plain and Simple [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1995], 50.)
The false and misleading advertising of our day fits Isaiah’s description. Famous athletes, movie stars, and other celebrities are paid large sums of money to endorse products which may well be harmful. Such advertising leads people away from righteousness.
(Monte S. Nyman, Great Are the Words of Isaiah [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1980], 45.)
Naturally Isaiah takes us into the law courts: “Wo unto him that calleth evil good and good evil,” that being the rhetorical art the art as Plato tells us “of making good seem bad and bad seem good by the use of words,” which in the ancient world came to its own in the law courts. “Wo unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight … which justify the wicked for a reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him.” Which recalls how the Gadianton robbers when they finally got control of the government and the law courts, “when they did obtain the sole management of the government,” at once ‘turned their backs on the poor and needy…” (Hel. 6:39) filling the “judgment seats” with their own people (Hel. 7:4), “letting the guilty and the wicked go unpunished because of their money …” (7:5). “They justify the wicked for a reward,” … serving their own interests by the laws and regulations which they make, “or turn aside the needy from judgment, and take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!” (10:1–2).
(Hugh W. Nibley, “Great Are the Words of Isaiah,” Sidney B. Sperry Symposium [Provo, Utah: Religious Instruction, BYU, January 28, 1978], 202.)