Isaiah 5
My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
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.
please judge between me and my vineyard.
Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?
I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up.
I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down.
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.”
and the men of Judah his pleasant plant:
and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression;
for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.
who lay field to field, until there is no room,
and you are made to dwell alone in the middle of the land!
even great and beautiful, unoccupied.
and a homer
who stay late into the night, until wine inflames them!
but they don’t respect the work of Yahweh,
neither have they considered the operation of his hands.
Their honorable men are famished,
and their multitudes are parched with thirst.
and opened its mouth without measure;
and their glory, their multitude, their pomp, and he who rejoices among them, descend into it.
mankind is humbled,
and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled;
and God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness.
and strangers will eat the ruins of the rich.
and wickedness as with cart rope,
let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come,
that we may know it!”
who put darkness for light,
and light for darkness;
who put bitter for sweet,
and sweet for bitter!
and prudent in their own sight!
and champions at mixing strong drink;
but deny justice for the innocent!
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 Yahweh of Armies,
and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
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.
and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth.
Behold, they will come speedily and swiftly.
no one shall slumber nor sleep,
neither shall the belt of their waist be untied,
nor the strap of their sandals be broken,
and all their bows bent.
Their horses’ hoofs will be like flint,
and their wheels like a whirlwind.
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.
If one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress.
The light is darkened in its clouds.