Isaiah 5-8

New Life Version

The Song of the Grape-Field

5 Let me sing for my loved one a love song about His grape-field: My loved one had a grape-field on a hill that grows much fruit. ² He dug all around it and took away its stones, and planted it with the best vine. He built a tower in the center of it, and cut out a place in it for crushing grapes. Then He expected it to give good grapes, but it gave only wild grapes.

³ “And now, O people living in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between Me and My grape-field. ⁴ What more was there to do for My grape-field that I have not done for it? When I expected it to give good grapes, why did it give wild grapes? ⁵ Now I will tell you what I am going to do to My grape-field. I will take away its fence and it will be destroyed. I will break down its wall and it will be crushed under foot. ⁶ I will make it a waste. It will not be taken care of, and thistles and thorns will come up. I will also tell the clouds not to rain on it.”

⁷ For the grape-field of the Lord of All is the people of Israel, and the men of Judah are the vines He planted. So He looked for what is right and fair, but He saw blood poured out. He looked for what is right and good, but He heard a cry of those in trouble.

It Is Bad for the Sinful

⁸ It is bad for those who join house to house and field to field until there is no empty space, and you have to live alone in the land. ⁹ The Lord of All has sworn in my ears, “For sure, many houses will be laid waste. Large and beautiful houses will be empty. ¹⁰ For ten fields of vines will give only eleven large bottles of wine. And 110 jars of seed will give only eleven jars of grain.” ¹¹ It is bad for those who get up early in the morning to run after strong drink! It is bad for those who stay up late in the evening that they may get drunk! ¹² They have harps, a noise-maker, a horn, and wine at their special suppers. But they do not think about the works of the Lord. They do not think of the work of His hands.

¹³ So My people are taken away to strange lands because they have not been wise. Their men of honor are dying because they are hungry. Their people are dried up because they are thirsty. ¹⁴ So the grave has become larger and has opened its mouth wide. And Jerusalem’s greatness, her people, her sounds of wild joy, and those who are happy with sin go down into it. ¹⁵ Man’s pride will be taken away. Important men will be put to shame. The eyes of the proud also will be put to shame. ¹⁶ But the Lord of All will be honored in what is right and fair. The holy God will show Himself holy in what is right and good. ¹⁷ Then the lambs will eat as in their field. And strangers will eat in the waste places of the rich.

¹⁸ It is bad for those who pull sin along with ropes of lies, who pull wrong-doing as with a wagon rope, ¹⁹ who say, “Let Him hurry. Let Him be quick to do His work, that we may see it. Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel be done, that we may know it!” ²⁰ It is bad for those who call what is sinful good, and good sinful, who say dark is light and light is dark, who make bitter sweet, and sweet bitter! ²¹ It is bad for those who are wise in their own eyes, and who think they know a lot! ²² It is bad for those who are good at drinking wine, and are proud as they mix strong drink! ²³ They take money in secret for saying that bad people are good. And they take away the rights of those who are not guilty.

²⁴ So, as fire destroys what is left of the cut grain and dry grass falls into the fire, so their root will waste away and their flower blow away like dust. For they have turned away from the Law of the Lord of All. They have hated the Word of the Holy One of Israel. ²⁵ Because of this the anger of the Lord has burned against His people. He has put out His hand against them and destroyed them. The mountains shook. Their dead bodies lay like waste in the center of the streets. For all this His anger is not turned away but His hand is still put out.

²⁶ He will raise up flags as a sign to the nations far away. He will call for them from the ends of the earth, and they will hurry to come. ²⁷ Not one of them is tired or falls. No one sleeps. Not a belt is loosened at the waist, or a shoe string broken. ²⁸ Their arrows are sharp, and their bows are ready. The feet of their horses are like hard stone. And the wheels of their war-wagons are like a strong-wind. ²⁹ Their noise is like that of a female lion. They sound like young lions. They make an angry noise as they take their food, and carry it away where no one can take it from them. ³⁰ In that day they will make an angry noise over it like the noise of the sea. If one looks to the land, he will see darkness and trouble. Even the light is made dark by its clouds.

Isaiah Called to Be a Man Who Speaks for God

6 In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and honored. His long clothing spread out and filled the house of God. ² Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ One called out to another and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of All. The whole earth is full of His shining-greatness.” ⁴ And the base of the doorways shook at the voice of him who called out, while the house of God was filled with smoke. ⁵ Then I said, “It is bad for me, for I am destroyed! Because I am a man whose lips are unclean. And I live among a people whose lips are unclean. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of All.”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, with a burning coal which he had taken from the altar using a special tool. ⁷ He touched my mouth with it, and said, “See, this has touched your lips, and your guilt is taken away. Your sin is forgiven.” ⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom should I send? Who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” ⁹ He said, “Go, and tell these people, ‘You hear and hear but do not understand. You look and look but do not see.’ ¹⁰ Make the hearts of these people hard. May their ears hear little and their eyes see little. Or they will see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts, and turn again and be healed.” ¹¹ Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered, “Until cities are destroyed and empty, and until houses are without people and the land is laid waste. ¹² Until the Lord has taken men far away, and there are many places with no people in the land. ¹³ Yet one tenth part of the people will stay in it. But it will be burned again, like an oak tree whose roots are still there when it is cut down. The holy seed is all that will be left (of Israel).”

