Shared Word Translation
Isaiah 5
Let me sing for my beloved my beloved’s song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines.
He built a tower in the midst of it,
and also carved out a wine vat in it.
He waited for it to yield grapes, but it produced wild grapes.
So now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and people of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I have not done in it?
Why, when I waited for grapes,
did it yield wild grapes?
Now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge, and it will become waste;
I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled.
I will make it a desolation;
it will not be pruned nor hoed,
and briars and thorns shall grow;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.
For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are his pleasant planting;
he waited for justice,
but behold, bloodshed;
for righteousness,
but behold, an outcry!
Woe to those who join house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is no place left,
and you are left alone in the land.
In my hearing, the LORD of Hosts said:
Surely many houses shall be desolate,
large and beautiful, without inhabitant.
For ten acres of vineyard shall produce but one bath,
and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.
Woe 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!
They 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.
Therefore my people go into exile
for lack of knowledge;
their honored men go hungry,
and their multitude parched with thirst.
Therefore Sheol enlarges its appetite
and opens its mouth beyond measure;
and down go her nobles,
and her masses, her revelers, and those who exult in her.
The people are bowed down,
everyone brought low;
and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.
But the LORD of Hosts is exalted in justice,
and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
Then shall the lambs graze
as in their pasture,
and nomads shall eat among
the ruins of the rich.
Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood,
who draw sin as with cart ropes,
who say, “Let him make haste,
let him speed his work
that we may see it;
let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near
and come, that we may know it!”
Woe 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!
Woe to those who are wise
in their own eyes,
and shrewd in their own sight!
Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,
and valiant men in mixing strong drink,
who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
and deprive the innocent of his right!
Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours stubble,
and as dry grass sinks down in 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.
Therefore 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 streets.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is stretched out still.
He will raise a signal for nations far away,
and whistle for them from the end of the earth;
And behold, they quickly come,
none is weary, none stumbles,
none slumbers or sleeps,
not a belt is loose,
nor a sandal strap broken;
their arrows are sharp,
all their bows bent,
Their horses' hooves seem like flint,
And their wheels like the whirlwind.
Their roaring is like a lioness;
like young lions they roar,
they growl and seize their prey;
they carry it off, and none can rescue.
They will growl over it on that day,
like the roaring of the sea.
And if one looks to the land—
behold, darkness and distress;
and the light is darkened by its clouds.