Isaiah 5
1 Now let me sing for my Beloved, A song of my Beloved as to His vineyard: My beloved has a vineyard in a fruitful hill,
I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
2 And He fences it, and casts out its stones, And plants it [with] a choice vine, And builds a tower in its midst, And has also hewn out a winepress in it, And He waits for the yielding of grapes, And it yields bad ones!
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!
3 And now, O inhabitant of Jerusalem and man of Judah, Please judge between Me and My vineyard.
“And now, O dwellers of Jerusalem and men of Judah, I exhort you to judge between Me and My vineyard.
4 What [is there] to do still to My vineyard, That I have not done in it? For what reason have I waited for the yielding of grapes, And it yields [only] bad ones?
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?
5 And now, pray, let Me cause you to know, That which I am doing to My vineyard, To turn its hedge aside, And it has been for consumption, To break down its wall, And it has been for a treading-place.
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.
6 And I make it a waste, It is not pruned, nor arranged, And brier and thorn have gone up, And I lay a charge on the thick clouds, From raining on it rain.
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.”
7 Because the vineyard of YHWH of Hosts [Is] the house of Israel, And the man of Judah His pleasant plant, And He waits for judgment, and behold, oppression, For righteousness, and behold, a cry.
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.
8 Woe [to] those joining house to house, They bring field near to field, Until there is no place, And you have been settled by yourselves In the midst of the land!
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.
9 Do many houses not become a desolation by the weapons of YHWH of Hosts? Great and good without inhabitant!
I heard the LORD of Hosts declare: “Surely many houses will become desolate, great mansions left unoccupied.
10 For ten acres of vineyard yield one bath, And a homer of seed yields an ephah.
For ten acres of vineyard will yield but a bath of wine, and a homer of seed only an ephah of grain.”
11 Woe [to] those rising early in the morning, They pursue strong drink! Lingering in twilight, wine inflames them!
Woe to those who rise early in the morning in pursuit of strong drink, who linger into the evening, to be inflamed by wine.
12 And harp, and stringed instrument, tambourine, and pipe, And wine, have been their banquets, And they do not behold the work of YHWH, Indeed, they have not seen the work of His hands.
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.
13 Therefore my people removed without knowledge, And its honorable ones are famished, And its multitude dried up of thirst.
Therefore My people will go into exile for their lack of understanding; their dignitaries are starving and their masses are parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged herself, And has opened her mouth without limit. And its honor has gone down, and its multitude, And its noise, and its exulting one—into her. (Sheol h7585)
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)
15 And the low is bowed down, and the high humbled, And the eyes of the haughty become low,
So mankind will be brought low, and each man humbled; the arrogant will lower their eyes.
16 And YHWH of Hosts is high in judgment, And the Holy God sanctified in righteousness,
But the LORD of Hosts will be exalted by His justice, and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.
17 And lambs have fed according to their leading, And sojourners consume wastelands of the fat ones.
Lambs will graze as in their own pastures, and strangers will feed in the ruins of the wealthy.
18 Woe [to] those drawing out iniquity with cords of vanity, And as [with] thick ropes of the cart—sin.
Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceit and pull sin along with cart ropes,
19 Who are saying, “Let Him hurry, Let Him hurry His work, that we may see, And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel Draw near and come, and we know.”
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!”
20 Woe [to] those saying to evil “good,” and to good “evil,” Putting darkness for light, and light for darkness, Putting bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.
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.
21 Woe [to] the wise in their own eyes, And—before their own faces—intelligent!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.
22 Woe [to] the mighty to drink wine, And men of strength to mingle strong drink.
Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and champions in mixing beer,
23 Declaring righteous the wicked for a bribe, And the righteousness of the righteous They turn aside from him.
who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of justice.
24 Therefore, as a tongue of fire devours stubble, And flaming hay falls, Their root is as muck, And their flower goes up as dust. Because they have rejected the Law of YHWH of Hosts, And despised the saying of the Holy One of Israel.
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.
25 Therefore the anger of YHWH has burned among His people, And He stretches out His hand against it, And strikes it, and the mountains tremble, And their carcass is as filth in the midst of the out-places. With all this His anger did not turn back, And still His hand is stretched out!
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.
26 And He lifted up an ensign to the far-off nations, And hissed to it from the end of the earth, And behold, with haste, it comes swiftly.
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!
27 There is none weary, nor stumbling in it, It does not slumber, nor sleep, Nor has the girdle of its loins been opened, Nor the strap of its sandals drawn away.
None of them grows weary or stumbles; no one slumbers or sleeps. No belt is loose and no sandal strap is broken.
28 Whose arrows [are] sharp, and all its bows bent, Hooves of its horses have been reckoned as flint, And its wheels as a windstorm!
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.
29 Its roaring [is] like a lioness, It roars like young lions, And it howls, and seizes prey, And carries away safely, and there is none delivering.
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.
30 And it howls against it in that day as the howling of a sea, And it has looked attentively to the land, And behold, darkness—distress, And light has been darkened by its abundance!
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.
