Isaiah 5
New American Standard Bible
Parable of the Vineyard
5 Let me sing now for my beloved
A song of my beloved about His vineyard.
My beloved had a (A)vineyard on [a]a fertile hill.
2 He dug it all around, cleared it of stones,
And planted it with [b]the (B)choicest vine.
And He built a tower in the middle of it,
And also carved out a [c]wine vat in it;
Then He (C)expected it to produce good grapes,
But it produced only [d]worthless ones.
3 “And now, you inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah,
(D)Judge between Me and My vineyard.
4 (E)What more was there to do for My vineyard [e]that I have not done in it?
Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce [f]worthless ones?
5 So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:
I will (F)remove its hedge and it will be consumed;
I will (G)break down its wall and it will become (H)trampled ground.
6 I will (I)lay it waste;
It will not be pruned nor hoed,
But briars and thorns will come up.
I will also command the clouds not to (J)rain on it.”
7 For the (K)vineyard of the Lord of armies is the house of Israel,
And the people of Judah are His delightful plant.
So He waited for justice, but behold, there was (L)bloodshed;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.
Woes for the Wicked
8 Woe to those who (M)attach house to house and join field to field,
Until there is no more room,
And you alone are a landowner in the midst of the land!
9 In my ears the Lord of armies has sworn, “(N)Many houses shall certainly become (O)desolate,
Even great and fine ones, without occupants.
10 For (P)ten acres of vineyard will yield only one [g]bath of wine,
And a [h](Q)homer of seed will yield only an [i]ephah of grain.”
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning so that they may pursue (R)intoxicating drink,
Who stay up late in the evening so that wine may inflame them!
12 Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and (S)harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine;
But they (T)do not pay attention to the deeds of the Lord,
Nor do they consider the work of His hands.
13 Therefore My people go into exile for their (U)lack of knowledge;
And their [j](V)nobles are famished,
And their multitude is parched with thirst.
14 Therefore (W)Sheol has enlarged its [k]throat and opened its mouth beyond measure;
And [l]Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her noise of revelry, and the jubilant within her, descend into it.
15 So the common people will be humbled and the person of importance brought low,
(X)The eyes of the haughty also will be brought low.
16 But the (Y)Lord of armies will be (Z)exalted in judgment,
And the holy God will show Himself (AA)holy in righteousness.
17 (AB)Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
And strangers will eat in the ruins of the [m]wealthy.
18 Woe to those who drag (AC)wrongdoing with the cords of [n]deceit,
And sin as if with cart ropes;
19 (AD)Who say, “Let Him hurry, let Him do His work quickly, so that we may see it;
And let the plan of the Holy One of Israel approach
And come to pass, so that we may know it!”
20 Woe to those who (AE)call evil good, and good evil;
Who [o](AF)substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who [p]substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are (AG)wise in their own eyes
And [q]clever in their own sight!
22 (AH)Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine,
And valiant men in mixing intoxicating drink,
23 (AI)Who declare the wicked innocent for a bribe,
And (AJ)take away the [r]rights of the ones who are in the right!
24 Therefore, (AK)as a tongue of fire consumes stubble,
And dry grass collapses in the flame,
So their (AL)root will become (AM)like rot, and their blossom [s]blow away like dust;
For they have (AN)rejected the Law of the Lord of armies,
And discarded the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 For this reason the (AO)anger of the Lord has burned against His people,
And He has stretched out His hand against them and struck them.
And the (AP)mountains quaked, and their (AQ)corpses [t]lay like refuse in the middle of the streets.
(AR)Despite all this, His anger [u]is not spent,
But His (AS)hand is still stretched out.
26 He will also lift up a (AT)flag to the distant [v]nation,
And (AU)whistle for it (AV)from the ends of the earth;
And behold, it will (AW)come with speed swiftly.
27 (AX)No one in it is tired or stumbles,
No one slumbers or sleeps;
Nor is the (AY)undergarment at his waist loosened,
Nor his sandal strap broken.
28 [w](AZ)Its arrows are sharp and all its bows are bent;
The hoofs of its horses [x]seem like flint, and its chariot (BA)wheels like a storm wind.
29 Its (BB)roaring is like a lioness, and it roars like young lions;
It growls as it (BC)seizes the prey
And carries it off with (BD)no one to save it.
