< 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,
Let me sing a song for my love, about his vineyard. My love owned a vineyard on a productive 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 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 inhabitant of Jerusalem and man of Judah, Please 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] 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've already done? When I looked for sweet grapes, why did it only produce sour ones?
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.
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 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'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 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.
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] 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!
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 Do many houses not become a desolation by the weapons of YHWH of Hosts? Great and good without 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 yield one bath, And a homer of seed yields an ephah.
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] those rising early in the morning, They pursue strong drink! Lingering in twilight, wine inflames them!
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 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 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 my people removed without knowledge, And its honorable ones are famished, And its multitude dried up of 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 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 )
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 )
15 And the low is bowed down, and the high humbled, And the eyes of the haughty become low,
Everyone will be brought down, everyone will be humbled; the proud will lower their eyes in humiliation.
16 And YHWH of Hosts is high in judgment, And the Holy God sanctified in righteousness,
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 lambs have fed according to their leading, And sojourners consume wastelands of the fat ones.
Lambs will graze as in their own pasture; fattened livestock and goats will feed among the ruins of the rich.
18 Woe [to] those drawing out iniquity with cords of vanity, And as [with] thick ropes of the cart—sin.
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 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.”
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] 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.
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] the wise in their own eyes, And—before their own faces—intelligent!
Tragedy is coming to you who are wise in your own eyes and think you're so clever.
22 Woe [to] the mighty to drink wine, And men of strength to mingle strong drink.
Tragedy is coming to you who are wine-drinking champions, and experts at mixing alcoholic drinks;
23 Declaring righteous the wicked for a bribe, And the righteousness of the righteous They turn aside from him.
you who set the guilty free for a bribe, and yet deny justice to the innocent.
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.
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 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!
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 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 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 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 gets tired or stumbles; none of them rests or sleeps. No belt comes loose, and no sandal strap breaks.
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 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 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.
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 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!
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.