Isaiah 5
Legacy Standard Bible
The Song of the Vineyard
5 Let me sing now for my well-beloved
A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.
My well-beloved had a (A)vineyard on [a]a fertile hill.
2 He dug it all around, removed its stones,
And planted it with [b]the (B)choicest vine.
And He built a tower in the middle of it
And also hewed out a [c]wine vat in it;
Then He (C)hoped for it to produce good grapes,
But it produced only [d]worthless ones.
3 “So now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
(D)Please judge between Me and My vineyard.
4 (E)What more was there to do for My vineyard [e]that I have not done in it?
Why, when I hoped for it to produce good grapes did it produce [f]worthless ones?
5 So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:
I will (F)remove its hedge, and it will be consumed;
I will (G)break down its wall, and it will become (H)trampled ground.
6 I will (I)lay it waste;
It will not be pruned or hoed,
But briars and thorns will come up.
I will also command the clouds to (J)rain no rain on it.”
7 For the (K)vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel
And the men of Judah His delightful plant.
Thus He hoped for justice, but behold, (L)bloodshed;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.
Woes to Those Who Call Evil Good
8 Woe to those who (M)add house to house and join field to field,
Until there is no more room,
So that you have to live alone in the midst of the land!
9 In my ears Yahweh of hosts has sworn, “Surely, (N)many houses shall become (O)desolate,
Even great and good ones, without inhabitants.
10 For (P)ten [g]acres of vineyard will yield only one [h]bath of wine,
And a [i](Q)homer of seed will yield but an [j]ephah of grain.”
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue (R)strong drink,
Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!
12 And their banquets are accompanied by lyre and (S)harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine;
But they (T)do not look upon the deeds of Yahweh,
Nor do they see the work of His hands.
13 Therefore My people go into exile for their (U)lack of knowledge;
And [k]their (V)honorable men are famished,
And their multitude is parched with thirst.
14 Therefore (W)Sheol has enlarged its [l]throat and opened its mouth without limit;
And [m]Jerusalem’s majesty, her multitude, her rumbling, and the exultant within her, descend into it.
15 So the common man will be bowed down and the man of importance will be made low,
(X)The eyes of the lofty also will be made low.
16 But (Y)Yahweh of hosts will be (Z)lofty in judgment,
And the holy God will show Himself (AA)holy in righteousness.
17 (AB)Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
And sojourners will eat in the waste places of the [n]wealthy.
18 Woe to those who drag (AC)iniquity with the cords of worthlessness,
And sin as if with cart ropes,
19 (AD)Who say, “Let Him hurry, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it;
And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near
And come to pass, that we may know it!”
20 Woe to those who (AE)call evil good and good evil,
Who [o](AF)substitute darkness for light and light for darkness,
Who [p]substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are (AG)wise in their own eyes
And understanding in their own [q]sight!
22 (AH)Woe to those who are mighty men in drinking wine
And valiant men in mixing strong drink,
23 (AI)Who [r]declare the wicked righteous for a bribe,
And (AJ)remove the [s]righteous standing of the ones who are [t]righteous!
24 Therefore, (AK)as a tongue of fire consumes stubble
And dry grass collapses into the flame,
So their (AL)root will become (AM)like rot and their blossom [u]blow away as dust;
For they have (AN)rejected the law of Yahweh of hosts
And the word of the Holy One of Israel they have spurned.
25 On this account, the (AO)anger of Yahweh has burned against His people,
And He has stretched out His hand against them and struck them down.
And the (AP)mountains trembled, and their (AQ)corpses [v]lay like refuse in the middle of the streets.
(AR)For all this His anger is not turned back,
But His (AS)hand is still stretched out.
26 He will also lift up a (AT)standard to the [w]distant nations,
And will (AU)whistle for it (AV)from the ends of the earth;
And behold, it will (AW)come with speed swiftly.
27 (AX)No one in it is weary or stumbles,
None slumbers or sleeps;
Nor is the (AY)belt at its waist undone,
Nor its sandal strap broken.
28 [x](AZ)Its arrows are sharp and all its bows are bent;
The hoofs of its horses [y]seem like flint and its chariot (BA)wheels like a whirlwind.
29 Its (BB)roaring is like a lioness, and it roars like young lions;
It growls and (BC)seizes the prey
And carries it off with (BD)no one to deliver it.
