Isaiah 5

1Let me sing, please, for my beloved a song of my beloved concerning his vineyard: my beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.

2He dug it up, cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a tower in its midst, and also hewed out a winepress in it. Then he expected it to produce grapes, but it produced wild grapes.

3And now, inhabitant of Jerusalem and man of Judah, judge, please, between me and my vineyard.

4What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce grapes, did it produce wild grapes?

5And now, please let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and it will be burned; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down.

6And I will make it a wasteland; it will not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns will grow up; and I will command the clouds not to rain on it.

7For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the planting of his delight. He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry.

8Woe to those who join house to house, who bring field near to field until there is no place left, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.

9In my ears Yahweh of Armies has sworn: Surely many houses will become a desolation, great and good houses, without inhabitant.

10For ten yoke-pairs of vineyard will yield one bath, and a homer of seed will yield an ephah.

11Woe to those who rise early in the morning to pursue strong drink, who stay late into the evening until wine inflames them.

12There are lyre and harp, tambourine and flute, and wine at their feasts; but they do not look to the work of Yahweh, and they do not see the work of his hands.

13Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; their honored men are dying of hunger, and their multitude is parched with thirst.

14Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure, and her splendor, her multitude, her uproar, and the one who exults in her go down.

15And man is brought low, and a man is humbled, and the eyes of the lofty will be brought low.

16But Yahweh of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God is shown holy in righteousness.

17Then lambs will graze as in their pasture, and sojourners will eat among the ruins of the well-fed.

18Woe to those who drag iniquity with cords of falsehood, and sin with cart ropes,

19who say, “Let him hurry; let him hasten his work, so that we may see it; let the plan of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, so that we may know it.”

20Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who make darkness light and light darkness, who make bitter sweet and sweet bitter.

21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and discerning in their own sight.

22Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and men of strength at mixing strong drink.

23who acquit the wicked for a bribe, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him.

24Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours stubble, and dry grass sinks before the flame, so their root will become rot, and their blossom will go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of Yahweh of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25Therefore the anger of Yahweh burned 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 midst of the streets. For all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still stretched out.

26He will raise a signal for the nations from far away, and whistle for them from the end of the earth; and behold, quickly, swiftly, it comes.

27None among them is weary, and none stumbles; none slumbers or sleeps; the belt at his waist is not loosened, and the strap of his sandals is not broken.

28whose arrows are sharpened, and all his bows are bent; the hooves of his horses are considered like flint, and his wheels like the whirlwind.

29Its roaring is like a lion, and it roars like young lions; it growls and seizes prey, and carries it off, with none to rescue.

30And he will roar over it on that day like the roaring of the sea; and if one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress, and the light is darkened in its clouds.