Isaiah 3:1-5:7

English Standard Version

Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem

3 For behold, the ^(A)Lord God of hosts
    is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah
support and supply,^[a]
    all ^(B)support of bread,
    and all support of water;
²^(C)the mighty man and the soldier,
    the judge and the prophet,
    the diviner and the elder,
³the captain of fifty
    and the man of rank,
the counselor and the skillful magician
    and the expert in charms.
⁴^(D)And I will make boys their princes,
    and infants^[b] shall rule over them.
⁵^(E)And the people will oppress one another,
    every one his fellow
    and every one his neighbor;
the youth will be insolent to the elder,
    and the despised to the honorable.

⁶For ^(F)a man will take hold of his brother
    in the house of his father, saying:
“You have a cloak;
    you shall be our leader,
and this heap of ruins
    shall be under your rule”;
⁷in that day he will speak out, saying:
“I will not be a ^(G)healer;^[c]
    in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;
you shall not make me
    leader of the people.”
⁸For Jerusalem has stumbled,
    and Judah has fallen,
because their ^(H)speech and their deeds are against the Lord,
    ^(I)defying his glorious presence.^[d]

⁹For the look on their faces bears witness against them;
    they proclaim their sin ^(J)like Sodom;
    they do not hide it.
Woe to them!
    ^(K)For they have brought evil on themselves.
¹⁰^(L)Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them,
    ^(M)for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
¹¹^(N)Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,
    for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.
¹²My people—^(O)infants are their oppressors,
    and women rule over them.
O my people, ^(P)your guides mislead you
    and they have swallowed up^[e] the course of your paths.

¹³The Lord ^(Q)has taken his place to contend;
    he stands to judge peoples.
¹⁴The Lord will enter into judgment
    with the ^(R)elders and princes of his people:
“It is you who ^(S)have devoured^[f] the vineyard,
    ^(T)the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
¹⁵What do you mean by ^(U)crushing my people,
    by grinding the face of the poor?”
declares the Lord God of hosts.

¹⁶The Lord said:
^(V)Because ^(W)the daughters of Zion are haughty
    and walk with outstretched necks,
    glancing wantonly with their eyes,
mincing along as they go,
    ^(X)tinkling with their feet,
¹⁷therefore the Lord ^(Y)will strike with a scab
    the heads of ^(Z)the daughters of Zion,
    and the Lord will lay bare their secret parts.

¹⁸In that day the Lord will take away ^(AA)the finery of the anklets, the ^(AB)headbands, and the ^(AC)crescents; ¹⁹the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarves; ²⁰the ^(AD)headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets; ²¹the signet rings and ^(AE)nose rings; ²²the ^(AF)festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags; ²³the mirrors, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.

²⁴Instead of ^(AG)perfume there will be rottenness;
    and instead of a ^(AH)belt, a rope;
and instead of ^(AI)well-set hair, ^(AJ)baldness;
    and instead of a rich robe, a ^(AK)skirt of sackcloth;
    and ^(AL)branding instead of beauty.
²⁵Your men shall fall by the sword
    and your mighty men in battle.
²⁶And ^(AM)her gates shall lament and mourn;
    empty, she shall ^(AN)sit on the ground.

4 ^(AO)And seven women ^(AP)shall take hold of ^(AQ)one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; ^(AR)take away our reproach.”

The Branch of the Lord Glorified

²In that day ^(AS)the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and ^(AT)the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. ³^(AU)And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called ^(AV)holy, everyone who has ^(AW)been recorded for life in Jerusalem, ⁴when ^(AX)the Lord shall have washed away the filth of ^(AY)the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by ^(AZ)a spirit of burning.^[g] ⁵Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies ^(BA)a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be ^(BB)a canopy. ⁶^(BC)There will be a ^(BD)booth for shade by day from the heat, and ^(BE)for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.

The Vineyard of the Lord Destroyed

5 Let me sing for my beloved
    my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had ^(BF)a vineyard
    on a very fertile hill.
²He dug it and cleared it of stones,
    and planted it with ^(BG)choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
    and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and ^(BH)he looked for it to yield grapes,
    but it yielded wild grapes.

³And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
    and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
⁴^(BI)What more was there to do for my vineyard,
    that I have not done in it?
^(BJ)When I looked for it to yield grapes,
    why did it yield wild grapes?

⁵And now I will tell you
    what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove ^(BK)its hedge,
    and it shall be devoured;^[h]
^(BL)I will break down its wall,
    and it shall be trampled down.
⁶I will make it a waste;
    it shall not be pruned or hoed,
    and ^(BM)briers and thorns shall grow up;
^(BN)I will also command the clouds
    that they rain no rain upon it.

⁷^(BO)For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
    is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
    are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
    but behold, bloodshed;^[i]
for righteousness,
    but behold, an outcry!^[j]