Isaiah 3–5

Chapter 3

Judgment against Judah

¹The Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,

will take away from Jerusalem and Judah

everything they depend on:

every bit of bread

and every drop of water,

²all their heroes and soldiers,

judges and prophets,

fortune-tellers and elders,

³army officers and high officials,

advisers, skilled sorcerers, and astrologers.

⁴I will make boys their leaders,

and toddlers their rulers.

⁵People will oppress each other—

man against man,

neighbor against neighbor.

Young people will insult their elders,

and vulgar people will sneer at the honorable.

⁶In those days a man will say to his brother,

“Since you have a coat, you be our leader!

Take charge of this heap of ruins!”

⁷But he will reply,

“No! I can’t help.

I don’t have any extra food or clothes.

Don’t put me in charge!”

⁸For Jerusalem will stumble,

and Judah will fall,

because they speak out against the Lord and refuse to obey him.

They provoke him to his face.

⁹The very look on their faces gives them away.

They display their sin like the people of Sodom

and don’t even try to hide it.

They are doomed!

They have brought destruction upon themselves.

¹⁰Tell the godly that all will be well for them.

They will enjoy the rich reward they have earned!

¹¹But the wicked are doomed,

for they will get exactly what they deserve.

¹²Childish leaders oppress my people,

and women rule over them.

O my people, your leaders mislead you;

they send you down the wrong road.

¹³The Lord takes his place in court

and presents his case against his people!

¹⁴The Lord comes forward to pronounce judgment

on the elders and rulers of his people:

“You have ruined Israel, my vineyard.

Your houses are filled with things stolen from the poor.

¹⁵How dare you crush my people,

grinding the faces of the poor into the dust?”

demands the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

A Warning to Jerusalem

¹⁶The Lord says, “Beautiful Zion is haughty:

craning her elegant neck,

flirting with her eyes,

walking with dainty steps,

tinkling her ankle bracelets.

¹⁷So the Lord will send scabs on her head;

the Lord will make beautiful Zion bald.”

¹⁸On that day of judgment

the Lord will strip away everything that makes her beautiful:

ornaments, headbands, crescent necklaces,

¹⁹earrings, bracelets, and veils;

²⁰scarves, ankle bracelets, sashes,

perfumes, and charms;

²¹rings, jewels,

²²party clothes, gowns, capes, and purses;

²³mirrors, fine linen garments,

head ornaments, and shawls.

²⁴Instead of smelling of sweet perfume, she will stink.

She will wear a rope for a sash,

and her elegant hair will fall out.

She will wear rough burlap instead of rich robes.

Shame will replace her beauty.

²⁵The men of the city will be killed with the sword,

and her warriors will die in battle.

²⁶The gates of Zion will weep and mourn.

The city will be like a ravaged woman,

huddled on the ground.

Chapter 4

In that day so few men will be left that seven women will fight for each man, saying, “Let us all marry you! We will provide our own food and clothing. Only let us take your name so we won’t be mocked as old maids.”

A Promise of Restoration

²But in that day, the branch of the Lord

will be beautiful and glorious;

the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory

of all who survive in Israel.

³All who remain in Zion

will be a holy people—

those who survive the destruction of Jerusalem

and are recorded among the living.

⁴The Lord will wash the filth from beautiful Zion

and cleanse Jerusalem of its bloodstains

with the hot breath of fiery judgment.

⁵Then the Lord will provide shade for Mount Zion

and all who assemble there.

He will provide a canopy of cloud during the day

and smoke and flaming fire at night,

covering the glorious land.

⁶It will be a shelter from daytime heat

and a hiding place from storms and rain.

Chapter 5

A Song about the Lord’s Vineyard

¹Now I will sing for the one I love

a song about his vineyard:

My beloved had a vineyard

on a rich and fertile hill.

²He plowed the land, cleared its stones,

and planted it with the best vines.

In the middle he built a watchtower

and carved a winepress in the nearby rocks.

