Isaiah 5

1Let me now sing to my beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

2He fenced it in, cleared its stones, planted it with select vines, built a tower in its center, and also dug a winepress within it. He waited for it to bear grapes, but it bore wild grapes.

3Now, dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge 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 bear grapes, did it bear wild grapes?

5And now I will make known to you what I am doing to my vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and it will be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled.

6I will make it a wasteland; it will not be pruned or hoed, but briers and thorns will grow up there, and I will order the clouds not to send rain upon it.

7For Yahweh of hosts' vineyard is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his delightful plant; he waited for justice, but behold oppression, for righteousness, but behold a cry.

8Woe to those who add house to house, adding field to field, until no place remains, and you dwell by yourselves in the midst of the land!

9Yahweh of hosts has said in my ears: Surely many great and beautiful houses will become desolate, without inhabitant.

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

11Woe to those who rise early in the morning pursuing strong drink, who linger into the evening until wine enflames them.

12Harp, lyre, timbrel, pipe, and wine are at their banquets, but they do not consider the work of Yahweh, nor have they seen the deeds of his hands.

13Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge, their honorable men famished and their multitude parched with thirst.

14Therefore Sheol has widened its appetite and opened its mouth without limit, and into it descend its splendor, its throng, its tumult, and everyone exulting among them.

15Humankind was bowed low, man was humbled, and the eyes of the haughty will be brought low.

16Yahweh of hosts is exalted in justice, and the holy God is sanctified in righteousness.

17Lambs will graze as in their pasture, and strangers will eat the ruins of the fatlings.

18Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of lies, and sin as with ropes of the cart.

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

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

21Woe to those wise in their own eyes and prudent in front of their own faces!

22Woe to champions at drinking wine, and men of strength at mixing strong drink.

23who clear the wicked for a bribe, and deprive the righteous of justice.

24Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble and chaff sinks in the blaze, their root will turn to rottenness and their blossom will rise like dust, because they rejected the law of Yahweh of hosts and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25Therefore Yahweh's anger burned against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them; the mountains quaked, and their carcasses became like refuse amid the streets. Despite all this, his anger did not turn away, but his hand remained outstretched.

26He raises a banner to the nations from afar and whistles for them from the end of the earth. Behold, they come quickly, swiftly.

27None among them grows weary or stumbles; none slumbers or sleeps, nor does the belt of their loins come loose, nor the thong of their sandals snap.

28Whose arrows are sharpened, and all their bows drawn; their horses' hooves reckoned like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.

29Their roaring will be like a lion's; they will roar like young lions, roar and growl, seize the prey, carry it away safely, and none will deliver.

30In that day they will roar over it like the sea's roar. When one looks to the land—behold, darkness and anguish, and the light grows dark in its clouds.