Isaiah 5
5
God’s Disappointing Vineyard
1Now let me sing to my Well-beloved
A song of my Beloved #Ps. 80:8; Jer. 2:21; Matt. 21:33; Mark 12:1; Luke 20:9regarding His vineyard:
My Well-beloved has a vineyard
On 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 made a winepress in it;
#Deut. 32:6So 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,
#(Rom. 3:4)Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
4What more could have been done to My vineyard
That I have not done in #2 Chr. 36:15, 16; Jer. 2:5; 7:25, 26; Mic. 6:3; Matt. 23:37it?
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:
#2 Chr. 36:19; Ps. 80:12; 89:40, 41I 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 #2 Chr. 36:19–21waste;
It shall not be pruned or dug,
But there shall come up briers and #Is. 7:19–25; Jer. 25:11thorns.
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, a cry for help.
Impending Judgment on Excesses
8Woe to those who join #Jer. 22:13–17; Mic. 2:2; Hab. 2:9–12house to house;
They add field to field,
Till there is no place
Where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!
9#Is. 22:14In 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 #Ezek. 45:11bath,
And a homer of seed shall yield one ephah.”
11#Prov. 23:29, 30; Eccl. 10:16, 17; Is. 5:22Woe to those who rise early in the morning,
That they may follow intoxicating drink;
Who continue until night, till wine inflames them!
12#Amos 6:5The harp and the strings,
The tambourine and flute,
And wine are in their feasts;
But #Job 34:27; Ps. 28:5they do not regard the work of the Lord,
Nor consider the operation of His hands.
13#2 Kin. 24:14–16Therefore my people have gone into captivity,
Because they have no #Is. 1:3; 27:11; Hos. 4:6knowledge;
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,
#Is. 2:9, 11Each man shall be humbled,
And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.
16But the Lord of hosts shall be #Is. 2:11exalted 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 #Is. 10:16the fat ones strangers shall eat.
18Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity,
And sin as if with a cart rope;
19#Jer. 17:15; Amos 5:18That 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 #Prov. 3:7; Rom. 1:22; 12:16; (1 Cor. 3:18–20)wise 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 #Ex. 23:8; Prov. 17:15; Is. 1:23; Mic. 3:11; 7:3justify the wicked for a bribe,
And take away justice from the righteous man!
24Therefore, #Ex. 15:7as the fire devours the stubble,
And the flame consumes the chaff,
So #Job 18:16their 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.
25#2 Kin. 22:13, 17; Is. 66:15Therefore the anger of the Lord is aroused against His people;
He has stretched out His hand against them
And stricken them,
And #Ps. 18:7; Is. 64:3; Jer. 4:24; Nah. 1:5the hills trembled.
Their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets.
#Is. 9:12, 17; Jer. 4:8; Dan. 9:16For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still.
26#Is. 11:10, 12He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar,
And will #Is. 7:18; Zech. 10:8whistle to them from #Mal. 1:11the end of the earth;
Surely #Joel 2:7they shall come with speed, swiftly.
27No one will be weary or stumble among them,
No one will slumber or sleep;
Nor #Dan. 5:6will the belt on their loins be loosed,
Nor the strap of their sandals be broken;
28#Jer. 5:16Whose arrows are sharp,
And all their bows bent;
Their horses’ hooves will seem 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 #Is. 8:22; Jer. 4:23–28; Joel 2:10; Luke 21:25, 26looks to the land,
Behold, darkness and sorrow;
And the light is darkened by the clouds.
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Isaiah 5: NKJV
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Isaiah 5
5
The Song of the Vineyard
1 #
Mt 21.33; Mk 12.1; Lk 20.9 Listen while I sing you this song,
a song of my friend and his vineyard:
My friend had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2He dug the soil and cleared it of stones;
he planted the finest vines.
He built a tower to guard them,
dug a pit for treading the grapes.
He waited for the grapes to ripen,
but every grape was sour.
3So now my friend says, “You people who live in Jerusalem and Judah, judge between my vineyard and me. 4Is there anything I failed to do for it? Then why did it produce sour grapes and not the good grapes I expected?
5“This is what I am going to do to my vineyard; I will take away the hedge round it, break down the wall that protects it, and let wild animals eat it and trample it down. 6I will let it be overgrown with weeds. I will not prune the vines or hoe the ground; instead I will let briars and thorns cover it. I will even forbid the clouds to let rain fall on it.”
7Israel is the vineyard of the LORD Almighty;
the people of Judah are the vines he planted.
He expected them to do what was good,
but instead they committed murder.
He expected them to do what was right,
but their victims cried out for justice.
The Evil that People Do
8You are doomed! You buy more houses and fields to add to those you already have. Soon there will be nowhere for anyone else to live, and you alone will live in the land. 9I have heard the LORD Almighty say, “All these big, fine houses will be empty ruins. 10The grapevines growing on ten hectares of land will yield only eight litres of wine. 180 litres of seed will produce only eighteen litres of corn.”
11You are doomed! You get up early in the morning to start drinking, and you spend long evenings getting drunk. 12At your feasts you have harps and tambourines and flutes — and wine. But you don't understand what the LORD is doing, 13and so you will be carried away as prisoners. Your leaders will starve to death, and the common people will die of thirst. 14The world of the dead is hungry for them, and it opens its mouth wide. It gulps down the nobles of Jerusalem along with the noisy crowd of common people.
15Everyone will be disgraced, and all who are proud will be humbled. 16But the LORD Almighty shows his greatness by doing what is right, and he reveals his holiness by judging his people. 17In the ruins of the cities lambs will eat grass and young goats will find pasture.#5.17 Verse 17 in Hebrew is unclear.
18You are doomed! You are unable to break free from your sins. 19You say, “Let the LORD hurry up and do what he says he will, so that we can see it. Let Israel's holy God carry out his plans; let's see what he has in mind.”
20You are doomed! You call evil good and call good evil. You turn darkness into light and light into darkness. You make what is bitter sweet, and what is sweet you make bitter.
21You are doomed! You think you are wise, so very clever.
22You are doomed! Heroes of the wine bottle! Brave and fearless when it comes to mixing drinks! 23But for just a bribe you let the guilty go free, and you prevent the innocent from getting justice. 24So now, just as straw and dry grass shrivel and burn in the fire, your roots will rot and your blossoms will dry up and blow away, because you have rejected what the LORD Almighty, Israel's holy God, has taught us. 25The LORD is angry with his people and has stretched out his hand to punish them. The mountains will shake, and the bodies of those who die will be left in the streets like rubbish. Yet even then the LORD's anger will not be ended, but his hand will still be stretched out to punish.
26The LORD gives a signal to call for a distant nation.#5.26 Probable text a distant nation; Hebrew distant nations. He whistles for them to come from the ends of the earth. And here they come, swiftly, quickly! 27None of them grows tired; none of them stumbles. They never doze or sleep. Not a belt is loose; not a sandal strap is broken. 28Their arrows are sharp, and their bows are ready to shoot. Their horses' hooves are as hard as flint, and their chariot-wheels turn like a whirlwind. 29The soldiers roar like lions that have killed an animal and are carrying it off where no one can take it away from them.
30When that day comes, they will roar over Israel as loudly as the sea. Look at this country! Darkness and distress! The light is swallowed by darkness.
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.