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.
Yeshayah (Isaiah) 5
5
1Please let me sing to the One I love, a song for my loved One regarding His vineyard: my loved One has a vineyard on a fertile hill.
2And He dug it up and cleared it of stones, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a watchtower in its midst, and also made a winepress in it. And He waited for the yielding of grapes, but it yielded rotten ones.
3“And now, O inhabitant of Yerushalayim and man of Yehuḏah, please judge between Me and My vineyard.
4“What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I waited for the yielding of grapes, did it yield rotten ones?
5“And now, please let Me inform you what I am doing to My vineyard: To take away its hedge and it shall be burned; to break down its wall and it shall be trampled down;
6and I lay it waste; it is not pruned or dug and thornbushes and weeds shall come up; and I command the clouds not to rain on it.”
7For the vineyard of יהוה of hosts is the house of Yisra’ĕl, and the man of Yehuḏah is His pleasant plant. He looked for right-ruling, but see, oppression; for righteousness, but see, weeping.
8Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land!
9In my hearing יהוה of hosts said, “Truly, many houses shall be a waste – big and fine ones, without inhabitant.
10“For ten acres of vineyard yield one bath, and a ḥomer of seed yields one ĕphah.”
11Woe to those who rise early in the morning pursuing strong drink, who stay up late at night – wine inflames them!
12And the lyre and the harp, the tambourine and flute, and wine are in their feasts; but they do not regard the deeds of יהוה, nor see the work of His hands.
13Therefore my people have gone into exile, because they have no knowledge. And their esteemed men are starved, and their crowd dried up with thirst.
14Therefore She’ol has made itself wide and opened its mouth without law. Their splendour and their crowd and their uproar, and he who is exulting within her, shall go down into it.
15And man is bowed down, and mortal man humbled, and the eyes of the proud are humbled.
16But יהוה of hosts is exalted in judgment, and the set-apart Ěl is set-apart in righteousness.
17And the lambs shall feed in their pasture, and strangers shall eat in the waste places of the fat ones.
18Woe to those who draw crookedness with cords of falsehood, and sin as with wagon ropes,
19who are saying, “Let Him hurry! Let Him hasten His work, so that we see it! And let the counsel of the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl draw near and come, so that we know.”
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,#See Pro. 3:7 and clever in their own sight!
22Woe to the mighty to drink wine, and brave men to mix strong drink,
23who declare right the wrong for a bribe, and the righteousness of the righteous they turn aside from him!
24Therefore, as a tongue of fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, their root is as rottenness, and their blossom goes up like dust – because they have rejected the Torah of יהוה of hosts, and despised the Word of the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.
25Therefore the displeasure of יהוה has burned against His people, and He stretches out His hand against them and strikes them, and the mountains tremble. And their carcass is as filth in the middle of the streets. With all this His displeasure has not turned back, and His hand is still stretched out!
26And He shall lift up a banner to the nations from afar, and shall whistle to them from the end of the earth. And see, they come with speed, swiftly!
27Not one of them is weary or stumbling, not one slumbers or sleeps. Not a belt shall be loosened on their loins, nor the thong of their sandals be broken.
28Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent; their horses’ hooves shall seem like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.
29Their roar is like that of a lion, they roar like young lions. And they growl and seize prey, and slip away, with no one to rescue.
30And in that day they shall growl over it as with the growling of the sea. And one shall look at the earth, and see, darkness and distress! And light shall be darkened by the clouds.
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