Isaiah
Chapter 5
1 I will sing a song for my loved one about his vineyard. My loved one has a vineyard on a fertile hill.
2 He built a fence around it, removed the stones, planted the best vines, built a tower in the middle, and made a winepress in it. He expected it to grow grapes, but it grew wild grapes instead.
3 Now, people of Jerusalem and Judah, please decide who is right—me or my vineyard.
4 What more could I have done for my vineyard that I didn’t do? Why did it grow wild grapes when I expected it to produce good grapes?
5 Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and it will be devoured; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled.
6 I will make it a wasteland: it won’t be trimmed or tilled; instead, thistles and thorns will grow. I will tell the clouds not to rain on it.
7 God’s vineyard is the people of Israel, and the Judah men are his favored plants. He expected fairness, but found abuse; he wanted rightness, but heard pleas for help.
8 Pity those who combine house to house and field to field until there’s no more space, just to live alone on the land!
9 God told me, “Truly, many big and beautiful houses will be empty with no one living in them.”
10 Indeed, ten acres of vineyard will produce only one bath of wine, and a homer of seed will produce only an ephah of grain.
11 Trouble awaits those who get up early to start drinking and keep on until night, until they are heated by wine.
12 At their parties, they have harps, violins, drums, flutes, and wine, but they don’t care about what God has done or pay attention to what he has made.
13 My people have been taken away as captives because they lack knowledge; their leaders are starving, and many are parched with thirst.
14 So hell has grown bigger and opened wide its mouth with no limit: and their splendor, crowds, show of wealth, and those who celebrate, will all go down into it.
15 The average person will be lowered, and the powerful person will be made humble, and the proud will be brought down.
16 God will be honored when he judges, and the holy God will be made pure through justice.
17 The lambs will eat as they do, and strangers will eat in the empty lands of the wealthy.
18 Trouble awaits those who pull sin along with ropes of useless things, and drag wrongdoings as if with a heavy cart rope.
19 Those who say, “Let God hurry; let Him speed up His work so we may see it. And let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come closer and happen, so we may know it!”
20 Trouble comes to those who say bad things are good, and good things are bad; who replace light with darkness, and darkness with light; who exchange bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.
21 Pity those who think they are smart and wise by themselves!
22 Trouble comes to those who are good at drinking wine and those who mix strong drinks well.
23 They declare the guilty innocent for bribes and deny the good their rights!
24 So just as fire eats up straw and flames burn up dry grass, their roots will rot, and their flowers will turn to dust because they have rejected God’s law and ignored the words of Israel’s Holy God.
25 So God is angry with his people; he has reached out to punish them and struck them down. The mountains shook, and their bodies lay torn in the streets. Yet even with all this, God’s anger has not stopped, and his hand is still raised to strike again.
26 He will raise a flag for distant nations and whistle for them from the earth’s end. Look, they will quickly and speedily come.
27 No one will get tired or fall; no one will rest or sleep; their belts won’t come undone, nor will their shoe straps break.
28 Their arrows are sharp, their bows ready, their horses’ hooves hard as rock, and their wheels spin like a storm.
29 Their growling will sound like a lion’s; they will roar like young lions; they will growl, grab their catch, take it to a safe place, and no one will rescue it.
30 On that day, they will shout at them like the sea’s roar. If someone looks at the land, they will see darkness and sadness, and even the sky above will be dark.