Isaiah 3-5

New King James Version

Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem

3 For behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts,
^(A)Takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah
^(B)The^[a] stock and the store,
The whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water;
²^(C)The mighty man and the man of war,
The judge and the prophet,
And the diviner and the elder;
³The captain of fifty and the ^[b]honorable man,
The counselor and the skillful artisan,
And the expert enchanter.

⁴“I will give ^(D)children^[c] to be their princes,
And ^[d]babes shall rule over them.
⁵The people will be oppressed,
Every one by another and every one by his neighbor;
The child will be insolent toward the ^[e]elder,
And the ^[f]base toward the honorable.”

⁶When a man takes hold of his brother
In the house of his father, saying,
“You have clothing;
You be our ruler,
And let these ruins be under your ^[g]power,”
⁷In that day he will protest, saying,
“I cannot cure your ills,
For in my house is neither food nor clothing;
Do not make me a ruler of the people.”

⁸For ^(E)Jerusalem stumbled,
And Judah is fallen,
Because their tongue and their doings
Are against the Lord,
To provoke the eyes of His glory.
⁹The look on their countenance witnesses against them,
And they declare their sin as ^(F)Sodom;
They do not hide it.
Woe to their soul!
For they have brought evil upon themselves.

¹⁰“Say to the righteous ^(G)that it shall be well with them,
^(H)For they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
¹¹Woe to the wicked! ^(I)It shall be ill with him,
For the reward of his hands shall be ^[h]given him.
¹²As for My people, children are their oppressors,
And women rule over them.
O My people! ^(J)Those who lead you ^[i]cause you to err,
And destroy the way of your paths.”

Oppression and Luxury Condemned

¹³The Lord stands up ^(K)to ^[j]plead,
And stands to judge the people.
¹⁴The Lord will enter into judgment
With the elders of His people
And His princes:
“For you have ^[k]eaten up ^(L)the vineyard;
The plunder of the poor is in your houses.
¹⁵What do you mean by ^(M)crushing My people
And grinding the faces of the poor?”
Says the Lord God of hosts.

¹⁶Moreover the Lord says:

“Because the daughters of Zion are haughty,
And walk with ^[l]outstretched necks
And ^[m]wanton eyes,
Walking and ^[n]mincing as they go,
Making a jingling with their feet,
¹⁷Therefore the Lord will strike with ^(N)a scab
The crown of the head of the daughters of Zion,
And the Lord will ^(O)uncover their secret parts.”

¹⁸In that day the Lord will take away the finery:
The jingling anklets, the ^[o]scarves, and the ^(P)crescents;
¹⁹The pendants, the bracelets, and the veils;
²⁰The headdresses, the leg ornaments, and the headbands;
The perfume boxes, the charms,
²¹    and the rings;
The nose jewels,
²²    the festal apparel, and the mantles;
The outer garments, the purses,
²³    and the mirrors;
The fine linen, the turbans, and the robes.

²⁴And so it shall be:

Instead of a sweet smell there will be a stench;
Instead of a sash, a rope;
Instead of well-set hair, ^(Q)baldness;
Instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth;
And ^[p]branding instead of beauty.
²⁵Your men shall fall by the sword,
And your ^[q]mighty in the war.

²⁶^(R)Her gates shall lament and mourn,
And she being desolate ^(S)shall sit on the ground.

Jerusalem’s Glorious Future

4 And ^(T)in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying,
“We will ^(U)eat our own food and wear our own apparel;
Only let us be called by your name,
To take away ^(V)our reproach.”

The Renewal of Zion

²In that day ^(W)the Branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious;
And the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing
For those of Israel who have escaped.

³And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem ^(X)will be called holy—everyone who is ^(Y)recorded among the living in Jerusalem. ⁴When ^(Z)the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the ^[r]blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning, ⁵then the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, ^(AA)a cloud and smoke by day and ^(AB)the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a ^[s]covering. ⁶And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, ^(AC)for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain.

God’s Disappointing Vineyard

5 Now let me sing to my Well-beloved
A song of my Beloved ^(AD)regarding His vineyard:

My Well-beloved has a vineyard
^[t]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 ^[u]made a winepress in it;
^(AE)So 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,
^(AF)Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
⁴What more could have been done to My vineyard
That I have not done in ^(AG)it?
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:
^(AH)I 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 ^(AI)waste;
It shall not be pruned or ^[v]dug,
But there shall come up briers and ^(AJ)thorns.
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, ^[w]a cry for help.

Impending Judgment on Excesses

⁸Woe to those who ^[x]join ^(AK)house to house;
They add field to field,
Till there is no place
Where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!
⁹^(AL)In 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 ^(AM)bath,^[y]
And a homer of seed shall yield one ^[z]ephah.”

¹¹^(AN)Woe to those who rise early in the morning,
That they may ^[aa]follow intoxicating drink;
Who continue until night, till wine inflames them!
¹²^(AO)The harp and the strings,
The tambourine and flute,
And wine are in their feasts;
But ^(AP)they do not regard the work of the Lord,
Nor consider the operation of His hands.

¹³^(AQ)Therefore my people have gone into captivity,
Because they have no ^(AR)knowledge;
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,
^(AS)Each man shall be humbled,
And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.
¹⁶But the Lord of hosts shall be ^(AT)exalted 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 ^(AU)the ^[ab]fat ones strangers shall eat.

¹⁸Woe to those who ^[ac]draw iniquity with cords of ^[ad]vanity,
And sin as if with a cart rope;
¹⁹^(AV)That 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 ^(AW)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 ^(AX)justify the wicked for a bribe,
And take away justice from the righteous man!

²⁴Therefore, ^(AY)as the ^[ae]fire devours the stubble,
And the flame consumes the chaff,
So ^(AZ)their 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^(BA)Therefore the anger of the Lord is aroused against His people;
He has stretched out His hand against them
And stricken them,
And ^(BB)the hills trembled.
Their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets.

^(BC)For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still.

²⁶^(BD)He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar,
And will ^(BE)whistle to them from ^(BF)the end of the earth;
Surely ^(BG)they shall come with speed, swiftly.
²⁷No one will be weary or stumble among them,
No one will slumber or sleep;
Nor ^(BH)will the belt on their loins be loosed,
Nor the strap of their sandals be broken;
²⁸^(BI)Whose arrows are sharp,
And all their bows bent;
Their horses’ hooves will ^[af]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 ^(BJ)looks to the land,
Behold, darkness and ^[ag]sorrow;
And the light is darkened by the clouds.