# Isaiah 5 (New King James Version)
God's Disappointing Vineyard

##### Chapter 5
###### 1 Now let me sing to my Well-beloved  
A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard:
My Well-beloved has a vineyard  
On a very fruitful hill.  

###### 2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones,  
And planted it with the choicest vine.  
He built a tower in its midst,  
And also made a winepress in it;  
So He expected _it_ to bring forth _good_ grapes,  
But it brought forth wild grapes.

###### 3 "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,  
Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.  

###### 4 What more could have been done to My vineyard  
That I have not done in it?  
Why then, when I expected _it_ to bring forth _good_ grapes,  
Did it bring forth wild grapes?  

###### 5 And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard:  
I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned;  
_And_ break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.  

###### 6 I will lay it waste;  
It shall not be pruned or dug,  
But there shall come up briers and thorns.  
I will also command the clouds  
That they rain no rain on it."

###### 7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts _is_ the house of Israel,  
And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant.  
He looked for justice, but behold, oppression;  
For righteousness, but behold, a cry _for help._Impending Judgment on Excesses

###### 8 Woe to those who join house to house;  
They add field to field,  
Till _there is_ no place  
Where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!  

###### 9 In my hearing the Lord of hosts _said,_  
"Truly, many houses shall be desolate,  
Great and beautiful ones, without inhabitant.  

###### 10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,  
And a homer of seed shall yield one ephah."

###### 11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning,  
_That_ they may follow intoxicating drink;  
Who continue until night, _till_ wine inflames them!  

###### 12 The harp and the strings,  
The tambourine and flute,  
And wine are in their feasts;  
But they do not regard the work of the Lord,  
Nor consider the operation of His hands.

###### 13 Therefore my people have gone into captivity,  
Because _they have_ no knowledge;  
Their honorable men _are_ famished,  
And their multitude dried up with thirst.  

###### 14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself  
And opened its mouth beyond measure;  
Their glory and their multitude and their pomp,  
And he who is jubilant, shall descend into it.  

###### 15 People shall be brought down,  
Each man shall be humbled,  
And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.  

###### 16 But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment,  
And God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.  

###### 17 Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture,  
And in the waste places of the fat ones strangers shall eat.

###### 18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity,  
And sin as if with a cart rope;  

###### 19 That say, "Let Him make speed _and_ hasten His work,  
That we may see _it;_  
And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come,  
That we may know _it._"

###### 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!

###### 21 Woe to _those who are_ wise in their own eyes,  
And prudent in their own sight!

###### 22 Woe to men mighty at drinking wine,  
Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink,  

###### 23 Who justify the wicked for a bribe,  
And take away justice from the righteous man!

###### 24 Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble,  
And the flame consumes the chaff,  
_So_ their root will be as rottenness,  
And their blossom will ascend like dust;  
Because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts,  
And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.  

###### 25 Therefore the anger of the Lord is aroused against His people;  
He has stretched out His hand against them  
And stricken them,  
And the hills trembled.  
Their carcasses _were_ as refuse in the midst of the streets.
For all this His anger is not turned away,  
But His hand _is_ stretched out still.

###### 26 He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar,  
And will whistle to them from the end of the earth;  
Surely they shall come with speed, swiftly.  

###### 27 No one will be weary or stumble among them,  
No one will slumber or sleep;  
Nor will the belt on their loins be loosed,  
Nor the strap of their sandals be broken;  

###### 28 Whose arrows _are_ sharp,  
And all their bows bent;  
Their horses' hooves will seem like flint,  
And their wheels like a whirlwind.  

###### 29 Their roaring _will be_ like a lion,  
They will roar like young lions;  
Yes, they will roar  
And lay hold of the prey;  
They will carry _it_ away safely,  
And no one will deliver.  

###### 30 In that day they will roar against them  
Like the roaring of the sea.  
And if _one_ looks to the land,  
Behold, darkness _and_ sorrow;  
And the light is darkened by the clouds.