Caught my bad Exegesis

Tonight in Bible study we were looking at Isaiah 5:1-4. The fourth verse in NKJV reads:
4 Without Me they shall bow down among the prisoners, And they shall fall among the slain.
For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still.

My gut reaction to anything in the Bible that says 'But' is to assume that God is being merciful to someone, even me (Rom. 5:8; 1 Cor 2:10, 10:13; Gal. 3:18; Eph. 2:4, Phil. 2:27, etc..). I assumed the verse was saying that God was holding back His full hand of wrath. So the group talked for a few minutes about God's mercy to sinners even though they deserve worse. And that is very true doctrine.

But in the middle of Bible study, I felt the Spirit nudge me and say "that isn't right read it again." Reading vs 4 again and looking at some of the cross-references, its clear that the verse is not about mercy but is actually a warning: Unrighteous - wealthy people, who think they've gotten away with oppressing the poor and wasting money, are still under God's righteous wrath. They think they've escaped 'But' God's hand is still raised above them and is about to fall, like smashing a fly on the table.

We all scurried through our cross-references together and read the verse in a couple different translations that people had, and came to the proper interpretation. It was a cool moment in the study to teach how to properly interpret a scripture. God was gracious to turn my mistake into something positive. Isn't He cool?

Here's the verse rendered this time by the ESV. Its a little clearer:
4 Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain.
For all this His anger has not turned away, and His hand is stretched out still.

Just a reminder to myself and to the other journy-men exegetes out there. When you're interpreting the Word, don't be afraid to fix your mistakes mid-teaching. Especially if you're prompted to by the Spirit.