Isaiah 5-8
Complete Jewish Bible
5 I want to sing a song for someone I love,
a song about my loved one and his vineyard.
My loved one had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 He dug up its stones and cleared them away,
planted it with the choicest vines,
built a watchtower in the middle of it,
and carved out in its rock a winepress.
He expected it to produce good grapes,
but it produced only sour, wild grapes.
3 Now, citizens of Yerushalayim and people of Y’hudah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more could I have done for my vineyard
that I haven’t already done in it?
So why, when I expected good grapes,
did it produce sour, wild grapes?
5 Now come, I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard:
I will remove its hedge,
and [its grapes] will be eaten up;
I will break through its fence,
and [its vines] will be trampled down.
6 I will let it go to waste:
it will be neither pruned nor hoed,
but overgrown with briars and thorns.
I will also order the clouds
not to let rain fall on it.
7 Now the vineyard of Adonai-Tzva’ot
is the house of Isra’el,
and the men of Y’hudah
are the plant he delighted in.
So he expected justice,
but look — bloodshed! —
and righteousness, but listen —
cries of distress!
8 Woe to those who add house to house
and join field to field,
until there’s no room for anyone else,
and you live in splendor alone on your land.
9 Adonai-Tzva’ot said in my ears,
“Many houses will be brought to ruin,
large, magnificent ones left empty;
10 for a ten-acre vineyard will produce
only five gallons of wine,
and seed from five bushels of grain
will yield but half a bushel.”
11 Woe to those who get up early
to pursue intoxicating liquor;
who stay up late at night,
until wine inflames them.
12 They have lutes and lyres, drums and flutes,
and wine at their parties;
but they pay no attention to how Adonai works
and never look at what his hands have made.
13 For such lack of knowledge
my people go into exile;
this is also why their respected men starve
and their masses are parched from thirst.
14 Therefore Sh’ol has enlarged itself
and opened its limitless jaws —
and down go their nobles and masses,
along with their noise and revels.
15 The masses are lowered, the nobles are humbled —
proud looks will be brought down.
16 But Adonai-Tzva’ot is exalted through justice,
God the Holy One is consecrated through righteousness.
17 Then lambs will be able to feed
as if they were in their own pasture,
and those wandering through will eat
from the ruined fields of the overfed.
18 Woe to those who begin by pulling
at transgression with a thread,
but end by dragging sin along
as if with a cart rope.
19 They say, “We want God to speed up his work,
to hurry it along, so we can see it!
We want the Holy One of Isra’el’s plan
to come true right now, so we can be sure of it!”
20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who change darkness into light
and light into darkness,
who change bitter into sweet
and sweet into bitter!
21 Woe to those seeing themselves as wise,
esteeming themselves as clever.
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,
men whose power goes to mixing strong drinks,
23 who acquit the guilty for bribes
but deny justice to the righteous!
24 Therefore, as fire licks up the stubble,
and the chaff is consumed in the flame;
so their root will rot,
and their flowers scatter like dust;
because they have rejected the Torah
of Adonai-Tzva’ot,
they have despised the word
of the Holy One of Isra’el.
25 This is why Adonai’s anger blazed up against his people,
why he stretched out his hand against them and struck them
[so hard that] the hills shook,
and corpses lay like trash in the streets.
Even after all this, his anger remains,
his upraised hand still threatens.
26 He will give a signal to faraway nations,
he will whistle for them to come
from the ends of the earth;
and here they come, so fast! —
27 none of them tired or stumbling,
none of them sleeping or drowsy,
none with a loose belt,
none with a broken sandal-strap.
28 Their arrows are sharp,
all their bows are strung,
their horses’ hoofs are like flint,
and their [chariot] wheels like a whirlwind.
29 They will roar like lions —
yes, roaring like young lions,
they growl and seize the prey
and carry it off, with no one to rescue.
30 On that day they will growl at them,
like the sea when it growls —
and when one looks toward land,
one sees darkness closing in;
the light is dissipated
in the obscuring overcast.
