Isaiah 5

Isaiah 1–5 forms a unit of rebuke and restoration addressed to Judah and Jerusalem. This chapter follows Isaiah 4, which celebrates Zion's cleansing and restoration, and serves as the closing section of that unit. It is immediately followed by Isaiah 6, which records the vision in which Isaiah receives his call.

Outline

• Verses 1–7 The Song of the Vineyard. The owner plants the choicest vine on a very fruitful hill and furnishes it with a tower and a winepress, but it brings forth wild grapes. The owner declares that he will take away its hedge and lay the vineyard waste. The vineyard is the house of Israel and the men of Judah.
• Verses 8–10 The first woe. The houses of those who endlessly add house to house and field to field will become desolate; ten acres of vineyard will yield only one bath, and a homer of seed only an ephah.
• Verses 11–17 The second woe. Those who are drunk from morning until night and do not regard the work of the LORD go into captivity and descend into Sheol. The LORD alone is exalted in judgment.
• Verses 18–19 The third woe. Those who draw iniquity as with a cart rope and mock the work of God.
• Verses 20–21 The fourth and fifth woes. Those who reverse good and evil, and those who are wise in their own eyes.
• Verses 22–25 The sixth woe. Those who are mighty to drink wine and justify the wicked for a bribe. Because they have cast away the law of the LORD, his anger is kindled against them.
• Verses 26–30 The LORD lifts up an ensign and summons a distant nation; a tireless army rushes in like a lion and covers the land with darkness.

Key Verses

• Isaiah 5:7 "he looked for judgment, but behold oppression" — This verse explains the meaning of the Song of the Vineyard. It is known for its Hebrew wordplay on similar-sounding pairs: mishpat ("judgment," or justice) and mispach ("oppression," or bloodshed), and tsedaqah ("righteousness") and tse'aqah ("a cry").
• Isaiah 5:20 "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil" — Widely quoted as an indictment of a society whose values have been inverted.

People and Places

• The LORD: Called "the LORD of hosts" and "the Holy One of Israel."
• The prophet Isaiah: The speaker who sings the song.
• Jerusalem and Judah: The referents of the vineyard parable.
• Sheol: The realm of the dead (rendered "hell" in the KJV), depicted as opening its mouth wide to swallow the proud.

Points for Reflection

• The distant nation of verse 26 ("the nations from far" in the KJV) is not named in the text. Many commentators identify it as Assyria.
• The refrain of verse 25, "his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still," recurs in chapters 9–10. For this reason the two sections are sometimes read together.
• Jesus' Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen (Matthew 21:33; Mark 12:1) borrows this chapter's imagery of the vineyard, hedge, winepress, and tower. It is also sometimes read alongside the Vine and the Branches in John 15.