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Isaiah 5

Isaiah turns a song about God’s care into an indictment of oppression and a warning of devastating judgment.

Isaiah sings about a vineyard planted with care on a fruitful hill that produces wild grapes. The owner asks Jerusalem and Judah to judge the case, then announces that its protection will be removed. Isaiah identifies the vineyard as God’s people, whose oppression has taken the place of justice. A series of woes names land grabbing, drunkenness, and corrupt judgment. The chapter ends with God summoning distant nations to attack, leaving the land in darkness and distress.

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1Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
2He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in the middle of it, and also cut out a wine press in it. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
3“Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard.
4What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?
5Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down.
6I will lay it a wasteland. It won’t be pruned or hoed, but it will grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”
7For the vineyard of the LORD of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression, for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.
8Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the middle of the land!
9In my ears, the LORD of Armies says: “Surely many houses will be desolate, even great and beautiful, unoccupied.
10For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield an ephah.”
11Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink, who stay late into the night, until wine inflames them!
12The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts; but they don’t respect the work of the LORD, neither have they considered the operation of his hands.
13Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes are parched with thirst.
14Therefore Sheol has enlarged its desire, and opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, their multitude, their pomp, and he who rejoices among them, descend into it.
15So man is brought low, mankind is humbled, and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled;
16but the LORD of Armies is exalted in justice, and God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness.
17Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and strangers will eat the ruins of the rich.
18Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope,
19who say, “Let him make haste, let him hasten his work, that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!”
20Woe 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!
21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
22Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink;
23who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent!
24Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust, because they have rejected the law of the LORD of Armies, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25Therefore the LORD’s anger burns against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them and has struck them. The mountains tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the middle of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is still stretched out.
26He will lift up a banner to the nations from far away, and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth. Behold, they will come speedily and swiftly.
27No one shall be weary nor stumble among them; no one shall slumber nor sleep, neither shall the belt of their waist be untied, nor the strap of their sandals be broken,
28whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent. Their horses’ hoofs will be like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.
29Their roaring will be like a lioness. They will roar like young lions. Yes, they shall roar, and seize their prey and carry it off, and there will be no one to deliver.
30They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress. The light is darkened in its clouds.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Isaiah 5:1The opening song establishes the owner’s love and the vineyard’s promise before exposing its failure to bear good fruit.
Isaiah 5:16As human pride is brought low, God’s justice displays his supremacy and the holiness his people have despised.
Isaiah 5:21This woe places confidence in one’s own wisdom among the offenses that bring judgment on Judah.
Where this chapter reaches

Jeremiah shares the image of God planting a choice vine that becomes corrupt, while Matthew and Luke describe a vineyard owner confronting those responsible for its fruit. Proverbs shares Isaiah’s warning against wisdom in one’s own eyes and the corruption of justice.

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After reading the whole chapter

How does the care described in the vineyard song shape your reading of the judgments that follow?

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Which of Isaiah’s woes most challenges your understanding of justice, and what makes it hard to hear?

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Questions people ask about Isaiah 5

What does the vineyard represent in Isaiah 5?

Verse 7 identifies the vineyard as the house of Israel and the men of Judah as God’s pleasant plant. The owner’s care shows God’s provision for his people. The wild grapes represent their failed response: God looked for justice and righteousness, yet found oppression and a cry of distress.

What does Isaiah 5:20 mean by calling evil good?

The verse condemns reversing moral judgments, treating evil as good and good as evil. Its paired images of darkness and light, bitterness and sweetness, make that reversal vivid. Nearby woes place it alongside self-assured wisdom and bribery that frees the guilty while denying justice to the innocent.

Who are the invading nations in Isaiah 5?

The chapter does not name the attackers. It describes nations summoned from far away, with disciplined troops, sharp arrows, horses, and chariots. Assyria fits the wider historical setting of Isaiah’s ministry, but the emphasis here falls on God’s command over the attackers and Judah’s inability to escape their assault.

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Isaiah · 66 chapters
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).