Major Prophets · Chapter 5 of 66

Isaiah 5

Isaiah sings a love song that turns into a lawsuit. God planted a choice vineyard, tended it perfectly, and looked for good grapes, but it yielded only wild ones. So He will tear down its hedge and let it be trampled. The vineyard is Israel; He looked for justice but found bloodshed. A series of woes then falls on greed, drunkenness, and those who call evil good.

What happens in Isaiah 5

Isaiah sings for his beloved a song about a vineyard on a fertile hill. God cleared the stones, planted the choicest vines, built a watchtower and winepress, and expected sweet grapes, but it produced only wild ones. He calls Jerusalem to judge between Him and His vineyard: what more could be done? Therefore He will remove its protective hedge, stop its rain, and let briers overrun it. The interpretation is explicit: the vineyard is Israel and Judah; He looked for justice but found oppression, for righteousness but heard a cry.

Six woes follow, against those who join house to house until the poor have no place, who chase strong drink all day, who drag sin with cords of lies, who call evil good and good evil, who are wise in their own eyes, and who acquit the guilty for a bribe. Because they reject God's law, a fierce foreign nation roars in from afar as darkness falls over the land.

Isaiah 5 in context

Delivered in eighth-century Judah, the vineyard song is a masterful trap, drawing hearers to condemn the vineyard before they realize they are it. The woes expose a prosperous society whose wealth was built on seizing land, exploiting the poor, and perverting justice.

Isaiah warns that God will summon a distant empire, historically Assyria, as the instrument of judgment on His fruitless people.

Main themes of Isaiah 5

Isaiah 5 (KJV)

1Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: 2And he fenced 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 made 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 go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: 6And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; 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 the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, 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 place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! 9In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant. 10Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah. 11Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! 12And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands. 13Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. 14Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. 15And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled: 16But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. 17Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat. 18Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope: 19That say, Let him make speed, and 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: 23Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! 24Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. 25Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn 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 unto 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 counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind: 29Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it. 30And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.

Verses to carry from Isaiah 5

“Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:”Isaiah 5:1

“And he fenced 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 made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.”Isaiah 5:2

“For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.”Isaiah 5:7

Reflection

God asks the piercing question: what more could He have done for you? Consider all the care He has invested in your life, and what fruit is actually growing from it. Beware especially the woe that calls evil good, for a heart that renames sin has stopped seeing its own wild grapes.

A prayer from Isaiah 5