A Love Song for the Vineyard
5 1 Let me sing now for the one I love a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hillside. 2 He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in the middle of it and also carved out a winepress in it. Then he waited for it to yield good grapes, but it yielded only wild ones.
3 "And now, you who live in Jerusalem and you people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard." 4 "What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I waited for it to yield good grapes, did it yield only wild ones?" 5 "And now let me tell you what I am about to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled." 6 "I will make it a wasteland; it will not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns will grow up over it. And I will command the clouds to send no rain upon it."
7 For the vineyard of the Father of heaven's armies is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his cherished planting. He looked for justice, but found only bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard only an outcry. a a v7 The vineyard parable reveals our Father's heart — Israel is not his project but his beloved planting, and the grief that fills this chapter is the grief of a Father whose love has been spurned.
Woe to the Land-Hungry
8 Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field, until there is no room left and you live alone in the middle of the land.
9 With my own ears I heard the Father of heaven's armies swear: "Surely many houses will become desolate, great and beautiful ones left without anyone to live in them."
10 For ten acres of vineyard will yield only about six gallons of wine, and ten baskets of seed will yield only one basket of grain. b b v10 A bath and an ephah held about 22 litres; a homer was roughly ten times more — so the land returns barely a tenth of the seed sown.
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning to chase strong drink, who linger late into the evening till wine inflames them. 12 At their feasts there are lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine, but they pay no regard to the deeds of our Father, and they do not see the work of his hands. 13 Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; their honored men are starved, and the common people are parched with thirst. 14 Therefore the grave has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth wide, and down go her splendor and her crowds, her uproar and all who rejoice in her. 15 So mankind is humbled, and each person is brought low, and the proud eyes of the arrogant are cast down. 16 But the Father of heaven's armies is exalted in justice, and our holy Father shows himself holy in righteousness. 17 Then lambs will graze as in their own pasture, and strangers will feed among the ruins of the rich.
18 Woe to those who drag their wickedness along with cords of lies, and sin as with cart ropes, 19 who say, "Let him hurry; let him speed his work, so we may see it. Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, so we may know it." c c v19 The Holy One of Israel is Isaiah's signature title for our Father — appearing more than twenty-five times throughout this prophecy. Even on the lips of mockers, the title names the One who has bound himself to a people he refuses to abandon.
20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who call darkness light and light darkness, who call bitter sweet and sweet bitter. 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. 22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing strong drink, 23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe and strip away the rights of the innocent.
24 Therefore, as a tongue of fire devours the stubble and dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will rot and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of the Father of heaven's armies, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. 25 Therefore the anger of our Father burned against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them. The mountains quaked, and their corpses lay like garbage in the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still stretched out.
26 He will raise a signal for the nations far away and whistle for them from the ends of the earth, and swiftly, speedily they come. 27 Not one of them is weary or stumbles, not one drowses or sleeps; not a belt is loosened at the waist, not a sandal strap is broken. 28 Their arrows are sharpened and all their bows are drawn; their horses' hooves seem like flint and their wheels like a whirlwind. 29 Their roar is like a lion; they roar like young lions. They growl and seize the prey and carry it off, with no one to rescue them. 30 On that day they will growl over it like the growling of the sea. And if anyone looks across the land, there is only darkness and distress; even the light is darkened by its clouds.