30 And it will (BE)roar against it on that day like the roaring of the sea.
If one (BF)looks across to the land, behold, there is darkness and distress;
Even the light is darkened by its clouds.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 5:1 Lit horn, a son of fatness
- Isaiah 5:2 Lit a bright red grape
- Isaiah 5:2 Or wine press
- Isaiah 5:2 Or unripe
- Isaiah 5:4 Lit and I have not done
- Isaiah 5:4 Or unripe
- Isaiah 5:10 About 6 gallons or 23 liters
- Isaiah 5:10 About 7.7 cubic feet or 0.22 cubit meters or more
- Isaiah 5:10 About 1 cubic foot or 0.03 cubic meters
- Isaiah 5:13 Lit glory is men of famine
- Isaiah 5:14 Or appetite
- Isaiah 5:14 Lit her
- Isaiah 5:17 Lit fat
- Isaiah 5:18 Or worthlessness
- Isaiah 5:20 Lit set
- Isaiah 5:20 Lit set
- Isaiah 5:21 Lit discerning
- Isaiah 5:23 Lit justice
- Isaiah 5:24 Lit ascend
- Isaiah 5:25 Lit were
- Isaiah 5:25 Lit has not turned away
- Isaiah 5:26 Lit nations; prob. Assyria
- Isaiah 5:28 Lit Which, its arrows
- Isaiah 5:28 Lit are regarded as
Isaiah 5
International Standard Version
The Lord’s Vineyard
5 I will sing[a] for my beloved
my love-song concerning his vineyard:
“The one I love had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 He plowed its land[b] and cleared it of stones.
Then he planted it with the choicest vines,
built a watchtower in the middle of it,
and dug a wine vat in it;
He expected[c] it to produce good[d] grapes,
but it produced only wild ones.”[e]
3 “So now, you inhabitants[f] of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
judge, won’t you please,
between me and my vineyard.
4 What more could I do in[g] my vineyard,
that I haven’t already done?
When I expected it to produce good[h] grapes,
why did it yield[i] wild ones?[j]
5 “Now, let me tell you, won’t you please,
what I’m going to do to my vineyard.
“I’m going to take away its protective hedge,
and it will be devoured;[k]
I’ll break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.
6 I’ll make it a wasteland,
and it won’t be pruned or cultivated.
Instead, briers and thorns will grow up.
I’ll also issue commands to the clouds,
that they drop no rain upon it.”
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of the Heavenly Armies
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are the garden in which he delights.[l]
He looked for justice,
but saw only bloodshed;
he searched[m] for righteousness,
but heard only an outcry!
Judgment on Land Barons
8 “How terrible it will be for you who join house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is no more room,
and you have settled yourselves alone[n]
in the middle of the land!”
9 The Lord of the Heavenly Armies has declared this so I could hear it:
“Surely many houses will become desolate,
great and beautiful houses,
without occupants.
10 For ten acres of vineyard will produce only one bath,[o]
and one omer[p] of seed[q] will produce only one ephah.”[r]
Judgment on Alcoholics
11 “How terrible it will be for those who rise at dawn
in order to grab[s] a stiff drink,
for those who stay up late at night
as wine inflames them!
12 They have the lyre and harp,
the tambourine and flute,
as well as wine at their festivals,
but they don’t respect what the Lord is doing,
nor do they consider his actions.[t]
13 Therefore my people go into exile
because they lack understanding;
my[u] honored men go hungry,
and the crowd is parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol’s[v] appetite has grown;
it has opened its mouth beyond limit.
Jerusalem’s nobility and her multitudes will go there,
along with her brawlers and whoever is reveling within her.
15 Humanity is brought low,
and each one is humbled,
while the eyes of the self-exalting are brought low.
16 But the Lord of the Heavenly Armies is exalted in justice,
and the Holy God proves himself to be righteously holy.
17 Then the lambs will graze in their pasture;
fatlings and foreigners will eat
among the waste places of the rich.”
Judgment on Mockers
18 “How terrible it will be for those who parade iniquity with cords of falsehood,
who draw sin along as[w] with a cart rope;
19 who say: ‘Let God[x] be quick,
let him speed up[y] his work
so we may see it!
Let it happen!
let the plan of the Holy One of Israel draw near,
so we may recognize it!’”
Judgment on Moral Relativists
20 “How terrible it will be for those who call evil good
and good evil,
who substitute darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who substitute what is bitter for what is sweet
and what is sweet for what is bitter!”
