TheSacredScripture.org: Isaiah 5

1 I will now^◦ sing to My Beloved a song of My Beloved for His vineyard. My Beloved had^◦ a vineyard in a horn of a son of oil;¹

2 and He fenced· it ·around, and He cleared· it ·of··stones^◦, and He planted it with a noble··vine; and He built a tower in the midst of it, and He also hewed··out a winepress in it; and He waited for it to make grapes, but it made wild··grapes^◦.

3 And now, O thou who dwellest in Jerusalem, and a man^◦ of Judah, judge, I pray^◦ you, between Me and My vineyard.

4 What still was there to do for My vineyard, and I have not done so in it? Wherefore I waited for it to make grapes, but it made wild··grapes^◦.

5 But now, I will let you know that which I^◦ will do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and it shall become· pasture for² ·brutish animals; I will break··forth its fence, and it shall be trampled,

6 and I will set^◦ it as a desolation^◦; it shall not be pruned, neither shall it be hoed; but the briar and the thornbush shall go··up; and I will command the thick··clouds that they rain no rain on it.

7 For the vineyard of Jehovah of Armies is the house of Israel, and the man^◦ of Judah the plant of His pleasing; and he waited for judgment, but behold, bloodshed! And for justice, but behold, a cry!

8 Woe to those who touch house to house, who make them near, field to field, until there be no^▵ place, and you dwell alone in the midst^◦ of the land!

9 In my ears Jehovah of Armies said, Surely many houses shall become for a desolation, the great and the good ones, with no··one dwelling in them.

10 For ten acres³ of vineyard shall make one bath, and a homer of seed shall make an ephah.

11 Woe to them who get··up··early in the morning, that they may pursue strong··drink, who delay in the twilight, till wine inflames them!

12 And the harp, and the viol, the timbrel, and the flute, and wine are their feasts; but on the work of Jehovah they look not, and the operation of His hands they do not behold.

13 For so My people are exiled because they are without knowledge; and their glory is mortals of hunger, and their crowd is parched^◦ with thirst.

14 Therefore hell enlarged its soul, and opened··up^◦ its mouth without^◦ statute; its honor, and its crowd, and its uproar, and they who triumph, shall go··down into it.

15 And man shall be bowed··down, and a man^◦⁴ shall be made··low, and the eyes of the haughty shall be made··low;

16 and Jehovah of Armies shall be··lofty in judgment, and the holy God^◦ shall be sanctified in justice.

17 And they shall pasture as lambs according··to their manner, and the waste··places of the fatlings⁵ shall the sojourners eat.

18 Woe unto those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin, as with the ropes of a cart;

19 who say, Let Him hasten; let Him hurry His deed, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy··One of Israel come··near and come, that we may··know it!

20 Woe unto those who say for evil, good, and for good, evil; setting darkness for light, and light for darkness; setting bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

21 Woe unto the wise in their own eyes, and the intelligent before their own faces!

22 Woe to heroes at drinking wine, and men^◦ of valor at mingling strong··drink,

23 who justify the wicked because^▵ of a bribe, and remove the justice of the just from him!

24 Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and the flame slackens the chaff^◦, so shall their root be as decay, and their blossom shall go··up as the powder; for they have rejected the law of Jehovah of Armies, and disdained the saying of the Holy··One of Israel.

25 Therefore the anger of Jehovah is··fierce against^◦ His people, and He has stretched··out His hand against them, and has smitten them; and the mountains tremble, and their carcasses are as the dung^◦ in the midst^◦ of the streets. For all this His anger is not turned··back, but His hand is stretched··out still.

26 And He will lift··up a standard for the nations from far··off, and He will hiss unto them from the end of the earth; and behold, with haste shall they come swiftly.

27 No··one is faint and no··one is stumbling in Him; He shall not slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle^◦ of His hips^◦ be loosed^◦, nor shall the lace of His shoes be pulled··out;

28 whose arrows are sharpened, and all His bows are bent^◦; the hoofs of His horses shall be reckoned as a rock, and His rolling wheels as a storm.

29 His roaring is as that of an old··lion; He roars as young··lions; He growls, and shall seize the prey; and He shall seize, and none shall rescue.

30 In that^◦ day He shall growl against him as the growling of the sea; and He shall look to the land, and behold, darkness, and adversity, and the light is darkened in her dropping··down^◦.

¹“This is said of the Lord, who is the ‘Beloved’; ... the ‘vineyard’ is His spiritual church; a ‘noble vine’ is the good of faith of this church; and a ‘horn of the son of oil’ is the good of the faith of that church from the good of love” (AC 9139:4).

²as in AE 632:7

³In Hebrew an acre is called a pair or a yoke, for it is the land a pair or yoke of oxen can till in a day.

⁴“man ... a man^◦”; in the Hebrew these words are adam and ish, the first word relating to good and the second to truth (see AC 10406:5), or in this case the lack of them.

⁵literally, “marrows”

The Word of the Lord

Isaiah 5