Isaiah 5

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Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem

For behold, the sLord God of hosts

is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah

support and supply,1

all tsupport of bread,

and all support of water;

uthe mighty man and the soldier,

the judge and the prophet,

the diviner and the elder,

the captain of fifty

and the man of rank,

the counselor and the skillful magician

and the expert in charms.

vAnd I will make boys their princes,

and infants2 shall rule over them.

wAnd the people will oppress one another,

every one his fellow

and every one his neighbor;

the youth will be insolent to the elder,

and the despised to the honorable.

For xa man will take hold of his brother

in the house of his father, saying:

You have a cloak;

you shall be our leader,

and this heap of ruins

shall be under your rule;

in that day he will speak out, saying:

I will not be a yhealer;3

in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;

you shall not make me

leader of the people.

For Jerusalem has stumbled,

and Judah has fallen,

because their zspeech and their deeds are against the Lord,

adefying his glorious presence.4

For the look on their faces bears witness against them;

they proclaim their sin blike Sodom;

they do not hide it.

Woe to them!

cFor they have brought evil on themselves.

10  dTell the righteous that it shall be well with them,

efor they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

11  fWoe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,

for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.

12  My peopleginfants are their oppressors,

and women rule over them.

O my people, hyour guides mislead you

and they have swallowed up5 the course of your paths.

13  The Lord ihas taken his place to contend;

he stands to judge peoples.

14  The Lord will enter into judgment

with the jelders and princes of his people:

It is you who khave devoured6 the vineyard,

lthe spoil of the poor is in your houses.

15  What do you mean by mcrushing my people,

by grinding the face of the poor?

declares the Lord God of hosts.

16  The Lord said:

nBecause othe daughters of Zion are haughty

and walk with outstretched necks,

glancing wantonly with their eyes,

mincing along as they go,

ptinkling with their feet,

17  therefore the Lord qwill strike with a scab

the heads of othe daughters of Zion,

and the Lord will lay bare their secret parts.

18 In that day the Lord will take away rthe finery of the anklets, the sheadbands, and the tcrescents; 19 the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarves; 20 the uheaddresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets; 21 the signet rings and vnose rings; 22 the wfestal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags; 23 the mirrors, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.

24  Instead of xperfume there will be rottenness;

and instead of a ybelt, a rope;

and instead of zwell-set hair, abaldness;

and instead of a rich robe, a bskirt of sackcloth;

and cbranding instead of beauty.

25  Your men shall fall by the sword

and your mighty men in battle.

26  And dher gates shall lament and mourn;

empty, she shall esit on the ground.

fAnd seven women gshall take hold of fone man in that day, saying, We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; htake away our reproach.

The Branch of the Lord Glorified

In that day ithe branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and jthe fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. kAnd he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called lholy, everyone who has mbeen recorded for life in Jerusalem, when nthe Lord shall have washed away the filth of othe daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by pa spirit of burning.1 Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies qa cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be ra canopy. sThere will be a tbooth for shade by day from the heat, and ufor a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.

The Vineyard of the Lord Destroyed

Let me sing for my beloved

my love song concerning his vineyard:

My beloved had va vineyard

on a very fertile hill.

He dug it and cleared it of stones,

and planted it with wchoice vines;

he built a watchtower in the midst of it,

and hewed out a wine vat in it;

and xhe looked for it to yield grapes,

but it yielded wild grapes.

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem

and men of Judah,

judge between me and my vineyard.

yWhat more was there to do for my vineyard,

that I have not done in it?

xWhen I looked for it to yield grapes,

why did it yield wild grapes?

And now I will tell you

what I will do to my vineyard.

I will remove zits hedge,

and it shall be devoured;1

aI will break down its wall,

and it shall be trampled down.

I will make it a waste;

it shall not be pruned or hoed,

and bbriers and thorns shall grow up;

cI will also command the clouds

that they rain no rain upon it.

dFor the vineyard of the Lord of hosts

is the house of Israel,

and the men of Judah

are his pleasant planting;

and he looked for justice,

but behold, bloodshed;2

for righteousness,

but behold, an outcry!3

Woe to the Wicked

Woe to those who ejoin house to house,

who add field to field,

until there is no more room,

and you are made to dwell alone

in the midst of the land.

The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing:

fSurely many houses shall be desolate,

large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.

10  gFor ten acres4 of vineyard shall yield but one bath,

and a hhomer of seed shall yield but an ephah.5

11  Woe to those who irise early in the morning,

that they may run after strong drink,

who tarry late into the evening

as wine inflames them!

12  jThey have lyre and harp,

tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts,

kbut they do not regard the deeds of the Lord,

or see the work of his hands.

13  Therefore my people go into exile

lfor lack of knowledge;6

their mhonored men go hungry,7

and their multitude is parched with thirst.

