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Isaiah 5
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 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, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I
pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
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 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 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 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 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 In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall
be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.
10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of
an homer shall yield an ephah.
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 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 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 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 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 But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that
is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.
17 Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste
places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.
18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin
as it were with a cart rope:
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 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 unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in
their own sight!
22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength
to mingle strong drink:
23 Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the
righteousness of the righteous from him!
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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
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