Isaiah 5:1-12 ▼

1 I will sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: |The one I love had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

2 He plowed its land and cleared it of stones. Then he planted it with the choicest vines, built a watchtower in the middle of it, and dug a wine vat in it; He expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only wild ones.|

3 |So now, you inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, won't you please, between me and my vineyard.

4 What more could I do in my vineyard, that I haven't already done? When I expected it to produce good grapes, why did it yield wild ones?

5 |Now, let me tell you, won't you please, what I'm going to do to my vineyard. |I'm going to take away its protective hedge, and it will be devoured; I'll break down its wall, and it will be trampled.

6 I'll make it a wasteland, and it won't be pruned or cultivated. Instead, briers and thorns will grow up. I'll also issue commands to the clouds, that they drop no rain upon it.|

7 For the vineyard of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden in which he delights. He looked for justice, but saw only bloodshed; he searched for righteousness, but heard only an outcry!

8 |How terrible it will be for you who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you have settled yourselves alone in the middle of the land!|

9 The LORD of the Heavenly Armies has declared this so I could hear it: |Surely many houses will become desolate, great and beautiful houses, without occupants.

10 For ten acres of vineyard will produce only one bath, and one omer of seed will produce only one ephah.|

11 |How terrible it will be for those who rise at dawn in order to grab a stiff drink, for those who stay up late at night as wine inflames them!

12 They have the lyre and harp, the tambourine and flute, as well as wine at their festivals, but they don't respect what the LORD is doing, nor do they consider his actions.