July 30

Isaiah 5:1 — 7:25

5 Let me sing, please, to my beloved one a song of my loved one concerning his vineyard. There was a vineyard that my beloved one came to have on a fruitful hillside. 2 And he proceeded to dig it up and to rid it of stones and to plant it with a choice red vine, and to build a tower in the middle of it. And there was also a winepress that he hewed out in it. And he kept hoping for it to produce grapes, but it gradually produced wild grapes.

3 “And now, O YOU inhabitants of Jerusalem and YOU men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What is there yet to do for my vineyard that I have not already done in it? Why is it that I hoped for it to produce grapes, but it gradually produced wild grapes? 5 And now, please, may I make known to YOU men what I am doing to my vineyard: There will be a removing of its hedge, and it must be destined for burning down. There must be a breaking down of its stone wall, and it must be destined for a place of trampling. 6 And I shall set it as a thing destroyed. It will not be pruned, nor will it be hoed. And it must come up with the thornbush and weeds; and upon the clouds I shall lay a command to keep from precipitating any rain upon it. 7 For the vineyard of Jehovah of armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plantation of which he was fond. And he kept hoping for judgment, but, look! the breaking of law; for righteousness, but, look! an outcry.”

8 Woe to the ones joining house to house, [and] those who annex field to field until there is no more room and YOU men have been made to dwell all by yourselves in the midst of the land! 9 In my ears Jehovah of armies [has sworn that] many houses, though great and good, will become an outright object of astonishment, without an inhabitant. 10 For even ten acres of vineyard will produce but one bath measure, and even a homer measure of seed will produce but an ephah measure.

11 Woe to those who are getting up early in the morning that they may seek just intoxicating liquor, who are lingering till late in the evening darkness so that wine itself inflames them! 12 And there must prove to be harp and stringed instrument, tambourine and flute, and wine at their feasts; but the activity of Jehovah they do not look at, and the work of his hands they have not seen.

13 Therefore my people will have to go into exile for lack of knowledge; and their glory will be famished men, and their crowd will be parched with thirst. 14 Therefore Sheol has made its soul spacious and has opened its mouth wide beyond bounds; and what is splendid in her, also her crowd and her uproar and the exultant one, will certainly go down into it. 15 And earthling man will bow down, and man will become low, and even the eyes of the high ones will become low. 16 And Jehovah of armies will become high through judgment, and the [true] God, the Holy One, will certainly sanctify himself through righteousness. 17 And the male lambs will actually graze as in their pasture; and the desolate places of well-fed animals alien residents will eat.

18 Woe to those drawing error with ropes of untruth, and as with wagon cords sin; 19 those who are saying: “Let his work hasten; do let it come quickly, in order that we may see [it]; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know [it]!”

20 Woe to those who are saying that good is bad and bad is good, those who are putting darkness for light and light for darkness, those who are putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

21 Woe to those wise in their own eyes and discreet even in front of their own faces!

22 Woe to those who are mighty in drinking wine, and to the men with vital energy for mixing intoxicating liquor, 23 those who are pronouncing the wicked one righteous in consideration of a bribe, and who take away even the righteousness of the righteous one from him!

24 Therefore just as a tongue of fire eats up the stubble and into the flames mere dried grass sinks down, their very rootstock will become just like a musty smell, and their blossom itself will go up just like powder, because they have rejected the law of Jehovah of armies, and the saying of the Holy One of Israel they have disrespected. 25 That is why the anger of Jehovah has grown hot against his people, and he will stretch out his hand against them and strike them. And the mountains will be agitated, and their dead bodies will become like the offal in the midst of the streets.

In view of all this his anger has not turned back, but his hand is stretched out still. 26 And he has raised up a signal to a great nation far away, and he has whistled to it at the extremity of the earth; and, look! in haste it will swiftly come in. 27 There is no one tired nor is anyone stumbling among them. No one is drowsy and no one sleeps. And the belt around their loins will certainly not be opened, nor the laces of their sandals be torn in two; 28 because their arrows are sharpened and all their bows are bent. The very hoofs of their horses will have to be accounted as flint itself, and their wheels as a storm wind. 29 The roaring of theirs is like that of a lion, and they roar like maned young lions. And they will growl and grab hold of the prey and bring [it] safely away, and there will be no deliverer. 30 And they will growl over it in that day as with the growling of the sea. And one will actually gaze at the land, and, look! there is distressing darkness; and even the light has grown dark because of the drops falling on it.


6 In the year that King Uzziah died I, however, got to see Jehovah, sitting on a throne lofty and lifted up, and his skirts were filling the temple. 2 Seraphs were standing above him. Each one had six wings. With two he kept his face covered, and with two he kept his feet covered, and with two he would fly about. 3 And this one called to that one and said: “Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of armies. The fullness of all the earth is his glory.” 4 And the pivots of the thresholds began to quiver at the voice of the one calling, and the house itself gradually filled with smoke.

