Isaiah 5
1 I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
Let me sing, I pray you, for a well-beloved of mine, The song of my beloved concerning his vineyard: —A vineyard, had my well-beloved on a very fruitful hill;
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 he thoroughly digged it, And gathered out the stones thereof, And planted it with a precious vine, And built a tower in the midst thereof, Moreover also a wine-press, hewed he therein, —Then waited he that it should bring forth grapes. And it brought forth wild grapes:
3 “And now, O dwellers of Jerusalem and men of Judah, I exhort you to judge between Me and My vineyard.
Now, therefore, O inhabitant of Jerusalem, And men of Judah, —Judge, I pray you, betwixt 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 could have been done further to my vineyard, That I had not done in it? Why then—When I had waited that it should bring forth grapes, Brought it forth, wild grapes?
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.
Now, therefore, I pray you, let me tell, you, what I am about to do to my vineyard, —To take away the fence thereof And it shall be eaten up, To destroy the wall thereof And it shall 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 make it a waste; —It shall be neither pruned nor hoed, But there shall come up briars and thorns, —And upon the clouds, will I lay a charge, That they rain thereon no rain.
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.
Surely the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts, is the house of Israel, And, the men of Judah, are the plantation in which he dearly delighted, —And he waited, For equity but lo! murderous iniquity, For the rule of right but lo the cry of the wronged.
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.
Alas for them who join house to house, Field to field, bring they near, —Until there is no room, But ye are left to dwell alone in the midst of the land.
9 I heard the LORD of Hosts declare: “Surely many houses will become desolate, great mansions left unoccupied.
In mine ears, [said] Yahweh of hosts, —Verily, houses in abundance, shall become, a desolation, Large and fair, without inhabitant;
10 For ten acres of vineyard will yield but a bath of wine, and a homer of seed only an ephah of grain.”
For, ten yokes of vineyard, shall yield one bath, —And the seed of a homer, shall yield an ephah,
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.
Alas, for them who rise early in the morning that strong drink, they may pursue, —Who follow on in the evening cool [until] with wine, they are heated;
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.
And it cometh to pass—that lyre and harp, timbrel and flute and wine are in their banquets, —But, the doing of Yahweh, they do not discern, And the work of his hands, have they not seen.
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, are my people taken away captive before they know it, —And their honourable men are famished with hunger, And, their multitude, do gape for thirst.
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, hath hades enlarged her desire, And opened her mouth to its widest, —And their glory, and their multitude and their pomp. and he that is uproarious shall descend thereinto. (Sheol h7585)
15 So mankind will be brought low, and each man humbled; the arrogant will lower their eyes.
And the mean man hath been bowed down And the mighty man hath been humbled, —Yea the looks of the haughty shall be humbled.
16 But the LORD of Hosts will be exalted by His justice, and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.
But Yahweh of hosts, hath been exalted, in justice, —And the GOD that is holy hath been hallowed in righteousness;
17 Lambs will graze as in their own pastures, and strangers will feed in the ruins of the wealthy.
Then shall the young rams feed where they please, —And, the wastes of the wealthy, shall strangers consume.
18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceit and pull sin along with cart ropes,
Alas! for them Who draw on themselves punishment with cords of falsehood, —And as with waggon-bands, penalty:
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 his work quicken—let it hasten, That we may see, —And let the purpose of Israel’s Holy One, draw near and come. That we may know!
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.
Alas! for them 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.
Alas for them Who are wise in their own eyes, —And in their own sight, are prudent.
22 Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and champions in mixing beer,
Alas for them Who are heroes to drink wine, —And men of valour to mingle strong drink,
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of justice.
Who justify the lawless, for a bribe, —Whereas the righteousness of the righteous, they take from him.
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 a tongue of fire, eateth up straw, And a flame reduceth, dry grass, to powder, Their root, like rottenness, shall become, And their blossom, like dust shall ascend, —Because they refused the law of Yahweh of hosts, And the utterance of the Holy One of Israel, they despised.
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.
For this cause, did the anger of Yahweh kindle upon his own people, And he stretched out his hand against them and smote them—So that the mountains, trembled, And, their dead bodies, served, for fuel in the midst of the streets. For all this, hath his anger, not turned back, But still, is his hand outstretched,
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 will he lift up an ensign to the nations afar off, And signal for him from the end of the earth, —And lo! with hot haste, will he come:
27 None of them grows weary or stumbles; no one slumbers or sleeps. No belt is loose and no sandal strap is broken.
None shall be weary, and none shall stumble in his midst, He shall neither slumber nor sleep, —Nor shall be loosened, the girdle of his loins, Nor snapped, the thong of his sandals:
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 sharpened, and all his bows, bent, —The hoofs of his horses, like flint, are accounted, And, his wheels, [are] like a storm-wind:
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.
A roar, hath he, like a lioness, —He will roar like wild lions—And will growl, and lay hold on prey, and carry into safety, and there be none to deliver.
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.
Yea he will growl at him in that day, like the growling of the sea, —Though he look hard for the land, lo! the darkness of distress, Yea the light, hath grown dark in its clouds!
