Isaiah 5-8
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Song of the Unfruitful Vineyard
5 I will sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.(A)
2 He dug it and cleared it of stones
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
but it yielded rotten grapes.(B)
3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and people of Judah,
judge between me
and my vineyard.(C)
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to yield grapes,
why did it yield rotten grapes?(D)
5 And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.(E)
6 I will make it a wasteland;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.(F)
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are his cherished garden;
he expected justice
but saw bloodshed;
righteousness
but heard a cry!(G)
Social Injustice Denounced
8 Woe to those who join house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is room for no one,
and you are left to live alone
in the midst of the land!(H)
9 The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
Surely many houses shall be desolate,
large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.(I)
10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah.[a](J)
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning
in pursuit of strong drink,
who linger in the evening
to be inflamed by wine,(K)
12 whose feasts consist of lyre and harp,
tambourine and flute and wine,
but who do not regard the deeds of the Lord
or see the work of his hands!(L)
13 Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge;
their nobles are dying of hunger,
and their multitude is parched with thirst.(M)
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite
and opened its mouth beyond measure;
the nobility of Jerusalem[b] and her multitude go down,
her throng and all who exult in her.(N)
15 People are bowed down, everyone is brought low,
and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.(O)
16 But the Lord of hosts is exalted by justice,
and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.(P)
17 Then the lambs shall graze as in their pasture;
fatted calves and kids[c] shall feed among the ruins.
18 Woe to those who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood,
who drag sin along as with cart ropes,(Q)
19 who say, “Let him make haste;
let him speed his work
that we may see it;
let the plan of the Holy One of Israel hasten to fulfillment,
that we may know it!”(R)
20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!(S)
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and shrewd in their own sight!(T)
22 Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine
and valiant at mixing drink,(U)
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe
and deprive the innocent of their rights!(V)
Foreign Invasion Predicted
24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble
and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root will become rotten,
and their blossom go up like dust,
for they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of hosts
and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.(W)
25 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,
and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them;
the mountains quaked,
and their corpses were like refuse
in the streets.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is stretched out still.(X)
26 He will raise a signal for a nation far away
and whistle for a people at the ends of the earth.
Here they come, swiftly, speedily!(Y)
27 None of them is weary; none stumbles;
none slumbers or sleeps;
not a loincloth is loose;
not a sandal strap broken;(Z)
28 their arrows are sharp;
all their bows strung;
their horses’ hoofs seem like flint,
and their wheels like the whirlwind.(AA)
29 Their roaring is like a lion;
like young lions they roar;
they growl and seize their prey;
they carry it off, and no one can rescue.(AB)
30 They will roar over it on that day,
like the roaring of the sea.
And if one look to the land—
only darkness and distress;
and the light grows dark with its clouds.(AC)
A Vision of God in the Temple
6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty, and the hem of his robe filled the temple.(AD) 2 Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.(AE) 3 And one called to another and said,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”(AF)
4 The pivots[d] on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5 And I said, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”(AG)
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 The seraph[e] touched my mouth with it and said, “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.”(AH) 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”(AI) 9 And he said, “Go and say to this people:
‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.’(AJ)
10 Make the mind of this people dull,
and stop their ears,
and shut their eyes,
so that they may not look with their eyes
and listen with their ears
and comprehend with their minds
and turn and be healed.”(AK)
11 Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said,
“Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is utterly desolate;(AL)
12 until the Lord sends everyone far away,
and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.(AM)
13 Even if a tenth part remain in it,
it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak
whose stump remains standing
when it is felled.”[f]
(The holy seed is its stump.)(AN)
Isaiah Reassures King Ahaz
7 In the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel went up to attack Jerusalem but could not conquer it.(AO) 2 When the house of David heard that Aram had allied itself with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz[g] and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.(AP)
3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub,[h] at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the fuller’s field,(AQ) 4 and say to him: Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah.(AR) 5 Because Aram—with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah—has plotted evil against you, saying, 6 ‘Let us go up against Judah and terrify it[i] and conquer it for ourselves and make the son of Tabeel king in it’; 7 therefore thus says the Lord God:
It shall not stand,
and it shall not come to pass.(AS)
8 For the head of Aram is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
(Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered, no longer a people.)(AT)
9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you do not stand firm in faith,
you shall not stand at all.”(AU)
Isaiah Gives Ahaz the Sign of Immanuel
10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, 11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”(AV) 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 Then Isaiah[j] said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.[k](AW) 15 He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.(AX) 16 For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.(AY) 17 The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on your ancestral house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria.”(AZ)
18 On that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is at the sources of the streams of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.(BA) 19 And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the clefts of the rocks and on all the thornbushes and on all the watering holes.[l](BB)
20 On that day the Lord will shave with a razor hired beyond the River—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will take off the beard as well.(BC)
21 On that day one will keep alive a young cow and two sheep 22 and will eat curds because of the abundance of milk that they give, for everyone left in the land shall eat curds and honey.
23 On that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns. 24 With bow and arrows one will go there, for all the land will be briers and thorns, 25 and as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not go there for fear of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.
Isaiah’s Son a Sign of the Assyrian Invasion
8 Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large tablet and write on it in common characters, ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz,’[m](BD) 2 and have it attested[n] for me by reliable witnesses, the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.”(BE) 3 And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz, 4 for before the child knows how to call ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away by the king of Assyria.”(BF)
5 The Lord spoke to me again: 6 “Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently and melt in fear before[o] Rezin and the son of Remaliah,(BG) 7 therefore the Lord is bringing up against it the mighty flood waters of the River, the king of Assyria and all his glory; it will rise above all its channels and overflow all its banks; 8 it will sweep on into Judah as a flood and, pouring over, will reach up to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.(BH)
9 Take notice,[p] you peoples, and be dismayed;
listen, all you far countries;
gird yourselves and be dismayed![q]
10 Take counsel together, but it shall be brought to naught;
speak a word, but it will not stand,
for God is with us.”(BI)
11 The Lord spoke thus to me while his hand was strong upon me and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying:(BJ) 12 “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what it fears or be in dread.(BK) 13 But the Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.(BL) 14 He will become a sanctuary, a stone one strikes against; for both houses of Israel he will become a rock one stumbles over, a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.(BM) 15 And many among them shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”(BN)
Disciples of Isaiah
16 Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples.(BO) 17 I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.(BP) 18 See, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.(BQ) 19 Now if people say to you, “Consult the ghosts and the familiar spirits that chirp and mutter; should not a people consult their gods, the dead on behalf of the living,(BR) 20 for teaching and for instruction?” surely those who speak like this will have no dawn!(BS) 21 They will pass through the land,[r] greatly distressed and hungry; when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will curse[s] their king and their gods. They will turn their faces upward,(BT) 22 or they will look to the earth, but they will see only distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, and they will be thrust into thick darkness.[t](BU)
Footnotes
- 5.10 The Heb bath, homer, and ephah are measures of quantity
- 5.14 Heb her nobility
- 5.17 Gk: Heb aliens
- 6.4 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 6.7 Heb He
- 6.13 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 7.2 Heb his heart
- 7.3 That is, a remnant shall return
- 7.6 Or cut it off
- 7.13 Heb he
- 7.14 That is, God is with us
- 7.19 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 8.1 That is, the spoil speeds, the prey hastens
- 8.2 Q ms Gk Syr: MT and I caused to be attested
- 8.6 Cn: Heb rejoicing with
- 8.9 Gk: Heb Be shattered
- 8.9 Q mss: MT repeats gird yourselves and be dismayed!
- 8.21 Heb it
- 8.21 Or curse by
- 8.22 Meaning of Heb uncertain
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.