Isaiah 5:9-11

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Isaiah 5:9 tn Heb “in my ears, the Lord of armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].”
2. Isaiah 5:9 tn Heb “great and good [houses], without a resident.”
3. Isaiah 5:10 tn Heb “a ten-yoke vineyard.” The Hebrew term צֶמֶד (tsemed, “yoke”) is here a unit of square measure. Apparently a ten-yoke vineyard covered the same amount of land it would take ten teams of oxen to plow in a certain period of time. The exact size is unknown.
4. Isaiah 5:10 tn Heb “one bath.” A bath was a liquid measure. Estimates of its modern equivalent range from approximately six to twelve gallons.
5. Isaiah 5:10 tn Heb “a homer.” A homer was a dry measure, the exact size of which is debated. Cf. NCV “ten bushels”; CEV “five bushels.”
6. Isaiah 5:10 tn Heb “an ephah.” An ephah was a dry measure; there were ten ephahs in a homer. So this verse envisions major crop failure, where only one-tenth of the anticipated harvest is realized.
7. Isaiah 5:11 tn Heb “Woe [to] those who arise early in the morning, [who] chase beer.”
8. Isaiah 5:11 tn Heb “[who] delay until dark, [until] wine enflames them.”sn This verse does not condemn drinking per se, but refers to the carousing lifestyle of the rich bureaucrats, made possible by wealth taken from the poor. Their carousing is not the fundamental problem, but a disgusting symptom of the real disease—their social injustice.