Isaiah 3–5

Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem

3For behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts,

^aTakes away from Jerusalem and from Judah

^bThe ¹stock and the store,

The whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water;

^2cThe mighty man and the man of war,

The judge and the prophet,

And the diviner and the elder;

³The captain of fifty and the ²honorable man,

The counselor and the skillful artisan,

And the expert enchanter.

⁴“I will give ^dchildren ³to be their princes,

And ⁴babes shall rule over them.

⁵The people will be oppressed,

Every one by another and every one by his neighbor;

The child will be insolent toward the ⁵elder,

And the ⁶base toward the honorable.”

⁶When a man takes hold of his brother

In the house of his father, saying,

“You have clothing;

You be our ruler,

And let these ruins be under your ⁷power,”

⁷In that day he will protest, saying,

“I cannot cure your ills,

For in my house is neither food nor clothing;

Do not make me a ruler of the people.”

⁸For ^eJerusalem stumbled,

And Judah is fallen,

Because their tongue and their doings

Are against the Lord,

To provoke the eyes of His glory.

⁹The look on their countenance witnesses against them,

And they declare their sin as ^fSodom;

They do not hide it.

Woe to their soul!

For they have brought evil upon themselves.

¹⁰“Say to the righteous ^gthat it shall be well with them,

^hFor they shall eat the fruit of their doings.

¹¹Woe to the wicked! ⁱIt shall be ill with him,

For the reward of his hands shall be ⁸given him.

¹²As for My people, children are their oppressors,

And women rule over them.

O My people! ^jThose who lead you ⁹cause you to err,

And destroy the way of your paths.”

Oppression and Luxury Condemned

¹³The Lord stands up ^kto ¹plead,

And stands to judge the people.

¹⁴The Lord will enter into judgment

With the elders of His people

And His princes:

“For you have ²eaten up ^lthe vineyard;

The plunder of the poor is in your houses.

¹⁵What do you mean by ^mcrushing My people

And grinding the faces of the poor?”

Says the Lord God of hosts.

¹⁶Moreover the Lord says:

“Because the daughters of Zion are haughty,

And walk with ³outstretched necks

And ⁴wanton eyes,

Walking and ⁵mincing as they go,

Making a jingling with their feet,

¹⁷Therefore the Lord will strike with ⁿa scab

The crown of the head of the daughters of Zion,

And the Lord will ^ouncover their secret parts.”

¹⁸In that day the Lord will take away the finery:

The jingling anklets, the ⁶scarves, and the ^pcrescents;

¹⁹The pendants, the bracelets, and the veils;

²⁰The headdresses, the leg ornaments, and the headbands;

The perfume boxes, the charms,

²¹and the rings;

The nose jewels,

²²the festal apparel, and the mantles;

The outer garments, the purses,

²³and the mirrors;

The fine linen, the turbans, and the robes.

²⁴And so it shall be:

Instead of a sweet smell there will be a stench;

Instead of a sash, a rope;

Instead of well-set hair, ^qbaldness;

Instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth;

And ⁷branding instead of beauty.

²⁵Your men shall fall by the sword,

And your ⁸mighty in the war.

^26rHer gates shall lament and mourn,

And she being desolate ^sshall sit on the ground.

4And ^ain that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying,

“We will ^beat our own food and wear our own apparel;

Only let us be called by your name,

To take away ^cour reproach.”

The Renewal of Zion

²In that day ^dthe Branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious;

And the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing

For those of Israel who have escaped.

³And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem ^ewill be called holy—everyone who is ^frecorded among the living in Jerusalem. ⁴When ^gthe Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the ¹blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning, ⁵then the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, ^ha cloud and smoke by day and ⁱthe shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a ²covering. ⁶And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, ^jfor a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain.

God’s Disappointing Vineyard

5Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved ^aregarding His vineyard:

My Well-beloved has a vineyard

¹On a very fruitful hill.

²He dug it up and cleared out its stones,

And planted it with the choicest vine.

He built a tower in its midst,

And also ²made a winepress in it;

^bSo He expected it to bring forth good grapes,

But it brought forth wild grapes.

³“And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,

^cJudge, please, between Me and My vineyard.

⁴What more could have been done to My vineyard

That I have not done in ^dit?

Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes,

Did it bring forth wild grapes?

⁵And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard:

^eI will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned;

And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.

⁶I will lay it ^fwaste;

It shall not be pruned or ³dug,

But there shall come up briers and ^gthorns.

I will also command the clouds

That they rain no rain on it.”

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

And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant.

He looked for justice, but behold, oppression;

For righteousness, but behold, ⁴a cry for help.

Impending Judgment on Excesses

⁸Woe to those who ⁵join ^hhouse to house;

They add field to field,

Till there is no place

Where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!

⁹ⁱIn my hearing the Lord of hosts said,

“Truly, many houses shall be desolate,

Great and beautiful ones, without inhabitant.

¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one ^jbath, ⁶

And a ⁷homer of seed shall yield one ephah.”

^11kWoe to those who rise early in the morning,

That they may ⁸follow intoxicating drink;

Who continue until night, till wine inflames them!

^12lThe harp and the strings,

The tambourine and flute,

And wine are in their feasts;

But ^mthey do not regard the work of the Lord,

Nor consider the operation of His hands.

¹³ⁿTherefore my people have gone into captivity,

Because they have no ^oknowledge;

Their honorable men are famished,

And their multitude dried up with thirst.

¹⁴Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself

And opened its mouth beyond measure;

Their glory and their multitude and their pomp,

And he who is jubilant, shall descend into it.

¹⁵People shall be brought down,

^pEach man shall be humbled,

And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.

¹⁶But the Lord of hosts shall be ^qexalted in judgment,

And God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.

¹⁷Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture,

And in the waste places of ^rthe ⁹fat ones strangers shall eat.

¹⁸Woe to those who ¹draw iniquity with cords of ²vanity,

And sin as if with a cart rope;

^19sThat say, “Let Him make speed and hasten His work,

That we may see it;

And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come,

That we may know it.”

²⁰Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;

Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;

Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

²¹Woe to those who are ^twise in their own eyes,

And prudent in their own sight!

²²Woe to men mighty at drinking wine,

Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink,

²³Who ^ujustify the wicked for a bribe,

And take away justice from the righteous man!

²⁴Therefore, ^vas the ³fire devours the stubble,

And the flame consumes the chaff,

So ^wtheir root will be as rottenness,

And their blossom will ascend like dust;

Because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts,

And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

^25xTherefore the anger of the Lord is aroused against His people;

He has stretched out His hand against them

And stricken them,

And ^ythe hills trembled.

Their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets.

^zFor all this His anger is not turned away,

But His hand is stretched out still.

^26aHe will lift up a banner to the nations from afar,

And will ^bwhistle to them from ^cthe end of the earth;

Surely ^dthey shall come with speed, swiftly.

²⁷No one will be weary or stumble among them,

No one will slumber or sleep;

Nor ^ewill the belt on their loins be loosed,

Nor the strap of their sandals be broken;

^28fWhose arrows are sharp,

And all their bows bent;

Their horses’ hooves will ⁴seem like flint,

And their wheels like a whirlwind.

²⁹Their roaring will be like a lion,

They will roar like young lions;

Yes, they will roar

And lay hold of the prey;

They will carry it away safely,

And no one will deliver.

³⁰In that day they will roar against them

Like the roaring of the sea.

And if one ^glooks to the land,

Behold, darkness and ⁵sorrow;

And the light is darkened by the clouds.