Isaiah 5
Holman Christian Standard Bible
Song of the Vineyard
5 I will sing about the one I love,
a song about my loved one’s vineyard:(A)
The one I love had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones,
and planted it with the finest vines.(B)
He built a tower in the middle of it
and even dug out a winepress there.
He expected(C) it to yield good grapes,
but it yielded worthless grapes.(D)
3 So now, residents of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
please judge between Me
and My vineyard.
4 What more could I have done for My vineyard
than I did?(E)
Why, when I expected a yield of good grapes,
did it yield worthless grapes?
5 Now I will tell you
what I am about to do to My vineyard:
I will remove its hedge,(F)
and it will be consumed;
I will tear down its wall,(G)
and it will be trampled.
6 I will make it a wasteland.(H)
It will not be pruned or weeded;
thorns and briers will grow up.(I)
I will also give orders to the clouds
that rain should not fall on it.
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts
is the house of Israel,(J)
and the men[a] of Judah,
the plant He delighted in.
He looked for justice
but saw injustice,
for righteousness,
but heard cries of wretchedness.
Judah’s Sins Denounced
8 Woe to those who add house to house(K)
and join field to field
until there is no more room
and you alone are left in the land.
9 I heard the Lord of Hosts say:
Indeed, many houses(L) will become desolate,
grand and lovely ones without inhabitants.
10 For a ten-acre[b] vineyard will yield
only six gallons,[c]
and 10 bushels[d] of seed will yield
only one bushel.[e]
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning
in pursuit of beer,(M)
who linger into the evening,
inflamed by wine.
12 At their feasts they have lyre, harp,
tambourine, flute, and wine.
They do not perceive the Lord’s actions,(N)
and they do not see the work of His hands.(O)
13 Therefore My people will go into exile
because they lack knowledge;(P)
her[f] dignitaries are starving,
and her[g] masses are parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol enlarges its throat
and opens wide its enormous jaws,(Q)
and down go Zion’s dignitaries, her masses,
her crowds, and those who carouse in her!
15 Humanity is brought low, man is humbled,
and haughty eyes are humbled.(R)
16 But the Lord of Hosts is exalted by His justice,(S)
and the holy God(T) is distinguished by righteousness.(U)
17 Lambs will graze
as if in[h] their own pastures,(V)
and strangers[i] will eat
among the ruins of the rich.
18 Woe to those who drag wickedness
with cords of deceit(W)
and pull sin along with cart ropes,
19 to those who say:
“Let Him hurry up and do His work quickly
so that we can see it!
Let the plan(X) of the Holy One of Israel(Y) take place
so that we can know it!”
20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,(Z)
who substitute darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who substitute bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own opinion
and clever in their own sight.[j](AA)
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,
who are fearless at mixing beer,(AB)
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe(AC)
and deprive the innocent of justice.
24 Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes straw
and as dry grass shrivels in the flame,
so their roots will become like something rotten
and their blossoms will blow away like dust,
for they have rejected(AD)
the instruction of the Lord of Hosts,
and they have despised
the word of the Holy One of Israel.(AE)
25 Therefore the Lord’s anger burns(AF) against His people.
He raised His hand against them and struck them;
the mountains quaked,(AG)
and their corpses were like garbage in the streets.
In all this, His anger is not removed,
and His hand is still raised to strike.(AH)
26 He raises a signal flag for the distant nations(AI)
and whistles(AJ) for them from the ends of the earth.
Look—how quickly and swiftly they come!
27 None of them grows weary or stumbles;(AK)
no one slumbers or sleeps.
No belt is loose
and no sandal strap broken.
28 Their arrows are sharpened,
and all their bows strung.
Their horses’ hooves are like flint;
their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.
29 Their roaring is like a lion’s;(AL)
they roar like young lions;(AM)
they growl and seize their prey
and carry it off,
and no one can rescue it.
30 On that day they will roar over it,
like the roaring of the sea.
When one looks at the land,
there will be darkness and distress;
light will be obscured by clouds.[k]
Footnotes
- Isaiah 5:7 Lit man
- Isaiah 5:10 Lit ten-yoke
- Isaiah 5:10 Lit one bath
- Isaiah 5:10 Lit one homer
- Isaiah 5:10 Lit [one] ephah
- Isaiah 5:13 Lit its
- Isaiah 5:13 Lit its
- Isaiah 5:17 Syr reads graze in
- Isaiah 5:17 LXX reads sheep
- Isaiah 5:21 Lit clever before their face
- Isaiah 5:30 Lit its clouds
Isaiah 5
Lexham English Bible
The Song of the Vineyard
5 Let me sing for my beloved
a song of my love concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard[a] on a fertile hill.[b]
2 And he dug it and cleared it of stones,
and he planted it with choice vines,[c]
and he built a watchtower in the middle of it,
and he even hewed out a wine vat in it,
and he waited for it to yield grapes—
but it yielded wild grapes.
3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men[d] of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?
Why did I hope for it to yield grapes, and it yielded wild grapes?
5 And 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.
I will break down its wall, and it shall become a trampling.
6 And I will make it a wasteland;
it shall not be pruned and hoed,
and it shall be overgrown with briers[e] and thornbushes.[f]
And concerning the clouds, I will command them not to send[g] rain down upon it.
