Isaiah 5:1–30

¹ I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. ² He dug it up and cleared the stones and planted the finest vines. He built a watchtower in the middle and dug out a winepress as well. He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes, but the fruit it produced was sour! ³ “And now, O dwellers of Jerusalem and men of Judah, I exhort you to judge between Me and My vineyard. ⁴ What more could I have done for My vineyard than I already did for it? Why, when I expected sweet grapes, did it bring forth sour fruit? ⁵ Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled. ⁶ I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and thorns and briers will grow up. I will command the clouds that rain shall not fall on it.” ⁷ For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress. ⁸ Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field until no place is left and you live alone in the land. ⁹ I heard the LORD of Hosts declare: “Surely many houses will become desolate, great mansions left unoccupied. ¹⁰ For ten acres of vineyard will yield but a bath of wine, and a homer of seed only an ephah of grain.” ¹¹ Woe to those who rise early in the morning in pursuit of strong drink, who linger into the evening, to be inflamed by wine. ¹² At their feasts are the lyre and harp, tambourines and flutes and wine. They disregard the actions of the LORD and fail to see the work of His hands. ¹³ Therefore My people will go into exile for their lack of understanding; their dignitaries are starving and their masses are parched with thirst. ¹⁴ Therefore Sheol enlarges its throat and opens wide its enormous jaws, and down go Zion’s nobles and masses, her revelers and carousers! ¹⁵ So mankind will be brought low, and each man humbled; the arrogant will lower their eyes. ¹⁶ But the LORD of Hosts will be exalted by His justice, and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness. ¹⁷ Lambs will graze as in their own pastures, and strangers will feed in the ruins of the wealthy. ¹⁸ Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceit and pull sin along with cart ropes, ¹⁹ to those who say, “Let Him hurry and hasten His work so that we may see it! Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come so that we may know it!” ²⁰ Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who turn darkness to light and light to darkness, who replace bitter with sweet a…