Isaiah 5 — BSB
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The Song of the Vineyard
5Verse 1I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard:My beloved had a vineyardon a very fertile hill.Verse 2He dug it up and cleared the stonesand planted the finest vines.He built a watchtower in the middleand dug out a winepress as well.
He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes,but the fruit it produced was sour!Verse 3“And now, O dwellers of Jerusalemand men of Judah,I exhort you to judgebetween Me and My vineyard.Verse 4What more could have been done for My vineyardthan I have done for it?Why, when I expected sweet grapes,did it bring forth sour fruit?Verse 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.Verse 6I will make it a wasteland,neither pruned nor cultivated,
and thorns and briers will grow up.I will command the cloudsthat rain shall not fall on it.”Verse 7For the vineyard of the LORD of Hostsis the house of Israel,and the men of Judahare the plant of His delight.He looked for justice,but saw bloodshed;for righteousness,but heard a cry of distress.
Woes to the Wicked
Verse 8Woe to you who add house to houseand join field to fielduntil no place is leftand you live alone in the land.Verse 9I heard the LORD of Hosts declare:“Surely many houses will become desolate,great mansions left unoccupied.Verse 10For ten acres of vineyardwill yield but a bath of wine,+and a homer of seedonly an ephah of grain.+”Verse 11Woe to those who rise early in the morningin pursuit of strong drink,who linger into the evening,to be inflamed by wine.Verse 12At their feasts are the lyre and harp,tambourines and flutes and wine.They disregard the actions of the LORDand fail to see the work of His hands.Verse 13Therefore My people will go into exilefor their lack of understanding;their dignitaries are starvingand their masses are parched with thirst.Verse 14Therefore Sheol enlarges its throatand opens wide its enormous jaws,and down go Zion’s nobles and masses,her revelers and carousers!Verse 15So mankind will be brought low, and each man humbled;the arrogant will lower their eyes.Verse 16But the LORD of Hosts will be exalted by His justice,and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.Verse 17Lambs will graze as in their own pastures,and strangers+will feed in the ruins of the wealthy.Verse 18Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceitand pull sin along with cart ropes,Verse 19to those who say, “Let Him hurry and hasten His workso that we may see it!Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel comeso that we may know it!”Verse 20Woe to those who call evil goodand good evil,who turn darkness to lightand light to darkness,who replace bitter with sweetand sweet with bitter.Verse 21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyesand clever in their own sight.Verse 22Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wineand champions in mixing strong drink,Verse 23who acquit the guilty for a bribeand deprive the innocent of justice.Verse 24Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw,and as dry grass shrivels in the flame,so their roots will decayand their blossoms will blow away like dust;for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of Hostsand despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.Verse 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.Verse 26He lifts a banner for the distant nationsand whistles for those at the ends of the earth.
Behold—how speedily and swiftly they come!Verse 27None of them grows weary or stumbles;no one slumbers or sleeps.No belt is looseand no sandal strap is broken.Verse 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.Verse 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.Verse 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.