Isaiah 5

The Song of the Vineyard

¹Let me sing for my beloved

My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.

²And he dug it and cleared it of stones,

and he built a watchtower in the middle of it,

and he waited for it to yield grapes—

³And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem

⁴What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?

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.

⁶And I will make it a wasteland;

and it shall be overgrown with briers and thornbushes.

⁷For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel,

And he waited for justice,

For righteousness,

Woes on the Wicked

⁸Ah! Those who join house with house,[#Literally “touch”]

until there is no place

⁹Yahweh of hosts said in my ears:

Surely many houses shall become a desolation,

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.

¹¹Ah! Those who rise early in the morning,

Those who linger in the evening,

¹²And there will be lyre and harp,

but they do not look at the deeds of Yahweh,

¹³Therefore my people will go into exile without knowledge,

and their nobles will be men of hunger,

and their multitude is parched with thirst.

¹⁴Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat,

and her nobles will go down, and her multitude,

¹⁵And humankind is bowed down,

¹⁶But Yahweh of hosts is exalted by justice,

¹⁷And then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,

¹⁸Ah! Those who drag iniquity along with the cords of falsehood

¹⁹those who say,

“Let him make haste;

and let it draw near

²⁰Ah! Those who call evil good and good evil,

²¹Ah! Those who are wise in their own eyes

²²Ah! Heroes at drinking wine,

²³Those who acquit the guilty because of a bribe

²⁴Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,

so their root will become like the stench,

For they have rejected the instruction of Yahweh of hosts,

²⁵Therefore Yahweh’s wrath was kindled against his people,[#Literally “the anger of Yahweh became hot”]

and the mountains quaked,

Yahweh’s Outstretched Hand

In all of this his anger has not turned back,

²⁶And he will raise a signal for a nation from afar,[#The Hebrew is plural, but the following verses refer to the nation as singular]

and he will whistle for it from the end of the earth.

And look! It comes quickly, swiftly!

²⁷None is weary,

And no loincloth on his waist is opened,

²⁸Whose arrows are sharp,

The hoofs of his horses are reckoned like flint,

²⁹His roaring is like the lion,

And he growls and seizes his prey,

³⁰And he will roar over him on that day

and if one looks to the land, look! Darkness! Distress!