Isaiah 5, Woe to the Vineyard!

Isaiah continues with a vision of the future of Israel/Zion.

Isaiah 5:1-2, My love's vineyard

I will sing for the one I love

    a song about his vineyard:

My loved one had a vineyard

    on a fertile hillside.

He 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.

Israel is described as a carefully constructed vineyard, on a fertile hillside cleared of stones, planted with vines, with an accompanying winepress and watchtower. But the yield from this promising vineyard has not been good....

Isaiah 5:3-4, What should I do with my vineyard?

“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,

    judge between me and my vineyard.

What 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?

The One Who constructed the vineyard now asks, "What should I do with something which yields only bad fruit?" There is an emphasis here on logical justice. Does God feel He has any other choice?

Isaiah 5:5-6, Wasteland

Now 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.

I 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.”

Here is the answer to the "What should I do?" question. The vineyard will be taken down -- walls remove, vines allowed to decay, weeds allowed to grow up around it. This is what anyone would do if they are giving up on the vineyard.  However, the last line reveals the supernatural power of the speaker -- this vineyard owner will no longer "command the clouds" to rain on the vineyard.

Isaiah 5:7, Israel is my vineyard

The 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.

Isaiah makes the identify of the vineyard plain -- it is the nation of Israel. This metaphor, Israel as God's prize vineyard, appears in Psalm 80:8-19. There the psalmist asks, Why has God, who planted the beautiful vine, allowed it to be destroyed? Ezekiel speaks of this in Ezekiel 15; Messiah Yeshua, eight centuries later, will use the vine metaphor in John 15:1-8.

Isaiah 5:8-10, Woe to the wealthy landowner

Woe to you who add house to house

    and join field to field

till no space is left

    and you live alone in the land.

The Lord Almighty has declared in my hearing:

“Surely the great houses will become desolate,

    the fine mansions left without occupants.

A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine;

    a homer of seed will yield only an ephah of grain.”

There now follow a series of "Woe"s. Grogan calls these "Woe oracles" and mentions Amos 5:18 and 6:1 as examples. There will be six such "woes" in this chapter. In this example, the warning is to the people who accumulate property, who build great houses at the expense of others.

Isaiah 5:11-12, Inflamed with wine

Woe to those who rise early in the morning

    to run after their drinks,

who stay up late at night

    till they are inflamed with wine.

They have harps and lyres at their banquets,

    pipes and timbrels and wine,

but they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord,

    no respect for the work of his hands.

Here the "woe" is aimed at the partiers who run after drink, who spend their time on wine and music and revelry but have no regard for their God. (This is one reason the "vineyard" is doing so poorly.)

Isaiah 5:13-15, Exile and Death

Therefore my people will go into exile

    for lack of understanding;

those of high rank will die of hunger

    and the common people will be parched with thirst.

Therefore Death expands its jaws,

    opening wide its mouth;

into it will descend their nobles and masses

    with all their brawlers and revelers.

So people will be brought low

    and everyone humbled,

    the eyes of the arrogant humbled.

The greed and debauchery of the people, described earlier, is the reason for the upcoming exile. Indeed Death is personified as opening his jaws, preparing to swallow up the nobles!

Isaiah 5:16-17, Justice and righteousness

But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his justice,

    and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.

Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture;

    lambs will feed among the ruins of the rich.

All of the coming destruction is a result of God's justice, of His integrity. In that coming justice, sheep and lambs will contentedly graze among the ruins.

Isaiah 5:18-19, Woe to the seducers

Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit,

    and wickedness as with cart ropes,

to those who say, “Let God hurry;

    let him hasten his work

    so we may see it.

The plan of the Holy One of Israel—

    let it approach, let it come into view,

    so we may know it.”

Here the accusations are against those who reach out and draw in wickedness as if with ropes, who dismiss the actions of God, even, possibly, taunt Him in His slowness to respond.

Isaiah 5:20, Who call evil good....

Woe to those who call evil good

    and good evil,

who put darkness for light

    and light for darkness,

who put bitter for sweet

    and sweet for bitter.

This verse is famous -- it is natural, although a bit shocking, for some to call their own evil actions "good" and to call the goodness of others "evil." (In modern US politics, each side makes this accusation against their opponents ... and both sides are correct in that accusation!cy)

Isaiah 5:21, Wise in their own eyes

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes

    and clever in their own sight.

Arrogance and self-righteous pride are condemned throughout the Old Testament; here the condemnation is against those who believe themselves to be wise and clever, despite (apparently) evidence to the contrary.

Isaiah 5:22-24, Wine heroes

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine

    and champions at mixing drinks,

who acquit the guilty for a bribe,

    but deny justice to the innocent.

Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw

    and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,

so their roots will decay

    and their flowers blow away like dust;

for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty

    and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.

The cocktail hour heroes are included, along with accusations (as before) of letting the guilty go free but condemning the innocent. These will be vines that decay into dust because they ignore the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah describes the people as withering grass in 40:6-8.)

Isaiah 5:25a, Burning anger

Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against his people;

    his hand is raised and he strikes them down.

The mountains shake,

    and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets.

And so will God strike down Israel.  Even though this has already begun, condemnation and destruction are still on the way.

Isaiah's description of God striking down the people includes mountains shaking and dead bodies in the street, a scene similar to that of a great earthquake. Amos 1:1 recalls an earthquake during this time, during the reign of Uzziah. This earthquake is also mentioned in Zechariah 14:5.

Isaiah 5:25b-30, The nations are coming

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,

    his hand is still upraised.

He lifts up a banner for the distant nations,

    he whistles for those at the ends of the earth.

Here they come,

    swiftly and speedily!

Not one of them grows tired or stumbles,

    not one slumbers or sleeps;

not a belt is loosened at the waist,

    not a sandal strap is broken.

Their arrows are sharp,

    all their bows are strung;

their horses’ hooves seem like flint,

    their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.

Their roar is like that of the lion,

    they roar like young lions;

they growl as they seize their prey

    and carry it off with no one to rescue.

In that day they will roar over it

    like the roaring of the sea.

And if one looks at the land,

    there is only darkness and distress;

    even the sun will be darkened by clouds.

Ab invading nation is coming. (Surely this is Assyria, which will sweep away the northern kingdom and threaten the southern kingdom.) The invading people form a swift and destructive force, with sharp arrows, powerful horses and chariots. They are compared to roaring lions and the roaring sea. They are a dark powerful storm, sweeping towards Israel, blotting out the sun.