Isaiah 5

1 I will sing to my beloved the canticle of my cousin concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a hill in a fruitful place.

Now I will sing to [my] beloved a song of my beloved concerning my vineyard. [My] beloved had a vineyard on a high hill in a fertile place.

2 And he fenced it in, and picked the stones out of it, and planted it with the choicest vines, and built a tower in the midst thereof, and set up a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it broutht forth wild grapes.

And I made a hedge round it, and dug a trench, and planted a choice vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and dug a place for the wine-vat in it: and I waited [for it] to bring forth grapes, and it brought forth thorns.

3 And now, O ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and ye men of Juda, judge between me and my vineyard.

And now, you dwellers in Jerusalem, and [every] man of Juda, judge between me and my vineyard.

4 What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it?

What shall I do any more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? Whereas I expected [it] to bring forth grapes, but it has brought forth thorns.

5 And now I will shew you wnat I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be wasted: I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down.

And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be for a spoil; and I will pull down its walls, and it shall be [left] to be trodden down.

6 And I will make it desolate: it shall not be pruned, and it shall not be digged: but briers and thorns shall come up: and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it.

And I will forsake my vineyard; and it shall not be pruned, nor dug, and thorns shall come up upon it as on barren land; and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it.

7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel: and the man of Juda, his pleasant plant: and I looked that he should do judgment, and behold iniquity: and do justice, and behold a cry.

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Juda [his] beloved plant: I expected [it] to bring forth judgement, and it brought forth iniquity; and not righteousness, but a cry.

8 Woe to you that join house to house and lay field to field, even to the end of the place: shall you alone dwell in the midst of the earth?

Woe [to them] that join house to house, and add field to field, that they may take away something of their neighbour's: will you dwell alone upon the land?

9 These things are in my ears, saith the Lord of hosts: unless many great and fair houses shall become desolate, without an inhabitant.

For these things have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts: for though many houses should be built, many and fair houses shall be desolate, and there shall be no inhabitants in them.

10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one little measure, and thirty bushels of seed shall yield three bushels.

For where ten yoke of oxen plough [the land] shall yield one, and he that sows six homers shall produce three measures.

11 Woe to you that rise up early in the morning to follow drunkenness, and to drink till the evening, to be inflamed with wine.

Woe [to them] that rise up in the morning, and follow strong drink; who wait [at it till] evening: for the wine shall inflame them.

12 The harp, and the lyre, and the timbrel, and the pipe, and wine are in your feasts: and the work of the Lord you regard not, nor do you consider the works of his hands.

For they drink wine with harp, and lute, and drums, and pipes: but they regard not the works of the Lord, and consider not the works of his hands.

13 Therefore is my people led away captive, because they had not knowledge, and their nobles have perished with famine, and their multitude were dried up with thirst.

Therefore my people have been taken captive, because they know not the Lord: and there has been a multitude of dead [bodies], because of hunger and of thirst for water.

14 Therefore hath hell enlarged her soul, and opened her mouth without any bounds, and their strong ones, and their people, and their high and glorious ones shall go down into it. (Sheol h7585)

Therefore hell has enlarged its desire and opened its mouth without ceasing: and her glorious and great, and her rich and her pestilent men shall go down [into it]. (Sheol h7585)

15 And man shall be brought down, and man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be brought low.

And the mean man shall be brought low, and the great man shall be disgraced, and the lofty eyes shall be brought low.

16 And the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and the holy God shall be sanctified in justice.

But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgement, and the holy God shall be glorified in righteousness.

17 And the lambs shall feed according to their order, and strangers shall eat the deserts turned into fruitfulness.

And they that were spoiled shall be fed as bulls, and lambs shall feed on the waste places of them that are taken away.

18 Woe to you that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as the rope of a cart.

Woe [to them] that draw sins to them as with a long rope, and iniquities as with a thong of the heifer's yoke:

19 That say: Let him make haste, and let his work come quickly, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know it.

who say, Let him speedily hasten what he will do, that we may see [it]: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know [it].

20 Woe to you 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.

Woe [to them] that call evil good, and good evil; who make darkness light, and light darkness; who make bitter sweet, and sweet bitter.

21 Woe to you that rue wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own conceits.

Woe [to them] that are wise in their own conceit, and knowing in their own sight.

22 Woe to you that are mighty to drink wine, and stout men at drunkenness.

Woe to the strong [ones] of you that drink wine, and the mighty [ones] that mingle strong drink:

23 That justify the wicked for gifts, and take away the justice of the just from him.

who justify the ungodly for rewards, and take away the righteousness of the righteous.

24 Therefore as the tongue of the fire devoureth the stubble, and the heat of the dame consumeth it: so shall their root be as ashes, and their bud shall go up as dust: for they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and have blasphemed the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Therefore as stubble shall be burnt by a coal of fire, and shall be consumed by a violent flame, their root shall be as chaff, and their flower shall go up as dust: for they rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and insulted the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25 Therefore is the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched out his hand upon them, and struck them: and the mountains were troubled, and their carcasses became as dung in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Therefore the Lord of hosts was greatly angered against his people, and he reached forth his hand upon them, and struck them: and the mountains were troubled, and their carcasses were as dung in the midst of the way: yet for all this his anger has not been turned away, but his hand is yet raised.

26 And he will lift up a sign to the nations afar off, and will whistle to them from the ends of the earth: and behold they shall come with speed swiftly.

Therefore shall he lift up a signal to the nations that are afar, and shall hiss for them from the end of the earth; and, behold, they are coming very quickly.

27 There is none that shall faint, nor labour among them: they shall not slumber nor sleep, neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken.

They shall not hunger nor be weary, neither shall they slumber nor sleep; neither shall they loose their girdles from their loins, neither shall their shoe-latchets be broken.

28 Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are bent. The hoofs of their horses shall be like the hint, and their wheels like the violence of a tempest.

Whose arrows are sharp, and their bows bent; their horses' hoofs are counted as solid rock: their chariot-wheels are as a storm.

29 Their roaring like that of a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea they shall roar, and take hold of the prey, and they shall keep fast hold of it, and there shall be none to deliver it.

They rage as lions, and draw near as a lion's whelps: and he shall seize, and roar as a wild beast, and he shall cast [them] forth, and there shall be none to deliver them.

30 And they shall make a noise against them that day, like the roaring of the sea; we shall look towards the land, and behold darkness of tribulation, and the light is darkened with the mist thereof.

And he shall roar on account of them in that day, as the sound of the swelling sea; and they shall look to the land, and, behold, [there shall be] thick darkness in their perplexity.