Beginning
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.
The Book of Immanuel
Chapter 6
Isaiah’s Call.[d] 1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 In attendance above him were seraphim.[e] Each of them had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with the third pair they flew. 3 And they called out to one another,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
The entire earth is filled with his glory.”
4 The voices of those who called out shook the thresholds, and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 Then I said,
“Woe is me! I am doomed.
For I am a man of unclean lips,
and I live among a people of unclean lips,
yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding in his hand a burning coal that he had removed from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 He touched my mouth with it and said,
“Now that this has touched your lips,
your guilt has been removed
and your sin has been blotted out.”
8 I then heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me!” 9 Then he replied: Go forth and tell this people:
No matter how carefully you listen,
you will not understand.
You will continue to look,
but you will not comprehend.
10 Make the minds of this people dull;
stop up their ears
and close their eyes.
Otherwise their eyes will see,
their ears will hear,
their hearts will understand,
and they will change their ways
and be healed.
11 Then I asked, “How long, O Lord?” He replied:
Until the cities lie in ruins
and become deserted,
until the houses are unoccupied
and the land lies completely desolate,
12 until the Lord drives the people far away
and the country will be totally abandoned.
13 Even if a tenth of the people remain there,
that area too will be destroyed,
like a terebinth or an oak
whose stump remains when it is felled;
the holy seed is its stump.
Chapter 7[f]
The Coming of Immanuel.[g] 1 During the period when Ahaz, the son of Jotham and the grandson of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah of Israel, the son of Remaliah, went forth to conquer Jerusalem, but they were unable to mount an attack against it. 2 When the house of David was informed that Aram had pitched camp in Ephraim, the heart of King Ahaz and the hearts of his people began to tremble just as trees of the forest shake in the wind.
3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah: Go forth with your son Shear-jashub[h] to meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the road to the Fuller’s Field, 4 and say to him, Pay close attention to me. Remain calm and be unafraid. Do not let your courage fail because of these two smoldering stumps of firewood. Do not yield to the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah, 5 or become fearful because Aram, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have been plotting against you and saying, 6 “Let us go forth and attack Judah. Let us tear it apart, force it to surrender to us, and appoint the son of Tabeel[i] there as king.”
7 Therefore, thus says the Lord God:
This will not happen,
either now or ever.
8 For the head of Aram is Damascus
and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
9 Within sixty-five years
Ephraim will no longer be a people.
If you do not stand firm in your faith
you will not stand firm at all.
10 [j]Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying:
11 Ask the Lord, your God for a sign;
let it be as deep as the netherworld
or as high as the heavens.
12 But Ahaz replied, “I will not ask. I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 Then Isaiah said:
Listen, O house of David!
Are you not satisfied to try the patience of men?
Must you also try the patience of my God?
14 Therefore, you will be given this sign
by the Lord himself:
The virgin will be with child,
and she will give birth to a son,
and she will name him Immanuel.
15 He will feed on curds and honey
by the time he learns to reject the bad
and choose the good.
16 Before that child has learned
to reject the bad and choose the good,
deserted will be the lands
of those two kings whom you dread.
17 The Lord will inflict on you,
and on your people and your father’s house,
days far worse than any that have been seen
since Ephraim[k] broke away from Judah—
you will become subjects of the king of Assyria.
18 When that day arrives,
the Lord will summon flies from the distant streams of Egypt
and bees from the land of Assyria.
19 They will all come forth and settle
in the steep ravines and in the clefts of the rocks,
on all the thornbushes and in all the pastures.
20 On that day the Lord will shave
with a razor hired from across the river[l]
(with the king of Assyria)
the head and the hair between the legs
as well as the beard.
21 When that day comes,
each man will keep a young cow and two sheep,
22 and because of the abundant milk they give
he will subsist on curds.
For all those who are left in the land
will eat curds and honey.
23 On that day,
wherever there used to be a thousand vines
worth a thousand pieces of silver,
that area will then be covered
with brambles and thornbushes.
24 Men will go there with bows and arrows,
for the entire country will be covered
by briers and thorns.
25 For fear of briers and thorns
you will not venture upon any hills
that used to be hoed with a hoe.
They will become a place for cattle to graze
and where sheep may tread.
Chapter 8
Isaiah’s Son.[m] 1 The Lord said to me: Take a large scroll and write on it in ordinary letters: “Maher-shalal-hash-baz.” 2 I had it attested for me by reliable witnesses, Uriah, the priest, and Zechariah, son of Jeberechiah.
3 Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. The Lord said to me: Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz, 4 for, before the child knows how to say “father” or “mother,” the wealth of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.
5 [n]Once again the Lord spoke to me and said:
6 Because this people has rejected
the waters of Shiloah that flow gently
and trembled in fear
before Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
7 the Lord will therefore raise against it
the mighty flood waters of the river
(the king of Assyria and all his glory).
The river will rise above all its channels
and overflow all its banks;
8 it will sweep on into Judah like a flood
reaching up to the neck,
and its wings, spreading out,
will cover the breadth of your land, Immanuel.
9 Realize this, you peoples, and be afraid.
Listen, all you far-distant nations.
Arm yourselves, but be frightened;
arm yourselves, but be frightened.
10 No matter what plans you devise,
they will come to naught,
for God is with us.
11 Isaiah’s Followers. This is what the Lord said to me when he held me firmly with his hand and warned me not to follow the ways of this people:
12 [o]Do not call conspiracy what this people calls conspiracy,
and do not fear what they fear
or stand in awe of them.
13 The Lord is the one whom you should proclaim holy;
he must be the object of your fear and awe.
14 He will become a snare, an obstacle,
a rock over which the two houses of Israel[p] will stumble,
a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 And many of them will stumble;
they will fall and be broken;
they will be snared and taken captive.
16 Bind up the testimony and seal the teaching
so that my disciples can keep it in their hearts.
17 I will wait eagerly for the Lord
who has hidden his face from the house of Jacob;
I will place my hope in him.
18 I stand here with the children
whom the Lord has given me
to be signs and portents in Israel
sent by the Lord of hosts
who dwells on Mount Zion.
19 People may say to you,
“Seek guidance from ghosts and mediums
who whisper and mutter.
Should not a people consult its gods
and the dead on behalf of the living
20 while seeking instruction or a message?”
Those who offer suggestions like this
will experience no dawn.
21 They will wander through the land
greatly distressed and starving.
Once their hunger becomes acute,
they will be enraged
and curse their king and their gods.
They will turn their gaze upward,
22 or downward to the earth,
but they will behold only distress and anguish,
confusion and the gloom of darkness.
23 As the land of Zebulun[q] and the land of Naphtali were humbled in the past by the Lord, so in the future he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, the district of the Gentiles.
Copyright © 2019 by Catholic Book Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.