The Book of the Prophet Isaiah 5 The Parable of the Vineyard and Its Application

 The Book of the Prophet Isaiah 5

The Parable of the Vineyard and Its Application

1 Now I will sing to my beloved the song of my beloved concerning his vineyard. My beloved has a vineyard on a fertile hill.

2 He fenced it, cleared it of stones, and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a tower in the middle of it and also dug a winepress in it. He expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

3 Now therefore, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard.

4 What more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done to it? And how, when I expected it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?

5 Now therefore I will show you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be used for food; I will break down its wall, so that it will be trampled underfoot; 

6 I will make it a desolation; it will not be pruned or dug, but briers and thorns will grow there. I will 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 people of Judah are his pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but here comes oppression; for righteousness, but here comes a cry.

8 Woe to those who join house to house, who join field to field, until there is no more room, and they are left alone in the midst of the land!

9 In my ears the Lord of hosts said: "Surely many houses will be desolate, even great and noble houses without inhabitant.

10 And ten acres of vineyard will yield no more than a bath, and a homer of seed will yield no more than an ephah.

11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning and pursue drunkenness; and they linger until night, until wine inflames them!

12 And harps and lutes, tambourines and pipes, and wine are in their feasts; and they regard not the work of the Lord, nor consider the work of his hands.

13 Therefore my people are led away captive for lack of knowledge; and their nobles will go hungry, and their multitude will be parched with thirst.

14 Therefore the grave has enlarged their appetite, and opened their mouths beyond measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and those who rejoiced among them, have descended to it.

15 Then the common man will be humbled, and the noble man will be humbled; and the eyes of the haughty will be humbled.

16 But the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment, and God, the Holy One, will be sanctified in righteousness.

17 Then the lambs will feed as in their pasture; and the places trodden down by the fat will be food for strangers.

18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as with chariot ropes!

19 They say, "Let him hasten, and finish his work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it."

20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter sweet, and sweet bitter!

21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

22 Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mix strong drink;

23 Who justify the wicked for a bribe, and deny justice to the righteous! 

24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire consumes tow, and the chaff is consumed by the flame, so their root will be like rottenness, and their blossom will fade like dust, because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25 Therefore the Lord's anger was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, so that the mountains quaked, and their corpses were like dung in the midst of the streets. For all this, his anger did not turn back, but his hand was still lifted up.

26 And he will lift up a standard to the nations from afar, and will whistle to them from the ends of the earth; and, behold, they will come in haste.

27 There will be no weary or lame among them; no one will slumber or sleep. The girdle on their loins will not be untied, nor the latchet on their sandals be broken.

28 Their arrows will be sharp, and all their bows bent; their horses' hoofs will be like flint, and their chariot wheels a whirlwind.

29 Their roaring will be like a lion's; they will roar like young lions; they will roar and seize the prey, and carry it away, and there will be no one to rescue it.

30 And they will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If anyone looks to the land, behold, there will be darkness and distress, and the light will be darkened in its desolations.