Isaiah 5

¹Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard : My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill .

²He dug it and cleared it of stones , and planted it with choice vines ; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes , but it yielded wild grapes .

³And now , O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah , judge between me and my vineyard .

⁴What more was there to do for my vineyard , that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes , why did it yield wild grapes ?

⁵And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard . I will remove its hedge , and it shall be devoured ; I will break down its wall , and it shall be trampled down .

⁶I will make it a waste ; it shall not be pruned or hoed , and briers and thorns shall grow up ; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

⁷For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel , and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting ; and he looked for justice , but behold , bloodshed ; for righteousness , but behold , an outcry !

⁸Woe to those who join house to house , who add field to field , until there is no more room , and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land .

⁹The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing : Surely many houses shall be desolate , large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant .

¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath , and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah .

¹¹Woe to those who rise early in the morning , that they may run after strong drink , who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them!

¹²They have lyre and harp , tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts , but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord, or see the work of his hands .

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

¹⁴Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure , and the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude will go down , her revelers and he who exults in her.

¹⁵Man is humbled , and each one is brought low , and the eyes of the haughty are brought low .

¹⁶But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice , and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness .

¹⁷Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture , and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich .

¹⁸Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood , who draw sin as with cart ropes ,

¹⁹who say : Let him be quick , let him speed his work that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near , and let it come , that we may know it!

²⁰Woe 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 !

²¹Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes , and shrewd in their own sight !

²²Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine , and valiant men in mixing strong drink ,

²³who acquit the guilty for a bribe , and deprive the innocent of his right !

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

²⁵Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people , and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked ; and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets . For all this his anger has not turned away , and his hand is stretched out still .

²⁶He will raise a signal for nations far away , and whistle for them from the ends of the earth ; and behold , quickly , speedily they come !

²⁷None is weary , none stumbles , none slumbers or sleeps , not a waistband is loose , not a sandal strap broken ;

²⁸their arrows are sharp , all their bows bent , their horses ’ hoofs seem like flint , and their wheels like the whirlwind .

²⁹Their roaring is like a lion , like young lions they roar ; they growl and seize their prey ; they carry it off , and none can rescue .

³⁰They will growl over it on that day , like the growling of the sea . And if one looks to the land , behold , darkness and distress ; and the light is darkened by its clouds .