30 And it will (BE)growl over it in that day like the roaring of the sea.
If one (BF)looks to the land, behold, there is darkness and distress;
Even the light is darkened by its clouds.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 5:1 Lit a horn, the son of fatness
- Isaiah 5:2 Lit a bright red grape
- Isaiah 5:2 Or wine press
- Isaiah 5:2 Or wild grapes
- Isaiah 5:4 Lit and I have not done
- Isaiah 5:4 Or wild grapes
- Isaiah 5:10 One acre is what oxen could plow in one day
- Isaiah 5:10 A bath was approx. 6 gal. or 23 l
- Isaiah 5:10 A homer was approx. 6.5 bu. or 230 l
- Isaiah 5:10 An ephah was approx. 21 qt. or 23 l
- Isaiah 5:13 Lit their glory are men of famine
- Isaiah 5:14 Or appetite
- Isaiah 5:14 Lit her
- Isaiah 5:17 Lit fat
- Isaiah 5:20 Lit set
- Isaiah 5:20 Lit set
- Isaiah 5:21 Lit face
- Isaiah 5:23 Or justify the wicked for a bribe, cf. 53:11
- Isaiah 5:23 Or justification
- Isaiah 5:23 Or justified
- Isaiah 5:24 Lit ascend
- Isaiah 5:25 Lit were
- Isaiah 5:26 Probably Assyria
- Isaiah 5:28 Lit Which, its arrows
- Isaiah 5:28 Lit are regarded as
Isaiah 5
Common English Bible
Song of the vineyard
5 Let me sing for my loved one
a love song for his vineyard.
My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.
2 He dug it,
cleared away its stones,
planted it with excellent vines,
built a tower inside it,
and dug out a wine vat in it.
He expected it to grow good grapes—
but it grew rotten grapes.
3 So now, you who live in Jerusalem, you people of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard:
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I haven’t done for it?
When I expected it to grow good grapes,
why did it grow rotten grapes?
5 Now let me tell you what I’m doing to my vineyard.
I’m removing its hedge,
so it will be destroyed.
I’m breaking down its walls,
so it will be trampled.
6 I’ll turn it into a ruin;
it won’t be pruned or hoed,
and thorns and thistles will grow up.
I will command the clouds not to rain on it.
7 The vineyard of the Lord of heavenly forces is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah are the plantings in which God delighted.
God expected justice, but there was bloodshed;
righteousness, but there was a cry of distress!
Sayings of doom
8 Doom to those who acquire house after house,
who annex field to field until there is no more space left
and only you live alone in the land.
9 I heard the Lord of heavenly forces say this:[a]
Many houses will become total ruins,
large, fine houses, with no one living in them.
10 Ten acres of vineyard
will produce just one bath,[b]
and a homer of seed
will produce only an ephah.
11 Doom to those who wake up early in the morning to run after beer,
to those who stay up late, lit up by wine.
12 They party with lyre and harp, tambourine, flute, and wine;
but they ignore the Lord’s work;
they can’t see what God is doing.
13 Therefore, my people go into exile since they didn’t understand—
their officials are dying of hunger;
so many of them are dried up with thirst.
14 Therefore, the grave[c] opens wide its jaws,
opens its mouth beyond all bounds,
and the splendid multitudes will go down, with all their uproar and cheering.
15 Humanity will be humiliated;
each person laid low,
the eyes of the exalted laid low.
16 But the Lord of heavenly forces will be exalted in justice,
and the holy God will show himself holy in righteousness.
17 Lambs will graze as if in their pasture;
young goats[d] will feed among the ruins of the rich.[e]
18 Doom to those who drag guilt along with cords of fraud,
and haul sin as if with cart ropes,
19 who say, “God should hurry and work faster so we can see;
let the plan of Israel’s holy one come quickly, so we can understand it.”
20 Doom to those who call evil good and good evil,
who present darkness as light and light as darkness,
who make bitterness sweet and sweetness bitter.
21 Doom to those
who consider themselves wise,
who think of themselves as clever.
22 Doom to the wine-swigging warriors,
mighty at mixing drinks,
23 who spare the guilty for bribes,
and rob the innocent of their rights.
24 Therefore, as a tongue of fire devours stubble,
and as hay shrivels in a flame,
so their roots will rot,
and their blossoms turn to dust,
for they have rejected the teaching of the Lord of heavenly forces,
and have despised the word of Israel’s holy one.
God’s powerful hand
25 This is why the Lord’s anger burned against the people:
he extended his hand to strike them,
the mountains trembled,
and their corpses lay in the middle of the streets like dung.
Even then God’s anger didn’t turn away;
God’s hand was still extended.
26 God will raise a signal to a nation from far away
and whistle to them from the end of the earth—
now look—hurrying, swiftly they come!
27 Not one is tired; not one stumbles;
they don’t rest or sleep;
no belt is loose; no sandal broken;
28 their arrows are sharp;
all their bows drawn;
their horses’ hooves are like flint;
their wheels like the whirlwind.
29 Their roaring is like the lion;
they roar like young lions;
they growl, seize their prey,
and carry it off, with no one to rescue.
30 On that day, they will roar over it like the roaring of the sea.
And if one looks toward the land, there’s darkness.
Tyre and the Nile will be darkened by the clouds.[f]
Footnotes
- Isaiah 5:9 Heb lacks say this.
- Isaiah 5:10 One bath is approximately twenty quarts, the same as an ephah; one homer contains ten ephahs (or baths) of grain.
- Isaiah 5:14 Heb Sheol
- Isaiah 5:17 Or strangers
- Isaiah 5:17 Or Calves and young goats will feed on the ruins; Heb uncertain
- Isaiah 5:30 Heb uncertain
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