Isaiah 5
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Song of the Unfruitful Vineyard
5 I will sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.(A)
2 He dug it and cleared it of stones
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
but it yielded rotten grapes.(B)
3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and people of Judah,
judge between me
and my vineyard.(C)
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to yield grapes,
why did it yield rotten grapes?(D)
5 And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.(E)
6 I will make it a wasteland;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.(F)
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are his cherished garden;
he expected justice
but saw bloodshed;
righteousness
but heard a cry!(G)
Social Injustice Denounced
8 Woe to those who join house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is room for no one,
and you are left to live alone
in the midst of the land!(H)
9 The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
Surely many houses shall be desolate,
large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.(I)
10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah.[a](J)
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning
in pursuit of strong drink,
who linger in the evening
to be inflamed by wine,(K)
12 whose feasts consist of lyre and harp,
tambourine and flute and wine,
but who do not regard the deeds of the Lord
or see the work of his hands!(L)
13 Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge;
their nobles are dying of hunger,
and their multitude is parched with thirst.(M)
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite
and opened its mouth beyond measure;
the nobility of Jerusalem[b] and her multitude go down,
her throng and all who exult in her.(N)
15 People are bowed down, everyone is brought low,
and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.(O)
16 But the Lord of hosts is exalted by justice,
and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.(P)
17 Then the lambs shall graze as in their pasture;
fatted calves and kids[c] shall feed among the ruins.
18 Woe to those who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood,
who drag sin along as with cart ropes,(Q)
19 who say, “Let him make haste;
let him speed his work
that we may see it;
let the plan of the Holy One of Israel hasten to fulfillment,
that we may know it!”(R)
20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!(S)
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and shrewd in their own sight!(T)
22 Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine
and valiant at mixing drink,(U)
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe
and deprive the innocent of their rights!(V)
Foreign Invasion Predicted
24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble
and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root will become rotten,
and their blossom go up like dust,
for they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of hosts
and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.(W)
25 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,
and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them;
the mountains quaked,
and their corpses were like refuse
in the streets.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is stretched out still.(X)
26 He will raise a signal for a nation far away
and whistle for a people at the ends of the earth.
Here they come, swiftly, speedily!(Y)
27 None of them is weary; none stumbles;
none slumbers or sleeps;
not a loincloth is loose;
not a sandal strap broken;(Z)
28 their arrows are sharp;
all their bows strung;
their horses’ hoofs seem like flint,
and their wheels like the whirlwind.(AA)
29 Their roaring is like a lion;
like young lions they roar;
they growl and seize their prey;
they carry it off, and no one can rescue.(AB)
30 They will roar over it on that day,
like the roaring of the sea.
And if one look to the land—
only darkness and distress;
and the light grows dark with its clouds.(AC)
Isaiah 5
The Voice
This prophecy echoes stories of the great exodus, when God led Israel out of slavery in Egypt and guided them safely through the barren, rocky crags of the Sinai Peninsula. God was their comfort and sustainer, an ever-present guide and protection. The ancients spoke of traveling beneath the cool shade of a cloud by day and a pillar of warm, bright fire by night. Now the prophet sees ahead to a day when God will provide His people rest and comfort—a new exodus—in His chosen place, Zion.
5 Let me now sing for my dear friend,
a love song about his vineyard.
My friend, whom I dearly love,
had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
2 He labored to prepare the ground, tilling the soil and digging out rocks,
and then he planted it with the best plants he could find.
In its midst, he built a watchtower over it
and cut out a winepress in the hill nearby;
Then he waited, hoping it would be bountiful.
But the vineyard produced only wild, bitter grapes.
3 Eternal One: That’s it. Enough. Now, you who live in My special city, Jerusalem,
you people of this choice country, Judah,
Who’s in the right—Me or My vineyard?
4 What else could I possibly have done to make it flourish?
Why, when I had every reason to expect great beauty and bushels of grapes,
Did it yield only wild, bitter fruit?
5 I’ll tell you what I’m going to do,
what I’ve determined to do to My vineyard:
I’m going to take away its protective fence
and let the deer, raccoons, and rabbits devour it.