Isaiah Is Sent to King Ahaz

7 In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, King Rezin of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to make war against Jerusalem. But they could not win the battle. ² When the family of David was told, “Syria has joined with Ephraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as trees shake with the wind.

³ Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Now you and your son Shear-jashub go out to meet Ahaz at the end of the ditch of the upper pool on the road to the Fuller’s Field. ⁴ Say to him, ‘Be careful and quiet. Do not be afraid or weak in your heart because of these two pieces of burnt and smoking wood. Do not be afraid of the burning anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. ⁵ Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, have made sinful plans against you, saying, ⁶ “Let us go up against Judah and make the people very afraid. Let us break open its walls, and make the son of Tabeel its king.” ⁷ But the Lord God says, “This plan will not work. It will not happen. ⁸ For the head of Syria is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin. (Within another sixty-five years Ephraim will be destroyed so that it is no longer a people.) ⁹ The head of Ephraim is Samaria. And the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, for sure you will not last.”’”

Word about Immanuel

¹⁰ Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, ¹¹ “Ask for something special to see from the Lord your God. Ask for it to be as deep as the place of the dead or as high as heaven.” ¹² But Ahaz said, “I will not ask. I will not test the Lord.” ¹³ Then Isaiah said, “Listen now, O people of David! Is it too small a thing for you to test men, that you will test my God as well? ¹⁴ So the Lord Himself will give you a special thing to see: A young woman, who has never had a man, will give birth to a son. She will give Him the name Immanuel. ¹⁵ He will eat milk and honey when He knows enough to have nothing to do with wrong-doing and chooses good. ¹⁶ For before the boy knows to turn away from what is bad and choose good, the land whose two kings you are afraid of will be left empty.” ¹⁷ The Lord will bring upon you and your people and your father’s house such days as have never come since the day that Ephraim was divided from Judah. He is going to bring the king of Assyria on you. ¹⁸ In that day the Lord will call for flies that are in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt, and for bees that are in the land of Assyria. ¹⁹ They will all come and stay in the narrow valleys, on the hill-sides, on the thorn bushes, and in the fields.

²⁰ In that day the Lord will use the king of Assyria from the other side of the Euphrates to cut off the hair from your head, your legs, and your face.

²¹ In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep. ²² And because they give much milk, he will have all he can use. For everyone who is left in the land will have milk and honey to eat. ²³ In that day, every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand pieces of silver, will be thistles and thorns. ²⁴ Men will go there with bows and arrows because all the land will be covered with thistles and thorns. ²⁵ As for all the hills which used to be cared for as a garden, you will not go there for fear of thistles and thorns. They will become a place where cattle feed and where sheep will run.

Assyria Will Take the Land

8 Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large piece of stone and write on it in easy-to-read letters: ‘They hurry to get what they can. They run to pick up what is left.’” ² And I took men who could be trusted to watch the writing, Uriah the religious leader and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah. ³ Then I went to the woman who spoke for God, and she was able to have a child, and gave birth to a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hashbaz. ⁴ For before the boy knows how to cry out ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the riches of Damascus and everything of any worth in Samaria will be carried away by the king of Assyria.”

⁵ The Lord spoke to me again, saying, ⁶ “These people have turned away from the gentle, flowing waters of Shiloah, and find joy in Rezin and the son of Remaliah. ⁷ So now, see, the Lord is ready to bring on them the strong and powerful waters of the Euphrates, the king of Assyria and all his greatness. It will rise up high and cause a flood. ⁸ Then it will flow into Judah. It will flood and pass through, and come up even to the neck. And the spread of its wings will cover the width of your land, O Immanuel.

⁹ “Be broken, O people, and be afraid. Listen, all you far places of the earth. Get ready, yet be afraid. Get ready, yet be afraid. ¹⁰ Make a plan, but it will come to nothing. Give your plan, but it will not be done. For God is with us.”

The People Are Told to Obey

¹¹ For the Lord said this to me with great power, and told me not to walk in the way of these people. He said, ¹² “Do not call holy all that these people call holy. Do not fear what they fear, or be afraid of it. ¹³ It is the Lord of All Whom you should think of as holy. Let Him be the One you fear. He is the One to be afraid of. ¹⁴ Then He will become a holy place. But He will be a stone of trouble and a rock to fall over for both houses of Israel. He will be a net and a trap for the people of Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Many will fall over them. They will fall and be broken. They will be trapped and caught.”

¹⁶ Put together what I have said. Hold to my teachings among my followers. ¹⁷ I will wait for the Lord Who is hiding His face from the family of Jacob. I trust Him and hope in Him. ¹⁸ See, I and the children the Lord has given me are something special to see and a wonder in Israel from the Lord of All, Who lives on Mount Zion.

¹⁹ When they say to you, “Ask those who speak in secret with the spirits of the dead and who use their secret ways,” should not a people ask their God? Should they speak to the dead for the living? ²⁰ Tell them to put their faith in the teaching and the Law. If they do not speak what this word says, it is because they have no light in them. ²¹ They will pass through the land troubled and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be angry and curse their king and their God as they look up. ²² Then they will look to the earth and see trouble and darkness and suffering and will be driven out into darkness.