Isaiah 5
5
Song of the Vineyard
1I will sing about the one I love,
a song about my loved one’s vineyard:#Ps 80:8; Jr 12:10; Mt 21:33; Lk 20:9
The one I love had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones,
and planted it with the finest vines.#Jr 2:21
He built a tower in the middle of it
and even dug out a winepress there.
He expected#Is 40:31 it to yield good grapes,
but it yielded worthless grapes.#Mt 21:19; Mk 11:13; Lk 13:6
3So now, residents of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
please judge between me
and my vineyard.
4What more could I have done for my vineyard
than I did?#Mc 6:3–4; Mt 23:37
Why, when I expected a yield of good grapes,
did it yield worthless grapes?
5Now I will tell you
what I am about to do to my vineyard:
I will remove its hedge,#Ps 89:40; Jr 5:10
and it will be consumed;
I will tear down its wall,#Ps 80:12
and it will be trampled.
6I will make it a wasteland.#2Ch 36:19–21; Is 7:19–25; 24:1,3; 27:2–6; Jr 25:11
It will not be pruned or weeded;
thorns and briers will grow up.#Gn 3:18; Is 7:23–25; 9:18; 10:17; 27:4; 32:13
I will also give orders to the clouds
that rain should not fall on it.
7For the vineyard of the Lord of Armies
is the house of Israel,#Ps 80:8–11
and the men#5:7 Lit man of Judah,
the plant he delighted in.
He expected justice
but saw injustice;
he expected righteousness
but heard cries of despair.
Judah’s Sins Denounced
8Woe to those who add house to house#Jr 22:13–17; Mc 2:2; Hab 2:9–12
and join field to field
until there is no more room
and you alone are left in the land.
9I heard the Lord of Armies say:
Indeed, many houses#Am 3:10,15 will become desolate,
grand and lovely ones without inhabitants.
10For a ten-acre#5:10 Lit ten-yoke vineyard will yield
only six gallons of wine,#5:10 Lit one bath
and ten bushels#5:10 Lit one homer of seed will yield
only one bushel of grain.#5:10 Lit yield an ephah
11Woe to those who rise early in the morning
in pursuit of beer,#Lv 10:9; Nm 6:3; Dt 29:6; Jdg 13:4; Is 5:22; 24:9; 28:7; 56:12
who linger into the evening,
inflamed by wine.
12At their feasts they have lyre, harp,
tambourine, flute, and wine.
They do not perceive the Lord’s actions,#Dt 32:4; Jb 34:27; 36:24; Ps 28:5; 44:1; 64:9–10
and they do not see the work of his hands.#Ex 32:16; 34:10; Ps 8:3,6; 19:1; 92:4–5; Is 10:12; 29:23
13Therefore my people will go into exile
because they lack knowledge;#Is 1:3; 27:11; Hs 4:6; Lk 11:52; 19:42; 1Tm 1:13
her#5:13 Lit its dignitaries are starving,
and her masses are parched with thirst.
14Therefore Sheol enlarges its throat
and opens wide its enormous jaws,#Pr 30:16; Hab 2:5
and down go Zion’s dignitaries, her masses,
her crowds, and those who celebrate in her!
15Humanity is brought low, each person is humbled,
and haughty eyes are humbled.#Is 2:9,11,17; 10:33
16But the Lord of Armies is exalted by his justice,#Is 33:5,10
and the holy God#Is 6:3 demonstrates his holiness through his righteousness.#Is 8:13; 29:23; 1Pt 3:15
17Lambs will graze
as if in#5:17 Syr reads graze in their own pastures,#Mc 2:12
and resident aliens#5:17 LXX reads sheep will eat
among the ruins of the rich.
18Woe to those who drag iniquity
with cords of deceit#Pr 5:22; Is 59:4–8; Jr 23:10–14
and pull sin along with cart ropes,
19to those who say,
“Let him hurry up and do his work quickly
so that we can see it!
Let the plan#Jb 38:2; 42:3; Ps 33:11; 106:13; 107:11; Pr 19:21; Is 14:26; 19:17; 46:10–11 of the Holy One of Israel#Is 1:4 take place
so that we can know it!”
20Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,#Pr 17:15; Am 5:7; Mal 2:17
who substitute darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who substitute bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.
21Woe to those who consider themselves wise
and judge themselves clever.#5:21 Lit and clever before their face#Pr 3:7; Rm 12:16; 1Co 3:18
22Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,
who are champions at pouring beer,#Is 5:11
23who acquit the guilty for a bribe#Ex 23:8; Pr 17:15; Is 1:23; 33:15
and deprive the innocent of justice.
24Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes straw
and as dry grass shrivels in the flame,
so their roots will become like something rotten
and their blossoms will blow away like dust,
for they have rejected#Is 8:6; 30:9,12; Am 2:4; Ac 13:41
the instruction of the Lord of Armies,
and they have despised
the word of the Holy One of Israel.#Is 5:19; Jr 51:5
25Therefore the Lord’s anger burned#Nm 11:10,33; 32:10–13; Dt 6:15; Jos 7:1; 23:16; 2Kg 13:3; Ps 106:40 against his people.
He raised his hand against them and struck them;
the mountains quaked,#Am 1:1; Zch 14:5
and their corpses were like garbage in the streets.
In all this, his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is still raised to strike.#Is 9:12,17,21; 10:4; 14:27
26He raises a signal flag for the distant nations#Is 10:5; 11:10,12; 13:2; 18:3
and whistles#Is 7:18; Zch 10:8 for them from the ends of the earth.
Look — how quickly and swiftly they come!
27None of them grows weary or stumbles;#1Jn 2:10
no one slumbers or sleeps.
No belt is loose
and no sandal strap broken.
28Their arrows are sharpened,
and all their bows strung.
Their horses’ hooves are like flint;
their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.
29Their roaring is like a lion’s;#Jdg 14:5; Hs 13:8; Jl 1:6; Nah 2:12–13
they roar like young lions;#Rv 9:17
they growl and seize their prey
and carry it off,
and no one can rescue it.
30On that day they will roar over it,
like the roaring of the sea.
When one looks at the land,
there will be darkness and distress;
light will be obscured by clouds.#5:30 Lit its clouds
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Isaiah 5: CSB
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
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.