Isaiah 5:8–17

Woes for the Wicked

⁸Woe to those who ^aadd house to house and join field to field,

Until there is no more room,

So that you have to live alone in the midst of the land!

⁹In my ears the Lord of hosts has sworn, “Surely, ^amany houses shall become ^bdesolate,

Even great and fine ones, without occupants.

¹⁰“For ^aten acres of vineyard will yield only one ¹bath of wine,

And a ^bhomer of seed will yield but an ²ephah of grain.”

¹¹Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue ^astrong drink,

Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!

¹²Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and ^aharp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine;

But they ^bdo not pay attention to the deeds of the Lord,

Nor do they consider the work of His hands.

¹³Therefore My people go into exile for their ^alack of knowledge;

And ¹their ^bhonorable men are famished,

And their multitude is parched with thirst.

¹⁴Therefore ^aSheol has enlarged its ¹throat and opened its mouth without measure;

And ²Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it.

¹⁵So the common man will be humbled and the man of importance abased,

^aThe eyes of the proud also will be abased.

¹⁶But the ^aLord of hosts will be ^bexalted in judgment,

And the holy God will show Himself ^choly in righteousness.

^17aThen the lambs will graze as in their pasture,

And strangers will eat in the waste places of the ¹wealthy.