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 with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. 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.
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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