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Isaiah 5 1Let me sing for my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching
his vineyard. My wellbeloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: 2and he digged it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and
planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of
it, and also hewed out a winepress therein: and he looked that it
should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. 3And
now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you,
betwixt me and my vineyard. 4What could have been done more to my
vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it
should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? 5And now
I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the
hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; I will break down the wall
thereof, and it shall be trodden down: 6and I will lay it waste;
it shall not be pruned nor hoed; but there shall come up briers and
thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 7For the vineyard of YHWH of hosts is the house of Israel, and
the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but,
behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry. 8Woe
unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there
be no room, and ye be made to dwell alone in the midst of the land! 9In mine ears [saith] YHWH of hosts, Of a truth many houses
shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant. 10For
ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall
yield [but] an ephah. 11Woe unto them that rise up early in the
morning, that they may follow strong drink; that tarry late into the
night, till wine inflame them! 12And the harp and the lute, the
tabret and the pipe, and wine, are [in] their feasts; but they regard
not the work of Jehovah, neither have they considered the operation of
his hands. 13Therefore my people are gone into captivity for lack
of knowledge; and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude
are parched with thirst. 14Therefore Sheol hath enlarged its
desire, and opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, and
their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth among them,
descend [into it]. 15And the mean man is bowed down, and the great
man is humbled, and the eyes of the lofty are humbled: 16but
YHWH of hosts is exalted in justice, and God the Holy One is
sanctified in righteousness. 17Then shall the lambs feed as in
their pasture, and the waste places of the fat ones shall wanderers
eat. 18Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of falsehood,
and sin as it were with a care rope; 19that say, Let him make
speed, let him hasten his work, that we may see it; and let the counsel
of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it! 20Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put
darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet,
and sweet for bitter! 21Woe unto them that are wise in their own
eyes, and prudent in their own sight! 22Woe unto them that are
mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink; 23that justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the
righteousness of the righteous from him! 24Therefore as the tongue
of fire devoureth the stubble, and as the dry grass sinketh 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 YHWH of hosts, and
despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. 25Therefore is the
anger of YHWH kindled against his people, and he hath stretched
forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them; and the mountains
tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the midst of the
streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is
stretched out still. 26And he will lift up an ensign to the
nations from far, and will hiss for them from the end of the earth;
and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly. 27None shall be
weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither
shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their
shoes be broken: 28whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows
bent; their horses' hoofs shall be accounted as flint, and their wheels
as a whirlwind: 29their roaring shall be like a lioness, they
shall roar like young lions; yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the
prey, and carry it away safe, and there shall be none to deliver. 30And they shall roar against them in that day like the roaring of
the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold, darkness [and]
distress; and the light is darkened in the clouds thereof. Average revision: 0 (ASV Unaltered)
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