Isaiah 5
World English Bible
5 Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard.
My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
2 He dug it up,
gathered out its stones,
planted it with the choicest vine,
built a tower in the middle of it,
and also cut out a wine press in it.
He looked for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.
3 “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
please judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?
Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?
5 Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up.
I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down.
6 I will lay it a wasteland.
It won’t be pruned or hoed,
but it will grow briers and thorns.
I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”
7 For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah his pleasant plant.
He looked for justice, but behold, oppression,
for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.
8 Woe to those who join house to house,
who lay field to field, until there is no room,
and you are made to dwell alone in the middle of the land!
9 In my ears, Yahweh of Armies says: “Surely many houses will be desolate,
even great and beautiful, unoccupied.
10 For ten acres[a] of vineyard shall yield one bath,[b]
and a homer[c] of seed shall yield an ephah.”[d]
11 Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink,
who stay late into the night, until wine inflames them!
12 The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts;
but they don’t respect the work of Yahweh,
neither have they considered the operation of his hands.
13 Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge.
Their honorable men are famished,
and their multitudes are parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol[e] has enlarged its desire,
and opened its mouth without measure;
and their glory, their multitude, their pomp, and he who rejoices among them, descend into it.
15 So man is brought low,
mankind is humbled,
and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled;
16 but Yahweh of Armies is exalted in justice,
and God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness.
17 Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
and strangers will eat the ruins of the rich.
18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood,
and wickedness as with cart rope,
19 who say, “Let him make haste, let him hasten his work, that we may see it;
let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come,
that we may know it!”
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!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and prudent in their own sight!
22 Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine,
and champions at mixing strong drink;
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
but deny justice for the innocent!
24 Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root shall be as rottenness,
and their blossom shall go up as dust,
because they have rejected the law of Yahweh of Armies,
and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore Yahweh’s anger burns against his people,
and he has stretched out his hand against them and has struck them.
The mountains tremble,
and their dead bodies are as refuse in the middle of the streets.
For all this, his anger is not turned away,
but his hand is still stretched out.
26 He will lift up a banner to the nations from far away,
and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth.
Behold, they will come speedily and swiftly.
27 No one shall be weary nor stumble among them;
no one shall slumber nor sleep,
neither shall the belt of their waist be untied,
nor the strap of their sandals be broken,
28 whose arrows are sharp,
and all their bows bent.
Their horses’ hoofs will be like flint,
and their wheels like a whirlwind.
29 Their roaring will be like a lioness.
They will roar like young lions.
Yes, they shall roar,
and seize their prey and carry it off,
and there will be no one to deliver.
30 They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea.
If one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress.
The light is darkened in its clouds.
Footnotes
- 5:10 literally, ten yokes, or the amount of land that ten yokes of oxen can plow in one day, which is about 10 acres or 4 hectares.
- 5:10 1 bath is about 22 liters or 5.8 U. S. gallons
- 5:10 1 homer is about 220 liters or 6 bushels
- 5:10 1 ephah is about 22 liters or 0.6 bushels or about 2 pecks—only one tenth of what was sown.
- 5:14 Sheol is the place of the dead.
Isaiah 5
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 5
The Song of the Vineyard[a]
1 Now let me sing for my beloved
the song of my friend concerning his vineyard.
My beloved had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.
2 He dug it, cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice red vines.
In its midst he built a watchtower
and also hewed out a winepress.
He expected it to yield a rich crop of grapes,
but the only thing it brought forth was wild grapes.
3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah,
I ask you to judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more could I have done for my vineyard
that I did not do?
When I expected it to yield choice grapes,
why did it bring forth wild grapes?
5 Now listen to me as I tell you
what I am planning to do to my vineyard.
I will take away its hedge
and use it for grazing.
I will knock down its wall
and let it be trampled upon.
6 I will let it go to waste;
it will be neither pruned nor hoed,
but left overgrown with briars and thorns.
I will also command the clouds
not to allow any rain to fall upon it.
7 The vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are the plant he cherished.
He expected justice but found bloodshed;
he expected righteousness but heard cries of distress.
The Doom of Sinners
8 Woe to you who add house to house
and join field to field
until there is no further space remaining
and you are left to dwell alone
in the midst of the land.
9 The Lord of hosts in my hearing
has sworn this solemn oath:
Many houses will be left desolate,
large and fine mansions
with no one to inhabit them.
10 For ten acres of vineyard
will yield only one barrel,
and ten bushels of seed
will yield only a single bushel.
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning
to imbibe strong drink,
and who linger far into the night
inflamed with wine.
12 Their feasts are marked with harps and lyres,
tambourines and flutes and wine.
But they never give thought to the deeds of the Lord,
or note what his hands have accomplished.
13 Therefore, my people shall end up in exile
because they have no knowledge of my deeds.
Their nobles are dying of hunger
and their masses are parched with thirst.
14 As a result, the netherworld has increased its appetite
and opened its jaws to an immeasurable extent,
swallowing the nobility of Jerusalem and her masses,
her throngs and all who exult in her.
15 People are bowed down, everyone is brought low,
and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.
16 But the Lord of hosts is exalted by his judgment,
and by righteousness the holy God has displayed his holiness.
17 Lambs will graze there as in their pasture,
and yearlings will feed among the ruins.
18 Woe to those who drag iniquity along
with the cords of perversity,
and who drag sin along
as though with cart ropes;
19 woe to those who say, “Let the Lord make haste
and speed up his work that we may see it;
let the Holy One of Israel
be brought to fulfillment
so that we may know it.”
20 Woe to those who call good what is evil
and call evil what is good,
who classify as darkness what is light
and designate as light what is darkness,
who make sweet what is bitter
and make bitter what is sweet.
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and consider themselves to be prudent.
22 Woe to those who are unmatched in their consumption of wine
and unsurpassed in mixing drinks,
23 who accept bribes to acquit the guilty
and deny justice to the innocent.
24 As tongues of fire devour the stubble,
and as dry grass shrivels in the flames,
so their root will decay
and their blossoms will be scattered like dust;
for they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts
and scorned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore, the anger of the Lord
blazed forth against his people;
he raised his hand against them
and struck them down.
The mountains quaked,
and their corpses lay like refuse in the streets.
But despite all this
his anger has not been sated,
and his hand is still stretched out.
Deliverance[b]
26 He will deliver a signal to a far-distant nation
and summon them from the ends of the earth;
they will respond swiftly without any delay.[c]
27 None of them are weary, none of them stumble,
no one slumbers or sleeps.
None of them have their belts unfastened
or sandals with a broken strap.
28 Their arrows are sharpened
and all their bows are bent.
The hoofs of their horses seem like flint,
and their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.
29 Their roar is like that of a lion;
they growl like young lions.
They roar as they seize their prey,
and no one can prevent them from carrying it off.
30 They will roar over it on that day,
similar to the roaring of the sea.
And if anyone looks at the land,
he will behold only darkness and distress,
with the light fading at the approaching clouds.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 5:1 The image of the beloved vineyard that is ravaged is often used by the prophets (Jer 2:21; Ezek 15:1-8; etc.). Jesus, too, will like this comparison (Mt 21:33-34) and will describe himself as the true vine whose branches will be tended by the vinedresser, his Father (Jn 15).
- Isaiah 5:26 The Assyrian invaders arrive; the forces assembled under the banner of the lion, the emblem of Assyria (see v. 29), are irresistible.
- Isaiah 5:26 To summon warriors, a banner was raised on the top of a hill and a horn was sounded.
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