VerseAI

NIV

Isaiah 5

  1. 1<pb/><t>I will sing for the one I love</t> <t>a song about his vineyard:</t> <t>My loved one had a vineyard</t> <t>on a fertile hillside.</t>
  2. 2<t>He dug it up and cleared it of stones</t> <t>and planted it with the choicest vines.</t> <t>He built a watchtower in it</t> <t>and cut out a winepress as well.</t> <t>Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,</t> <t>but it yielded only bad fruit. <pb/></t>
  3. 3<t>“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,</t> <t>judge between me and my vineyard.</t>
  4. 4<t>What more could have been done for my vineyard</t> <t>than I have done for it?</t> <t>When I looked for good grapes,</t> <t>why did it yield only bad?</t>
  5. 5<t>Now I will tell you</t> <t>what I am going to do to my vineyard:</t> <t>I will take away its hedge,</t> <t>and it will be destroyed;</t> <t>I will break down its wall,</t> <t>and it will be trampled.</t>
  6. 6<t>I will make it a wasteland,</t> <t>neither pruned nor cultivated,</t> <t>and briers and thorns will grow there.</t> <t>I will command the clouds</t> <t>not to rain on it.” <pb/></t>
  7. 7<t>The vineyard of the LORD Almighty</t> <t>is the nation of Israel,</t> <t>and the people of Judah</t> <t>are the vines he delighted in.</t> <t>And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;</t> <t>for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.</t>
  8. 8<t>Woe to you who add house to house</t> <t>and join field to field</t> <t>till no space is left</t> <t>and you live alone in the land.</t>
  9. 9<pb/>The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing: <pb/><t>“Surely the great houses will become desolate,</t> <t>the fine mansions left without occupants.</t>
  10. 10<t>A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath<f>[8]</f> of wine;</t> <t>a homer<f>[9]</f> of seed will yield only an ephah<f>[10]</f> of grain.” <pb/></t>
  11. 11<t>Woe to those who rise early in the morning</t> <t>to run after their drinks,</t> <t>who stay up late at night</t> <t>till they are inflamed with wine.</t>
  12. 12<t>They have harps and lyres at their banquets,</t> <t>pipes and timbrels and wine,</t> <t>but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD,</t> <t>no respect for the work of his hands.</t>
  13. 13<t>Therefore my people will go into exile</t> <t>for lack of understanding;</t> <t>those of high rank will die of hunger</t> <t>and the common people will be parched with thirst.</t>
  14. 14<t>Therefore Death expands its jaws,</t> <t>opening wide its mouth;</t> <t>into it will descend their nobles and masses</t> <t>with all their brawlers and revelers.</t>
  15. 15<t>So people will be brought low</t> <t>and everyone humbled,</t> <t>the eyes of the arrogant humbled.</t>
  16. 16<t>But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice,</t> <t>and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.</t>
  17. 17<t>Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture;</t> <t>lambs will feed<f>[11]</f> among the ruins of the rich. <pb/></t>
  18. 18<t>Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit,</t> <t>and wickedness as with cart ropes,</t>
  19. 19<t>to those who say, “Let God hurry;</t> <t>let him hasten his work</t> <t>so we may see it.</t> <t>The plan of the Holy One of Israel—</t> <t>let it approach, let it come into view,</t> <t>so we may know it.” <pb/></t>
  20. 20<t>Woe to those who call evil good</t> <t>and good evil,</t> <t>who put darkness for light</t> <t>and light for darkness,</t> <t>who put bitter for sweet</t> <t>and sweet for bitter. <pb/></t>
  21. 21<t>Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes</t> <t>and clever in their own sight. <pb/></t>
  22. 22<t>Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine</t> <t>and champions at mixing drinks,</t>
  23. 23<t>who acquit the guilty for a bribe,</t> <t>but deny justice to the innocent.</t>
  24. 24<t>Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw</t> <t>and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,</t> <t>so their roots will decay</t> <t>and their flowers blow away like dust;</t> <t>for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty</t> <t>and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.</t>
  25. 25<t>Therefore the LORD’s anger burns against his people;</t> <t>his hand is raised and he strikes them down.</t> <t>The mountains shake,</t> <t>and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets. <pb/>Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,</t> <t>his hand is still upraised. <pb/></t>
  26. 26<t>He lifts up a banner for the distant nations,</t> <t>he whistles for those at the ends of the earth.</t> <t>Here they come,</t> <t>swiftly and speedily!</t>
  27. 27<t>Not one of them grows tired or stumbles,</t> <t>not one slumbers or sleeps;</t> <t>not a belt is loosened at the waist,</t> <t>not a sandal strap is broken.</t>
  28. 28<t>Their arrows are sharp,</t> <t>all their bows are strung;</t> <t>their horses’ hooves seem like flint,</t> <t>their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.</t>
  29. 29<t>Their roar is like that of the lion,</t> <t>they roar like young lions;</t> <t>they growl as they seize their prey</t> <t>and carry it off with no one to rescue.</t>
  30. 30<t>In that day they will roar over it</t> <t>like the roaring of the sea.</t> <t>And if one looks at the land,</t> <t>there is only darkness and distress;</t> <t>even the sun will be darkened by clouds.</t>