Isaiah 5
Big idea: A love song about a vineyard that turns into a verdict halfway through, and the audience convicts itself before it realises what it is listening to. Then six woes, and the last of them is about calling evil good.
The vineyard is replanted in 27:2-6, with a keeper watching it night and day; and Jesus retells this parable with the tenants added (Mk 12:1-9).
5:1–7 — He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed
The setup is a love song and the audience would have expected entertainment: let me sing for my beloved a song about his vineyard. The preparation is described in detail because it establishes that nothing was omitted — a very fertile hillside, dug over, cleared of stones, planted with choice vines, with a watchtower built in the middle and a wine press cut into the rock. Someone has invested for the long term. And then: he looked for it to yield grapes, and it yielded stinking ones.
1 Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. 2 He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in the middle of it, and also cut out a wine press in it. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. 3 “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes? 5 Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down. 6 I will lay it a wasteland. It won’t be pruned or hoed, but it will grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.” 7 For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression, for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.
5:8–30 — Woe to those who call evil good
The six woes are a list of specific behaviours, and the first is about property. Woe to those who join house to house and lay field to field until there is no room left, and you are made to live alone in the middle of the land — a description of estate consolidation, buying out neighbours until the village has one owner. The sentence attached is agricultural arithmetic: ten acres of vineyard will yield one bath of wine, and a homer of seed will yield an ephah, which is about a tenth of what was sown. The second woe is about the day given over to drinking — up early for strong drink and up late until wine inflames them — with the charge that they do not consider Yahweh's work or see what his hands have done. Hence, the text says, my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge.
8 Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the middle of the land! 9 In my ears, Yahweh of Armies says: “Surely many houses will be desolate, even great and beautiful, unoccupied. 10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield an ephah.” 11 Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink, who stay late into the night, until wine inflames them! 12 The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts; but they don’t respect the work of Yahweh, neither have they considered the operation of his hands. 13 Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes are parched with thirst. 14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its desire, and opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, their multitude, their pomp, and he who rejoices among them, descend into it. 15 So man is brought low, mankind is humbled, and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled; 16 but Yahweh of Armies is exalted in justice, and God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness. 17 Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and strangers will eat the ruins of the rich. 18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope, 19 who say, “Let him make haste, let him hasten his work, that we may see it; 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 those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink; 23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent! 24 Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust, because they have rejected the law of Yahweh of Armies, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. 25 Therefore Yahweh’s anger burns against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them and has struck them. The mountains tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the middle of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is still stretched out. 26 He will lift up a banner to the nations from far away, and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth. Behold, they will come speedily and swiftly. 27 No one shall be weary nor stumble among them; no one shall slumber nor sleep, neither shall the belt of their waist be untied, nor the strap of their sandals be broken, 28 whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent. Their horses’ hoofs will be like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind. 29 Their roaring will be like a lioness. They will roar like young lions. Yes, they shall roar, and seize their prey and carry it off, and there will be no one to deliver. 30 They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress. The light is darkened in its clouds.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).