Isaiah 5

Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.

He 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.

“Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard.

What 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?

Now 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.

I 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.”

For 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.

Woe 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!

In my ears, the LORD of Armies says: “Surely many houses will be desolate, even great and beautiful, unoccupied.

For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield an ephah.”

Woe 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!

The 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.

Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes are parched with thirst.

Therefore 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.

So man is brought low, mankind is humbled, and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled;

but the LORD of Armies is exalted in justice, and God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness.

Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and strangers will eat the ruins of the rich.

Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope,

who 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!”

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!

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink;

who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent!

Therefore 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.

Therefore 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.

He 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.

No 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,

whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent. Their horses’ hoofs will be like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.

Their 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.

They 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.

Chapter overviewAI-generated

Overview.
This chapter presents a parable of God’s vineyard—His people Israel—planted with care but producing only wickedness instead of justice, leading to divine judgment. Through a series of oracles, Isaiah exposes the moral corruption, greed, revelry, and arrogance of Judah’s leaders and people, warning that God’s justice will fall in the form of exile and national collapse, though He remains exalted in holiness.

Flow.

Begins with a symbolic love song: God tenderly prepares a vineyard (Israel), expects good fruit, but receives only wild grapes (injustice and oppression).
Declares judgment: the vineyard’s protection is withdrawn, leaving it desolate, a sign of coming devastation.
Pronounces six “woes” against social greed, drunkenness, moral confusion, self-righteousness, and perversion of justice.
Culminates in the announcement of God’s righteous anger, the certainty of judgment by foreign invasion, and the unrelenting hand of the Lord stretched out in punishment.

Connections.
Following chapter 4, which portrays God’s future glory and the purification of Zion, chapter 5 grounds the reader in the present moral failure that makes such purification necessary. The contrast between God’s care and human corruption sets the stage for the vision of divine holiness in chapter 6. The judicial blindness and impending exile warned of here—particularly the call of a foreign army (vv. 26–30)—are prerequisites for understanding the prophet’s commission to a people who will not listen, which chapter 6 takes up in the form of Isaiah’s commission in the temple.

What it teaches.
God established Israel as His chosen people with great care, expecting righteousness and justice, but found instead oppression and bloodshed (WCF 7.4; HC LD 19). Their luxurious indulgence, greed, and mockery of God’s judgment reveal a people who “do not regard the work of the Lord” (Isa. 5:12), a failure of knowledge that leads to exile (WLC 62). God’s holiness demands justice, and when His law is rejected, His judgment is certain and severe, manifest in historical acts of discipline (WCF 5.7). Yet even in judgment, God is exalted as righteous, and His sovereignty extends to raising up nations as instruments of His will (HC LD 10).

Apply.
When societal structures prioritize accumulation and pleasure while ignoring oppression and divine law, they set themselves against the rule of God and invite His just correction.

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