Isaiah 5

Looking for a Crop of Justice

1 I'll sing a ballad to the one I love, a love ballad about his vineyard: The one I love had a vineyard, a fine, well-placed vineyard.2 He hoed the soil and pulled the weeds, and planted the very best vines. He built a lookout, built a winepress, a vineyard to be proud of. He looked for a vintage yield of grapes, but for all his pains he got junk grapes.

3 "Now listen to what I'm telling you, you who live in Jerusalem and Judah. What do you think is going on between me and my vineyard?4 Can you think of anything I could have done to my vineyard that I didn't do? When I expected good grapes, why did I get bitter grapes?

5 "Well now, let me tell you what I'll do to my vineyard: I'll tear down its fence and let it go to ruin. I'll knock down the gate and let it be trampled.6 I'll turn it into a patch of weeds, untended, uncared for-thistles and thorns will take over. I'll give orders to the clouds: 'Don't rain on that vineyard, ever!'"

7 Do you get it? The vineyard of God-of-the-Angel-Armies is the country of Israel. All the men and women of Judah are the garden he was so proud of. He looked for a crop of justice and saw them murdering each other. He looked for a harvest of righteousness and heard only the moans of victims. You Who Call Evil Good and Good Evil

You Who Call Evil Good and Good Evil

8 Doom to you who buy up all the houses and grab all the land for yourselves-Evicting the old owners, posting no trespassing signs, Taking over the country, leaving everyone homeless and landless.9 I overheard God-of-the-Angel-Armies say: "Those mighty houses will end up empty. Those extravagant estates will be deserted.10 A ten-acre vineyard will produce a pint of wine, a fifty-pound sack of seed, a quart of grain."

11 Doom to those who get up early and start drinking booze before breakfast, Who stay up all hours of the night drinking themselves into a stupor.12 They make sure their banquets are well-furnished with harps and flutes and plenty of wine, But they'll have nothing to do with the work of God, pay no mind to what he is doing.13 Therefore my people will end up in exile because they don't know the score. Their "big men" will starve to death and the common people die of thirst.14 Sheol developed a huge appetite, swallowing people nonstop! Big people and little people alike down that gullet, to say nothing of all the drunks.15 The down-and-out on a par with the high-and-mighty, Windbag boasters crumpled, flaccid as a punctured bladder.16 But by working justice, God-of-the-Angel-Armies will be a mountain. By working righteousness, Holy God will show what "holy" is.17 And lambs will graze as if they owned the place, Kids and calves right at home in the ruins.

18 Doom to you who use lies to sell evil, who haul sin to market by the truckload,19 Who say, "What's God waiting for? Let him get a move on so we can see it. Whatever The Holy of Israel has cooked up, we'd like to check it out."

20 Doom to you who call evil good and good evil, Who put darkness in place of light and light in place of darkness, Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

21 Doom to you who think you're so smart, who hold such a high opinion of yourselves!22 All you're good at is drinking-champion boozers who collect trophies from drinking bouts23 And then line your pockets with bribes from the guilty while you violate the rights of the innocent.

24 But they won't get by with it. As fire eats stubble and dry grass goes up in smoke, Their souls will atrophy, their achievements crumble into dust, Because they said no to the revelation of God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Would have nothing to do with The Holy of Israel.

25 That's why God flamed out in anger against his people, reached out and knocked them down. The mountains trembled as their dead bodies piled up in the streets. But even after that, he was still angry, his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.26 He raises a flag, signaling a distant nation, whistles for people at the ends of the earth. And here they come-on the run!27 None drag their feet, no one stumbles, no one sleeps or dawdles. Shirts are on and pants buckled, every boot is spit-polished and tied.28 Their arrows are sharp, bows strung, The hooves of their horses shod, chariot wheels greased.29 Roaring like a pride of lions, the full-throated roars of young lions, They growl and seize their prey, dragging it off-no rescue for that one!30 They'll roar and roar and roar on that Day, like the roar of ocean billows. Look as long and hard as you like at that land, you'll see nothing but darkness and trouble. Every light in the sky will be blacked out by the clouds. Holy, Holy, Holy!

Isaiah 6

Holy, Holy, Holy!

