Isaiah 5

1 “Now I will sing for the one I love a song about my beloved’s vineyard. The one I love had a vineyard on a fertile hill.”

2 “I built a hedge around it, dug a trench, planted a choice vine, built a tower in it, and dug a winepress. I waited for grapes, but it produced thorns.”

3 “Now, residents of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.”

4 “What more could I have done for my vineyard? I expected grapes, but it produced thorns.”

5 “Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge so it can be plundered, tear down its wall, and leave it to be trampled.”

6 “I will abandon my vineyard. It will not be pruned or dug, and thorns will rise over it like barren land. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.”

7 “The vineyard of the Lord of armies is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his beloved plant. I waited for judgment, but they produced lawlessness. I waited for righteousness, but heard a cry.”

8 “Woe to those who join house to house and add field to field, taking something from their neighbor. Will you live alone in the land?”

9 “These things have reached the Lord of armies’ hearing. Even if many fine houses are built, they will become deserted, with no one living in them.”

10 “Land worked by ten teams of oxen will produce only one jarful, and six artabas of seed—about nine bushels—will produce only three measures.”

11 “Woe to those who rise early to pursue intoxicating drink and linger over it until evening, inflamed by wine.”

12 “They drink wine with harp, lyre, drums, and pipes, but they do not consider the Lord’s works or what his hands have made.”

13 “Therefore my people have been taken captive because they did not know the Lord. Many have died from hunger and thirst.”

14 “Therefore Hades has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth without limit. The glorious, the great, the rich, and the city’s troublemakers will descend into it.”

15 “A person will be brought low, a man disgraced, and proud eyes humbled.”

16 “But the Lord of armies will be exalted in judgment, and the holy God will be glorified in righteousness.”

17 “Those who were stripped of everything will be fed like bulls, and lambs will graze in the abandoned people’s wastelands.”

18 “Woe to those who drag sins behind them with a long rope and wrongdoing with a strap from a heifer’s yoke.”

19 “They say, ‘Let him hurry and do his work so we may see it. Let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come so we may know it.’”

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

21 “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and understanding in their own estimation.”

22 “Woe to your strong men who drink wine and to the powerful who mix intoxicating drink,”

23 “Who vindicate the ungodly for bribes and deprive the righteous of what is right.”

24 “Therefore, as stubble burns from a fiery coal and is consumed by a violent flame, their root will become chaff and their flower rise like dust. They rejected the law of the Lord of armies and provoked the word of the Holy One of Israel.”

25 “The Lord of armies became very angry with his people. He reached out his hand and struck them. The mountains shook, and their corpses lay like refuse in the road. Even after all this his anger did not turn away, and his hand is still raised.”

26 “He will raise a signal to distant nations and whistle for them from the end of the earth. Look, they are coming very quickly.”

27 “They will not hunger, grow weary, slumber, or sleep. Their belts will not loosen, and their sandal straps will not break.”

28 “Their arrows are sharp and their bows drawn. Their horses’ hooves are like solid rock, and their chariot wheels like a storm.”

29 “They charge like lions and approach like lion cubs. They seize their prey and roar like wild animals. They carry it away, and no one can rescue it.”

30 “On that day he will roar over them like the surging sea. They will look toward the land and see thick darkness in their distress.”