Isaiah 5 New King James Version

God’s Disappointing Vineyard

5 Now let me sing to my Well-beloved
A song of my Beloved ^(A)regarding His vineyard:

My Well-beloved has a vineyard
^[a]On a very fruitful hill.
²He dug it up and cleared out its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
He built a tower in its midst,
And also ^[b]made a winepress in it;
^(B)So He expected it to bring forth good grapes,
But it brought forth wild grapes.

³“And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
^(C)Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
⁴What more could have been done to My vineyard
That I have not done in ^(D)it?
Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes,
Did it bring forth wild grapes?
⁵And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard:
^(E)I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned;
And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
⁶I will lay it ^(F)waste;
It shall not be pruned or ^[c]dug,
But there shall come up briers and ^(G)thorns.
I will also command the clouds
That they rain no rain on it.”

⁷For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,
And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant.
He looked for justice, but behold, oppression;
For righteousness, but behold, ^[d]a cry for help.

Impending Judgment on Excesses

⁸Woe to those who ^[e]join ^(H)house to house;
They add field to field,
Till there is no place
Where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!
⁹^(I)In my hearing the Lord of hosts said,
“Truly, many houses shall be desolate,
Great and beautiful ones, without inhabitant.
¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one ^(J)bath,^[f]
And a homer of seed shall yield one ^[g]ephah.”

¹¹^(K)Woe to those who rise early in the morning,
That they may ^[h]follow intoxicating drink;
Who continue until night, till wine inflames them!
¹²^(L)The harp and the strings,
The tambourine and flute,
And wine are in their feasts;
But ^(M)they do not regard the work of the Lord,
Nor consider the operation of His hands.

¹³^(N)Therefore my people have gone into captivity,
Because they have no ^(O)knowledge;
Their honorable men are famished,
And their multitude dried up with thirst.
¹⁴Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself
And opened its mouth beyond measure;
Their glory and their multitude and their pomp,
And he who is jubilant, shall descend into it.
¹⁵People shall be brought down,
^(P)Each man shall be humbled,
And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.
¹⁶But the Lord of hosts shall be ^(Q)exalted in judgment,
And God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.
¹⁷Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture,
And in the waste places of ^(R)the ^[i]fat ones strangers shall eat.

¹⁸Woe to those who ^[j]draw iniquity with cords of ^[k]vanity,
And sin as if with a cart rope;
¹⁹^(S)That say, “Let Him make speed and hasten His work,
That we may see it;
And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come,
That we may know it.”

²⁰Woe 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!

²¹Woe to those who are ^(T)wise in their own eyes,
And prudent in their own sight!

²²Woe to men mighty at drinking wine,
Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink,
²³Who ^(U)justify the wicked for a bribe,
And take away justice from the righteous man!

²⁴Therefore, ^(V)as the ^[l]fire devours the stubble,
And the flame consumes the chaff,
So ^(W)their root will be as rottenness,
And their blossom will ascend like dust;
Because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts,
And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
²⁵^(X)Therefore the anger of the Lord is aroused against His people;
He has stretched out His hand against them
And stricken them,
And ^(Y)the hills trembled.
Their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets.

^(Z)For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still.

²⁶^(AA)He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar,
And will ^(AB)whistle to them from ^(AC)the end of the earth;
Surely ^(AD)they shall come with speed, swiftly.
²⁷No one will be weary or stumble among them,
No one will slumber or sleep;
Nor ^(AE)will the belt on their loins be loosed,
Nor the strap of their sandals be broken;
²⁸^(AF)Whose arrows are sharp,
And all their bows bent;
Their horses’ hooves will ^[m]seem like flint,
And their wheels like a whirlwind.
²⁹Their roaring will be like a lion,
They will roar like young lions;
Yes, they will roar
And lay hold of the prey;
They will carry it away safely,
And no one will deliver.
³⁰In that day they will roar against them
Like the roaring of the sea.
And if one ^(AG)looks to the land,
Behold, darkness and ^[n]sorrow;
And the light is darkened by the clouds.