Isaiah

The Song of the Vineyard

Let me sing for my beloved my love song about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.

He dug it up, cleared the stones, and planted the choicest vines. He built there a watchtower and hewed out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only wild grapes.

Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.

What more was there to do that I have not done for my vineyard? Good grapes were the yield I expected. Why did it yield only sour grapes?

Now I will let you know what I am going to do with my vineyard: I will remove its hedge and it will be burned; I will break down its wall and it will be trampled on.

I will make it a wasteland, I will neither prune nor hoe it, and briers and thorns will grow there. I command the clouds, as well, not to send rain on it.

The vineyard of the Lord Sabaoth is the people of Israel; and the people of Judah are his pleasant vine. He looked for justice, but found bloodshed. He looked for righteousness but heard cries of distress.

Threats Against the Wicked

What sorrow for you to buy up house after house, and field after field, until everyone is evicted and you live alone in the land.

The Lord Sabaoth has sworn in my hearing: “Many houses will remain in ruins, beautiful mansions without occupants.

Ten acres of vineyard will yield only a barrel of wine; ten bushels of seed, only a bushel of grain.”

Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after a strong drink, and tarry late in the evening till they are inflamed with wine.

They have lyres and harps, timbrels and flutes, and wine at their banquets; but they have no thought for the deeds of the Lord, nor do they see his plans.

Thus, my people will go into exile for want of understanding, their dignitaries dying of hunger, their masses parched with thirst.

Therefore, the grave has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth to the full; it swallows the upper crust of Zion, their throngs and their revelry.

Man shall be humbled and the mortal fallen, and the eyes of the haughty cast down.

But the Lord Sabaoth will be exalted when he comes in judgment; the sentences of the holy God will reveal his holiness.

Then will the lambs graze as at pasture, fatlings and kids will browse among the ruins.

Woe to those who haul their wrongs with cords of deceit, to those who pull a cart of sins,

to those who say, “Let God hurry, let him speed up his work so that we may see it. Let the plans of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come true, which we are eager to learn about!”

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who change darkness for light and light for darkness, who give bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and take themselves for sages.

Woe to those who are champions in mixing drinks and valiant at drinking bouts,

but acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of his rights.

Therefore, as the tongues of fire lick up stubble, as dry grass shrivels in the flames, so their roots will rot, and their flowers be blown away like dust, for they have rejected the law of the Lord Sabaoth and scorned the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Therefore, the Lord, his wrath burning against his people, raises his hand against them and strikes them down. The mountains quake: the corpses litter the streets. For all this, his anger does not subside, his hand is still raised, poised to strike.

Assyrian Invasion

He gives a signal to nations afar, he whistles to them from the ends of the earth; speedily and swiftly they come.

None of them is weary; none stumbles, none slumbers or sleeps; not a waist belt is loosened, not a sandal-thong broken.

Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strong: their horses’ hoofs seem like flint, their chariot wheels like the whirlwind.

They roar like young lions; they growl as they seize their prey, no one to rescue it as they carry it off.

On that day, they will roar over these people like the roaring of the sea. Just look at the land— darkness and distress, the light flickering out in shadows, darkened finally by the clouds.