5 And I proceeded to say: “Woe to me! For I am as good as brought to silence, because a man unclean in lips I am, and in among a people unclean in lips I am dwelling; for my eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of armies, himself!”

6 At that, one of the seraphs flew to me, and in his hand there was a glowing coal that he had taken with tongs off the altar. 7 And he proceeded to touch my mouth and to say: “Look! This has touched your lips, and your error has departed and your sin itself is atoned for.”

8 And I began to hear the voice of Jehovah saying: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I proceeded to say: “Here I am! Send me.” 9 And he went on to say: “Go, and you must say to this people, ‘Hear again and again, O men, but do not understand; and see again and again, but do not get any knowledge.’ 10 Make the heart of this people unreceptive, and make their very ears unresponsive, and paste their very eyes together, that they may not see with their eyes and with their ears they may not hear, and that their own heart may not understand and that they may not actually turn back and get healing for themselves.”

11 At this I said: “How long, O Jehovah?” Then he said: “Until the cities actually crash in ruins, to be without an inhabitant, and the houses be without earthling man, and the ground itself is ruined into a desolation; 12 and Jehovah actually removes earthling men far away, and the deserted condition does become very extensive in the midst of the land. 13 And there will still be in it a tenth, and it must again become something for burning down, like a big tree and like a massive tree in which, when there is a cutting down [of them], there is a stump; a holy seed will be the stump of it.”

7 Now it came about in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham the son of Uzziah, the king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem for war against it, and he proved unable to war against it. 2 And a report was made to the house of David, saying: “Syria has leaned upon Ephraim.”

And his heart and the heart of his people began to quiver, like the quivering of the trees of the forest because of a wind.

3 And Jehovah proceeded to say to Isaiah: “Go out, please, to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, to the end of the conduit of the upper pool by the highway of the laundryman’s field. 4 And you must say to him, ‘Watch yourself and keep undisturbed. Do not be afraid, and do not let your heart itself be timid because of the two tail ends of these smoking logs, because of the hot anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah, 5 for the reason that Syria [with] Ephraim and the son of Remaliah has advised what is bad against you, saying: 6 “Let us go up against Judah and tear it apart and by breakthroughs take it for ourselves; and let us make another king reign inside it, the son of Tabeel.”

7 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “It will not stand, neither will it take place. 8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within just sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered to pieces so as not to be a people. 9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. Unless YOU people have faith, YOU will in that case not be of long duration.”’”

10 And Jehovah went on speaking some more to Ahaz, saying: 11 “Ask for yourself a sign from Jehovah your God, making it as deep as Sheol or making it high as the upper regions.” 12 But Ahaz said: “I shall not ask, neither shall I put Jehovah to the test.”

13 And he proceeded to say: “Listen, please, O house of David. Is it such a little thing for YOU to tire out men, that YOU should also tire out my God? 14 Therefore Jehovah himself will give YOU men a sign: Look! The maiden herself will actually become pregnant, and she is giving birth to a son, and she will certainly call his name Immanuel. 15 Butter and honey he will eat by the time that he knows how to reject the bad and choose the good. 16 For before the boy will know how to reject the bad and choose the good, the ground of whose two kings you are feeling a sickening dread will be left entirely. 17 Jehovah will bring against you and against your people and against the house of your father days such as have not come since the day of Ephraim’s turning away from alongside Judah, namely, the king of Assyria.

18 “And it must occur in that day that Jehovah will whistle for the flies that are at the extremity of the Nile canals of Egypt and for the bees that are in the land of Assyria, 19 and they will certainly come in and settle down, all of them, upon the precipitous torrent valleys and upon the clefts of the crags and upon all the thorn thickets and upon all the watering places.

20 “In that day, by means of a hired razor in the region of the River, even by means of the king of Assyria, Jehovah will shave the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away even the beard itself.

21 “And it must occur in that day that an individual will preserve alive a young cow of the herd and two sheep. 22 And it must occur that, due to the abundance of the producing of milk, he will eat butter; because butter and honey are what everyone left remaining in the midst of the land will eat.

23 “And it must occur in that day that every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand pieces of silver, will come to be—for the thornbushes and for the weeds it will come to be. 24 With arrows and the bow he will come there, because all the land will become mere thornbushes and weeds. 25 And all the mountains that used to be cleared of troublesome plants with a hoe—you will not come there for fear of thornbushes and weeds; and it will certainly become a place for letting bulls loose and a trampling ground of sheep.”