Isaiah, 5

1. Let me sing my beloved the song of my friend for his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.

1. Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:

2. He dug it, cleared it of stones, and planted it with red grapes. In the middle he built a tower, he hewed a press there too. He expected it to yield fine grapes: wild grapes were all it yielded.

2. And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

3. And now, citizens of Jerusalem and people of Judah, I ask you to judge between me and my vineyard.

3. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.

4. What more could I have done for my vineyard that I have not done? Why, when I expected it to yield fine grapes, has it yielded wild ones?

4. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?

5. Very well, I shall tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I shall take away its hedge, for it to be grazed on, and knock down its wall, for it to be trampled on.

5. And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; [and] break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:

6. I shall let it go to waste, unpruned, undug, overgrown by brambles and thorn-bushes, and I shall command the clouds to rain no rain on it.

6. And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

7. Now, the vineyard of Yahweh Sabaoth is the House of Israel, and the people of Judah the plant he cherished. He expected fair judgement, but found injustice, uprightness, but found cries of distress.

7. For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts [is] the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

8. Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field until there is nowhere left and they are the sole inhabitants of the country.

8. Woe unto them that join house to house, [that] lay field to field, till [there be] no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!

9. Yahweh Sabaoth has sworn this in my hearing, 'Many houses will be brought to ruin, great and fine ones left untenanted;

9. In mine ears [said] the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, [even] great and fair, without inhabitant.

10. for ten acres of vineyard will yield only one barrel, and ten bushel of seed will yield only one bushel.'

10. Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.

11. Woe to those who get up early to go after strong drink, and stay up late at night inflamed with wine.

11. Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, [that] they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, [till] wine inflame them!

12. Nothing but harp and lyre, tambourine and pipe, and wine for their drinking bouts. Never a thought for the works of Yahweh, never a glance for what his hands have done.

12. And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.

13. That is why my people is in exile, for want of perception; her dignitaries starving, her populace parched with thirst.

13. Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because [they have] no knowledge: and their honourable men [are] famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.

14. That is why Sheol opens wide its throat and gapes with measureless jaw and down go her noblemen and populace and her loud revellers merry to the last!

14. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.

15. Human nature has been humbled, humankind brought low, and the eyes of the proud have been humbled.

15. And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:

16. Yahweh Sabaoth is the more respected for his judgement, God the Holy One has displayed his holiness by his justice!

16. But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.

17. Now the lambs will graze in their old pastures, and the fields laid waste by fat cattle will feed the kids.

17. Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.

18. Woe to those who drag guilt along by the reins of duplicity, drag along sin as though with a cart rope;

18. Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:

19. to those who say, 'Why doesn't he do his work quickly so that we can see it; why doesn't the Holy One of Israel's design hurry up and come true so that we can experience it?'

19. That say, Let him make speed, [and] hasten his work, that we may see [it]: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know [it]!

20. Woe to those who call what is bad, good, and what is good, bad, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

20. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

21. Woe to those who think themselves wise and believe themselves enlightened.

21. Woe unto [them that are] wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

22. Woe to those whose might lies in wine bibbing, their heroism in mixing strong drinks,

22. Woe unto [them that are] mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:

23. who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deny justice to the upright.

23. Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

24. Yes, as the flame devours the stubble, as the straw flares up and disappears, their root will be like decay and their shoot be carried off like dust, for having rejected the law of Yahweh Sabaoth, for having despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

24. Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, [so] their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25. This is why Yahweh's anger has blazed out against his people; and he has raised his hand against them to strike them; why the mountains have shuddered and why corpses are lying like dung in the streets. After all this, his anger is not spent. No, his hand is still raised!

25. Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases [were] torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand [is] stretched out still.

26. He hoists a signal for a distant nation, he whistles them up from the ends of the earth; and see how swift, how fleet they come!

26. And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:

27. None of them tired, none of them stumbling, none of them asleep or drowsy, none of them with belt unfastened, none of them with broken sandal-strap.

27. None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:

28. Their arrows are sharpened, their bows all strung, their horses' hoofs you would think were flint and their wheels, a whirlwind!

28. Whose arrows [are] sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:

29. Their roar is like that of a lioness, like fierce young lions they roar, growling they seize their prey and carry it off, with no one to prevent it,

29. Their roaring [shall be] like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry [it] away safe, and none shall deliver [it].

30. growling at it, that day, like the growling of the sea. Only look at the country: darkness and distress, and the light turned to darkness by the clouds.

30. And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if [one] look unto the land, behold darkness [and] sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.