Then he waited for a harvest of sweet grapes,

but the grapes that grew were bitter.

³Now, you people of Jerusalem and Judah,

you judge between me and my vineyard.

⁴What more could I have done for my vineyard

that I have not already done?

When I expected sweet grapes,

why did my vineyard give me bitter grapes?

⁵Now let me tell you

what I will do to my vineyard:

I will tear down its hedges

and let it be destroyed.

I will break down its walls

and let the animals trample it.

⁶I will make it a wild place

where the vines are not pruned and the ground is not hoed,

a place overgrown with briers and thorns.

I will command the clouds

to drop no rain on it.

⁷The nation of Israel is the vineyard of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

The people of Judah are his pleasant garden.

He expected a crop of justice,

but instead he found oppression.

He expected to find righteousness,

but instead he heard cries of violence.

Judah’s Guilt and Judgment

⁸What sorrow for you who buy up house after house and field after field,

until everyone is evicted and you live alone in the land.

⁹But I have heard the Lord of Heaven’s Armies

swear a solemn oath:

“Many houses will stand deserted;

even beautiful mansions will be empty.

¹⁰Ten acres of vineyard will not produce even six gallons of wine.

Ten baskets of seed will yield only one basket of grain.”

¹¹What sorrow for those who get up early in the morning

looking for a drink of alcohol

and spend long evenings drinking wine

to make themselves flaming drunk.

¹²They furnish wine and lovely music at their grand parties—

lyre and harp, tambourine and flute—

but they never think about the Lord

or notice what he is doing.

¹³So my people will go into exile far away

because they do not know me.

Those who are great and honored will starve,

and the common people will die of thirst.

¹⁴The grave is licking its lips in anticipation,

opening its mouth wide.

The great and the lowly

and all the drunken mob will be swallowed up.

¹⁵Humanity will be destroyed, and people brought down;

even the arrogant will lower their eyes in humiliation.

¹⁶But the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will be exalted by his justice.

The holiness of God will be displayed by his righteousness.

¹⁷In that day lambs will find good pastures,

and fattened sheep and young goats will feed among the ruins.

¹⁸What sorrow for those who drag their sins behind them

with ropes made of lies,

who drag wickedness behind them like a cart!

¹⁹They even mock God and say,

“Hurry up and do something!

We want to see what you can do.

Let the Holy One of Israel carry out his plan,

for we want to know what it is.”

²⁰What sorrow for those who say

that evil is good and good is evil,

that dark is light and light is dark,

that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.

²¹What sorrow for those who are wise in their own eyes

and think themselves so clever.

²²What sorrow for those who are heroes at drinking wine

and boast about all the alcohol they can hold.

²³They take bribes to let the wicked go free,

and they punish the innocent.

²⁴Therefore, just as fire licks up stubble

and dry grass shrivels in the flame,

so their roots will rot

and their flowers wither.

For they have rejected the law of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies;

they have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

²⁵That is why the Lord’s anger burns against his people,

and why he has raised his fist to crush them.

The mountains tremble,

and the corpses of his people litter the streets like garbage.

But even then the Lord’s anger is not satisfied.

His fist is still poised to strike!

²⁶He will send a signal to distant nations far away

and whistle to those at the ends of the earth.

They will come racing toward Jerusalem.

²⁷They will not get tired or stumble.

They will not stop for rest or sleep.

Not a belt will be loose,

not a sandal strap broken.

²⁸Their arrows will be sharp

and their bows ready for battle.

Sparks will fly from their horses’ hooves,

and the wheels of their chariots will spin like a whirlwind.

²⁹They will roar like lions,

like the strongest of lions.

Growling, they will pounce on their victims and carry them off,

and no one will be there to rescue them.

³⁰They will roar over their victims on that day of destruction

like the roaring of the sea.

If someone looks across the land,

only darkness and distress will be seen;

even the light will be darkened by clouds.