Isaiah 5

Modern

Literal

The Song of the Vineyard

¹I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard:

My beloved had a vineyard

on a very fertile hill.

¹Let me sing now for my beloved, a song of my beloved regarding his vineyard: Unto my beloved there was a vineyard, a son of fatness on a hill.

²He dug it up and cleared the stones

and planted the finest vines.

He built a watchtower in the middle

and dug out a winepress as well.

He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes,

but the fruit it produced was sour!

²And he dug it and cleared it of stones, and he planted it with the choicest vine; and he built a tower in its midst, and also a winepress he hewed out in it. And he waited for it to make grapes, and it made wild grapes.

³“And now, O dwellers of Jerusalem

and men of Judah,

I exhort you to judge

between Me and My vineyard.

³“And now, O dweller of Jerusalem and man of Judah, judge please, between Me and between My vineyard.

⁴What more could have been done for My vineyard

than I have done for it?

Why, when I expected sweet grapes,

did it bring forth sour fruit?

⁴What could have been done more for My vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why—I waited for it to make grapes—and it made wild grapes?

⁵Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard:

I will take away its hedge,

and it will be consumed;

I will tear down its wall,

and it will be trampled.

⁵And now I will let you know what I am going to do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be consumed and the breaking down of its wall, and it will be free for trampling.

⁶I will make it a wasteland,

neither pruned nor cultivated,

and thorns and briers will grow up.

I will command the clouds

that rain shall not fall on it.”

⁶And I will set it as a waste—it will not be pruned nor hoed, and there will come up brier and thorn; and also the clouds I will command against raining on it with rain.”

⁷For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts

is the house of Israel,

and the men of Judah

are the plant of His delight.

He looked for justice,

but saw bloodshed;

for righteousness,

but heard a cry of distress.

⁷For the vineyard of YHWH of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight; and He looked for justice, and behold, bloodshed—for righteousness, and behold, outcry.

Woes to the Wicked

⁸Woe to you who add house to house

and join field to field

until no place is left

and you live alone in the land.

⁸Woe to those joining house to house; field to field they bring near, until there is no place to stand, and you are made to dwell by yourselves alone in the midst of the land!

⁹I heard the LORD of Hosts declare:

“Surely many houses will become desolate,

great mansions left unoccupied.

⁹In my hearing, YHWH of Hosts says: “Surely many houses will be a desolation—great and beautiful ones without one dwelling!

¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard

will yield but a bath of wine,^a

and a homer of seed

only an ephah of grain.”^b

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

¹¹Woe to those who rise early in the morning

in pursuit of strong drink,

who linger into the evening,

to be inflamed by wine.

¹¹Woe to those rising early in the morning to pursue strong drink, tarrying into the twilight as wine inflames them!

¹²At their feasts are the lyre and harp,

tambourines and flutes and wine.

They disregard the actions of the LORD

and fail to see the work of His hands.

¹²Are the lyre and harp and tambourine, and flute and wine, are at their feasts; and the work of YHWH they do not regard, and the work of His hands they do not see.

¹³Therefore My people will go into exile

for their lack of understanding;

their dignitaries are starving

and their masses are parched with thirst.

¹³Therefore my people have gone into captivity from lack of knowledge; and its honored men go hungry, and its multitude is parched with thirst.

¹⁴Therefore Sheol enlarges its throat

and opens wide its enormous jaws,

and down go Zion’s nobles and masses,

her revelers and carousers!

¹⁴Therefore Sheol has enlarged her soul and has opened her mouth beyond measure; her nobles will go down—and her crowd and her revelers and exulting—into her.

¹⁵So mankind will be brought low, and each man humbled;

the arrogant will lower their eyes.

¹⁵And mankind is bent down, and each man is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty will be brought down.

¹⁶But the LORD of Hosts will be exalted by His justice,

and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.

¹⁶YHWH of Hosts will be exalted in justice, and the Holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.

¹⁷Lambs will graze as in their own pastures,

and strangers^a will feed in the ruins of the wealthy.

¹⁷And the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and in the waste places of the fat ones, sojourners will eat.

¹⁸Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceit

and pull sin along with cart ropes,

¹⁸Woe to those drawing out iniquity with cords of falsehood, and sin with a rope of the cart,

¹⁹to those who say, “Let Him hurry and hasten His work

so that we may see it!

Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come

so that we may know it!”

¹⁹saying, “Let Him hurry, let Him hurry 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!”

²⁰Woe to those who call evil good

and good evil,

who turn darkness to light

and light to darkness,

who replace bitter with sweet

and sweet with bitter.

²⁰Woe to those saying to evil “Good,” and to good “Evil,” putting darkness for light and light for darkness, putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

²¹Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes

and clever in their own sight.

²¹Woe to the wise ones in their own eyes, and before their own faces discerning.

²²Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine

and champions in mixing strong drink,

²²Woe to the mighty at drinking wine and men of strength in mixing strong drink,

²³who acquit the guilty for a bribe

and deprive the innocent of justice.

²³those declaring right the wicked for a bribe, and justice for the righteous ones they turn aside from him.

²⁴Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw,

and as dry grass shrivels in the flame,

so their roots will decay

and their blossoms will blow away like dust;

for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of Hosts

and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

²⁴Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the chaff and the flame consumes the stubble, their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom will go up like dust, because they have rejected the instruction of YHWH of hosts, and the Word of the Holy One of Israel they have despised.

²⁵Therefore the anger of the LORD burns against His people;

His hand is raised against them to strike them down.

The mountains quake,

and the corpses lie like refuse in the streets.

Despite all this, His anger is not turned away;

His hand is still upraised.

²⁵Thus the anger of YHWH burns against His people; and therefore He has stretched out His hand against them and struck them, and the hills trembled; and their carcasses became like refuse in the midst of the streets. In all this, His anger is not turned away, and still His hand is stretched out.

²⁶He lifts a banner for the distant nations

and whistles for those at the ends of the earth.

Behold—how speedily and swiftly they come!

²⁶And He will lift up a signal for the nations from afar, and He will whistle to them from the end of the earth—and behold, swiftly with haste it will come!

²⁷None of them grows weary or stumbles;

no one slumbers or sleeps.

No belt is loose

and no sandal strap is broken.

²⁷No one will be weary nor stumbling among them; he will not will he slumber and not sleep, and not will be loosed the girdle of his loins, and not will be broken the strap of his sandals—

²⁸Their arrows are sharpened,

and all their bows are strung.

The hooves of their horses are like flint;

their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.

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

²⁹Their roaring is like that of a lion;

they roar like young lions.

They growl and seize their prey;

they carry it away, and no one can rescue it.

²⁹The roaring of him is like a lion—he roars like the young lions, and growls and seizes prey and carries it away safely, and there is no one delivering.

³⁰In that day they will roar over it,

like the roaring of the sea.

If one looks over the land,

he will see darkness and distress;

even the light will be obscured by clouds.

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