Isaiah 5

Now I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard. The one I love had a vineyard on a hill with very rich soil.

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

NoteThe Hebrew word here for "the one I love" is the ordinary term for a sweetheart or close friend used in love songs, and the opening line sets the piece up as a love song. "A hill with very rich soil" translates a Hebrew idiom that runs literally "a horn, a son of oil", a steep, sunny hillside of the kind vine-growers prized.

2He dug it up and cleared out the stones, and he planted it with the best vines. He built a watchtower in the middle of it and cut out a winepress there too. He expected it to grow good grapes, but it grew sour wild grapes.

2And 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.

NoteEach step is standard vineyard work. A watchtower was a stone lookout where a guard slept through the ripening season to keep off thieves, foxes and grazing animals. A winepress was not a machine but a shallow basin cut down into the rock, where grapes were trampled by foot, with a channel running to a lower basin that caught the juice. The word for the sour grapes means something like "stinkers", small, hard, worthless fruit.

3So now, you who live in Jerusalem, and you men of Judah, please decide between me and my vineyard.

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

Note"Decide between me and my vineyard" is courtroom language: the speaker asks the crowd to sit as judges and give a verdict in a dispute between two parties.

4What more could I have done for my vineyard that I did not already do? When I expected it to grow good grapes, why did it grow sour wild grapes?

4What 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?

5Now let me tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten bare. I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled.

5And 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:

NoteVineyards were protected twice over, a hedge of thorny brush against animals and a low stone wall against people. Taking both away does not destroy the vines; it simply leaves them open to anything that wanders in.

6I will leave it in ruins. No one will prune it or dig around it. Thorns and briers will grow up in it. I will also order the clouds not to rain on it.

6And 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.

7The vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the people of Israel, and the men of Judah are the planting he took delight in. He looked for fair judgment, but there was bloodshed; he looked for right living, but there was a cry for help.

7For 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.

Note"The LORD" in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, which Hebrew writes with four consonants and which readers replaced aloud with the word for "Lord." "Hosts" means armies, the assembled forces of heaven. The last lines carry a pair of puns that English cannot reproduce: he looked for mishpat (justice) and got mispach (bloodshed), for tsedaqah (right living) and got tse'aqah (a scream).

8How terrible for those who add one house to another and join one field to the next, until there is no room left and they live alone in the middle of the land.

8Woe 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!

NoteIsraelite land was held as a family inheritance, passed down and not meant to be permanently sold off. Buying up a neighbor's house and field, usually when debt forced the sale, left the old owners landless and put whole districts into the hands of a few estate-holders, who then lived "alone," with no neighbors left.

9The LORD of Hosts said this where I could hear it: Many houses will surely be left empty, large and fine houses with no one living in them.

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

10Ten acres of vineyard will produce only one bath of wine, and a homer of seed will produce only an ephah of grain.

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

NoteA bath was a liquid measure of roughly six gallons (about twenty-two liters). A homer was about ten times that in dry measure, and an ephah was a tenth of a homer. So ten acres of vines yield about one large jar of wine, and a farmer who sows ten sacks of seed gets one sack back, less than he planted. "Ten acres" renders "ten yoke," the area a pair of oxen could plow in a day.

11How terrible for those who get up early in the morning to chase after strong drink, and who stay up late into the night until wine sets them on fire.

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

Note"Strong drink" translates shekar, fermented drink made from something other than grapes, barley beer, or drink made from dates or honey. Feasting normally began in the evening; starting at sunrise and carrying on past dark is the point of the complaint.

12At their feasts they have harps and lyres, tambourines and flutes, and wine. But they pay no attention to what the LORD is doing, and they never think about the work of his hands.

12And 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.

13So my people are going into exile, because they do not understand. Their respected men are starving, and the crowds of ordinary people are dried up with thirst.

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

NoteExile means mass deportation: conquering empires broke a defeated people by marching much of the population, especially its leading families, to resettle far from home.

14So the grave has made itself bigger and opened its mouth wider than any measure. Down into it go their splendor, their crowds, their noise, and everyone who is celebrating.

14Therefore 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.

NoteThe King James "hell" translates Sheol, which in Hebrew is not a place of punishment for the wicked but the underworld where all the dead go alike. It is pictured here as a creature with a gaping throat that swallows the living and is never full.

