Isaiah

5 ¹[And then][1], let me sing to my beloved, “A Song of My Beloved concerning His Vineyard”: My beloved had a vineyard in a fertile hill,

²and He hoed it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with a choice vine,

and built a watchtower in it,
and a winepress, too. He hewed in it;

then He waited for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded stinking things.

The Lord

³“And now, O inhabitant of Jerusalem,
and man of Judah,

judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
⁴What more could have been done to My vineyard
that I have not done for it?

Wherefore, I waited for it to yield grapes;
it yielded stinking things.

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

I will remove its hedge, and it will burn;
[I will][2] break down its fence, and it will be trampled down;

⁶and I will make it wasteland;
it will not be pruned, nor hoed,

but briars and thorns will come up;
I will command the clouds not to rain on it.”

Isaiah

⁷For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah are His delightful plant;

and He waited for justice
and behold, bloodshed!

for righteousness,
but behold a cry of distress!

Isaiah

⁸Woe, who add house to house[3]
until there is no more place,
and you are made to dwell alone in the land.

⁹The LORD of Hosts says, in my ears,

The Lord

“Surely many houses will be desolate,
[and][4] great and fair [cities] without occupants.

¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard will yield nine gallons,
and the seed of the homer will yield a bushel.”

Isaiah

¹¹Woe, who rise early in the morning, to pursue strong drink,
who tarry at twilight, and wine inflame them!

¹²And at their banquets they have a lyre, and a harp,
a tambourine and flute, and wine,

but they do not behold the deeds of the LORD,
neither do they see the work of His hands.

¹³Therefore my people are exiled, because they lack knowledge;

and their honored men are hungry,
and their masses are parched with thirst.

¹⁴Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat
and opened its mouth without measure;

and into it will descend its splendor, and masses,
and their roar and revelers.

¹⁵And the human will bow down,
and the man will be humbled,
and the eyes of the lofty will be humbled.

¹⁶But the LORD of Hosts is exalted in judgment,
and the Holy God shows Himself holy in righteousness.

¹⁷Then will the lambs feed in their pasture,
and the fatlings and goats will feed among the ruins.

¹⁸Woe unto them that pull iniquity with cords of falsehood,
and sin with a cart rope, ¹⁹who say,

The wicked

“Let Him hurry, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it;
and let the plan of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!”

Isaiah

²⁰Woe unto them that 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 unto the wise in their own eyes
and have understanding in their own sight!

²²Woe unto the mighty ones who drink wine
and the men of strength who mingle strong drink,

²³who acquit the guilty for a bribe
and deny justice to the righteous.

²⁴Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours stubble
and the flame consumes the dry grass,

their root will be as stench,
and their blossoms will go up as dust;

because they have rejected the law of the LORD of Hosts,
and the word of the Holy One of Israel, they despised.

²⁵Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against His people,
and He has stretched forth His hand against them and has smitten them;

and the mountains did tremble,
and their corpses are like refuse in the streets.

For all this His anger is not turned away,
but His hand is stretched out still.

Isaiah

²⁶And He will lift up an ensign to the nations far away,
and He will whistle to those at the ends of the earth;

and behold, they will come quickly, swiftly.

²⁷None are tired, and none stumble among them;
none will slumber and none will sleep;

none of the belts of their waists come undone,
nor will the straps of their sandals be broken.

²⁸Their arrows [will be][5] sharp
and all their bows bent,

[and] their horses’ hooves are considered to be like flint,
and their wheels like a storm;

²⁹their roaring is like a male lion;
they roar like young lions.

They growl and seize the prey and will carry it off, and none can rescue it.

³⁰And in that day they will growl against them,
like the growling of the sea;

and if [they][6] look to the land, behold, darkness and distress,
and the light is darkened by the clouds.