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
1Let me sing for my beloved
a song of my love concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard#Literally “A vineyard was for my beloved” on a fertile hill.#Literally “a horn of a son of olive oil.” The Hebrew for horn, qeren, sounds like the Hebrew for vineyard, kerem
2And he dug it and cleared it of stones,
and he planted it with choice vines,#Hebrew “vine”
and he built a watchtower in the middle of it,
and he even hewed out a wine vat in it,
and he waited for it to yield grapes—
but it yielded wild grapes.
3And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men#Hebrew “man” of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
4What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?
Why did I hope for it to yield grapes, and it yielded wild grapes?
5And now let me tell you what I myself am about to do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge, and it shall become a devastation.
I will break down its wall, and it shall become a trampling.
6And I will make it a wasteland;
it shall not be pruned and hoed,
and it shall be overgrown with briers#Hebrew “brier” and thornbushes.#Hebrew “thornbush”
And concerning the clouds, I will command them not to send#Literally “from sending” rain down upon it.
7For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the man#Or “people” of Judah is the plantation of his delight.
And he waited for justice,#The Hebrew word, mishpat, sounds like mishpakh in the next line
but look! Bloodshed!#The Hebrew word, mishpakh, sounds like mishpat in the previous line
For righteousness,#The Hebrew word, tsedaqah, sounds like tsa`aqah in the next line
but look! A cry of distress!#The Hebrew word, tsa`aqah, sounds like tsedaqah in the previous line
Woes on the Wicked
8Ah! Those who join#Literally “touch” house with house,
they join field together with field
until there is no place#Literally “an end of place”
and you are caused to dwell alone in the midst of the land.
9Yahweh of hosts said in my ears:
Surely#Literally “If not” many houses shall become a desolation,
large and beautiful ones without inhabitant.
10For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,#A bath is a liquid measure
and the seed of a homer will yield an ephah.#An ephah is a dry measure equal to one-tenth of a homer
11Ah! Those who rise early in the morning,
they pursue strong drink.
Those who linger in the evening,
wine inflames them.
12And there will be lyre and harp,
tambourine and flute,
and wine at their feasts,
but they do not look at the deeds#Hebrew “deed” of Yahweh,
and they do not see the work of his hands.
13Therefore my people will go into exile without knowledge,
and their#Hebrew “its” nobles#Hebrew “noble” will be men of hunger,
and their#Hebrew “its” multitude is parched with thirst.
14Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat,
and it has opened wide its mouth without limit,
and her#That is, Jerusalem’s nobles#Hebrew “noble” will go down, and her multitude,
her tumult and those who revel in her.
15And humankind is bowed down,
and man is brought low,
and the eyes of the haughty are humiliated.
16But Yahweh of hosts is exalted by justice,
and the holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.
17And then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
and fatlings, kids#Following the Septuagint, which reads the Hebrew grym (resident aliens) as gdym (young goats/sheep) will eat among the sites of ruins.#Literally “and ruins, fatlings, resident aliens, will eat”
18Ah! Those who drag iniquity along with the cords of falsehood
and sin as with rope of the cart,
19those who say,
“Let him make haste;
let him hurry his work
so that we may see it
and let it draw near
and let the plan of the holy one of Israel come
so that we may know it!”
20Ah! Those who call evil good and good evil,
those who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
those who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
21Ah! Those who are wise in their own eyes
and have understanding in their view!#Literally “before their faces”
22Ah! Heroes at drinking wine,
and men of capability at mixing strong drink!
23Those who acquit the guilty because of a bribe
and remove the justice of the innocent from him.
24Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
and dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root will become like the stench,
and their blossom will go up like the dust.
For they have rejected the instruction of Yahweh of hosts,
and they have treated the word of the holy one of Israel with contempt.
25Therefore Yahweh’s wrath was kindled#Literally “the anger of Yahweh became hot” against his people,
and he stretched out his hand against them#Hebrew “it” and struck them,#Hebrew “it”
and the mountains quaked,
and their corpses#Hebrew “corpse” were like refuse in the middle of the streets.
Yahweh’s Outstretched Hand
In all of this his anger has not turned back,
and still his hand is stretched out.
26And he will raise a signal for a nation#The Hebrew is plural, but the following verses refer to the nation as singular from afar,
and he will whistle for it from the end of the earth.
And look! It comes quickly, swiftly!
27None is weary,
and none among him stumbles;
none slumbers and none sleeps.
And no loincloth on his waist is opened,
and no thong of his sandals is drawn away.
28Whose arrows are sharp,
and all of his bows are bent.
The hoofs of his horses are reckoned like flint,
and his wheels like the storm wind.
29His roaring is like the lion,
and he roars like young lions.
And he growls and seizes his prey,
and he carries it off,
and not one can rescue it.
30And he will roar over him on that day
like the roaring of the sea,
and if one looks to the land, look! Darkness! Distress!
And the light grows dark with its#Presumably the land’s clouds.
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