Isaiah · chapter 5 of 66
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Isaiah 5 contains the song of the vineyard, in which the Lord carefully tends his vineyard, Judah, but it yields sour grapes instead of good ones. Isaiah then pronounces six woes against greed, drunkenness, lies, reversing good and evil, pride and corrupt justice. The chapter ends with the announcement of a distant nation that will come as judgment.
This chapter closes the first major section of the book (chapters 1 to 5), in which Isaiah charges Judah with rebellion and injustice. After the promise of cleansing in chapter 4, the prophet presents a sung parable that reveals the root of the problem: God looked for justice and found violence.
Isaiah sings a love song about his beloved's vineyard. The friend planted it on a fertile hill, dug it, cleared the stones, planted choice vines, built a tower and hewed out a winepress, and expected good grapes, but it yielded sour ones. He then asks the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah to judge between him and his vineyard: what more could he have done? The Lord announces that he will remove its hedge, let it be trampled and wasted, and command the clouds not to rain. The vineyard is the house of Israel; he looked for justice and saw oppression, for righteousness and heard a cry.
Then come six woes. The first is against those who join house to house and field to field until they dwell alone in the land; the second against those who chase strong drink from early morning and ignore the work of the Lord; the third against those who drag sin along with cords of falsehood and mock God's plan; the fourth against those who call evil good and good evil; the fifth against the wise in their own eyes; and the sixth against the heroes at drinking wine who acquit the guilty for a bribe and take away the right of the innocent.
Therefore the Lord has stretched out his hand against his people. He raises a signal for a distant nation that will come swiftly, without weariness or stumbling, with sharp arrows and a lion's roar. The land will be dark with distress.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The owner of the vineyard dug it, cleared it, planted choice vines and expected good grapes, but it yielded sour ones. After all God's care for his people, the only thing they produced was bad fruit.
Isaiah explains the parable: the vineyard is the house of Israel and the men of Judah are its pleasant planting. God looked for justice and righteousness and found bloodshed and the cry of the oppressed.
This woe is against those who call evil good and good evil and turn darkness into light. It describes a society that has lost its moral sense and justifies what God condemns.
As fire devours stubble, so their root will rot and their blossom go up like dust, because they rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. The root of the judgment is contempt for God's word.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: He expected good grapes but got sour ones. — Isaiah 5:2
Answer: He will remove its hedge, let it be trampled and wasted, and command the clouds not to rain on it. — Isaiah 5:5-6
Answer: The house of Israel; the men of Judah are his pleasant planting. — Isaiah 5:7
Answer: Those who join house to house and field to field until they dwell alone in the land. — Isaiah 5:8
Answer: The one against those who call evil good and good evil, putting darkness for light and light for darkness. — Isaiah 5:20
Answer: From far away, swiftly, without weariness or stumbling, with sharp arrows and a roar like a lion. — Isaiah 5:26-29
The song of the vineyard asks what fruit we are bearing after all God has done for us. In a church or small group, it is a good question for examining whether our lives produce justice, compassion and truth or only a religious appearance. God's grace tends us so that we bear fruit, not so that we settle in comfort.
The woes of the chapter also urge us to look at our ambitions and habits. Greed, excess, mockery and corruption are not distant evils: they can show up in our everyday decisions. And calling evil good is a constant risk in a culture that rewards what God condemns.
Isaiah 5 ends with a grim picture: God's people have borne bad fruit and a distant army will come to judge them. Chapter 6 changes scene and tells of the vision of the Lord in the temple, in which God calls Isaiah in the year King Uzziah died.
It is a sung parable. The Lord is the owner who tends his vineyard, Israel and Judah, but it bears no fruit of justice. The text itself explains it in verse 7. Jesus used a similar image in Matthew 21:33-41, where he also speaks of tenants who do not hand over the fruit.
The chapter does not name it. In the context of the book, the enemy threatening Judah in Isaiah's time was Assyria, and later Babylon. The main point is that the Lord himself directs those nations as instruments of his judgment.
Woes are prophetic laments that announce judgment on certain behavior. Here they gather social and spiritual sins: greed, drunkenness, mockery, moral inversion, arrogance and corruption. Together they show why the vineyard bore no fruit.