6 In the year of King ‘Uziyahu’s death I saw Adonai sitting on a high, lofty throne! The hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 S’rafim stood over him, each with six wings — two for covering his face, two for covering his feet and two for flying. 3 They were crying out to each other,
“More holy than the holiest holiness
is Adonai-Tzva’ot!
The whole earth is filled
with his glory!”
4 The doorposts shook at the sound of their shouting, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 Then I said,
“Woe to me! I [too] am doomed! —
because I, a man with unclean lips,
living among a people with unclean lips,
have seen with my own eyes
the King, Adonai-Tzva’ot!”
6 One of the s’rafim flew to me with a glowing coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 He touched my mouth with it and said,
“Here! This has touched your lips.
Your iniquity is gone,
your sin is atoned for.”
8 Then I heard the voice of Adonai saying,
“Whom should I send?
Who will go for us?”
I answered, “I’m here, send me!” 9 He said, “Go and tell this people:
‘Yes, you hear, but you don’t understand.
You certainly see, but you don’t get the point!’
10 “Make the heart of this people [sluggish with] fat,
stop up their ears, and shut their eyes.
Otherwise, seeing with their eyes,
and hearing with their ears,
then understanding with their hearts,
they might repent and be healed!”
11 I asked, “Adonai, how long?” and he answered,
“Until cities become uninhabited ruins,
houses without human presence,
the land utterly wasted;
12 until Adonai drives the people far away,
and the land is one vast desolation.
13 If even a tenth [of the people] remain,
it will again be devoured.
“But like a pistachio tree or an oak,
whose trunk remains alive
after its leaves fall off,
the holy seed will be its trunk.”
7 During the days of Achaz the son of Yotam, the son of ‘Uziyahu, king of Y’hudah, Retzin the king of Aram and Pekach the son of Remalyah, king of Isra’el, advanced on Yerushalayim to attack it but were unable to conquer it. 2 It was told to the house of David that Aram and Efrayim had become allies. Achaz’s heart began to tremble, as did the hearts of his people, like forest trees shaken by the wind.
3 Then Adonai said to Yesha‘yahu, “Go out now to meet Achaz, you and your son Sh’ar Yashuv, at the end of the aqueduct from the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderers’ Field; 4 and say to him, ‘Take care to stay calm and unafraid; don’t be demoralized by these two smoldering stumps of firewood, by the blazing anger of Retzin and Aram or the son of Remalyah; 5 or because Aram, Efrayim and the son of Remalyah have been plotting against you, thinking, 6 “We will invade Y’hudah, tear it apart, divide it among ourselves and appoint the son of Tav’el as king there.”
7 “‘This is what Adonai Elohim says:
“It won’t occur, it won’t happen.
8 For the head of Aram is Dammesek,
and the head of Dammesek Retzin.
In sixty-five years Efrayim will be broken
and will cease to be a people.
9 The head of Efrayim is Shomron,
and the head of Shomron is the son of Remalyah.
Without firm faith,
you will not be firmly established.”’”
10 Adonai spoke again to Achaz; he said, 11 “Ask Adonai your God to give you a sign. Ask it anywhere, from the depths of Sh’ol to the heights above.” 12 But Achaz answered, “I won’t ask, I won’t test Adonai.”
13 Then [the prophet] said,
“Listen here, house of David!
Is trying people’s patience
such a small thing for you
that you must try the patience
of my God as well?
14 Therefore Adonai himself
will give you people a sign:
the young woman* will become pregnant,
bear a son and name him ‘Immanu El [God is with us].
15 By the time he knows enough
to refuse evil and choose good,
he will [have to] eat
curdled milk and [wild] honey.
16 Yes, before the child knows enough
to refuse evil and choose good,
the land whose two kings you dread
will be left abandoned.
17 Adonai will bring the king of Ashur
on you, your people and your father’s house.
These will be days worse than any you’ve known
since Efrayim broke loose from Y’hudah.”
18 Yes, when that day comes,
Adonai will whistle for the fly
in the farthest streams of the Nile in Egypt
and for the bee in the land of Ashur.