14  Therefore Sheol has nenlarged its appetite

and opened oits mouth beyond measure,

and the nobility of Jerusalem8 and her multitude will go down,

her revelers and he who pexults in her.

15  qMan is humbled, and each one is brought low,

and the eyes of the haughty9 are brought low.

16  rBut the Lord of hosts is exalted10 in justice,

and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.

17  Then shall the lambs graze sas in their pasture,

and tnomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich.

18  Woe to those who draw iniquity with ucords of falsehood,

who draw sin as with cart ropes,

19  who say: vLet him be quick,

let him speed his work

that we may see it;

let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near,

and let it come, that we may know it!

20  Woe to wthose who call evil good

and good evil,

xwho put darkness for light

and light for darkness,

who put bitter for sweet

and sweet for bitter!

21  Woe to those who are ywise in their own eyes,

and shrewd in their own sight!

22  Woe to those who are zheroes at drinking wine,

and valiant men in mixing strong drink,

23  who aacquit the guilty for a bribe,

and deprive the innocent of his right!

24  Therefore, bas the tongue of fire devours the stubble,

and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,

so ctheir root will be das rottenness,

and their blossom go up like dust;

for they have erejected the law of the Lord of hosts,

and have fdespised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25  Therefore gthe anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,

and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them,

and hthe mountains quaked;

and their corpses were ias refuse

in the midst of the streets.

jFor all this his anger has not turned away,

and his hand is stretched out still.

26  He will kraise a signal for nations far away,

and lwhistle for them mfrom the ends of the earth;

and behold, quickly, speedily they come!

27  nNone is weary, none stumbles,

none slumbers or sleeps,

not a waistband is loose,

not a sandal strap broken;

28  otheir arrows are sharp,

all their bows bent,

their horses’ hoofs seem like flint,

and their wheels plike the whirlwind.

29  Their roaring is like a lion,

like young lions they roar;

they growl and qseize their prey;

they carry it off, and none can rescue.

30  They will growl over it on that day,

like the growling of the sea.

And if one looks to the land,

behold, rdarkness and distress;

and the light is darkened by its clouds.

Isaiah’s Vision of the Lord

In the year that sKing Uzziah died I tsaw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train1 of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had usix wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

uHoly, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;

vthe whole earth is full of his glory!2

And wthe foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and xthe house was filled with smoke. And I said: Woe is me! yFor I am lost; zfor I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the aKing, the Lord of hosts!

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he btouched my mouth and said: Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.

Isaiah’s Commission from the Lord

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for cus? Then I said, Here I am! Send me. And he said, Go, and say to this people:

dKeep on hearing,3 but do not understand;

keep on seeing,4 but do not perceive.

10  eMake the heart of this people fdull,5

and their ears heavy,

and blind their eyes;

glest they see with their eyes,

and hear with their ears,

and understand with their hearts,

and turn and be healed.

11  Then I said, hHow long, O Lord?

And he said:

Until icities lie waste

without inhabitant,

and houses without people,

and the land is a desolate waste,

12  and the Lord removes people far away,

and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

13  jAnd though a tenth remain in it,

it will be burned6 again,

like a terebinth or an oak,

whose stump kremains

when it is felled.

lThe holy seed7 is its stump.

Isaiah Sent to King Ahaz

In the days of mAhaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, nRezin the king of Syria and nPekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. When the house of David was told, oSyria is in league with1 pEphraim, the heart of Ahaz2 and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

And the Lord said to Isaiah, Go out to meet Ahaz, you and qShear-jashub3 your son, at the end of rthe conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field. And say to him, sBe careful, tbe quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two usmoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and vthe son of Remaliah. Because Syria, with Ephraim and vthe son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it4 for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it, thus says the Lord God:

wIt shall not stand,

and it shall not come to pass.

For the head of Syria is xDamascus,

and the head of Damascus is Rezin.

And within sixty-five years

Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.

And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,

and the head of Samaria is ythe son of Remaliah.

zIf you5 are not firm in faith,

you will not be firm at all.

The Sign of Immanuel

10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: 11 Ask aa sign of the Lord your6 God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. 12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. 13 And he7 said, Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you bweary my God also? 14 Therefore the cLord himself will give you a sign. dBehold, the evirgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name fImmanuel.8 15 He shall eat gcurds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 hFor before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be ideserted. 17 jThe Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that kEphraim departed from Judahthe king of Assyria!

18 In that day the Lord will lwhistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and min the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.9

20 In that day nthe Lord will oshave with a razor that is phired beyond qthe River10with the king of Assyriathe head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also.

21 rIn that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, 22 and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will eat curds, for everyone who is left in the land will eat scurds and honey.

23 In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels11 of silver, will become tbriers and thorns. 24 uWith bow and arrows a man will come there, for all the land will be briers and thorns. 25 vAnd as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear tof briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.