1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Master sitting on a throne-high, exalted!-and the train of his robes filled the Temple.2 Angel-seraphs hovered above him, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew."3 And they called back and forth one to the other, Holy, Holy, Holy is God-of-the-Angel-Armies. His bright glory fills the whole earth.4 The foundations trembled at the sound of the angel voices, and then the whole house filled with smoke.5 I said, "Doom! It's Doomsday! I'm as good as dead! Every word I've ever spoken is tainted-blasphemous even! And the people I live with talk the same way, using words that corrupt and desecrate. And here I've looked God in the face! The King! God-of-the-Angel-Armies!"6 Then one of the angel-seraphs flew to me. He held a live coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.7 He touched my mouth with the coal and said, "Look. This coal has touched your lips. Gone your guilt, your sins wiped out."8 And then I heard the voice of the Master: "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" I spoke up, "I'll go. Send me!"

9 He said, "Go and tell this people: "'Listen hard, but you aren't going to get it; look hard, but you won't catch on.'10 Make these people blockheads, with fingers in their ears and blindfolds on their eyes, So they won't see a thing, won't hear a word, So they won't have a clue about what's going on and, yes, so they won't turn around and be made whole."

11 Astonished, I said, "And Master, how long is this to go on?" He said, "Until the cities are emptied out, not a soul left in the cities-Houses empty of people, countryside empty of people.12 Until I, God, get rid of everyone, sending them off, the land totally empty.13 And even if some should survive, say a tenth, the devastation will start up again. The country will look like pine and oak forest with every tree cut down-Every tree a stump, a huge field of stumps. But there's a holy seed in those stumps."

Isaiah 7

A Virgin Will Bear a Son

1 During the time that Ahaz son of Jothan, son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel attacked Jerusalem, but the attack sputtered out.2 When the Davidic government learned that Aram had joined forces with Ephraim (that is, Israel), Ahaz and his people were badly shaken. They shook like trees in the wind.

3 Then God told Isaiah, "Go and meet Ahaz. Take your son Shear-jashub (A-Remnant-Will-Return) with you. Meet him south of the city at the end of the aqueduct where it empties into the upper pool on the road to the public laundry.4 Tell him, Listen, calm down. Don't be afraid. And don't panic over these two burnt-out cases, Rezin of Aram and the son of Remaliah. They talk big but there's nothing to them.5 Aram, along with Ephraim's son of Remaliah, have plotted to do you harm. They've conspired against you, saying,6 'Let's go to war against Judah, dismember it, take it for ourselves, and set the son of Tabeel up as a puppet king over it.'

7 But God, the Master, says, "It won't happen. Nothing will come of it8 Because the capital of Aram is Damascus and the king of Damascus is a mere man, Rezin. As for Ephraim, in sixty-five years it will be rubble, nothing left of it.9 The capital of Ephraim is Samaria, and the king of Samaria is the mere son of Remaliah. If you don't take your stand in faith, you won't have a leg to stand on."

10 God spoke again to Ahaz. This time he said,11 "Ask for a sign from your God. Ask anything. Be extravagant. Ask for the moon!"

12 But Ahaz said, "I'd never do that. I'd never make demands like that on God!"

13 So Isaiah told him, "Then listen to this, government of David! It's bad enough that you make people tired with your pious, timid hypocrisies, but now you're making God tired.14 So the Master is going to give you a sign anyway. Watch for this: A girl who is presently a virgin will get pregnant. She'll bear a son and name him Immanuel (God-With-Us).15 By the time the child is twelve years old, able to make moral decisions,16 the threat of war will be over. Relax, those two kings that have you so worried will be out of the picture.17 But also be warned: God will bring on you and your people and your government a judgment worse than anything since the time the kingdom split, when Ephraim left Judah. The king of Assyria is coming!"

18 That's when God will whistle for the flies at the headwaters of Egypt's Nile, and whistle for the bees in the land of Assyria.19 They'll come and infest every nook and cranny of this country. There'll be no getting away from them.

20 And that's when the Master will take the razor rented from across the Euphrates-the king of Assyria no less!-and shave the hair off your heads and genitals, leaving you shamed, exposed, and denuded. He'll shave off your beards while he's at it.

21 It will be a time when survivors will count themselves lucky to have a cow and a couple of sheep.22 At least they'll have plenty of milk! Whoever's left in the land will learn to make do with the simplest foods-curds, say, and honey.

23 But that's not the end of it. This country that used to be covered with fine vineyards-thousands of them, worth millions!-will revert to a weed patch.24 Weeds and thorn bushes everywhere! Good for nothing except, perhaps, hunting rabbits.25 Cattle and sheep will forage as best they can in the fields of weeds-but there won't be a trace of all those fertile and well-tended gardens and fields.