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The Song about the Vineyard

Let me sing a lovesong to my beloved about his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
He dug it up, removed its stones,
planted it with the choicest vines,
built a watchtower in it,
and made a winepress in it.
Then he waited for it to produce good grapes,
but it produced only sour, wild grapes.

Now then, you inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard!
What more could have been done for my vineyard
than what I have already done for it?
When I waited for it to produce good grapes,
why did it produce only sour, wild grapes?

Now then, let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
I will tear away its hedge so that it can be devoured
and tear down its wall so that it can be trampled.
I will make it a wasteland.
It will never be pruned or hoed.
Thorns and weeds will grow in it,
and I will command the clouds not to rain on it.

The vineyard of the Lord of Armies is the nation of Israel,
and the people of Judah are the garden of his delight.
He hoped for justice but saw only slaughter,
for righteousness but heard only cries of distress.

Six Sins Condemned

How horrible it will be for you
who acquire house after house and buy field after field
until there’s nothing left
and you have to live by yourself in the land.

With my own ears I heard the Lord of Armies say,
“Many houses will become empty.
Large, beautiful houses will be without people to live in them.
10 A ten-acre vineyard will produce only six gallons of wine,
and two quarts of seed will produce only four quarts of grain.”

11 How horrible it will be for those
who get up early to look for a drink,
who sit up late until they are drunk from wine.
12 At their feasts there are lyres and harps,
tambourines and flutes, and wine.
Yet, they don’t pay attention to what the Lord is doing
or see what his hands have done.

13 “My people will go into exile
because they don’t understand what I’m doing.
Honored men will starve,
and common people will be parched with thirst.”
14 That is why the grave’s appetite increases.
It opens its mouth very wide
so that honored people and common people will go down into it.
Those who are noisy and joyous will go down into it.
15 People will be brought down. Everyone will be humbled.
And the eyes of arrogant people will be humbled.
16 The Lord of Armies will be honored when he judges.
The holy God will show himself to be holy when he does what is right.
17 Then lambs will graze as if they were in their own pasture,
and foreigners will eat among the ruins of the rich.

18 How horrible it will be for those
who string people along with lies and empty promises,
whose lives are sinful.
19 They say,
“Let God hurry and quickly do his work
so that we may see what he has in mind.
Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel happen quickly
so that we may understand what he is doing.”

20 How horrible it will be for those
who call evil good and good evil,
who turn darkness into light and light into darkness,
who turn what is bitter into something sweet
and what is sweet into something bitter.

21 How horrible it will be for those
who think they are wise
and consider themselves to be clever.

22 How horrible it will be for those
who are heroes at drinking wine,
who are champions at mixing drinks,
23 who declare the guilty innocent for a bribe,
who take away the rights of righteous people.

The Lord Will Use Another Nation to Punish His People

24 As flames burn up straw
and dry grass shrivels in flames,
so their roots will rot,
and their blossoms will blow away like dust.
They have rejected the teachings of the Lord of Armies
and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25 That’s why the anger of the Lord burns hot against his people,
and he is ready to use his power to strike them down.
The hills tremble,
and dead bodies lie like garbage in the streets.
Even after all this, his anger has not disappeared,
and he is still ready to use his power.

26 The Lord raises up a flag for the nations far away.
With a whistle he signals those at the ends of the earth.
Look, they are coming very quickly!
27 None of them grow tired or stumble.
None of them slumber or sleep.
The belts on their waists aren’t loose
or their sandal straps broken.
28 Their arrows are sharpened; all their bows are ready to shoot.
Their horses’ hoofs are as hard as flint.
Their chariot wheels are as quick as the wind.
29 They roar like a lioness.
They growl like a young lion.
They growl as they snatch their prey
and carry it off to where no one can rescue it.
30 On that day they will roar over their prey
as the sea roars.
If they look at the land,
they will see only darkness and distress.
Even the light will be darkened by thick clouds.

Isaiah Is Sent with a Message for the Lord’s People

In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne. The bottom of his robe filled the temple. Angels [a] were standing above him. Each had six wings: With two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. They called to each other and said,

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies!
The whole earth is filled with his glory.”

Their voices shook the foundations of the doorposts, and the temple filled with smoke.

So I said, “Oh, no!

I’m doomed.
Every word that passes through my lips is sinful.
I live among people with sinful lips.
I have seen the king, the Lord of Armies!”

Then one of the angels flew to me. In his hand was a burning coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, “This has touched your lips. Your guilt has been taken away, and your sin has been forgiven.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom will I send? Who will go for us?”

I said, “Here I am. Send me!”

And he said, “Go and tell these people,

‘No matter how closely you listen, you’ll never understand.
No matter how closely you look, you’ll never see.’
10 Make these people close-minded.
Plug their ears.
Shut their eyes.
Otherwise, they may see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their minds,
and return and be healed.”

11 I asked, “How long, O Lord?”

And he replied,

“Until the cities lie in ruins with no one living in them,
the houses have no people,
and the land is completely desolate.
12 The Lord will send his people far away,
and a large area in the middle of the land will be abandoned.
13 Even if one out of ten people is left in it,
the land will be burned again.
When a sacred oak or an oak is cut down, a stump is left
The holy seed will be the land’s stump.”

The Virgin Will Have a Child

When Ahaz, son of Jotham and grandson of Uzziah, was king of Judah, Aram’s King Rezin and Israel’s King Pekah, son of Remaliah, went to Jerusalem to attack it, but they couldn’t defeat it. When word reached David’s family that the Arameans had made an alliance with Ephraim, the hearts of the king and his people were shaken as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.

Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear Jashub to meet Ahaz at the end of the ditch of the Upper Pool on the road to the Laundryman’s Field. Say to him, ‘Be careful, stay calm, and don’t be afraid. Don’t lose heart because of the fierce anger of Rezin from Aram and Remaliah’s son. These two are smoldering logs.’ Aram, Ephraim, and Remaliah’s son have planned evil against you, saying, ‘Let’s march against Judah, tear it apart, divide it among ourselves, and set up Tabeel’s son as its king.’ This is what the Almighty Lord says:

“It won’t take place; it won’t happen.
The capital of Aram is Damascus,
and the leader of Damascus is Rezin.
Ephraim will be shattered within 65 years
so that it will no longer be a nation.
The capital of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the leader of Samaria is Remaliah’s son.
If you don’t remain faithful,
you won’t remain standing.”

10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask the Lord your God for a sign. It can be anything you want.”

12 But Ahaz answered, “I won’t ask; I wouldn’t think of testing the Lord.”

13 “Listen now, descendants of David,” Isaiah said. “Isn’t it enough that you try the patience of mortals? Must you also try the patience of my God? 14 So the Lord himself will give you this sign: A virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and she will name him Immanuel [God Is With Us]. 15 He will eat cheese and honey until he knows how to reject evil and choose good. 16 Indeed, before the boy knows how to reject evil and choose good, the land of the two kings who terrify you will be deserted.

17 “The Lord will bring on you, your people, and your ancestor’s family a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah. ⌞He will bring⌟ the king of Assyria. 18 On that day the Lord will whistle for the flies that are at the distant branches of the Nile River in Egypt and for the bees that are in Assyria. 19 All of them will come and settle in the deep valleys, in the cracks in the cliffs, on all the thornbushes, and at all the water holes.

20 “On that day the Lord will hire the king of Assyria from beyond the Euphrates River to be a razor to shave the hair on your head, the hair on your legs, and even your beard. 21 On that day a person will keep alive a young cow and two sheep. 22 That person will eat cheese, because they will produce so much milk. Everyone who is left in the land will eat cheese and honey. 23 On that day, in every place where there were 1,000 vines (worth 1,000 pieces of silver), there will be briars and thorns. 24 People will come there with bows and arrows ⌞to hunt⌟ because the whole land will be filled with briars and thorns. 25 And you will no longer be able to go to all the hills which used to be cultivated because they will be filled with briars and thorns. It will be a place for turning oxen loose and letting sheep run.”

Isaiah’s Child Is a Sign of the Lord’s Protection of Judah

The Lord said to me, “Take a large writing tablet, and write on it with a pen: ‘Maher Shalal Hash Baz’ [The Looting Will Come Quickly; the Prey Will Be Easy]. I will have these dependable witnesses testify: the priest Uriah and Zechariah (son of Jeberechiah).”

I slept with the prophet. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. The Lord told me, “Name him Maher Shalal Hash Baz. Before the boy knows how to say ‘Daddy’ or ‘Mommy,’ the wealth of Damascus and the loot from Samaria will be carried away to the king of Assyria.”

Assyria Will Invade, but It Will Not Conquer Judah

The Lord spoke to me again. He said,

“These people have rejected the gently flowing water of Shiloah
and find joy in Rezin and Remaliah’s son.”
That is why the Lord is going to bring against them
the raging and powerful floodwaters of the Euphrates River—
the king of Assyria with all his power.
It will overflow all its channels and go over all its banks.
It will sweep through Judah.
It will overflow and pass through; it will be neck-high.
Its outspread wings will extend over your whole country, O Immanuel.

Be broken, you people. Be terrified.
Listen, all you distant parts of the earth.
Prepare for battle, but be terrified.
Prepare for battle, but be terrified.

10 Make plans for battle, but they will never succeed.
Give orders, but they won’t be carried out,
because God is with us!

Some in Jerusalem Will Stumble Because They Do Not Trust the Lord

11 This is what the Lord said with his powerful hand on me.

He warned me not to follow the ways of these people:
12 “Don’t say that everything these people call a conspiracy
is a conspiracy.
Don’t fear what they fear.
Don’t let it terrify you.”
13 Remember that the Lord of Armies is holy.
He is the one you should fear
and the one you should be terrified of.
14 He will be a place of safety for you.
But he will be a rock that makes people trip
and a stumbling block for both kingdoms of Israel.
He will be a trap and a snare for those who live in Jerusalem.
15 Many will stumble.
They will fall and be broken.
They will be trapped and caught.

16 Tie up the written instructions.
Seal the teachings among my disciples.

17 I will wait for the Lord,
who hides his face from the descendants of Jacob.
I will hope in him.
18 I am here with the children that the Lord has given me.
We are signs and symbols in Israel
from the Lord of Armies, who lives on Mount Zion.
19 People will say to you, “Ask for help from the mediums
and the fortunetellers, who whisper and mutter.”
Shouldn’t people ask their God for help instead?
Why should they ask the dead to help the living?
20 They should go to the teachings and to the written instructions.
If people don’t speak these words,
it is because it doesn’t dawn on them.
21 They will pass through the land when they are hard-pressed and hungry.
When they are hungry, they will be furious.
Then they will look up, cursing their king and God.
22 They will look at the earth and see only distress and gloom.
They will go in anguish and be forced into darkness.

Footnotes

  1. 6:2 Or “Seraphim.”

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