Isaiah 3–5

Leaders of Judah and Jerusalem

3For look, the Lord Yahweh of hosts is removing every source of support^a

from Jerusalem and from Judah:

all of the supplies of bread

and all of the supplies of water,

²mighty warrior and man of war,

judge and prophet,

and diviner and elder,

³captain of fifty and the honorable men of rank,

and counselor and skillful magicians and skillful enchanter.

⁴And I will make boys their princes,

and children shall rule over them.

⁵And the people will be oppressed by each other^b

and a man by his neighbor.

The boy will act arrogantly toward the elder,

and the dishonorable toward the honorable.

⁶Indeed, a man will seize his brother

in the house of his father:

“You have a cloak;^c

you shall be a leader for us,

and this heap of ruins shall be under your hand!”

⁷He will lift up his voice on that day, saying,

“I will not be a healer;

in my house there is no bread

and there is no cloak.

You shall not make me the leader of the people!”

⁸For Jerusalem has stumbled,

and Judah has fallen

because their speech and their deeds are against Yahweh,

defying the eyes of his glory.

⁹The look on their faces testifies against them

and they declare their sin like Sodom;

they do not hide it.

Woe to their soul!

For they have dealt out evil to themselves.

¹⁰Tell the innocent^d that it is good

for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

¹¹Woe to the wicked!^e It is bad!

For what is done by his hands will be done to him.

¹²My people—children are their oppressors,

and women rule over them.

My people, your leaders are misleading you,

and they confuse the course of your paths.

¹³Yahweh takes his stand to conduct a legal case

and takes his stand to judge the peoples.

¹⁴Yahweh enters into judgment with the elders of his people and its princes.

“And you! You have devoured the vineyard;

the spoil of the poor is in your houses!

¹⁵Why^f do you crush my people

and grind the face of the poor?”

declares^g the Lord Yahweh of hosts.

The Pride of Jerusalem’s Women

¹⁶And Yahweh said: “Because^h the daughters of Zion are haughty,

and they walk with outstretched neck,

and they give flirting glances with their eyes,

mincing along as they go,ⁱ

and with their feet they rattle their bangles,^j

¹⁷the Lord will make the heads^k of the daughters of Zion scabby,

and Yahweh will lay their foreheads bare.”

¹⁸In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets

and the headbands and the crescent necklaces,

¹⁹the pendants and the bracelets and the veils,

²⁰the headdresses and the armlets and the sashes,

and the perfume boxes^l and the amulets,

²¹the signet rings and the nose rings,

²²the festal robes and the mantles,

and the cloaks and the handbags,

²³and the mirrors and the linen garments,

and the turbans and the wraps.

²⁴And this shall happen: There will be

a stench instead of perfume,

and a rope instead of a sash,

and baldness instead of a well-set hairdo,

and a clothing wrap of sackcloth instead of a rich robe,

branding instead of beauty.

²⁵Your men shall fall by the sword,

and your warriors in battle.

²⁶And her^m gates shall lament and mourn,

and she shall be banished;

she shall sit upon the ground.

4And seven women shall grasp at one man on that day, saying,

“We will eat our own bread,

and we will wear our own clothing;

only let us be called by your name!^a

Take away our disgrace!”

The Glory of the Branch of Yahweh

²On that day the branch of Yahweh shall become beautiful and glorious,

and the fruit of the land shall become the pride and glory of the survivors^b of Israel.

³And this shall happen: He who is left in Zion

and he who remains in Jerusalem will be called holy,

everyone written for life in Jerusalem,

⁴when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion

and cleansed the blood of Jerusalem from her midst

by a spirit of judgment

and by a spirit of burning.

⁵Then Yahweh will create over all of the site^c of Mount Zion^d

and over her assembly a cloud by day

and smoke and the brightness of flaming fire by night.

Indeed, over all the glory there will be a canopy,

⁶and it will be a shelter for shade from the heat by day,

and a refuge and a hiding place from rainstorm and from rain.

