Reflections on Isaiah 5

Isaiah 05 (Contemporary English Version)
1. I will sing a song about my friend's vineyard that was on the side of a fertile hill.
   
2. My friend dug the ground, removed the stones, and planted the best vines. He built a watchtower and dug a pit in rocky ground for pressing the grapes. He hoped they would be sweet, but bitter grapes were all it produced.
   
3. Listen, people of Jerusalem and of Judah! You be the judge of me and my vineyard.
   
4. What more could I have done for my vineyard? I hoped for sweet grapes, but bitter grapes were all that grew.
   
5. Now I will let you know what I am going to do. I will cut down the hedge and tear down the wall. My vineyard will be trampled and left in ruins.
   
6. It will turn into a desert, neither pruned nor hoed; it will be covered with thorns and briars. I will command the clouds not to send rain.
   
7. I am the LORD All-Powerful! Israel is the vineyard, and Judah is the garden I tended with care. I had hoped for honesty and for justice, but dishonesty and cries for mercy were all I found.
   
8. You are in for trouble! You take over house after house and field after field, until there is no room left for anyone else in all the land.
   
9. But the LORD All-Powerful has made this promise to me: Those large and beautiful homes will be left empty, with no one to take care of them.
   
10. Ten acres of grapevines will produce only six gallons of juice, and five bushels of seed will produce merely a half-bushel of grain.
    
11. You are in for trouble! You get up early to start drinking, and you keep it up late into the night.
    
12. At your drinking parties you have the music of stringed instruments, tambourines, and flutes. But you never even think about all the LORD has done,
    
13. and so his people know nothing about him. That's why many of you will be dragged off to foreign lands. Your leaders will starve to death, and everyone else will suffer from thirst.
    
14. The world of the dead has opened its mouth wide and is eagerly waiting for the leaders of Jerusalem and for its noisy crowds, especially for those who take pride in that city.
    
15. Its citizens have been put down, and its proud people have been brought to shame.
    
16. But the holy LORD God All-Powerful is praised, because he has shown who he is by bringing justice.
    
17. His people will be like sheep grazing in their own pasture, and they will take off what was left by others.
    
18. You are in for trouble! The lies you tell are like ropes by which you drag along sin and evil.
    
19. And you say, "Let the holy God of Israel hurry up and do what he has promised, so we can see it for ourselves."
    
20. You are headed for trouble! You say wrong is right, darkness is light, and bitter is sweet.
    
21. You think you are clever and smart.
    
22. And you are great at drinking and mixing drinks. But you are in for trouble.
    
23. You accept bribes to let the guilty go free, and you cheat the innocent out of a fair trial.
    
24. You will go up in flames like straw and hay! You have rejected the teaching of the holy LORD God All-Powerful of Israel. Now your roots will rot, and your blossoms will turn to dust.
    
25. You are the LORD's people, but you made him terribly angry, and he struck you with his mighty arm. Mountains shook, and dead bodies covered the streets like garbage. The LORD is still angry, and he is ready to strike you again.
    
26. The LORD has signaled for the foreign nations to come and attack you. He has already whistled, and they are coming as fast as they can.
    
27. None of them are tired. They don't sleep or get drowsy, and they run without stumbling. Their belts don't come loose; their sandal straps don't break.
    
28. Their arrows are sharp, and their bows are ready. The hoofs of their horses are hard as flint; the wheels of their war chariots turn as fast as a whirlwind.
    
29. They roar and growl like fierce young lions as they grab their victims and drag them off where no one can rescue them.
    
30. On the day they attack, they will roar like the ocean. And across the land you will see nothing but darkness and trouble, because the light of day will be covered by thick clouds.

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Isaiah began this chapter with a song about God ("the one I love") and His vineyard (Israel). God had a vineyard on a fertile hill and cared for it in every way, expecting a "yield of good grapes." (5:2) Instead, the grapes it yielded were worthless.  In the second stanza of the song (verses 3-6) God asks the question of the residents of Jerusalem, "What more could I have done for My vineyard than I did?" Further, He asked, "Why, when I expected a yield of good grapes, did it yield worthless grapes?" (5:4) Though an answer is not given to these questions, God replies with what He plans to do with His vineyard. He will tear down its protective wall allowing the animals to trample it and make it a wasteland, and He will keep the rain from falling on it. Stanza three identifies plainly who are the characters of the song. The vineyard owner is indeed "the Lord of Hosts" and the vineyard itself is the "house of Israel." (5:7) The yield of grapes that was expected of the vineyard represented justice in Israel. But instead of justice there was injustice and wretchedness.

Here the analogy of the vineyard ends and six woes are pronounced upon Israel as a result of her injustice. As in the analogy, the protective wall was torn down to allow animals to trample it, so will God take away His protection from Israel and allow other nations to trample her. 

• First Woe -  There were landowners who sought to acquire houses and fields until there was a shortage of both. This was done contrary to the Mosaic law that required all property to revert back to its original owners every seven years, the year of jubilee. This provision made it possible to maintain the equitable distribution of land as it was originally distributed to the 12 tribes. The woe was upon these landowners whose houses would go empty and whose fields would fail to yield a decent crop.
  
• Second Woe -  The second woe was upon those whose main pursuit was drunkenous. They arose early in the morning "in pursuit of beer," and lingered late into the evening "inflamed by wine." (5:11) They cared only for their own pleasures and had no respect for the Lord or "the work of His hands." (5:12) Their woe is that they will go into exile. God will be exalted in this woe because justice will prevail. 
  
• Third Woe -  Woe to those who become impatient with God to do His work quickly while they remain tied to their sins "with cart ropes." (5:18) Such people evidently see no connection between their actions and the problems they encounter. They want God to deliver them from their problems but do not want to remove the ropes that tie them to their sin. What the woe will be for these people is not stated.
  
• Fourth Woe -  This woe is upon those who pervert the values of good and evil. They call evil good, darkness light, and bitter sweet. Such people want to pursue their evil activities and draw others into these activities with them while all the while considering themselves good. Again, the woe is not stated.
  
• Fifth Woe -  The fifth woe is upon those who rely on their own cleverness and wisdom. This could apply to the leaders of Israel who depended on their own solutions to the delimmas of the nation. It could also apply to those earmarked in the previous woe who perverted values. Such usually think themselves to be clever. But when this woe (which is not stated) comes, the clever smirk will be wiped from their faces.
  
• Sixth Woe -  The last woe is upon those for whom the extent of their greatness is their drinking of wine, mixing of beer, and acquiting the guilty for a bribe. Upon these, the woe is stated. God "raised His hand against them and struck them; the mountains quaked, and their corpses were like garbage in the streets." 

The instrument of God's judgment to carry out these woes will be the ungodly distant nations for whom God will "raise(s) a signal flag . . . and whistle(s) for them from the ends of the earth." (5:26) Those who pride themselves on being God's chosen people but who do not act as God's people, will fall at the hands of the ungodly. Those who come against them will be untiring and unrelentless. No one can rescue Israel from its fate at the hands of these foes.