Isaiah 5:1-10

The Song of the Vineyard 1I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.

2He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.

3“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.

4What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?

5Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled.

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

7The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

Woes and Judgments 8Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.

9The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing: “Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants.

10A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath That is, about 6 gallons or about 22 liters of wine; a homer That is, probably about 360 pounds or about 160 kilograms of seed will yield only an ephah That is, probably about 36 pounds or about 16 kilograms of grain.”