7 For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the man[h] of Judah is the plantation of his delight.
And he waited for justice,[i]
but look! Bloodshed![j]
For righteousness,[k]
but look! A cry of distress![l]
Woes on the Wicked
8 Ah! Those who join[m] house with house,
they join field together with field
until there is no place[n]
and you are caused to dwell alone in the midst of the land.
9 Yahweh of hosts said in my ears:
Surely[o] many houses shall become a desolation,
large and beautiful ones without inhabitant.
10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,[p]
and the seed of a homer will yield an ephah.[q]
11 Ah! Those who rise early in the morning,
they pursue strong drink.
Those who linger in the evening,
wine inflames them.
12 And there will be lyre and harp,
tambourine and flute,
and wine at their feasts,
but they do not look at the deeds[r] of Yahweh,
and they do not see the work of his hands.
13 Therefore my people will go into exile without knowledge,
and their[s] nobles[t] will be men of hunger,
and their[u] multitude is parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat,
and it has opened wide its mouth without limit,
and her[v] nobles[w] will go down, and her multitude,
her tumult and those who revel in her.
15 And humankind is bowed down,
and man is brought low,
and the eyes of the haughty are humiliated.
16 But Yahweh of hosts is exalted by justice,
and the holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.
17 And then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
and fatlings, kids[x] will eat among the sites of ruins.[y]
18 Ah! Those who drag iniquity along with the cords of falsehood
and sin as with rope of the cart,
19 those who say,
“Let him make haste;
let him hurry his work
so that we may see it
and let it draw near
and let the plan of the holy one of Israel come
so that we may know it!”
20 Ah! Those who call evil good and good evil,
those who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
those who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
21 Ah! Those who are wise in their own eyes
and have understanding in their view![z]
22 Ah! Heroes at drinking wine,
and men of capability at mixing strong drink!
23 Those who acquit the guilty because of a bribe
and remove the justice of the innocent from him.
24 Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
and dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root will become like the stench,
and their blossom will go up like the dust.
For they have rejected the instruction of Yahweh of hosts,
and they have treated the word of the holy one of Israel with contempt.
25 Therefore Yahweh’s wrath was kindled[aa] against his people,
and he stretched out his hand against them[ab] and struck them,[ac]
and the mountains quaked,
and their corpses[ad] were like refuse in the middle of the streets.
Yahweh’s Outstretched Hand
In all of this his anger has not turned back,
and still his hand is stretched out.
26 And he will raise a signal for a nation[ae] from afar,
and he will whistle for it from the end of the earth.
And look! It comes quickly, swiftly!
27 None is weary,
and none among him stumbles;
none slumbers and none sleeps.
And no loincloth on his waist is opened,
and no thong of his sandals is drawn away.
28 Whose arrows are sharp,
and all of his bows are bent.
The hoofs of his horses are reckoned like flint,
and his wheels like the storm wind.
29 His roaring is like the lion,
and he roars like young lions.
And he growls and seizes his prey,
and he carries it off,
and not one can rescue it.
30 And he will roar over him on that day
like the roaring of the sea,
and if one looks to the land, look! Darkness! Distress!
And the light grows dark with its[af] clouds.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 5:1 Literally “A vineyard was for my beloved”
- Isaiah 5:1 Literally “a horn of a son of olive oil.” The Hebrew for horn, qeren, sounds like the Hebrew for vineyard, kerem
- Isaiah 5:2 Hebrew “vine”
- Isaiah 5:3 Hebrew “man”
- Isaiah 5:6 Hebrew “brier”
- Isaiah 5:6 Hebrew “thornbush”
- Isaiah 5:6 Literally “from sending”
- Isaiah 5:7 Or “people”
- Isaiah 5:7 The Hebrew word, mishpat, sounds like mishpakh in the next line
- Isaiah 5:7 The Hebrew word, mishpakh, sounds like mishpat in the previous line
- Isaiah 5:7 The Hebrew word, tsedaqah, sounds like tsa`aqah in the next line
- Isaiah 5:7 The Hebrew word, tsa`aqah, sounds like tsedaqah in the previous line
- Isaiah 5:8 Literally “touch”
- Isaiah 5:8 Literally “an end of place”
- Isaiah 5:9 Literally “If not”
- Isaiah 5:10 A bath is a liquid measure
- Isaiah 5:10 An ephah is a dry measure equal to one-tenth of a homer
- Isaiah 5:12 Hebrew “deed”
- Isaiah 5:13 Hebrew “its”
- Isaiah 5:13 Hebrew “noble”
- Isaiah 5:13 Hebrew “its”
- Isaiah 5:14 That is, Jerusalem’s
- Isaiah 5:14 Hebrew “noble”
- Isaiah 5:17 Following the Septuagint, which reads the Hebrew grym (resident aliens) as gdym (young goats/sheep)
- Isaiah 5:17 Literally “and ruins, fatlings, resident aliens, will eat”
- Isaiah 5:21 Literally “before their faces”
- Isaiah 5:25 Literally “the anger of Yahweh became hot”
- Isaiah 5:25 Hebrew “it”
- Isaiah 5:25 Hebrew “it”
- Isaiah 5:25 Hebrew “corpse”
- Isaiah 5:26 The Hebrew is plural, but the following verses refer to the nation as singular
- Isaiah 5:30 Presumably the land’s
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