I’ll break down its wall,
let the vines be eaten and trampled.
6 I will set it up for destruction—
do no pruning, no tilling—
And it will be overrun with nasty briars and thornbushes.
I will even order the clouds not to water it.
7 See here, the vineyard of the Eternal, the Commander of heavenly armies,
is the house of Israel, His special people.
And the shoots and buds He nursed so lovingly along
are the people of this choice country, Judah.
He expected a paragon of justice and righteousness—
but everywhere injustice runs bloodred in the streets, and cries echo in the city!
8 Oh, how bad for those who hoard property and wealth,
buying up houses and fields, right and left,
Until there is no place left for anyone else;
you will find yourselves very alone in the midst of this great land!
9 I was there when the Eternal, the Commander of heavenly armies, told us what to expect.
Eternal One: Make no mistake about it: many houses will be abandoned.
Grand, beautiful houses with all the luxury will echo empty.
10 Huge investments in 10-acre vineyards
will yield tiny dividends, mere gallons of wine.
Prime property planted with plenty of seed
will grow a nearly worthless amount of grain.
11 Oh, I can’t help but groan for people who rise and drink
without stopping from early morning to late evening
Until their passions and emotions burn within them.
12 They entertain themselves with lyres and harps,
tambourines and flutes, and plenty of wine at their feasts.
But they don’t think for a minute about all the Eternal has done.
They don’t stop to consider the work of His hands.
13 Eternal One: Make no mistake: My people are headed for exile
because they never took note;
Even the most honorable among them will endure hunger
while the majority will be parched with thirst.
14 Make no mistake: the force of death is insatiable.
The great gaping grave is opened wide
To swallow whole Jerusalem’s opulence and pageantry—
her noble citizens and her common folk, all the raucous revelry.
15 Human beings will be cut down to size, one after another.
Those who walk around with their noses in the air will be humiliated.
16 By contrast, the Eternal, the Commander of heavenly armies,
will be high and mighty because He judges fairly.
The holy God will be shown to be so because He does what is right.
17 At that time, Jerusalem will become a pasture where lambs graze,
and foreigners will eat in the ruins where the wealthy once dined.
18 O how terrible for those who drag their guilt around,
worthlessness and wrongdoing in tow—
19 They sneer, “Well, where is He? Let Him be quick about it!
Let’s see this business of the Holy One of Israel;
Let’s see what He has in store so we can know what it is.”
20 O how terrible for those who confuse good with evil,
right with wrong, light with dark, sweet with bitter.
21 O how terrible for those who think they’re so wise,
who consider themselves so clever.
22 O how terrible for those heroes who can outdrink anyone,
those champions who take pride in mixing drinks,
23 Those judges who set the guilty free in exchange for “a little something,”
all the while denying the innocent what they deserve!
24 Therefore, as fire eats up the stubble and dry grass is engulfed by flames,
so it will be for everything they count on for the future—
Their roots will rot, their flowers will wither and fly away like dust,
for they refused to accept the law of the Eternal, the Commander of heavenly armies;
They derided and disparaged the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 It’s no wonder the Eternal burns with anger at His people.
He has raised His hand against them and crushed them,
So that the whole earth rang with the blow, and you couldn’t move
without stumbling over their corpses lying like trash in the street.
Despite all this, He’s still very angry;
His hand is still raised; He’s not done yet.
26 He will signal to distant nations,
and whistle for their armies: unleash the dogs of war.
At breakneck speed they come,
a war machine like no other—
27 Never tired, never weak;
no one needs to rest or sleep.
Not a belt needs tightening,
not a sandal strap needs fixing.
28 Their arrows have been sharpened;
their bows have been bent, ready for action.
Their horses’ hooves spark like flint;
their chariots’ wheels spin like whirlwinds.
29 Their roaring is deafening, like a lion, like a pack of roaring lions.
When they attack, they growl and pounce on their prey,
Carrying them away; no chance of a rescue.
30 On that day, they will roar over this people like a roaring, angry sea,
and the land will go sorrowfully dark, the light eclipsed by the clouds of war.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.