Isaiah 5
1 I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
Now I will sing to [my] beloved a song of my beloved concerning my vineyard. [My] beloved had a vineyard on a high hill in a fertile place.
2 He dug it up and cleared the stones and planted the finest vines. He built a watchtower in the middle and dug out a winepress as well. He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes, but the fruit it produced was sour!
And I made a hedge round it, and dug a trench, and planted a choice vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and dug a place for the wine-vat in it: and I waited [for it] to bring forth grapes, and it brought forth thorns.
3 “And now, O dwellers of Jerusalem and men of Judah, I exhort you to judge between Me and My vineyard.
And now, ye dwellers in Jerusalem, and [every] man of Juda, judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more could I have done for My vineyard than I already did for it? Why, when I expected sweet grapes, did it bring forth sour fruit?
What shall I do any more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? Whereas I expected [it] to bring forth grapes, but it has brought forth thorns.
5 Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled.
And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be for a spoil; and I will pull down its walls, and it shall be [left] to be trodden down.
6 I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and thorns and briers will grow up. I will command the clouds that rain shall not fall on it.”
And I will forsake my vineyard; and it shall not be pruned, nor dug, and thorns shall come up upon it as on barren land; and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress.
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Juda [his] beloved plant: I expected [it] to bring forth judgment, and it brought forth iniquity; and not righteousness, but a cry.
8 Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field until no place is left and you live alone in the land.
Woe [to them] that join house to house, and add field to field, that they may take away something of their neighbor's: will ye dwell alone upon the land?
9 I heard the LORD of Hosts declare: “Surely many houses will become desolate, great mansions left unoccupied.
For these things have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts: for though many houses should be built, many and fair houses shall be desolate, and there shall be no inhabitants in them.
10 For ten acres of vineyard will yield but a bath of wine, and a homer of seed only an ephah of grain.”
For where ten yoke of oxen plough [the land] shall yield one jar-full, and he that sows six homers shall produce three measures.
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning in pursuit of strong drink, who linger into the evening, to be inflamed by wine.
Woe [to them] that rise up in the morning, and follow strong drink; who wait [at it till] evening: for the wine shall inflame them.
12 At their feasts are the lyre and harp, tambourines and flutes and wine. They disregard the actions of the LORD and fail to see the work of His hands.
For they drink wine with harp, and psaltery, and drums, and pipes: but they regard not the works of the Lord, and consider not the works of his hands.
13 Therefore My people will go into exile for their lack of understanding; their dignitaries are starving and their masses are parched with thirst.
Therefore my people have been taken captive, because they know not the Lord: and there has been a multitude of dead [bodies], because of hunger and of thirst for water.
14 Therefore Sheol enlarges its throat and opens wide its enormous jaws, and down go Zion’s nobles and masses, her revelers and carousers! (Sheol h7585)
Therefore hell has enlarged its desire and opened its mouth without ceasing: and her glorious and great, and her rich and her pestilent men shall go down [into it]. (Sheol h7585)
15 So mankind will be brought low, and each man humbled; the arrogant will lower their eyes.
And the mean man shall be brought low, and the great man shall be disgraced, and the lofty eyes shall be brought low.
16 But the LORD of Hosts will be exalted by His justice, and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.
But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and the holy God shall be glorified in righteousness.
17 Lambs will graze as in their own pastures, and strangers will feed in the ruins of the wealthy.
And they that were spoiled shall be fed as bulls, and lambs shall feed on the waste places of them that are taken away.
18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceit and pull sin along with cart ropes,
Woe [to them] that draw sins to them as with a long rope, and iniquities as with a thong of the heifer's yoke:
19 to those who say, “Let Him hurry and hasten His work so that we may see it! Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come so that we may know it!”
who say, Let him speedily hasten what he will do, that we may see [it]: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know [it].
20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who turn darkness to light and light to darkness, who replace bitter with sweet and sweet with bitter.
Woe [to them] that call evil good, and good evil; who make darkness light, and light darkness; who make bitter sweet, and sweet bitter.
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.
Woe [to them] that are wise in their own conceit, and knowing in their own sight.
22 Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and champions in mixing beer,
Woe to the strong [ones] of you that drink wine, and the mighty [ones] that mingle strong drink:
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of justice.
who justify the ungodly for rewards, and take away the righteousness of the righteous.
24 Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw, and as dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will decay and their blossoms will blow away like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of Hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
Therefore as stubble shall be burnt by a coal of fire, and shall be consumed by a violent flame, their root shall be as chaff, and their flower shall go up as dust: for they rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and insulted the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore the anger of the LORD burns against His people; His hand is raised against them to strike them down. The mountains quake, and the corpses lay like refuse in the streets. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.
Therefore the Lord of hosts was greatly angered against his people, and he reached forth his hand upon them, and smote them: and the mountains were troubled, and their carcasses were as dung in the midst of the way: yet for all this his anger has not been turned away, but his hand is yet raised.
26 He lifts a banner for the distant nations and whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Behold—how speedily and swiftly they come!
Therefore shall he lift up a signal to the nations that are afar, and shall hiss for them from the end of the earth; and, behold, they are coming very quickly.
27 None of them grows weary or stumbles; no one slumbers or sleeps. No belt is loose and no sandal strap is broken.
They shall not hunger nor be weary, neither shall they slumber nor sleep; neither shall they loose their girdles from their loins, neither shall their shoe-latchets be broken.
28 Their arrows are sharpened, and all their bows are strung. The hooves of their horses are like flint; their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.
Whose arrows are sharp, and their bows bent; their horses' hoofs are counted as solid rock: their chariot-wheels are as a storm.
29 Their roaring is like that of a lion; they roar like young lions. They growl and seize their prey; they carry it away from deliverance.
They rage as lions, and draw nigh as a lion's whelps: and he shall seize, and roar as a wild beast, and he shall cast [them] forth, and there shall be none to deliver them.
30 In that day they will roar over it, like the roaring of the sea. If one looks over the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be obscured by clouds.
And he shall roar on account of them in that day, as the sound of the swelling sea; and they shall look to the land, and, behold, [there shall be] thick darkness in their perplexity.
