Isaiah 5

1 Let me now sing of my friend, my friend's song concerning his vineyard. My friend had a vineyard on a fertile hillside;
2 He spaded it, cleared it of stones, and planted the choicest vines; Within it he built a watchtower, and hewed out a wine press. Then he looked for the crop of grapes, but what it yielded was wild grapes.
3 Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard:
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard that I had not done? Why, when I looked for the crop of grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?
5 Now, I will let you know what I mean to do to my vineyard: Take away its hedge, give it to grazing, break through its wall, let it be trampled!
6 Yes, I will make it a ruin: it shall not be pruned or hoed, but overgrown with thorns and briers; I will command the clouds not to send rain upon it.
7 The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his cherished plant; He looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed! for justice, but hark, the outcry!
8 Woe to you who join house to house, who connect field with field, Till no room remains, and you are left to dwell alone in the midst of the land!
9 In my hearing the LORD of hosts has sworn: Many houses shall be in ruins, large ones and fine, with no one to live in them.
10 Ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one liquid measure, And a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.
11 Woe to those who demand strong drink as soon as they rise in the morning, And linger into the night while wine inflames them!
12 With harp and lyre, timbrel and flute, they feast on wine; But what the LORD does, they regard not, the work of his hands they see not.
13 Therefore my people go into exile, because they do not understand; Their nobles die of hunger, and their masses are parched with thirst.
14 Therefore the nether world enlarges its throat and opens its maw without limit; Down go their nobility and their masses, their throngs and their revelry.
15 Men shall be abased, each one brought low, and the eyes of the haughty lowered,
16 But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted by his judgment, and God the Holy shall be shown holy by his justice.
17 Lambs shall graze there at pasture, and kids shall eat in the ruins of the rich.
18 Woe to those who tug at guilt with cords of perversity, and at sin as if with cart ropes!
19 To those who say, Let him make haste and speed his work, that we may see it; On with the plan of the Holy One of Israel! let it come to pass, that we may know it!
20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who change darkness into light, and light into darkness, who change bitter into sweet, and sweet into bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own sight, and prudent in their own esteem!
22 Woe to the champions at drinking wine, the valiant at mixing strong drink!
23 To those who acquit the guilty for bribes, and deprive the just man of his rights!
24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire licks up stubble, as dry grass shrivels in the flame, Even so their root shall become rotten and their blossom scatter like dust; For they have spurned the law of the LORD of hosts, and scorned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore the wrath of the LORD blazes against his people, he raises his hand to strike them; When the mountains quake, their corpses shall be like refuse in the streets. For all this, his wrath is not turned back, and his hand is still outstretched.
26 He will give a signal to a far-off nation, and whistle to them from the ends of the earth; speedily and promptly will they come.
27 None of them will stumble with weariness, none will slumber and none will sleep. None will have his waist belt loose, nor the thong of his sandal broken.
28 Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are bent. The hoofs of their horses seem like flint, and their chariot wheels like the hurricane.
29 Their roar is that of the lion, like the lion's whelps they roar; They growl and seize the prey, they carry it off and none will rescue it.
30 (They will roar over it, on that day, with a roaring like that of the sea.)

Isaiah 6

1 In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple.
2 Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft.
3 Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts! they cried one to the other. All the earth is filled with his glory!
4 At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke.
5 Then I said, Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
7 He touched my mouth with it. See, he said, now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? Here I am, I said; send me!
9 And he replied: Go and say to this people: Listen carefully, but you shall not understand! Look intently, but you shall know nothing!
10 You are to make the heart of this people sluggish, to dull their ears and close their eyes; Else their eyes will see, their ears hear, their heart understand, and they will turn and be healed.
11 How long, O Lord? I asked. And he replied: Until the cities are desolate, without inhabitants, Houses, without a man, and the earth is a desolate waste.
12 Until the LORD removes men far away, and the land is abandoned more and more.
13 If there be still a tenth part in it, then this in turn shall be laid waste; As with a terebinth or an oak whose trunk remains when its leaves have fallen. (Holy offspring is the trunk.)