15Ordinary people will be brought down and powerful people will be humbled, and the eyes of the proud will be lowered.

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

Note"The mean man" in the King James does not mean cruel. It is the older sense of "mean": low-ranking, ordinary, the common person as opposed to the great.

16But the LORD of Hosts will be lifted high when he judges, and the holy God will show that he is holy by doing what is right.

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

17Then lambs will graze there as if it were their own pasture, and strangers will feed among the ruins that once belonged to the rich.

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

NoteThe Hebrew of the second half of this verse is uncertain. It can be read as "strangers" or resident foreigners feeding among the ruins of the rich, or, with a different division of the same consonants, as young sheep or goats grazing there. Either way, the estates of verse 8 have become open pasture.

18How terrible for those who drag their guilt along with ropes of lies, and pull their sin behind them as if with a cart rope.

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

NoteThe picture is of a farm animal in harness. The word behind "lies" means emptiness or falsehood, and the ropes are the ones used to drag a loaded cart, so these people are not being pulled into wrongdoing but hauling it along after themselves, deliberately and with effort.

19They say, "Let God hurry up and do his work quickly, so we can see it. Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come near and arrive, so we can know what it is."

19That 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!

NoteThese are the prophet's own words about God's coming "work" and "plan," thrown back at him as a taunt by people who do not expect anything to happen.

20How terrible for those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness in the place of light and light in the place of darkness, who put bitter in the place of sweet and sweet in the place of bitter.

20Woe 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!

21How terrible for those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own opinion.

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

22How terrible for those who are heroes at drinking wine, and champions at mixing strong drink.

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

Note"Heroes" and "champions" translate words normally used of soldiers who distinguish themselves in battle; the insult lies in applying warriors' titles to drinking. "Mixing" strong drink refers to blending it with water, spices or honey before serving.

23They let guilty people go free in exchange for a bribe, and they take justice away from those who have done nothing wrong.

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

24So, just as fire eats up dry straw and flame burns up chaff, their roots will rot and their blossoms will blow away like dust. This is because they have thrown away the teaching of the LORD of Hosts and treated the word of the Holy One of Israel with contempt.

24Therefore 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.

NoteChaff is the light, dry husk separated from grain at threshing and blown away by the wind, proverbially worthless and instantly flammable. "Teaching" here translates torah, meaning instruction or direction given by God, not only written law.

25That is why the LORD's anger burns against his people. He has reached out his hand against them and struck them down. The hills shook, and dead bodies lay like garbage in the streets. Even after all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still raised.

25Therefore 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.

NoteLeaving corpses unburied in the open street was among the worst dishonours imaginable in this culture, where burying the dead was a binding family duty. The closing line ("his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still raised") is a refrain that returns several times later in Isaiah, marking off successive stages of the same judgment.

26He will raise a signal flag for nations far away, and whistle for them from the ends of the earth. Look, they come quickly and fast.

26And 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:

NoteA signal flag was raised on a hilltop to muster troops or call an army to assemble. Whistling was how a keeper called bees to the hive or a herdsman called animals; here the distant nations come at a whistle, like something summoned rather than negotiated with.

27Not one of them gets tired or stumbles. Not one of them dozes off or sleeps. No belt at their waist comes loose, and no sandal strap breaks.

27None 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:

NoteA belt gathered up the long robe at the waist so a man could march or fight; a loose belt or a snapped sandal strap was the kind of small failure that pulled a soldier out of the line. This army has none of them.

28Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are strung. Their horses' hooves are as hard as flint, and their chariot wheels spin like a whirlwind.

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

Note"Bows are strung" means the string is already fitted and drawn, ready to shoot, not stored. Horses in this period were not shod, so hard hooves that would not split on stony ground were a genuine measure of a war-horse. The wheels are chariot wheels.

29Their roaring is like a lion's; they roar like young lions. They growl and seize their prey and carry it off, and no one can rescue it.

29Their 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.

30On that day they will roar over the land like the roaring of the sea. If anyone looks at the land, they will see darkness and misery, and even the light will be darkened by the clouds above.

30And 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.

NoteThe last clause is difficult in Hebrew and has been read either as the light going dark behind the clouds, or as the sky itself darkening over the land. The word rendered "misery" is the standard term for the distress of a besieged or defeated people.