Isaiah 5

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.