Isaiah 5
1 Let me sing now a song respecting my friend, A song respecting my friend touching his vineyard. My friend had a vineyard On a very fruitful hill;
Now I will sing to [my] beloved a song of my beloved concerning my vineyard. [My] beloved had a vineyard on a high hill in a fertile place.
2 He digged it, and cleared it of stones, And planted it with the choicest vine, And built a tower in the midst of it, And hewed out a wine-press therein; Then he looked that it should bring forth its grapes, But it brought forth sour grapes.
And I made a hedge round it, and dug a trench, and planted a choice vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and dug a place for the wine-vat in it: and I waited [for it] to bring forth grapes, and it brought forth thorns.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, Judge ye between me and my vineyard!
And now, ye dwellers in Jerusalem, and [every] man of Juda, judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What could have been done for my vineyard That I have not done for it? Why, then, when I looked that it should bring forth its grapes, Brought it forth sour grapes?
What shall I do any more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? Whereas I expected [it] to bring forth grapes, but it has brought forth thorns.
5 But come now, and I will tell you What I mean to do with my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it shall be eaten up; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trodden down!
And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be for a spoil; and I will pull down its walls, and it shall be [left] to be trodden down.
6 And I will make it a waste; It shall not be pruned, nor digged, But shall grow up into thorns and briers; I will also command the clouds That they shed no rain upon it.
And I will forsake my vineyard; and it shall not be pruned, nor dug, and thorns shall come up upon it as on barren land; and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it.
7 The vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah the plant of his delight. He looked for justice, and behold, bloodshed! For righteousness, and behold, outcry!
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Juda [his] beloved plant: I expected [it] to bring forth judgment, and it brought forth iniquity; and not righteousness, but a cry.
8 Woe to them that join house to house, That add field to field, Till there is no place left, And they dwell alone in the land.
Woe [to them] that join house to house, and add field to field, that they may take away something of their neighbor's: will ye dwell alone upon the land?
9 To mine ear hath Jehovah of hosts revealed it: Surely many houses shall become a desolation, The great and the fair ones, without an inhabitant.
For these things have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts: for though many houses should be built, many and fair houses shall be desolate, and there shall be no inhabitants in them.
10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield a single bath of wine, And a homer of seed shall produce but an ephah.
For where ten yoke of oxen plough [the land] shall yield one jar-full, and he that sows six homers shall produce three measures.
11 Woe to them that rise early in the morning to follow strong drink, —Who sit late in the night that wine may inflame them!
Woe [to them] that rise up in the morning, and follow strong drink; who wait [at it till] evening: for the wine shall inflame them.
12 And the lyre and the harp, the tabret and the pipe, and wine, are at their feasts, But they regard not the work of Jehovah, Nor attend to the operation of his hands.
For they drink wine with harp, and psaltery, and drums, and pipes: but they regard not the works of the Lord, and consider not the works of his hands.
13 Therefore shall my people be led captive, when they think not of it; Their honorable men shall be famished with hunger, And their rich men parched with thirst.
Therefore my people have been taken captive, because they know not the Lord: and there has been a multitude of dead [bodies], because of hunger and of thirst for water.
14 Therefore doth the under-world enlarge its greedy throat, And stretch open its mouth without measure, And down go her nobility and her wealth, Her busy throng, and all that was joyful within her. (Sheol h7585)
Therefore hell has enlarged its desire and opened its mouth without ceasing: and her glorious and great, and her rich and her pestilent men shall go down [into it]. (Sheol h7585)
15 The mean man shall be bowed down, And the great man shall be brought low, And the eyes of the haughty shall be humbled;
And the mean man shall be brought low, and the great man shall be disgraced, and the lofty eyes shall be brought low.
16 Jehovah of hosts shall be exalted through judgment; Yea, God, the Holy One, shall be sanctified through righteousness.
But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and the holy God shall be glorified in righteousness.
17 Then shall the lambs feed, as in their own pasture, And the deserted fields of the rich shall strangers consume.
And they that were spoiled shall be fed as bulls, and lambs shall feed on the waste places of them that are taken away.
18 Woe to them that draw calamity with cords of wickedness, And punishment as with wagon-traces, —
Woe [to them] that draw sins to them as with a long rope, and iniquities as with a thong of the heifer's yoke:
19 Who say, Let him make speed, let him hasten his work that we may see it! Let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near and be fulfilled, that we may know it!
who say, Let him speedily hasten what he will do, that we may see [it]: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know [it].
20 Woe to them 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!
Woe [to them] that call evil good, and good evil; who make darkness light, and light darkness; who make bitter sweet, and sweet bitter.
21 Woe to them that are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own conceit!
Woe [to them] that are wise in their own conceit, and knowing in their own sight.
22 Woe to them that are valiant to drink wine, And men of might to mingle strong drink!
Woe to the strong [ones] of you that drink wine, and the mighty [ones] that mingle strong drink:
23 That clear the guilty for a reward, And take away from the righteous his right!
who justify the ungodly for rewards, and take away the righteousness of the righteous.
24 Therefore, as fire devours stubble, And as the withered grass sinks into the flame, So their root shall become rottenness, And their blossom shall fly up like dust. For they have despised the law of Jehovah of hosts, And contemned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
Therefore as stubble shall be burnt by a coal of fire, and shall be consumed by a violent flame, their root shall be as chaff, and their flower shall go up as dust: for they rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and insulted the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore is the anger of Jehovah kindled against his people; He stretcheth forth his hand against them, and smiteth them, so that the mountains tremble, And their carcasses are as dung in the midst of the streets; For all this his anger is not turned away, But his hand is stretched out still.
Therefore the Lord of hosts was greatly angered against his people, and he reached forth his hand upon them, and smote them: and the mountains were troubled, and their carcasses were as dung in the midst of the way: yet for all this his anger has not been turned away, but his hand is yet raised.
26 He lifteth up a banner for the nations afar off, He whistleth for them from the ends of the earth, And behold, they haste, and come swiftly.
Therefore shall he lift up a signal to the nations that are afar, and shall hiss for them from the end of the earth; and, behold, they are coming very quickly.
27 None among them is weary, and none stumbleth; None slumbereth nor sleepeth; The girdle of their loins is not loosed, Nor the latchet of their shoes broken.
They shall not hunger nor be weary, neither shall they slumber nor sleep; neither shall they loose their girdles from their loins, neither shall their shoe-latchets be broken.
28 Their arrows are sharp, And all their bows bent; The hoofs of their horses are like flint, And their wheels like a whirlwind.
Whose arrows are sharp, and their bows bent; their horses' hoofs are counted as solid rock: their chariot-wheels are as a storm.
29 Their roaring is like the roaring of the lion; They roar like young lions; They roar, and seize the prey; They bear it away, and none can rescue it.
They rage as lions, and draw nigh as a lion's whelps: and he shall seize, and roar as a wild beast, and he shall cast [them] forth, and there shall be none to deliver them.
30 Yea, in that day shall they roar against them like the roaring of the sea; And if one look to the land, behold darkness and sorrow, And the light is darkened by its clouds.
And he shall roar on account of them in that day, as the sound of the swelling sea; and they shall look to the land, and, behold, [there shall be] thick darkness in their perplexity.
