Isaiah 3–5

³For now the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts,

is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah

support and staff—

all support of bread

and all support of water—^*

²warrior and soldier,

judge and prophet,

diviner and elder,^*

³captain of fifty

and dignitary,

counselor and skillful magician

and expert enchanter.

⁴And I will make youths their princes,

and children shall rule over them.^*

⁵The people will be oppressed,

everyone by another

and everyone by a neighbor;

the youth will be insolent to the elder

and the base to the honorable.^*

⁶Someone will seize a relative,

a member of the clan, saying,

“You have a cloak;

you shall be our leader,

and this heap of ruins

shall be under your rule.”^*

⁷But the other will cry out on that day, saying,

“I will not be a healer;

in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;

you shall not make me

leader of the people.”^*

⁸For Jerusalem has stumbled,

and Judah has fallen,

because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord,

defying his glorious presence.^*

⁹The look on their faces bears witness against them;

they proclaim their sin like Sodom;

they do not hide it.

Woe to them,

for they have brought evil on themselves.^*

¹⁰Tell the innocent how fortunate they are,

for they shall eat the fruit of their labors.^*

¹¹Woe to the guilty! How unfortunate they are,

for what their hands have done shall be done to them.^*

¹²My people—their oppressors extort them,

and creditors^g rule over them.

O my people, your leaders mislead you

and confuse the course of your paths.^*

¹³The Lord rises to argue his case;

he stands to judge the peoples.^*

¹⁴The Lord enters into judgment

with the elders and princes of his people:

It is you who have devoured the vineyard;

the spoil of the poor is in your houses.^*

¹⁵What do you mean by crushing my people,

by grinding the face of the poor? says the Lord God of hosts.^*

¹⁶The Lord said:

Because the daughters of Zion are haughty

and walk with outstretched necks,

glancing wantonly with their eyes,

mincing along as they go,

tinkling with their feet;^*

¹⁷the Lord will afflict with scabs

the heads of the daughters of Zion,

and the Lord will lay bare their scalps and heads.

¹⁸On that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents;^{* 19}the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarfs; ²⁰the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets;^{* 21}the signet rings and nose rings;^{* 22}the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags; ²³the garments of gauze, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.

²⁴Instead of perfume there will be a stench;

and instead of a sash, a rope;

and instead of well-styled hair, baldness;

and instead of a rich robe, a binding of sackcloth;

instead of beauty, shame.^h*

²⁵Your men shall fall by the sword

and your warriors in battle.^*

²⁶And her gates shall lament and mourn;

desolate, she shall sit upon the ground.^*

⁴Seven women shall take hold of one man on that day, saying,

“We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes;

just let us be called by your name;

take away our disgrace.”^*

The Future Glory of the Survivors in Zion

²On that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel.^{* 3}Whoever is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem,^{* 4}once the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.^{* 5}Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over its places of assembly a cloud by day and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night. Indeed, over all the glory there will be a canopy.^{* 6}It will serve as a pavilion, a shade by day from the heat and a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.^*

The Song of the Unfruitful Vineyard

⁵I will sing for my beloved

my love song concerning his vineyard:

My beloved had a vineyard

on a very fertile hill.^*

²He dug it and cleared it of stones

and planted it with choice vines;

he built a watchtower in the midst of it

and hewed out a wine vat in it;

he expected it to yield grapes,

but it yielded rotten grapes.^*

³And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem

and people of Judah,

judge between me

and my vineyard.^*

⁴What more was there to do for my vineyard

that I have not done in it?

When I expected it to yield grapes,

why did it yield rotten grapes?^*

⁵And now I will tell you

what I will do to my vineyard.

I will remove its hedge,

and it shall be devoured;

I will break down its wall,

and it shall be trampled down.^*

⁶I will make it a wasteland;

it shall not be pruned or hoed,

and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;

I will also command the clouds

that they rain no rain upon it.^*

⁷For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts

is the house of Israel,

and the people of Judah

are his cherished garden;

he expected justice

but saw bloodshed;

righteousness

but heard a cry!^*

Social Injustice Denounced

⁸Woe to those who join house to house,

who add field to field,

until there is room for no one,

and you are left to live alone

in the midst of the land!^*

⁹The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing:

Surely many houses shall be desolate,

large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.^*

¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,

and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah.^i*

¹¹Woe to those who rise early in the morning

in pursuit of strong drink,

who linger in the evening

to be inflamed by wine,^*

¹²whose feasts consist of lyre and harp,

tambourine and flute and wine,

but who do not regard the deeds of the Lord

or see the work of his hands!^*

¹³Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge;

their nobles are dying of hunger,

and their multitude is parched with thirst.^*

¹⁴Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite

and opened its mouth beyond measure;

the nobility of Jerusalem^j and her multitude go down,

her throng and all who exult in her.^*

¹⁵People are bowed down, everyone is brought low,

and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.^*

¹⁶But the Lord of hosts is exalted by justice,

and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.^*

¹⁷Then the lambs shall graze as in their pasture;

fatted calves and kids^k shall feed among the ruins.

¹⁸Woe to those who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood,

who drag sin along as with cart ropes,^*

¹⁹who say, “Let him make haste;

let him speed his work

that we may see it;

let the plan of the Holy One of Israel hasten to fulfillment,

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 wise in their own eyes

and shrewd in their own sight!^*

²²Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine

and valiant at mixing drink,^*

²³who acquit the guilty for a bribe

and deprive the innocent of their rights!^*

Foreign Invasion Predicted

²⁴Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble

and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,

so their root will become rotten,

and their blossom go up like dust,

for they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of hosts

and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.^*

²⁵Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,

and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them;

the mountains quaked,

and their corpses were like refuse

in the streets.

For all this his anger has not turned away,

and his hand is stretched out still.^*

²⁶He will raise a signal for a nation far away

and whistle for a people at the ends of the earth.

Here they come, swiftly, speedily!^*

²⁷None of them is weary; none stumbles;

none slumbers or sleeps;

not a loincloth is loose;

not a sandal strap broken;^*

²⁸their arrows are sharp;

all their bows strung;

their horses’ hoofs seem like flint,

and their wheels like the whirlwind.^*

²⁹Their roaring is like a lion;

like young lions they roar;

they growl and seize their prey;

they carry it off, and no one can rescue.^*

³⁰They will roar over it on that day,

like the roaring of the sea.

And if one look to the land—

only darkness and distress;

and the light grows dark with its clouds.^*