Isaiah 5-8

1I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

2He dug it up and cleared the stones and planted the finest vines. He built a watchtower in the middle and dug out a winepress as well. He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes, but the fruit it produced was sour!

3“And now, O dwellers of Jerusalem and men of Judah, I exhort you to judge between Me and My vineyard.

4What more could have been done for My vineyard than I have done for it? Why, when I expected sweet grapes, did it bring forth sour fruit?

5Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled.

6I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and thorns and briers will grow up. I will command the clouds that rain shall not fall on it.”

7For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress.

8Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field until no place is left and you live alone in the land.

9I heard the LORD of Hosts declare: “Surely many houses will become desolate, great mansions left unoccupied.

10For ten acres of vineyard will yield but a bath of wine, and a homer of seed only an ephah of grain.”

11Woe to those who rise early in the morning in pursuit of strong drink, who linger into the evening, to be inflamed by wine.

12At their feasts are the lyre and harp, tambourines and flutes and wine. They disregard the actions of the LORD and fail to see the work of His hands.

13Therefore My people will go into exile for their lack of understanding; their dignitaries are starving and their masses are parched with thirst.

14Therefore Sheol enlarges its throat and opens wide its enormous jaws, and down go Zion’s nobles and masses, her revelers and carousers!

15So mankind will be brought low, and each man humbled; the arrogant will lower their eyes.

16But the LORD of Hosts will be exalted by His justice, and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.

17Lambs will graze as in their own pastures, and strangers will feed in the ruins of the wealthy.

18Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceit and pull sin along with cart ropes,

19to those who say, “Let Him hurry and hasten His work so that we may see it! Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come so that we may know it!”

20Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who turn darkness to light and light to darkness, who replace bitter with sweet and sweet with bitter.

21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.

22Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and champions in mixing strong drink,

23who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of justice.

24Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw, and as dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will decay and their blossoms will blow away like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of Hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25Therefore the anger of the LORD burns against His people; His hand is raised against them to strike them down. The mountains quake, and the corpses lie like refuse in the streets. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

26He lifts a banner for the distant nations and whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Behold—how speedily and swiftly they come!

27None of them grows weary or stumbles; no one slumbers or sleeps. No belt is loose and no sandal strap is broken.

28Their arrows are sharpened, and all their bows are strung. The hooves of their horses are like flint; their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.

29Their roaring is like that of a lion; they roar like young lions. They growl and seize their prey; they carry it away, and no one can rescue it.

30In that day they will roar over it, like the roaring of the sea. If one looks over the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be obscured by clouds.

1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted; and the train of His robe filled the temple.

2Above Him stood seraphim, each having six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

3And they were calling out to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts; all the earth is full of His glory.”

4At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke.

5Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.”

6Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.

7And with it he touched my mouth and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your iniquity is removed and your sin is atoned for.”

8Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying: “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” And I said: “Here am I. Send me!”

9And He replied: “Go and tell this people, ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’

10Make the hearts of this people calloused; deafen their ears and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

11Then I asked: “How long, O Lord?” And He replied: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left unoccupied and the land is desolate and ravaged,

12until the LORD has driven men far away and the land is utterly forsaken.

13And though a tenth remains in the land, it will be burned again. As the terebinth and oak leave stumps when felled, so the holy seed will be a stump in the land.”

1Now in the days that Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, Rezin king of Aram marched up to wage war against Jerusalem. He was accompanied by Pekah son of Remaliah the king of Israel, but he could not overpower the city.

2When it was reported to the house of David that Aram was in league with Ephraim, the hearts of Ahaz and his people trembled like trees in the forest shaken by the wind.

3Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct that feeds the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field,

4and say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Do not be afraid or disheartened over these two smoldering stubs of firewood—over the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah.

5For Aram, along with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has plotted your ruin, saying:

6‘Let us invade Judah, terrorize it, and divide it among ourselves. Then we can install the son of Tabeal over it as king.’

7But this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘It will not arise; it will not happen.

8For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered as a people.

9The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will not stand at all.’”

10Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying,

11“Ask for a sign from the LORD your God, whether from the depths of Sheol or the heights of heaven.”

12But Ahaz replied, “I will not ask; I will not test the LORD.”

13Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God as well?

14Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel.

15By the time He knows enough to reject evil and choose good, He will be eating curds and honey.

16For before the boy knows enough to reject evil and choose good, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.

17The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since the day Ephraim separated from Judah—He will bring the king of Assyria.”

18On that day the LORD will whistle to the flies at the farthest streams of the Nile and to the bees in the land of Assyria.

19And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines and clefts of the rocks, in all the thornbushes and watering holes.

20On that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates —the king of Assyria—to shave your head and the hair of your legs, and to remove your beard as well.

21On that day a man will raise a young cow and two sheep,

22and from the abundance of milk they give, he will eat curds; for all who remain in the land will eat curds and honey.

23And on that day, in every place that had a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, only briers and thorns will be found.

24Men will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with briers and thorns.

25For fear of the briers and thorns, you will no longer traverse the hills once tilled by the hoe; they will become places for oxen to graze and sheep to trample.

1Then the LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary stylus: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

2And I will appoint for Myself trustworthy witnesses—Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah.”

3And I had relations with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

4For before the boy knows how to cry ‘Father’ or ‘Mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.”

5And the LORD spoke to me further:

6“Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoiced in Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

7the Lord will surely bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates — the king of Assyria and all his pomp. It will overflow its channels and overrun its banks.

8It will pour into Judah, swirling and sweeping over it, reaching up to the neck; its spreading streams will cover your entire land, O Immanuel!

9Huddle together, O peoples, and be shattered; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for battle, and be shattered; prepare for battle, and be shattered!

10Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted; state a proposal, but it will not happen. For God is with us.”

11For this is what the LORD has spoken to me with a strong hand, instructing me not to walk in the way of this people:

12“Do not call conspiracy everything these people regard as conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear; do not live in dread.

13The LORD of Hosts is the One you shall regard as holy. Only He should be feared; only He should be dreaded.

14And He will be a sanctuary— but to both houses of Israel a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, to the dwellers of Jerusalem a trap and a snare.

15Many will stumble over these; they will fall and be broken; they will be ensnared and captured.”

16Bind up the testimony and seal the law among my disciples.

17I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in Him.

18Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me as signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

19When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t a people consult their God instead? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?

20To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.

21They will roam the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged; and looking upward, they will curse their king and their God.

22Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.