Isaiah 5

New Living Translation

A Song about the Lord’s Vineyard

5 Now I will sing for the one I love
    a song about his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
    on a rich and fertile hill.
²He plowed the land, cleared its stones,
    and planted it with the best vines.
In the middle he built a watchtower
    and carved a winepress in the nearby rocks.
Then he waited for a harvest of sweet grapes,
    but the grapes that grew were bitter.

³Now, you people of Jerusalem and Judah,
    you judge between me and my vineyard.
⁴What more could I have done for my vineyard
    that I have not already done?
When I expected sweet grapes,
    why did my vineyard give me bitter grapes?

⁵Now let me tell you
    what I will do to my vineyard:
I will tear down its hedges
    and let it be destroyed.
I will break down its walls
    and let the animals trample it.
⁶I will make it a wild place
    where the vines are not pruned and the ground is not hoed,
    a place overgrown with briers and thorns.
I will command the clouds
    to drop no rain on it.

⁷The nation of Israel is the vineyard of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
    The people of Judah are his pleasant garden.
He expected a crop of justice,
    but instead he found oppression.
He expected to find righteousness,
    but instead he heard cries of violence.

Judah’s Guilt and Judgment

⁸What sorrow for you who buy up house after house and field after field,
    until everyone is evicted and you live alone in the land.
⁹But I have heard the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
    swear a solemn oath:
“Many houses will stand deserted;
    even beautiful mansions will be empty.
¹⁰Ten acres^[a] of vineyard will not produce even six gallons^[b] of wine.
    Ten baskets of seed will yield only one basket^[c] of grain.”

¹¹What sorrow for those who get up early in the morning
    looking for a drink of alcohol
and spend long evenings drinking wine
    to make themselves flaming drunk.
¹²They furnish wine and lovely music at their grand parties—
    lyre and harp, tambourine and flute—
but they never think about the Lord
    or notice what he is doing.

¹³So my people will go into exile far away
    because they do not know me.
Those who are great and honored will starve,
    and the common people will die of thirst.
¹⁴The grave^[d] is licking its lips in anticipation,
    opening its mouth wide.
The great and the lowly
    and all the drunken mob will be swallowed up.
¹⁵Humanity will be destroyed, and people brought down;
    even the arrogant will lower their eyes in humiliation.
¹⁶But the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will be exalted by his justice.
    The holiness of God will be displayed by his righteousness.
¹⁷In that day lambs will find good pastures,
    and fattened sheep and young goats^[e] will feed among the ruins.

¹⁸What sorrow for those who drag their sins behind them
    with ropes made of lies,
    who drag wickedness behind them like a cart!
¹⁹They even mock God and say,
    “Hurry up and do something!
    We want to see what you can do.
Let the Holy One of Israel carry out his plan,
    for we want to know what it is.”

²⁰What sorrow for those who say
    that evil is good and good is evil,
that dark is light and light is dark,
    that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.
²¹What sorrow for those who are wise in their own eyes
    and think themselves so clever.
²²What sorrow for those who are heroes at drinking wine
    and boast about all the alcohol they can hold.
²³They take bribes to let the wicked go free,
    and they punish the innocent.

²⁴Therefore, just as fire licks up stubble
    and dry grass shrivels in the flame,
so their roots will rot
    and their flowers wither.
For they have rejected the law of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies;
    they have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
²⁵That is why the Lord’s anger burns against his people,
    and why he has raised his fist to crush them.
The mountains tremble,
    and the corpses of his people litter the streets like garbage.
But even then the Lord’s anger is not satisfied.
    His fist is still poised to strike!

²⁶He will send a signal to distant nations far away
    and whistle to those at the ends of the earth.
    They will come racing toward Jerusalem.
²⁷They will not get tired or stumble.
    They will not stop for rest or sleep.
Not a belt will be loose,
    not a sandal strap broken.
²⁸Their arrows will be sharp
    and their bows ready for battle.
Sparks will fly from their horses’ hooves,
    and the wheels of their chariots will spin like a whirlwind.
²⁹They will roar like lions,
    like the strongest of lions.
Growling, they will pounce on their victims and carry them off,
    and no one will be there to rescue them.
³⁰They will roar over their victims on that day of destruction
    like the roaring of the sea.
If someone looks across the land,
    only darkness and distress will be seen;
    even the light will be darkened by clouds.

Footnotes

5:10a Hebrew A ten yoke, that is, the area of land plowed by ten teams of oxen in one day.
5:10b Hebrew a bath [21 liters].
5:10c Hebrew A homer [5 bushels or 220 liters] of seed will yield only an ephah [20 quarts or 22 liters].
5:14 Hebrew Sheol.
5:17 As in Greek version; Hebrew reads and strangers.