Isaiah 5
1 I will sing for my beloved a song about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.
2 He dug it up, cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines. He built a tower in its midst and also dug a winepress there. He expected it to yield good grapes, but it yielded sour grapes.
3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more could have been done for my vineyard that I have not done? Why, when I expected it to yield good grapes, did it yield sour grapes?
5 Now I will show you what I will do to my vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled.
6 I will leave it in ruins: it will not be pruned or hoed, and thorns and weeds will grow in it. I will also command the clouds not to rain on it.
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the planting he delighted in. He expected justice, but there was bloodshed; he expected righteousness, but there was a cry for help.
8 Woe to those who join house to house and add field to field, until no room is left, and you live alone in the midst of the land!
9 The LORD of Hosts spoke in my hearing: “Many houses will lie desolate, great and fine houses with no one living in them.
10 Ten acres of vineyard will yield only one bath, and a homer of seed will yield an ephah.”
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning in pursuit of strong drink and stay up late into the night, inflamed by wine!
12 At their feasts are harp and lyre, tambourine, flute, and wine; but they do not regard the work of the LORD, nor see the work of his hands.
13 Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; their honored men go hungry, and their multitudes are parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth without measure; down into it go her splendor, her multitudes, her noise, and those who celebrate in her.
15 So human beings are brought low, people are humbled, and the eyes of the proud are brought down.
16 But the LORD of Hosts is exalted in judgment, and the holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
17 Lambs will graze as in their own pasture; resident foreigners will feed among the ruins of the fattened ones.
18 Woe to those who draw guilt with cords of deceit and sin as with cart ropes!
19 They say, “Let him hurry, let him hasten his work, so that we may see it; let the plan of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, so 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 for sweet and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight!
22 Woe to those who are mighty at drinking wine, and brave at mixing strong drink,
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deny the innocent the justice due them!
24 Therefore, as a tongue of fire devours straw and dry grass vanishes in the flame, their root will rot, and their blossom will rise like dust. For they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of Hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore the anger of the LORD burned against his people: he stretched out his hand against them and struck them. The mountains trembled, and their corpses lay like refuse in the middle of the streets. Yet for all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still stretched out.
26 He will raise a banner for nations far away and whistle for those at the ends of the earth; and there they will come, swiftly and speedily.
27 Among them no one is weary or stumbles; no one nods off or sleeps. The belt at their waist does not come loose, nor does the strap of their sandals break.
28 Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are strung. Their horses' hooves seem like flint, and their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
29 Their roar is like a lioness's; they roar like young lions. They growl, seize their prey, and carry it off, with no one to rescue it.
30 On that day they will roar over the people like the roaring sea. Whoever looks toward the land will see only darkness and distress; even the light will be darkened by its clouds.
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