Isaiah 7

1 In the days of Ahaz, king of Judah, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, king of Israel, son of Remaliah, went up to attack Jerusalem, but they were not able to conquer it.
2 When word came to the house of David that Aram was encamped in Ephraim, the heart of the king and heart of the people trembled, as the trees of the forest tremble in the wind.
3 Then the LORD said to Isaiah: Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller's field,
4 and say to him: Take care you remain tranquil and do not fear; let not your courage fail before these two stumps of smoldering brands (the blazing anger of Rezin and the Arameans, and of the son of Remaliah),
5 because of the mischief that Aram (Ephraim and the son of Remaliah) plots against you, saying,
6 Let us go up and tear Judah asunder, make it our own by force, and appoint the son of Tabeel king there.
7 Thus says the LORD: This shall not stand, it shall not be!
8 Damascus is the capital of Aram, and Rezin the head of Damascus; Samaria is the capital of Ephraim, and Remaliah's son the head of Samaria.
9 But within sixty years and five, Ephraim shall be crushed, no longer a nation. Unless your faith is firm you shall not be firm!
10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz:
11 Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God; let it be deep as the nether world, or high as the sky!
12 But Ahaz answered, I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!
13 Then he said: Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary men, must you also weary my God?
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.
15 He shall be living on curds and honey by the time he learns to reject the bad and choose the good.
16 For before the child learns to reject the bad and choose the good, the land of those two kings whom you dread shall be deserted.
17 The LORD shall bring upon you and your people and your father's house days worse than any since Ephraim seceded from Judah. (This means the king of Assyria.)
18 On that day The LORD shall whistle for the fly that is in the farthest streams of Egypt, and for the bee in the land of Assyria.
19 All of them shall come and settle in the steep ravines and in the rocky clefts, on all thornbushes and in all pastures.
20 On that day the LORD shall shave with the razor hired from across the River (with the king of Assyria) the head, and the hair between the legs. It shall also shave off the beard.
21 On that day a man shall keep a heifer or a couple of sheep,
22 and from their abundant yield of milk he shall live on curds; curds and honey shall be the food of all who remain in the land.
23 On that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand pieces of silver, shall be turned to briers and thorns.
24 Men shall go there with bow and arrows; for all the country shall be briers and thorns.
25 For fear of briers and thorns you shall not go upon any mountainside which used to be hoed with the mattock; they shall be grazing land for cattle and shall be trampled upon by sheep.

Isaiah 8

1 The LORD said to me: Take a large cylinder-seal, and inscribe on it in ordinary letters: Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.
2 And I took reliable witnesses, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah, son of Jeberechiah.
3 Then I went to the prophetess and she conceived and bore a son. The LORD said to me: Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz,
4 for before the child knows how to call his father or mother by name, the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried off by the king of Assyria.
5 Again the LORD spoke to me:
6 Because this people has rejected the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, And melts with fear before the loftiness of Rezin and Remaliah's son,
7 Therefore the LORD raises against them the waters of the River, great and mighty (the king of Assyria and all his power). It shall rise above all its channels, and overflow all its banks;
8 It shall pass into Judah, and flood it all throughout: up to the neck it shall reach; It shall spread its wings the full width of your land, Immanuel!
9 Know, O peoples, and be appalled! Give ear, all you distant lands! Arm, but be crushed! Arm, but be crushed!
10 Form a plan, and it shall be thwarted; make a resolve, and it shall not be carried out, for With us is God!
11 For thus said the LORD to me, taking hold of me and warning me not to walk in the way of this people:
12 Call not alliance what this people calls alliance, and fear not, nor stand in awe of what they fear.
13 But with the LORD of hosts make your alliance--for him be your fear and your awe.
14 Yet he shall be a snare, an obstacle and a stumbling stone to both the houses of Israel, A trap and a snare to those who dwell in Jerusalem;
15 And many among them shall stumble and fall, broken, snared, and captured.
16 The record is to be folded and the sealed instruction kept among my disciples.
17 For I will trust in the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob; yes, I will wait for him.
18 Look at me and the children whom the Lord has given me: we are signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion.
19 And when they say to you, Inquire of mediums and fortune-tellers (who chirp and mutter!); should not a people inquire of their gods, apply to the dead on behalf of the living?--
20 then this document will furnish its instruction. That kind of thing they will surely say.
21 He shall pass through it hard-pressed and hungry, and in his hunger he shall become enraged, and curse his king and his gods. He shall look upward, but there shall be strict darkness without any dawn;
22 He shall gaze at the earth, but there shall be distress and darkness, with the light blacked out by its clouds.