Isaiah 3–5

God Will Punish Judah and Jerusalem

3Understand this:

The Lord God All-Powerful

will take away everything Judah and Jerusalem need—

all the food and water,

²the heroes and great soldiers,

the judges and prophets,

people who do magic and elders,

³the military leaders and government leaders,

the counselors, the skilled craftsmen, and those who try to tell the future.

⁴The Lord says, “I will cause young boys to be your leaders,

and foolish children will rule over you.

⁵People will be against each other; everyone will be against his neighbor.

Young people will not respect older people,

and common people will not respect important people.”

⁶At that time a man will grab one of his brothers

from his own family and say,

“You have a coat, so you will be our leader.

These ruins will be under your control.”

⁷But that brother will stand up and say,

“I cannot help you,

because I do not have food or clothes in my house.

You will not make me your leader.”

⁸This will happen because Jerusalem has stumbled,

and Judah has fallen.

The things they say and do are against the Lord;

they turn against him.

⁹The look on their faces shows they are guilty;

like the people of Sodom, they are proud of their sin.

They don’t care who sees it.

How terrible it will be for them,

because they have brought much trouble on themselves.

¹⁰Tell those who do what is right that things will go well for them,

because they will receive a reward for what they do.

¹¹But how terrible it will be for the wicked!

They will be punished for all the wrong they have done.

¹²Children treat my people cruelly,

and women rule over them.

My people, your guides lead you in the wrong way

and turn you away from what is right.

¹³The Lord takes his place in court

and stands to judge the people.

¹⁴The Lord presents his case

against the elders and other leaders of his people:

“You have burned the vineyard.

Your houses are full of what you took from the poor.

¹⁵What gives you the right to crush my people

and grind the faces of the poor into the dirt?”

The Lord God All-Powerful says this.

A Warning to Women of Jerusalem

¹⁶The Lord says,

“The women of Jerusalem are proud.

They walk around with their heads held high,

and they flirt with their eyes.

They take quick, short steps,

making noise with their ankle bracelets.”

¹⁷So the Lord will put sores on the heads of those women in Jerusalem,

and he will make them lose their hair.

¹⁸At that time the Lord will take away everything that makes them proud: their beautiful ankle bracelets, their headbands, their necklaces shaped like the moon, ¹⁹their earrings, bracelets, and veils, ²⁰their scarves, ankle chains, the cloth belts worn around their waists, their bottles of perfume, and charms, ²¹their signet rings, nose rings, ²²their fine robes, capes, shawls, and purses, ²³their mirrors, linen dresses, turbans, and long shawls.

²⁴Instead of wearing sweet-smelling perfume, they will stink.

Instead of fine cloth belts, they will wear the ropes of captives.

Instead of having their hair fixed in fancy ways, they will be bald.

Instead of fine clothes, they will wear clothes of sadness.

Instead of being beautiful, they will wear the brand of a captive.

²⁵At that time your men will be killed with swords,

and your heroes will die in war.

²⁶There will be crying and sadness near the city gates.

Jerusalem will be like a woman who has lost everything and sits on the ground.

4At that time seven women will grab one man

and say, “We will eat our own bread

and make our own clothes,

but please marry us!

Please, take away our shame.”

The Branch of the Lord

²At that time the Lord’s branch will be very beautiful and great. The people still living in Israel will be proud of what the land grows. ³Those who are still living in Jerusalem will be called holy; their names are recorded among the living in Jerusalem. ⁴The Lord will wash away the filth from the women of Jerusalem. He will wash the bloodstains out of Jerusalem and clean the city with the spirit of fairness and the spirit of fire. ⁵Then the Lord will cover Mount Zion and the people who meet there with a cloud of smoke during the day and with a bright, flaming fire at night. There will be a covering over every person. ⁶This covering will protect the people from the heat of the sun and will provide a safe place to hide from the storm and rain.

Israel, the Lord’s Vineyard

5Now I will sing for my friend a song about his vineyard.

My friend had a vineyard

on a hill with very rich soil.