19 They will come and settle, all of them,
in steep vadis and holes in the rocks
and on all thorn bushes and brambles.
20 When that day comes, Adonai will shave —
with a razor hired beyond the [Euphrates] River,
that is, with the king of Ashur —
the head and the hair between the legs,
and get rid of the beard as well.
21 When that day comes, a man will raise
a young cow and two sheep.
22 Will they produce in abundance?
No, he will [have to] eat curdled milk.
Indeed, everyone left in the land
will eat curdled milk and [wild] honey.
23 When that day comes,
wherever there once were a thousand grapevines,
worth a thousand pieces of silver,
there will be only briars and thorns.
24 One will go there [to hunt] with bow and arrow,
because all the land will be briars and thorns.
25 You won’t visit hills once worked with a hoe,
for fear of the briars and thorns;
it will be good only for pasturing cattle
and being trampled down by sheep.
8 Adonai said to me, “Take a large tablet, and write on it in easily readable letters; ‘Maher shalal, hash baz [the spoil hurries, the prey speeds along].’” 2 I had it witnessed for me by reliable witnesses — Uriyah the cohen and Z’kharyahu the son of Y’verekhyahu. 3 Then I had sexual relations with my wife; she became pregnant and gave birth to a son; and Adonai said to me, “Name him Maher Shalal Hash Baz; 4 because before the child knows how to cry, ‘Abba!’ and ‘Eema!’, the riches of Dammesek and the spoil of Shomron will be carried off and given to the king of Ashur.” 5 Adonai went on speaking and said more to me:
6 “Since this people has rejected
the gently flowing waters from Shilo’ach
and takes joy in Retzin and the son of Remalyah;
7 now Adonai will bring upon them
the mighty floodwaters of the [Euphrates] River —
that is, the king of Ashur and his power.
It will rise above all its channels
and overflow all its banks.
8 It will sweep through Y’hudah,
flooding everything and passing on.
It will reach even up to the neck,
and its outspread wings
will fill the whole expanse of the land.”
God is with us! [a]
9 You may make an uproar, peoples;
but you will be shattered.
Listen, all of you from distant lands:
arm yourselves, but you will be shattered;
yes, arm yourselves,
but you will be shattered;
10 devise a plan, but it will come to nothing;
say anything you like, but it won’t happen;
because God is with us [b].
11 For this is what Adonai said to me, speaking with a strong hand, warning me not to live the way this people does:
12 “Don’t regard as alliance what this people calls alliance,
and don’t fear what they fear or be awestruck by it;
13 but Adonai-Tzva’ot — consecrate him!
Let him be the object of your fear and awe!
14 He is there to be a sanctuary.
But for both the houses of Isra’el
he will be a stone to stumble over,
a rock obstructing their way;
a trap and a snare
for the inhabitants of Yerushalayim.
15 Many of them will stumble and fall,
be broken and trapped and captured.
16 Wrap up this document, and confine its teaching to those I have instructed.”
17 I will wait for Adonai,
who is hiding his face
from the house of Ya‘akov;
yes, I will look for him.
18 Meanwhile, I and the children
whom Adonai has given me
will become for Isra’el
signs and wonders
from Adonai-Tzva’ot
living on Mount Tziyon.
19 So when they tell you to consult
those squeaking, squawking mediums and fortune-tellers;
[you are to answer],
“Shouldn’t a people seek their God?
Must the living ask the dead
20 for teaching and instruction?”
For they will indeed give you
this unenlightened suggestion.
21 Distressed and hungry
they will pass through the land;
and because of their hunger they will grow angry
and curse by their king and by their God.
But whether they look up [to God]
22 or [down] at the earth,
they will see only trouble and darkness,
anguished gloom and pervasive darkness.
23 (9:1) But there will be no more gloom
for those who are now in anguish.
In the past the land of Z’vulun
and the land of Naftali were regarded lightly;
but in the future he will honor the way to the lake,
beyond the Yarden, Galil-of-the-Goyim.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 8:8 Hebrew: ‘immanu El
- Isaiah 8:10 Hebrew: ‘immanu El
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
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