< 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,
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!
3 And now, O inhabitant of Jerusalem and man of 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?
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.
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.
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.
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!
9 Do many houses not become a desolation by the weapons of YHWH of Hosts? Great and good without inhabitant!
10 For ten acres of vineyard yield one bath, And a homer of seed yields an ephah.
11 Woe [to] those rising early in the morning, They pursue strong drink! Lingering in twilight, wine inflames them!
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.
13 Therefore my people removed without knowledge, And its honorable ones are famished, And its multitude dried up 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 )
15 And the low is bowed down, and the high humbled, And the eyes of the haughty become low,
16 And YHWH of Hosts is high in judgment, And the Holy God sanctified in righteousness,
17 And lambs have fed according to their leading, And sojourners consume wastelands of the fat ones.
18 Woe [to] those drawing out iniquity with cords of vanity, And as [with] thick ropes of the cart—sin.
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.”
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.
21 Woe [to] the wise in their own eyes, And—before their own faces—intelligent!
22 Woe [to] the mighty to drink wine, And men of strength to mingle strong drink.
23 Declaring righteous the wicked for a bribe, And the righteousness of the righteous They turn aside from him.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
