Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 5:18

"Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and sin as it were with a cart rope;" — Isaiah 5:18 (ASV)

That draw iniquity with cords of vanity. —The phrase is boldly figurative. Evil-doers are thought of as harnessing themselves as to the chariot of sin. The “cords of vanity”—i.e., of emptiness or ungodliness—are the habits by which they are thus bound. The “cart ropes,” thicker and stronger than the “cords,” represent the extreme stage, when such habits become irresistibly dominant. Probably the words may point to some idolatrous procession, in which the chariot of Baal or Ashtaroth was thus drawn by their worshippers, like that of Demêter or Cybele in Greece, or Juggernâth in India.