The Song of the Vineyard

5Let me sing for my beloved

a song of my love concerning his vineyard:

My beloved had a vineyard^a on a fertile hill.^b

²And he dug it and cleared it of stones,

and he planted it with choice vines,^c

and he built a watchtower in the middle of it,

and he even hewed out a wine vat in it,

and he waited for it to yield grapes—

but it yielded wild grapes.

³And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem

and men^d of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.

⁴What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?

Why did I hope for it to yield grapes, and it yielded wild grapes?

⁵And now let me tell you what I myself am about to do to my vineyard.

I will remove its hedge, and it shall become a devastation.

I will break down its wall, and it shall become a trampling.

⁶And I will make it a wasteland;

it shall not be pruned and hoed,

and it shall be overgrown with briers^e and thornbushes.^f

And concerning the clouds, I will command them not to send^g rain down upon it.

⁷For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel,

and the man^h of Judah is the plantation of his delight.

And he waited for justice,ⁱ

but look! Bloodshed!^j

For righteousness,^k

but look! A cry of distress!^l

Woes on the Wicked

⁸Ah! Those who join^m house with house,

they join field together with field

until there is no placeⁿ

and you are caused to dwell alone in the midst of the land.

⁹Yahweh of hosts said in my ears:

Surely^o many houses shall become a desolation,

large and beautiful ones without inhabitant.

¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,^p

and the seed of a homer will yield an ephah.^q

¹¹Ah! Those who rise early in the morning,

they pursue strong drink.

Those who linger in the evening,

wine inflames them.

¹²And there will be lyre and harp,

tambourine and flute,

and wine at their feasts,

but they do not look at the deeds^r of Yahweh,

and they do not see the work of his hands.

¹³Therefore my people will go into exile without knowledge,

and their^s nobles^t will be men of hunger,

and their^u multitude is parched with thirst.

¹⁴Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat,

and it has opened wide its mouth without limit,

and her^v nobles^w will go down, and her multitude,

her tumult and those who revel in her.

¹⁵And humankind is bowed down,

and man is brought low,

and the eyes of the haughty are humiliated.

¹⁶But Yahweh of hosts is exalted by justice,

and the holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.

¹⁷And then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,

and fatlings, kids^x will eat among the sites of ruins.^y

¹⁸Ah! Those who drag iniquity along with the cords of falsehood

and sin as with rope of the cart,

¹⁹those who say,

“Let him make haste;

let him hurry his work

so that we may see it

and let it draw near

and let the plan of the holy one of Israel come

so that we may know it!”

²⁰Ah! Those who call evil good and good evil,

those who put darkness for light and light for darkness,

those who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

²¹Ah! Those who are wise in their own eyes

and have understanding in their view!^z

²²Ah! Heroes at drinking wine,

and men of capability at mixing strong drink!

²³Those who acquit the guilty because of a bribe

and remove the justice of the innocent from him.

²⁴Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,

and dry grass sinks down in the flame,

so their root will become like the stench,

and their blossom will go up like the dust.

For they have rejected the instruction of Yahweh of hosts,

and they have treated the word of the holy one of Israel with contempt.

²⁵Therefore Yahweh’s wrath was kindled^a against his people,

and he stretched out his hand against them^b and struck them,^c

and the mountains quaked,

and their corpses^d were like refuse in the middle of the streets.

Yahweh’s Outstretched Hand

In all of this his anger has not turned back,

and still his hand is stretched out.

²⁶And he will raise a signal for a nation^e from afar,

and he will whistle for it from the end of the earth.

And look! It comes quickly, swiftly!

²⁷None is weary,

and none among him stumbles;

none slumbers and none sleeps.

And no loincloth on his waist is opened,

and no thong of his sandals is drawn away.

²⁸Whose arrows are sharp,

and all of his bows are bent.

The hoofs of his horses are reckoned like flint,

and his wheels like the storm wind.

²⁹His roaring is like the lion,

and he roars like young lions.

And he growls and seizes his prey,

and he carries it off,

and not one can rescue it.

³⁰And he will roar over him on that day

like the roaring of the sea,

and if one looks to the land, look! Darkness! Distress!

And the light grows dark with its^f clouds.