Isaiah 5:1-12 ▼

1 I will sing about the one I love, a song about my loved one’s vineyard: The one I love had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

2 He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones, and planted it with the finest vines. He built a tower in the middle of it and even dug out a winepress there. He expected it to yield good grapes, but it yielded worthless grapes.

3 So now, residents of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard.

4 What more could I have done for my vineyard than I did? Why, when I expected a yield of good grapes, did it yield worthless grapes?

5 Now I will tell you what I am about to 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 make it a wasteland. It will not be pruned or weeded; thorns and briers will grow up. I will also give orders to the clouds that rain should not fall on it.

7 For the vineyard of the LORD of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah, the plant he delighted in. He expected justice but saw injustice; he expected righteousness but heard cries of despair.

8 Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field until there is no more room and you alone are left in the land.

9 I heard the LORD of Armies say: Indeed, many houses will become desolate, grand and lovely ones without inhabitants.

10 For a ten-acre vineyard will yield only six gallons of wine, and ten bushels of seed will yield only one bushel of grain.

11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning in pursuit of beer, who linger into the evening, inflamed by wine.

12 At their feasts they have lyre, harp, tambourine, flute, and wine. They do not perceive the LORD’s actions, and they do not see the work of his hands.