Judgment on the Arrogant
21 “How terrible it will be for those who are wise in their own opinion,
and clever in their own reckoning!
22 “How terrible it will be for those who are heroes at drinking wine,
and champions in mixing strong drink,
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
and deprive the innocent of justice!”
The Effects of Divine Judgment
24 Therefore, as flames of fire devour straw,
as dry grass[z] collapses in flames,
so their root will be rotten,
and their blossom will blow away like dust,
because they have rejected the instruction[aa] of the Lord of the Heavenly Armies,
and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore[ab] the anger of the Lord[ac] burned against his people,
so he stretched out his hands[ad] against them
and afflicted them.
The mountains quaked,
and their corpses were like refuse
in the middle of the streets.
Throughout all of this, his anger has not turned away,
and his hands are[ae] still stretched out to attack.[af]
26 The Lord[ag] will signal[ah] for nations far away,
whistling for them to come[ai]
from the ends of the earth.
Look how quickly
and how swiftly they come!
27 No one is weary, no one stumbles,[aj]
and no one slumbers or sleeps.
No belt around their waists will come undone,
nor will their sandal straps be broken.
28 Their arrows are sharp,
all their bows ready for action.[ak]
Their horses’ hooves seem like flint,
and their chariot wheels spin[al] like a whirlwind.
29 With a roar like a lion, they snarl,
and like young lions, they growl;[am]
they seize their prey
and then carry it off,
with no one to rescue.
30 They will roar over it[an] at that time,[ao]
like the sea waves roar.
If one surveys the land, watch out!
There’s darkness and distress;
even the daylight is darkened by its clouds.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 5:1 So 1QIsaa; MT reads Please, let me sing
- Isaiah 5:2 1QIsaa MT lack its land
- Isaiah 5:2 Or waited for
- Isaiah 5:2 1QIsaa MT lack good
- Isaiah 5:2 I.e. grapes unsuitable for wine making
- Isaiah 5:3 So 1QIsaa; MT reads inhabitant
- Isaiah 5:4 So 1QIsaa; MT reads for
- Isaiah 5:4 1QIsaa MT lack good
- Isaiah 5:4 So 1QIsaa; MT LXX read produce
- Isaiah 5:4 I.e. grapes unsuitable for wine making
- Isaiah 5:5 So 1QIsaa; MT reads will be for devouring; LXX reads will be for plundering
- Isaiah 5:7 So 1QIsaa; MT reads his delightful garden
- Isaiah 5:7 1QIsaa MT lack he searched
- Isaiah 5:8 So 1QIsaa; MT reads you are made to live alone
- Isaiah 5:10 I.e. about six gallons
- Isaiah 5:10 I.e. about ten bushels
- Isaiah 5:10 1QIsaa MT lack of seed
- Isaiah 5:10 I.e. about one tenth of what was sown
- Isaiah 5:11 So 1QIsaa; MT LXX may run after
- Isaiah 5:12 Lit. consider the work of his hands
- Isaiah 5:13 So 1QIsaa; MT reads their
- Isaiah 5:14 I.e. the realm of the dead
- Isaiah 5:18 1QIsaa MT lack as
- Isaiah 5:19 Lit. him
- Isaiah 5:19 So 1QIsaa; MT reads hurry
- Isaiah 5:24 So MT; 1QIsaa reads fire
- Isaiah 5:24 Or law
- Isaiah 5:25 So 1QIsaa MT; LXX reads And
- Isaiah 5:25 So 1QIsaa MT; 4QIsab LXX read Lord of the Heavenly Armies
- Isaiah 5:25 So 1QIsaa; MT LXX read hand
- Isaiah 5:25 So 1QIsaa; MT LXX read his hand is
- Isaiah 5:25 DSS MT lack to attack
- Isaiah 5:26 Lit. He
- Isaiah 5:26 Lit. will send up a signal
- Isaiah 5:26 1QIsaa MT lack to come
- Isaiah 5:27 So 1QIsaa; MT reads stumbles among them
- Isaiah 5:28 Lit. bows bent
- Isaiah 5:28 DSS MT lack spin
- Isaiah 5:29 So 1QIsaa; MT reads Their roaring is like a lion; like young lions they roar. They growl
- Isaiah 5:30 I.e. over conquered Judah
- Isaiah 5:30 Lit. it on that day
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