²He dug and cleared the field of stones

and planted the best grapevines there.

He built a tower in the middle of it

and cut out a winepress as well.

He hoped good grapes would grow there,

but only bad ones grew.

³My friend says, “You people living in Jerusalem,

and you people of Judah,

judge between me and my vineyard.

⁴What more could I have done for my vineyard

than I have already done?

Although I expected good grapes to grow,

why were there only bad ones?

⁵Now I will tell you

what I will do to my vineyard:

I will remove the hedge,

and it will be burned.

I will break down the stone wall,

and it will be walked on.

⁶I will ruin my field.

It will not be trimmed or hoed,

and weeds and thorns will grow there.

I will command the clouds

not to rain on it.”

⁷The vineyard belonging to the Lord All-Powerful

is the nation of Israel;

the garden that he loves

is the people of Judah.

He looked for justice, but there was only killing.

He hoped for right living, but there were only cries of pain.

⁸How terrible it will be for you who add more houses to your houses

and more fields to your fields

until there is no room left for other people.

Then you are left alone in the land.

⁹The Lord All-Powerful said this to me:

“The fine houses will be destroyed;

the large and beautiful houses will be left empty.

¹⁰At that time a ten-acre vineyard will make only six gallons of wine,

and ten bushels of seed will grow only half a bushel of grain.”

¹¹How terrible it will be for people who rise early in the morning

to look for strong drink,

who stay awake late at night,

becoming drunk with wine.

¹²At their parties they have lyres, harps,

tambourines, flutes, and wine.

They don’t see what the Lord has done

or notice the work of his hands.

¹³So my people will be captured and taken away,

because they don’t really know me.

All the great people will die of hunger,

and the common people will die of thirst.

¹⁴So the place of the dead wants more and more people,

and it opens wide its mouth.

Jerusalem’s important people and common people will go down into it,

with their happy and noisy ones.

¹⁵So the common people and the great people will be brought down;

those who are proud will be humbled.

¹⁶The Lord All-Powerful will receive glory by judging fairly;

the holy God will show himself holy by doing what is right.

¹⁷Then the sheep will go anywhere they want,

and lambs will feed on the land that rich people once owned.

¹⁸How terrible it will be for those people!

They pull their guilt and sins behind them

as people pull wagons with ropes.

¹⁹They say, “Let God hurry;

let him do his work soon

so we may see it.

Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel happen soon

so that we will know what it is.”

²⁰How terrible it will be for people who call good things bad

and bad things good,

who think darkness is light

and light is darkness,

who think sour is sweet

and sweet is sour.

²¹How terrible it will be for people who think they are wise

and believe they are clever.

²²How terrible it will be for people who are famous for drinking wine

and are champions at mixing drinks.

²³They take money to set the guilty free

and don’t allow good people to be judged fairly.

²⁴They will be destroyed

just as fire burns straw or dry grass.

They will be destroyed

like a plant whose roots rot

and whose flower dies and blows away like dust.

They have refused to obey the teachings of the Lord All-Powerful

and have hated the message from the Holy God of Israel.

²⁵So the Lord has become very angry with his people,

and he has raised his hand to punish them.

Even the mountains are frightened.

Dead bodies lie in the streets like garbage.

But the Lord is still angry;

his hand is still raised to strike down the people.

²⁶He raises a banner for the nations far away.

He whistles to call those people from the ends of the earth.

Look! The enemy comes quickly!

²⁷Not one of them becomes tired or falls down.

Not one of them gets sleepy and falls asleep.

Their weapons are close at hand,

and their sandal straps are not broken.

²⁸Their arrows are sharp,

and all of their bows are ready to shoot.

The horses’ hoofs are hard as rocks,

and their chariot wheels move like a whirlwind.

²⁹Their shout is like the roar of a lion;

it is loud like a young lion.

They growl as they grab their captives.

There is no one to stop them from taking their captives away.

³⁰On that day they will roar

like the waves of the sea.

And when people look at the land,

they will see only darkness and pain;

all light will become dark in this thick cloud.