woe to

woe to (one)

1. Misfortune or unpleasant consequences await or will happen to one (if something happens). The legislation is becoming increasingly complex, and with enforcement tightening all the time, woe to anyone who fails to familiarize themselves with every letter of the law. All I can do is offer my advice as to the best and safest course of action—woe to you if you decide to ignore it.
2. One deserves great punishment or misfortune. Woe to you, Mr. Smith, for destroying the lives of so many employees and dragging the reputation of a once-mighty company through the mud.
See also: woe
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

woe to (someone)

1. Used to express the wish for someone to experience misfortune.
2. Used as a warning or allusion to negative consequences: "Our sun will be a red giant, and woe to any earthlings who may be around to witness its bloated blush, for the planet on which they stand will likely be vaporized in the expansion" (Natalie Angier).
See also: woe
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
See also:
  • woe to (one)
  • go hard with
  • go hard with (someone)
  • Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, the
  • dig (someone or oneself) out of a hole
  • dark days
  • live to fight another day
  • bad luck
  • give hostage to fortune
  • hostage
References in classic literature
This, shipmates, this is that other lesson; and woe to that pilot of the living God who slights it.
Woe to him who, in this world, courts not dishonor!
for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him?
Since thou dost in thy cruelty desire The ruthless rigour of thy tyranny From tongue to tongue, from land to land proclaimed, The very Hell will I constrain to lend This stricken breast of mine deep notes of woe To serve my need of fitting utterance.
Woe, woe to the seeking ones!"--thus hath it echoed through all time.
But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
Next, the groups received different types of WOE to provide the procedural information on replacing a tire.
The great commentator Rashi has a wonderful way of expressing the contamination which we all experience from bad influences in our lives: "Woe to the wicked, woe to his neighbour." If you live among hard or brutal people, then you come under their influence.
If we use Luke's Beatitudes, it's a mere four principles--unless you include the four additional "woe to you" sayings.
I'll tell you why: We'd much rather keep the Ten Commandments than be held accountable to the Beatitudes, with or without the "woe to you." Never mind that the Sermon on the Mount is already--supposedly--the gold standard for baptized folks.
"Woe to those who make unjust laws," reads Isaiah 10:1-2.
Both the WOEs presented all the sub-steps at the beginning of the training session and for smooth transitions from learning from the WOE to problem solving, rather than abrupt changes in cognitive demand from WOE to the to-be-solved problems, their sub-steps were progressively faded backward (see Table 1).
But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep.