Reading Isaiah 5 - part 2

The LORD declares judgement on Israel because of the wicked things they have done.

It's interesting his condemnation at the end of v.12 is:
"..they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, no respect for the work of his hands", not - as perhaps you might expect - 'you have broken my laws'. He is concerned with their relationship with Him primarily and with things he has made (I would imagine this means other people as well as his creation). He seems to be saying, 'you have forgotten everything I've done for you'.

He declares judgement on the people, telling them they will be humbled,
"But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness."

"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."
Is this just a poetic effect? Or is it meant literally as an indication of how messed up the people are? That they can no longer tell the difference? Or that they are determined to disturb the natural order that God has made? Whatever it means, it makes a strange sense to me. The blurring of moral choices is clearly a step on the path to the Dark Side... (c.f. Anakin Skywalker :-)

It is 'woe' to the arrogant, the drunks and the corrupt. In other words, those who put themselves above God, those who care for nothing except their own pleasure, and those who act injustly will all be judged.
"...for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel."
- 'rejected' seems to me a slightly different idea than 'breaking' the law (as you'd expect it to say), but it could just be an expression! Again, it seems to be this idea that it is God himself who is rejected. Or at least that God's law is intimately bound up with his person.

God's judgement was for Israel to lose its special protection and be attacked by the surrounding nations - this prophecy did come true in 722BC when the Assyrians destroyed the northern kingdom and scattered the people.