World English Bible
- 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.
- 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.
- “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard.
- 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?
- 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.
- 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.”
- For the vineyard of the LORD 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.
- 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!
- In my ears, the LORD of Armies says: “Surely many houses will be desolate, even great and beautiful, unoccupied.
- For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield an ephah.”
- 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!
- The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts; but they don’t respect the work of the LORD, neither have they considered the operation of his hands.
- Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes are parched with thirst.
- 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.
- So man is brought low, mankind is humbled, and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled;
- but the LORD of Armies is exalted in justice, and God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness.
- Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and strangers will eat the ruins of the rich.
- Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope,
- 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!”
- 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!
- Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
- Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink;
- who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent!
- 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 the LORD of Armies, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
- Therefore the LORD’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.
- 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.
- 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,
- whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent. Their horses’ hoofs will be like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.
- 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.
- 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.
Isaiah 5
Isaiah begins with what sounds like a wedding or harvest song. In the ancient world, vineyards often carried the language of romance and delight. Yet the melody suddenly becomes a covenant lawsuit. The listeners are invited to judge the vineyard, only to discover that they themselves are the accused. Like David before Nathan, they pronounce judgment without realizing they stand inside the parable.
A vineyard on a Judean hill required years of patient labor. Stones had to be removed from the soil and used for terraces and walls. A watchtower guarded the crop, while a winepress was often cut directly into the limestone. Every detail speaks of costly, careful love.
But the vineyard produced be’ushim—not merely inferior grapes, but foul or stinking fruit. The tragedy is not barrenness. The vines are productive, but what they produce cannot nourish anyone.
Isaiah explains the fruit through a brilliant Hebrew wordplay. God sought mishpat, justice, but found mispach, oppression; He sought tsedaqah, righteousness, but heard tse’aqah, the cry of the wounded. The words sound alike, but their meanings are worlds apart. Judah had the appearance of covenant life without its taste.
This warns us that spiritual counterfeits often resemble holiness from a distance. Worship may be musical, churches active, theology polished—and yet the fruit God tastes is how the weak are treated.
The woes expose a society of uncontrolled appetite: landowners join field to field, revelers drink without measure, judges sell verdicts, and the self-assured rename evil as good. Those who accumulate property until they stand alone have gained land but destroyed neighborhood. They possess everything around them and have no one beside them.
Then comes a terrifying poetic answer: as the wealthy enlarge their estates, Sheol enlarges its mouth. Human appetite summons a greater appetite. Those who devour the land are themselves devoured.
Isaiah’s six woes may also prepare us for an unexpected seventh. In the next chapter, the prophet does not say, “Woe to them,” but, “Woe is me!” True prophetic sight eventually turns accusation into confession. We have not fully heard God’s judgment until we stop using it only against others.
Jesus later takes up Isaiah’s vineyard song in His parable of the tenants (Matthew 21:33–46). But the gospel goes further than Isaiah’s question, “What could have been done more?” God sends His beloved Son. Christ becomes the faithful Israel, the true Vine, bearing the fruit His people could not produce (John 15:1–8).
Grace does not call bitter fruit sweet. It joins barren branches to Christ so that justice, mercy, and truth may finally grow.
Consider: What fruit does your life produce in the lives of people who cannot repay you?
Matthew 21:33–46; John 15:1–8; Micah 6:8; Galatians 5:22–23; James 5:1–6
Suggested hymn: “Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service”
Beloved Lord, expose every false fruit in us. Forgive our polished worship when it hides indifference to suffering. Join us more deeply to Christ, the true Vine, and produce in us justice, mercy, humility, and love. Amen.