Isaiah 5

1

I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.

2

He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.

3

"Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.

4

What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?

5

Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled.

6

I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it."

7

The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

8

Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.

9

The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing: "Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants.

10

A ten-acre ^[1] vineyard will produce only a bath ^[2] of wine, a homer ^[3] of seed only an ephah ^[4] of grain."

11

Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine.

12

They have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, no respect for the work of his hands.

13

Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding; their men of rank will die of hunger and their masses will be parched with thirst.

14

Therefore the grave ^[5] enlarges its appetite and opens its mouth without limit; into it will descend their nobles and masses with all their brawlers and revelers.

15

So man will be brought low and mankind humbled, the eyes of the arrogant humbled.

16

But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness.

17

Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture; lambs will feed ^[6] among the ruins of the rich.

18

Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes,

19

to those who say, "Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so we may see it. Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come, so we may know it."

20

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.

21

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.

22

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks,

23

who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.

24

Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25

Therefore the LORD's anger burns against his people; his hand is raised and he strikes them down. The mountains shake, and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.

26

He lifts up a banner for the distant nations, he whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Here they come, swiftly and speedily!

27

Not one of them grows tired or stumbles, not one slumbers or sleeps; not a belt is loosened at the waist, not a sandal thong is broken.

28

Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses' hoofs seem like flint, their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.

29

Their roar is like that of the lion, they roar like young lions; they growl as they seize their prey and carry it off with no one to rescue.

30

In that day they will roar over it like the roaring of the sea. And if one looks at the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be darkened by the clouds.

1. [10] Hebrew ten-yoke, that is, the land plowed by 10 yoke of oxen in one day
2. [10] That is, probably about 6 gallons (about 22 liters)
3. [10] That is, probably about 6 bushels (about 220 liters)
4. [10] That is, probably about 3/5 bushel (about 22 liters)
5. [14] Hebrew Sheol
6. [17] Septuagint; Hebrew strangers will eat