Isaiah 5
1 I will sing to my beloved the canticle of my cousin concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a hill in a fruitful place.
Let me sing a song for my love, about his vineyard. My love owned a vineyard on a productive hill.
2 And he fenced it in, and picked the stones out of it, and planted it with the choicest vines, and built a tower in the midst thereof, and set up a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it broutht forth wild grapes.
He dug it over, cleared the ground of stones, and planted it with the very best vines. In the middle of it he built a watchtower, and he also cut out a winepress from the rock. Then he waited for a good harvest of grapes, but it only produced wild, sour grapes.
3 And now, O ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and ye men of Juda, judge between me and my vineyard.
“Now, you people who live in Jerusalem and Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it?
What more could I have done for my vineyard than I've already done? When I looked for sweet grapes, why did it only produce sour ones?
5 And now I will shew you wnat I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be wasted: I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down.
So let me tell you what I'm going to do to my vineyard. I'll remove its hedge, and it will be destroyed. I'll tear down its wall, and it will be trampled underfoot.
6 And I will make it desolate: it shall not be pruned, and it shall not be digged: but briers and thorns shall come up: and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it.
I'll turn it into a wasteland. It won't be pruned or weeded—it will be overgrown with brambles and thorns. I'll order the clouds not to rain on it.”
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel: and the man of Juda, his pleasant plant: and I looked that he should do judgment, and behold iniquity: and do justice, and behold a cry.
Israel is the vineyard of the Lord Almighty, and the people of Judah are the plants in his garden that made him happy. Yet while he hoped for justice, he only saw injustice; he hoped people would live right, but he only heard the cries of those who were suffering.
8 Woe to you that join house to house and lay field to field, even to the end of the place: shall you alone dwell in the midst of the earth?
Tragedy is coming to you who buy house upon house and field upon field, joining them all together until no one else has anywhere to live and you live alone in the land.
9 These things are in my ears, saith the Lord of hosts: unless many great and fair houses shall become desolate, without an inhabitant.
I heard the Lord Almighty declare: You can be sure that many houses are destined to become ruins, and beautiful mansions destined to become uninhabited.
10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one little measure, and thirty bushels of seed shall yield three bushels.
Ten acres of vineyard will only produce a six gallons of wine, and a measure of seed only a tenth of that in grain.
11 Woe to you that rise up early in the morning to follow drunkenness, and to drink till the evening, to be inflamed with wine.
Tragedy is coming to you who get up early in the morning wanting a drink, and who stay up late drinking wine until you're drunk.
12 The harp, and the lyre, and the timbrel, and the pipe, and wine are in your feasts: and the work of the Lord you regard not, nor do you consider the works of his hands.
At their feasts you have lyres and harps, tambourines and flutes, and wine, but you don't ever consider what the Lord is doing, and you don't recognize his help.
13 Therefore is my people led away captive, because they had not knowledge, and their nobles have perished with famine, and their multitude were dried up with thirst.
As a result my people will be exiled for their lack of understanding. Their honored leaders will starve, and the crowds will be dying of thirst.
14 Therefore hath hell enlarged her soul, and opened her mouth without any bounds, and their strong ones, and their people, and their high and glorious ones shall go down into it. (Sheol h7585)
The grave's appetite increases, its mouth opens wide, and Jerusalem's nobility and the masses will go down into it, along with the rowdy, drunken mobs. (Sheol h7585)
15 And man shall be brought down, and man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be brought low.
Everyone will be brought down, everyone will be humbled; the proud will lower their eyes in humiliation.
16 And the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and the holy God shall be sanctified in justice.
But the Lord Almighty will be vindicated because he does what is right; the holy God will be shown to be holy because of his goodness.
17 And the lambs shall feed according to their order, and strangers shall eat the deserts turned into fruitfulness.
Lambs will graze as in their own pasture; fattened livestock and goats will feed among the ruins of the rich.
18 Woe to you that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as the rope of a cart.
Tragedy is coming to you who pull along your sins behind you with iniquity with cords made of lies, and pulling with ropes a cartful of wickedness.
19 That say: Let him make haste, and let his work come quickly, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know it.
You are among the people who say, “God should hurry up! Why doesn't God get a move on with what he's doing so we can see it? Why doesn't the Holy One of Israel execute his plan? Let's see it happen so we can understand what it is!”
20 Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.
Tragedy is coming to you who say evil is good, and good is evil; who turn darkness into light and light into darkness; who make bitter sweet, and sweet bitter.
21 Woe to you that rue wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own conceits.
Tragedy is coming to you who are wise in your own eyes and think you're so clever.
22 Woe to you that are mighty to drink wine, and stout men at drunkenness.
Tragedy is coming to you who are wine-drinking champions, and experts at mixing alcoholic drinks;
23 That justify the wicked for gifts, and take away the justice of the just from him.
you who set the guilty free for a bribe, and yet deny justice to the innocent.
24 Therefore as the tongue of the fire devoureth the stubble, and the heat of the dame consumeth it: so shall their root be as ashes, and their bud shall go up as dust: for they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and have blasphemed the word of the Holy One of Israel.
In the same way fire burns up stubble and dry grass falls down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers disintegrate into dust. For they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty, and have treated with contempt what the Holy One of Israel has said.
25 Therefore is the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched out his hand upon them, and struck them: and the mountains were troubled, and their carcasses became as dung in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
That's why the Lord burns with anger against his people. He has lifted up his hand and hit them, shaking the mountains, and leaving their corpses lying like refuse in the streets. Despite all this, his anger is not finished, and his hand is still lifted up.
26 And he will lift up a sign to the nations afar off, and will whistle to them from the ends of the earth: and behold they shall come with speed swiftly.
He will send a signal to the distant nations, and will whistle for those living at the ends of the earth. See how quickly they respond, how speedily they come!
27 There is none that shall faint, nor labour among them: they shall not slumber nor sleep, neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken.
None of them gets tired or stumbles; none of them rests or sleeps. No belt comes loose, and no sandal strap breaks.
28 Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are bent. The hoofs of their horses shall be like the hint, and their wheels like the violence of a tempest.
Their arrows are already sharpened, and all their bows have been strung. The hooves of their horses are hard as flint; their chariot wheels spin like a whirlwind.
29 Their roaring like that of a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea they shall roar, and take hold of the prey, and they shall keep fast hold of it, and there shall be none to deliver it.
They roar like lions, like young lions. They growl, and pounce on their prey. They drag it off so it can't be rescued.
30 And they shall make a noise against them that day, like the roaring of the sea; we shall look towards the land, and behold darkness of tribulation, and the light is darkened with the mist thereof.
At that time they will roar over their prey like the roaring of the sea. Anyone who looks out over the land will see only darkness and distress—even the sunlight will be darkened by clouds.
