5:1 Let me sing for my beloved
 my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
 on a very fertile hill.
2 He dug it and cleared it of stones,
 and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
 and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and he looked for it to yield grapes,
 but it yielded wild grapes.

3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
 and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard,
 that I have not done in it?
When I looked for it to yield grapes,
 why did it yield wild grapes?

5 And now I will tell you
 what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
 and it shall be devoured; [2]
I will break down its wall,
 and it shall be trampled down.
6 I will make it a waste;
 it shall not be pruned or hoed,
 and briers and thorns shall grow up;
I will also command the clouds
 that they rain no rain upon it.

7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
 is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
 are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
 but behold, bloodshed; [3]
for righteousness,
 but behold, an outcry! [4]

8 Woe to those who join house to house,
 who add field to field,
until there is no more room,
 and you are made to dwell alone
 in the midst of the land.
9 The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
“Surely many houses shall be desolate,
 large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.
10 For ten acres [5] of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
 and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.” [6]

11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning,
 that they may run after strong drink,
who tarry late into the evening
 as wine inflames them!
12 They have lyre and harp,
 tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts,
but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord,
 or see the work of his hands.

13 Therefore my people go into exile
 for lack of knowledge; [7]
their honored men go hungry, [8]
 and their multitude is parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite
 and opened its mouth beyond measure,
and the nobility of Jerusalem [9] and her multitude will go down,
 her revelers and he who exults in her.
15 Man is humbled, and each one is brought low,
 and the eyes of the haughty [10] are brought low.
16 But the Lord of hosts is exalted [11] in justice,
 and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
17 Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture,
 and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich.

18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood,
 who draw sin as with cart ropes,
19 who say: “Let him be quick,
 let him speed his work
 that we may see it;
let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near,
 and let it come, that we may know it!”
20 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!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
 and shrewd in their own sight!
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,
 and valiant men in mixing strong drink,
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
 and deprive the innocent of his right!

24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
 and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root will be as rottenness,
 and their blossom go up like dust;
for they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts,
 and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,
 and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them,
 and the mountains quaked;
and their corpses were as refuse
 in the midst of the streets.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
 and his hand is stretched out still.

26 He will raise a signal for nations far away,
 and whistle for them from the ends of the earth;
and behold, quickly, speedily they come!
27 None is weary, none stumbles,
 none slumbers or sleeps,
not a waistband is loose,
 not a sandal strap broken;
28 their arrows are sharp,
 all their bows bent,
their horses’ hoofs seem like flint,
 and their wheels like the whirlwind.
29 Their roaring is like a lion,
 like young lions they roar;
they growl and seize their prey;
 they carry it off, and none can rescue.
30 They will growl over it on that day,
 like the growling of the sea.
And if one looks to the land,
 behold, darkness and distress;
and the light is darkened by its clouds.

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!” [13]

“‘Keep on hearing, [14] but do not understand;
keep on seeing, [15] but do not perceive.’
10 Make the heart of this people dull, [16]
 and their ears heavy,
 and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
 and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
 and turn and be healed.”
11 Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”
And he said:
“Until cities lie waste
 without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
 and the land is a desolate waste,
12 and the Lord removes people far away,
 and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
13 And though a tenth remain in it,
 it will be burned [17] again,
like a terebinth or an oak,
 whose stump remains
 when it is felled.”
The holy seed [18] is its stump.

Isaiah Sent to King Ahaz

7:1 In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. 2 When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with [1] Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz [2] and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

3 And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub [3] your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field. 4 And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. 5 Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, 6 “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it [4] for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” 7 thus says the Lord God:

The Sign of Immanuel

10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your [6] God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 And he [7] said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. [8] 15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. 17 The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria.”

18 In that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures. [9]

20 In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired beyond the River—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also.

21 In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, 22 and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will eat curds, for everyone who is left in the land will eat curds and honey.

23 In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels [10] of silver, will become briers and thorns.24 With bow and arrows a man will come there, for all the land will be briers and thorns. 25 And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.

The Coming Assyrian Invasion

8:1 Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large tablet and write on it in common characters, [11] ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’ [12]2 And I will get reliable witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, to attest for me.”

3 And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz; 4 for before the boy knows how to cry ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

5 The Lord spoke to me again: 6 “Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, 7 therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks, 8 and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”

Fear God, Wait for the Lord

11 For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: 12 “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. 13 But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. 14 And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15 And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”

16 Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching [16] among my disciples. 17 I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. 18 Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. 19 And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. 21 They will pass through the land, [17] greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against [18] their king and their God, and turn their faces upward.22 And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.